The Edge of Hell by William W. Johnstone

Author:William W. Johnstone
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2018-06-04T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

Becker saw Bodaway walking through the cottonwood grove and frowned. He realized he hadn’t seen his old friend for a while.

“Where have you been?” Becker asked.

“Getting rid of a problem,” Bodaway replied.

“What problem?”

“The rifleman hidden on top of the water tank.”

Bodaway pointed to the tank, the top of which was visible in the distance, rising higher than the roof of the ranch house.

“Wait a minute,” Becker said with a frown. “One of Slaughter’s men was up there?”

Bodaway grunted and said, “I would not have had to kill him if he wasn’t.”

“How did you know?”

“I saw the barrel of his rifle when he pointed it at you.”

“At me?” Becker asked, surprised.

“While you were at the fence talking to the woman.”

Becker felt a little shiver go through him. He wasn’t surprised that he’d been covered while he was parleying with Mrs. Slaughter, but the idea that a sharpshooter had targeted him from the top of the water tank was unexpected. Putting a man up there was actually a pretty smart move.

But evidently it hadn’t paid off, because Bodaway had disposed of the hombre.

“So you killed him?”

Bodaway shrugged.

“What did you do with him?”

“Left him up there. What else would I do with him?”

There were still a couple hours of sunlight left. The body would start to stink by nightfall, lying out in the sun that way.

Maybe the people in the house would smell it, Becker thought. The idea made him smile a little. Nothing like the stench of death to make somebody’s spirits fall. Maybe some of the defenders would start to think about giving up.

Not that it would really matter in the long run if they did. They were all going to die anyway.

Herb Woodbury came up to Becker and Bodaway and said, “The boys are startin’ to wonder what we’re gonna do, boss. Are we waitin’ until the sun goes down to make our move?”

“That’s right,” Becker said. “Once it’s dark I want a couple of men to get up close enough to the house to throw torches through some of the windows. If we set the place on fire inside, they won’t have any choice but to come out.”

“And we shoot ’em down when they do,” Woodbury guessed.

“Have you forgotten why we’re here?” Becker asked with a frown. “I want Don Eduardo and his wife alive.”

Bodaway said, “The boy is not here.”

Becker looked quickly at him and asked, “You mean Santiago?”

“I asked the man on the water tank about him. He said the boy went with Slaughter after the cattle.”

Becker rubbed his jaw and said, “Well, that’s pretty much what I figured. That makes it even more important for us to capture the don and doña and Mrs. Slaughter. The others will be coming back sooner or later, and we’ll need hostages to make them surrender, too.”

“Gonna make a clean sweep of it, eh?” Woodbury said.

“Whatever it takes to make sure Rubriz dies knowing that I’ve taken everything from him. That means his wife and son have to die first.

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