Dead Man's Revenge by Jackson Colby

Author:Jackson, Colby [Jackson, Colby]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2011-04-04T04:00:00+00:00

10

It was hard not to laugh at the bedraggled Gabby, but Blaylock managed to restrain himself.

“Those haints must’ve been pretty solid if they could throw you in the millstream,” he said.

“They ran over him, is what they did, I’ll bet,” Randy said. “He never saw ‘em coming.”

“You can’t see a haint if they don’t want you to! If I coulda seen ‘em, I’ve blasted ‘em with this here shotgun!”

Gabby brandished the shotgun, which had also been in the stream with him.

“I thought you said a shotgun’s no use against a haint,” Blaylock said.

“Never you mind what I said. When those haints come after you again, you’ll be sorry.”

“Speaking of haints, we have a couple of real bodies to take care of. Gabby, you go get yourself dried off. Randy, you come with me. I want you to take a look at them.”

Gabby went off, muttering under his breath.

“And dry that shotgun,” Blaylock called after him. “You might need it again soon.”

Gabby didn’t bother to respond. He hunched his shoulders and kept walking.

“I don’t really think those men threw him in the stream,” Randy said. “I think they scared him into the water.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Blaylock said. “He’s lucky they didn’t kill him. How many were there?”

“I think just two of ‘em got away.”

Blaylock thought he knew who three of the men were. The one in the barn could have been one of those who’d picked the fight in George’s store, and so could the other dead one. Randy had described the men to Blaylock, and he thought he was right about them, but he wanted Randy to look at them to be sure. That left the third man from the store. He and someone else had gotten away. Or maybe Blaylock was getting ahead of himself. He’d get Randy’s opinion before he came to any more conclusions.

“Let’s go on around to the barn,” he said.

Tucker and Duane met them there. The body lay on the ground just outside the door.

“Did you go in?” Blaylock asked.

“Nope,” Duane said. “We didn’t hear anything, so we thought we’d just wait out here.”

“Duane thinks there might be a haint in there,” Tucker said.

“Now don’t you start up with me,” Duane said.

Blaylock ignored them and held the lantern so that Randy could get a good look at the dead man.

“Ever see him?” Blaylock asked.

“Yeah,” Randy said. “At Mr. George’s store. This is the one they called Jones. Frank and Earl were the others.”

“Let’s have a look in the barn,” Blaylock said, and he led the way inside. Tucker and Duane came along, apparently not worried about haints any longer, if they ever had been.

The man Blaylock had shot lay still at the foot of the ladder, no longer breathing. Blaylock let Randy get a look at him.

“That’s Earl,” Randy said.

“That means Frank got away,” Blaylock said. “The one you told me had a scar on his face.”

“Yeah, but there was another one with them tonight. Whoever it is wasn’t with them at the store.”

Blaylock thought it over.

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