Death Ground by Ed Gorman

Author:Ed Gorman [Gorman, Ed]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Westerns, Fiction
ISBN: 9781410426918
Google: 8aMjSwAACAAJ
Amazon: 1480579017
Publisher: AmazonEncore
Published: 1988-01-01T11:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Guild got Kriker set up in a chair, still handcuffed, of course, and then got himself set up in a chair and then had a cigar while he waited for the big man to come to.

By now the others had left the central cabin. Guild sat there listening to the fire pop inside the potbellied stove and to the way the snow sounded like salt granules sprayed against the west side of the cabin.

When Kriker made a noise, Guild said, “I need you to tell me where the money is.”

Kriker made no intelligible response. He moved his head from side to side as if he were in a great deal of pain, and then he said, “The girl.”

“The granny woman’s with her.”

He was coming awake now, Kriker was. “She all right?”

“She needs a doc, Kriker. The priest is right.”

“He ain’t a priest.”

“What?”

“He ain’t a priest.”

“He wears a cassock and a collar.”

“He still ain’t no priest.”

“What is he, then?”

“Cardplayer from Chicago.”

“I’ll be damned,” Guild said, and knew instantly who the man was. The missing fingers became a wanted poster and the wanted poster became a man. A cardsharp wanted for second-degree murder in the death of another cardsharp. Guild had one of those memories. He didn’t recall everything about the poster—couldn’t, for example, recall the amount of the reward—but he remembered the words “cardsharp” and “missing fingers.”

But now that wasn’t so important as the robbery money. To get that reward, all Guild needed to do was ride back to Sheriff Decker. To claim the priest he’d have to go all the way back to Chicago.

He said, “You’re being selfish, Kriker.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“The girl. She needs a doc and you need to let her go.”

“She’s my daughter.”

“She’s your daughter the way Healy is a priest.”

“Her folks got killed and I took care of her.”

“She needs a doc.”

“A doc killed my wife and son.”

Guild sighed. “They told me what happened, and it doesn’t sound like it was the doc. It sounds like it was the disease.”

“What disease?”

“Same one as this one. Cholera.”

“She’s got a touch of the bug is all.”

“You know better.”

“Hell.”

“Hell, too,” Guild said, “and you know it.” He paused. “Where’s the money?”

Kriker grinned. “We’re talkin’ about a little girl’s life here and all you give a damn about is the money.”

Guild grinned back. “I like your piety, Kriker.”

“What’s ‘piety’?”

“You’ve been killing people and robbing people all over the Territory for twenty years and I try to collect a reward on you and you get all pissed up and self-righteous.”

“I never killed nobody innocent.”

“Somebody killed the girl’s folks.”

“Wasn’t me.” He sighed. “Anyway, later on I killed the man what done it.”

“I’ve got half of what I wanted.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means I’ve got the Bruckner brothers tied up. Now I get the money and I’ll have all I wanted. I’ll take the money and the brothers back to Sheriff Decker and get the reward and ride out of here.”

“What about me? You don’t want to take me in?”

“We’re going to make a trade.

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