Maggie O'Bannen 2 by Joe Slade

Author:Joe Slade
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: the old west, colt 45, western ebook, piccadilly publishing, outlaws and gunmen, joe slade western, maggie obannen western, westerns fiction general
Publisher: Piccadilly

Chapter Twelve

Doc returned to the hotel around mid-morning to find himself alone. An enquiry with the young bald headed desk clerk suggested that Rick and Leo had gone out to eat. Maggie’s whereabouts seemed to be a mystery, the clerk not having seen her since the previous day.

Doc found the boys at the eatery they had used the day before, tucking in to steak and eggs with the appetite of starving men. He ordered coffee from the stringy waitress who smiled sweetly at him, then joined them at a table near the back of the room.

‘Where’s Maggie?’

They both shrugged.

‘What did the sheriff want?’ Rick asked.

‘There was a break in at the Stanford house last night. George is dead, so is his wife and one of the servants. He needed me to look at the bodies.’

Rick stopped his chewing. ‘What happened?’

Doc explained what he had been able to ascertain. Leo dropped his fork halfway through, looking ever paler as, with his usual precision, Doc left no detail untold.

‘And now Maggie is missing,’ Doc concluded. ‘I was just over at the jail and she wasn’t there, so that’s something, I guess, but I can’t help thinking that her going missing now is a bad sign.’

Rick threw a few coins down on the table. ‘Leo and I will start looking in the saloons. You check the stores. Maybe she needed something.’

Doc knew as well as Rick that the last suggestion was a long shot. Nevertheless, they left the eatery together, splitting up outside to cover both ends of town. After visiting half a dozen stores without success, Doc stood on the street, his eyes searching the hordes of people that passed by. He saw Leo running from one saloon to another, but no sign of Maggie.

‘Are you Doc Simpkins?’ a high, childish voice asked as someone tugged at his sleeve.

He looked down into the dirty face of a tow-headed kid. ‘I am.’

‘The sheriff needs to see you right away.’

‘Not again!’ Doc groaned.

‘He said it was urgent and that you should meet him at Doc Peters’.’ The kid ran off.

A few minutes later, Doc arrived at the house. The sheriff was waiting for him at the gate and two men were just entering the front door carrying a covered stretcher. Inside, he could see Martha Peters, still looking pale and harassed but giving orders with the authority of a general.

‘The town’s going to have to put me on a retainer at this rate,’ Doc said to the sheriff without humor.

The lawman grunted and led him inside where Martha took their hats and ushered them towards her husband’s office.

‘I told them to put her in there.’ She seemed reluctant to make eye contact. ‘I’ll bring hot water as soon as it’s boiled. You should be able to find everything else you need.’

Doc didn’t put much stead in random feelings but he had a bad one now. It didn’t improve when he pushed into the office and saw Maggie lying on the examination table, covered in blood.

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