Killing Halfbreed (4 page)

As the days turned into weeks, I became friendlier with Jinny, Tom's daughter.  I wasn't romantically attracted to her like a lot of the other men on the ranch.  I felt more like her protector, an older brother, if you will.

We grew to be friends and would sit up late some nights talking about our dreams and such.  I'd told her about Ben right off, but she didn't know anything.  It was good to have someone to talk to anyway.  She even liked to play cards.

Jinny was young and full of life.  Her long, honey-blonde hair wound in loose curls down to her shoulders which bounced if she turned her head quickly.  Her fair skin was unblemished, which only added to the general prettiness created by her innocent face and sky-blue eyes.

She turned out to be fourteen, which was definitely too young for me, but the other men didn’t seem to give a hoot about her age.  I still enjoyed being around her.  Her spunk and innocence was a balm for a weary man’s heart.

We spent a lot of our free time together.  Some of the men got jealous because of the attention she gave me, but for no reason. 

Tom Logan even spoke to me once, out of concern.  He felt she was too young for any man, not just me.  I reassured him we were just friends, and I felt more protective toward her than anything.  He saw I was sincere and didn’t seem to worry about it after that.  Besides, she was pretty well taken with Henry Tadd.  I never did understand what she saw in him, but then I didn’t claim to understand women much, especially the young ones.

Jinny's mom, Sarah, also seemed comfortable with me.  She was the epitome of propriety, but I felt she would have been happy for me to court Jinny.  Never came right out and said it, though.  She was a beautiful woman too.  It was plain to see where Jinny got her looks.  Tom Logan was a lucky man.

Jinny and I both had dreams of traveling to Europe someday, and other famous places.  She had a good chance to realize her dreams, whereas I figured my shot at such things had passed.  It doesn’t hurt to dream though.

She still spoke of life and the world idealistically.  It was cute, but I knew better.  My naive idealism had long been washed away by the tide of hard experience.

Our conversations were usually light in nature, a nice relief after a long day in the saddle and a good diversion from an almost constant preoccupation with Ben’s fate.  Sometimes, I’d talk to her about my brother and my frustrations in trying to find him.

One night, we were up late drinking tea and playing cards in the Logan kitchen, just the two of us.  We always drank tea because she couldn’t stand coffee.  I kidded her about that, told her she would grow into it.  That always reddened her.  She didn’t appreciate me reminding her of her young age.

We covered all the normal topics that usually peppered our conversations.  Ranch life, horses, traveling, and Henry Tadd.  After a bit, she turned serious.

“I need to tell you something, Jake.  Something about your brother, but you
have
to promise you won’t get mad.”

She had my attention faster than I could blink.  I nodded, afraid of what she might be about to say.

“While I was helping Ma with the laundry this afternoon, I accidentally overheard two of Daddy’s hands over by the barn.  When I realized what they were saying, my listening stopped being so accidental.

“One of them mentioned your brother’s name.  He laughed about something he’d done to him a while ago, or so I gathered from what he was saying.  Something about how they’d ‘sure surprised the yank’. That was all I heard because they walked away after that.”

“Who were they?” I hissed.

She didn’t want to answer, seeing the red in my eyes.

“Jinny, you have to tell me who they were!”  My heart was pumping hard.  Finally, the break I’d been waiting for.

“Jake, you have to promise me that you won’t go off half-cocked and do something rash...”

“I can’t make any promises like that and you know it,” I interrupted, “Now, who was it?”

“All right.  I didn’t see who the other guy was, but the one talking was Mitch Byrd.”

It took everything in me not to rush off, find Byrd, and throttle him right then.  I didn’t want Jinny to see me so upset though, and it would be foolish to confront him in front of others.  I would wait for an opportunity to get him off by himself.

I’d wait until tomorrow.  There would be plenty of opportunity tomorrow.  So, I sat there, quietly sipping my tea, trying to play like I was fine.

Jinny studied my eyes, skipping from one to the other.  She could tell I was excited and angry all at once.  I
was
having trouble hiding it.

She reached across the table and placed her hand on top of mine, a comforting gesture.  It worked, I guess, because I started to calm down, but I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn’t notice her leaning across to kiss me until our lips were already touching, and it wasn’t the kind of kiss a sister gives her brother.

It took me completely by surprise.  I’d no idea she was having those kind of feelings toward me.  She’d given me no sign of it, unless I was so dense I’d just missed it, which I probably had.

My gut instinct was to jerk back, but I didn’t, knowing it would crush her.  Her lips were soft and sweet, but after a brief moment I ended it.  She sat back and I saw an emotion in her eyes I hadn’t noticed before.  I hoped it was just puppy love.

“Jinny, I had no idea you felt like that about me.  I thought you were sweet on Henry Tadd.”  I smiled, hoping to soften the disappointment I knew I had to give her.

“You’re a handsome man, Jake Talbot, and I think I’m woman enough for you.  Henry’s just a boy still, anyway.”

“You’re quite a young woman for sure, but I’m too old for you.  I don’t think your father would approve.  Do you?”

She lowered her gaze.  Disappointment erased her smile as quickly as a rainbow when its sun is gone.  Some situations left you with no way out.

“You don’t care for me in that way, do you?”  Tears welled up in her eyes.

“No, Jinny, I’m sorry, I don’t.  I’m flattered by your kiss, very flattered, but I’m just too old for you.”

“You’re only 26!”

“Yeah, and you’re 14.  I’m nearly twice your age.”

“I think I’d better go to bed.”

“Jinny, wait...”  It was too late.  She rushed from the room, trying to wipe her tears without me seeing.  I sighed, feeling like a fool. Why did the dad-blamed girl have to put me in that situation?  Even if she’d been older, I didn’t have time to mess around with a courtship.  I had to find my brother.

I let myself out of the Logans' kitchen and headed back to the bunkhouse.  My thoughts lingered on her momentarily, but they were soon replaced with my quickly forming plans for a confrontation with Mitch Byrd.

"What do you know about my brother, roach?"

I'd caught Byrd by himself and now I slammed his wiry frame up against the side of the bunkhouse.  His yellow-specked, pale grey eyes flicked back and forth, fruitlessly seeking escape or help.                                                  

He was short, but not stocky.  Besides his small stature, everything else about him seemed average.  He was balding and wore what remained of his dark brown hair slicked back against his skull.

He held his hands in front of his face as if to plead defenselessness.

"Look, pal, I don't know what you're talking about," he whined.

"Somebody overheard you laughing about how you ‘surprised’ my brother.  Ben Talbot.  His name ring a bell?"

"I never said any such thing."

Smack
!

I punched him in the left eye, knocking him to the ground.  Holding his eye with one hand, he whimpered as he staggered back to his feet.

"Listen, Byrd, I’ve got no qualms about beating the living tar out of you.  Start squawking!"

I was calm, calmer than I'd been for a long time, but I fully intended to pound the truth out of him if I had to.

"All right, all right.  Listen, okay... it wasn't anything bad, okay.  Oooof!"

I throttled him in the stomach and knocked the wind out of him.  He gasped for air like a fish out of water.

"Did you kill my brother, Byrd?  Did you?"

It was a few moments before he could catch his breath enough to answer.

"No...I...didn't.  You've...you got to believe me...I...I don't know...you're talking about."

"You said you ‘surprised’ my brother.  What was the surprise?  Last chance."

"Look...That wasn't about me.  I was just trying to...to impress the guy.  I was telling...a story I heard...heard it from somebody else."

"Who?  Who’d you hear it from?"  He was breathing better now.

"Some guy.  He was a...he was a drifter.  I don't know.  Haven't seen him for a long time.  Man...you hit hard.  He used to work here a few months ago."

"What was his name?"

“Don’t remember.  John, I think, didn't ever learn his last name.  He didn't work here that long."

"Sure.  Bet his last name was Smith or Doe, huh?"

"No, I swear! Look it wasn't nothing to do with your brother disappearing.  The guy was hooked up with rustling, okay?  He and some other guys were rustling, and he was telling me a story about how they surprised your brother once when they took some of his cattle.  That's all I know, okay!"

"Why didn't you tell Logan about this?"

"I...I...I don't know.  I thought the guy might kill me if I ratted on him.  He was one rough hombre and pretty good with a gun."

"I think you're lying, Byrd.  You know a lot more than you're telling, and you'd better be careful.  I'll be watching from the shadows.  As soon as you decide the coast is clear, that’s when I’ll nail you."

I walloped him a couple more times and left him to wallow in the dirt like the pig he was.

I wasn't sure whether to believe him or not.  He was of the quick-thinking, conniving sort, and it wasn't infeasible that he’d made up that story on the spot.  If he had, all I had to do was keep my eye on him and he’d make a mistake.  If he hadn't made it up, I was no closer to finding answers than when I started.

I asked around and there had indeed been a man who'd worked on the ranch for a couple of months named John.  No one knew anything more about him.  So, at least that part of Byrd’s story checked out.

I considered telling Logan about the rustling story, but decided against it.  I didn't have enough evidence to be convincing.  Plus, nobody knew anything about this guy named John.  I'd let Byrd sweat it out and worry if I was going to talk to Logan or not.  That could be more effective than actually doing it.

In the end, my plan didn't pan out.  Byrd never made a false move.  Probably because he knew I was watching him.  Once again, I was making zero progress.

***

Mitch Byrd had been in and out of tough spots throughout his short life, situations where he'd been forced to choose between his own well-being and that of others, and never had he failed to choose his own.

Any other decision didn't make sense to him.  To Mitch, there was no higher calling than one's own self-preservation, and he would stop at nothing to fulfill that.  Today was no different.

Jake Talbot had scared the living daylights out of him.  Byrd wasn't much of a fighter — he preferred using his head, not his fists.  Talbot had threatened him, and he couldn't let that stand.  Threats had a nasty way of becoming reality.  He had to be the first to yank the rug out from under Talbot somehow.

That evening, Byrd called on Logan in his office.  Mitch had waited until his eye had fully bruised up, purple and ripe, maximizing the effect of what he had to say.

"Mr. Logan."  Byrd stood in the doorway, hat in hands, rolling the brim of it nervously, a humble gesture.

"Yes, Mitch.  What can I do for you?"  Logan was a kind man, but he wasn't stupid.  He knew Byrd's reputation.

"Mr. Logan, I'm sorry to disturb you, but I felt like I had to talk to you about something."

"Oh?  Is this about what happened to your eye?"

"Yes sir, you see, earlier this afternoon, I overheard Jake Talbot laughing about how he'd been rustling cattle lately.  I didn’t hear him claim to have rustled any of yours, just the other ranches, but I know we’re missing some too, and if he’d rustled the others, well… 

“So, I called him on it, and the man just went wild.  He hit me and kicked me a few good times after I was down.  I finally felt good enough just now to come and tell you about it."

"I see.”  Logan leaned back in his chair and said nothing for several minutes.  Byrd waited expectantly.  “Well, I'm glad you told me, Mitch.  That's quite a serious accusation."

"Yes sir."

Logan thought Mitch was probably lying about what had happened, but if so, then what
had
happened?  That it had something to do with Jake Talbot, well, the man's eye and reputation left little to doubt.  He didn’t know the real problem, but decided to keep an eye on them both.

"I appreciate you coming to me with this, Mitch.  Let me know if Talbot gives you any further trouble."

"Whatever you say, boss."  Mitch turned meekly and quietly left the house. Once outside, he straightened and his face took on a hardened smirk.  He knew Logan hadn't believed him completely, but he’d planted the seeds of suspicion.  From now on, Logan would question anything Talbot had to tell him as well. That was enough.