The Price of Deceit

Rumor was he had never failed to bring in a bounty, which meant Tom K. was one of the few who had never gone after the same bounties as her. Erin had seen him around the bar, hotel and restaurant in town they called The Deposit Box. Most bounty hunters would accept pay in credit to The Box instead of cash. It was easier, since they knew they'd spent money at The Box anyway.

Erin never saw him out on the hunt. That didn't mean much; being seen meant you weren't doing your job right. There were plenty of young, eager guys looking to collect on bounties that Erin James would see coming from a mile off, or would hear stalking through a forest while she sat up in a tree waiting for them to flush out the quarry for her. Those were the guys she'd end up hauling back to town with whoever was on the poster. Chances are nobody knew who these young bucks were anyway; probably runaways. But if she had any living kin, she know they'd like to be notified of something happening to her.

If a bounty hunter had bagged one job, they might have been lucky not to get shot and killed. More than one, and they had at least some skill. Every bounty hunter worth his salt knew the others; the ones with some skill. They weren't so much wary of being at odds going after the same score. There was an unwritten and unspoken code of honor between bounty hunters. They kept tabs on one another in case someone decided the hunt wasn't worth the money and became a hired gun. There wasn't a code between bounty hunters and former bounty hunters.


And least, she hadn't seen him on the hunt before. She was tracking a horse thief and was looking for shelter from a July rainstorm. It was the start of the wet season and she knew she had to get up out of the dry wash she was in. She had passed a hollow a few miles back, and while she didn't like to backtrack, she couldn't be sure of shelter further down the wash. Or that she could outrun the river and debris that was sure to be coming down the wash any time now.

She urged her horse, Hunter, up the trail that lead out of the wash and under the cover of the cottonwoods. Maybe her mind was on her quarry, or maybe just on getting out of the rain, but the first indication there was someone else there was the cocking of a rifle.

"Put your hands where I can see 'em," the gunman said. Erin wasn't stupid, although she was starting to think otherwise. She raised her hands as high her shoulders, but kept them close. The short man circled around from her left. As he drew closer, she nudged her horse just enough that he took a couple steps forward.

"Whoa, boy," she said. "What are you trying to do, get me shot?"

"Look, stranger, you keep that beast calm or I'll steady him for good, understand?"

Erin wasn't really paying attention to what the man said. She had positioned herself so that as he came alongside her, he'd have to skirt a tree. Either he'd have to go around it and take his eyes off her, or he'd have to come close enough to her she could jump him.

When he side stepped into the tree, he took half a second to look at it. He took his eyes off Erin a half second too long.

She jumped out of her saddle with her left arm reaching out to push the barrel of his rifle away from her. They hit the mud and slide for a few feet. The angle of her jump had put them on their sides.

A lightning bolt lit up the sky long enough for them to get a good look at each others' faces.

"Tom!?" she yelled over the echoing thunder.

"Erin James," he said, his eyes bugging out more than usual. "If I was to meet a woman out here in the middle of a storm, 'course it'd be you. You on the hunt?"

"What would I be doing out here if I weren't? Come on, let's get out of the mud and try to dry out a bit."

They gathered their horses and went farther up the hollow where the trees grew closer together. They found a small overhang. Between that and the trees, there was enough of a dry spot to have a fire and stretch out. Normally, she would build something up that let out much smoke, but nobody could see more than 30 yards in this weather and it was more important to warm up and dry out.

"Who you after, Erin?" Tom asked.

"A desperado who stole 14 horses out of Santa Fe," she answered, squatting next to the fire to warm her hands and arms. "You?"

"I'm after a murderer and smuggler who's been hiding out in these part for years," he replied, fiddling around with his saddlebags. "Worth more than $100 cash."

"Who?" She said, turning from the fire. "I haven't heard of anyone like that in years."

"You."

Her eyes were still slightly blinded from the fire light, but as they adjusted, she saw his rifle leveled at her. For the second time in an hour, she doubted herself.

"What's going on, Tom? Why are you doing this?" She wasn't really interested in an explanation. He had turned on her and broken the code. They both knew what she was expected to do. She slowly reached down to the pistol in her boot.

"Why? Why do any of us hunt bounties? The money," he laughed. "This ain't no marshall's bounty either. This was put out private, so as not to tip you off. I got the paper signed by Judge Wheelbreaker himself. Your lucky they want you breathing."

"That's right," she thought. "Just keep yapping, you back-stabbing jay-hawker."

"I've been trailing you three days now, and was hoping to bring you in with the guy your following. Guess I was lucky to have you drop in on me tonight, but I still would've rather brought two in."

She was fingering her gun when he told he to stand up real slow and put on the cuffs he tossed at her feet.

"How do figure you'll get me on the horse, Tom?"

"Who says you git to ride?" he said with a wry smile. "We ain't in no hurry."

"Who's paying you anyway, Tom? I for sure haven't done any smuggling and any killings have been on the level."

"Don't you worry about that," Tom said. "You just turn round and get ready to walk."

"Now?" she asked as she turned. "The rain's still going strong."

She never got an answer. Just the butt of his rifle to the back of her head.

---

The back of her head throbbed. Being slung over the back of her own horse, hands tied to feet with the chords crossing Hunter's belly, didn't help. He had taken he gun belt off and slung it over her saddle horn, so at least that wasn't digging into her gut. Tom might have been lucky last night, but the rest was skill. She'd been out-smarted and out-maneuvered at every step so far.

"This is a nice little lady pistol you had in your boot," Tom said once he realized she was awake. He tucked it in his vest pocket. "Surprised you didn't pull it on me."

"Time wasn't right," she said. "Now I'm sorry I didn't."

"I bet you are."

They rode all day. The alkali of the desert stuck to the sweat of her face. She could tell they were going almost due South Southeast. She watched the ground beneath them get drier and drier until it became the cracked desert floor of a dry lake. She even saw the paths made by the wandering desert rocks. They hardly talked once the sun came up and only stopped three times all day. Twice to water her and the horses, and once so Tom could relieve himself.

She heard the fort before she saw it.

They had made their way up out of the flats into the smell of pine. As the sun was just kissing the horizon and lighting the clouds on fire, they were joined by a rider who accompanied them the rest of the way to the fort.

It was an old wooden fort obviously built by ranchers, not the army. It was too small. Not that it was cramped, but it wasn't large enough for a whole company of cavalry. Probably the locals took turns manning the fort. Or paid some retired army officer who didn't have the energy for bounty hunting, but had enough of a conscience to not be a mercenary.

Under guard of a gun-hand they called Zoomer, Erin was helped off her horse. Zoomer led them to a low adobe building next to the stables. There was a man standing outside the door with a shotgun in his arms and a dog at his feet. As they came closer, the hound stood up, bared its teeth and bristled its fur. The guard held it back and Erin thought it looked a little too wild. When they got to they door, neither the guard or Zoomer opened it, but instead both looked at Tom.

"She don't like outsiders walking in armed," Zoomer said.

Reluctantly, Tom handed his rifle to the guard and undid his gun belt, leaving it in the dirt where it fell. Zoomer opened the door, but didn't follow Tom and Erin in.

"Welcome, Ms. James. Have a seat."

The room wasn't very big, but the oil lamp on the table in the middle of the room did little to drive out the coming night. Erin sat in the chair across the table from the figure who stood in the shadows.

"Who are you?" Erin said, almost disinterestedly. "And what do you want with me."

The figure moved to the table.

"I want you to die, Ms. James." As the figure sat, Erin saw a woman's face scarred by fire.

"What's the matter? Don't recognize me?" The woman spat as she spoke, although Erin wasn't sure if it was on purpose or because of her ... condition. "Next time you shoot someone and dynamite the mine they're in, you better make sure they're dead."

As the woman spoke, Erin remembered the incident, almost three years past. Erin was hunting a mother and two sons, the Krom family, who had robbed a government courier. She followed them to an abandoned mine and after shooting them all, she brought the mine down on top of them. The bounty was for the stolen goods, some government property, not the outlaws.

"In appreciation for everything you've done for me, I'll return the favor. After lighting you on fire, we're going to bury you alive." Mother Krom said, tossing her a spoon, "and if you can make it out with that, we'll just feed you to the wolves that live in the woods around here."

Tom, stepped forward, pulled a piece of paper out of his jacket pocket and put it down on the table. The warrant.

"Excuse me, but before you get going on any of that, I'd appreciate it if I was paid first. A hundred dollars cash, plus seven for expenses."

Erin knew Judge Wheelbreaker's scrawl good enough to recognize a forgery. Whoever drafted and signed that warrant wasn't the Judge. Tom should have known that, too. Maybe he just wanted the money real bad. Maybe he wanted Erin out of the way so he could collect more bounties without so much opposition.

"Don't worry, Thomas," Mother Krom said softly, turning to face him. "You'll get your money."

Erin took the chance. While Mother Krom was talking to Tom, and while he was next to Erin at the table and slightly leaning over it, Erin stepped forward and stood up all in the same movement and moved the table with her.

Tom, who was leaning on the table, lost his support and he hit the ground. Mother Krom got the full force of Erin and the table in the chest and she went over backwards in the chair. The lamp and the "warrant" went off the table. The one broke and caught the other on fire.

While Tom and Mother Krom where recovering from the surprise, Erin was busy making her way out the window and the guards outside where busy coming through the door. While Zoomer and the other guard took in the scene and saw to the little fire and Mother Krom, Tom was thinking of his bounty. If Erin escaped, he wouldn't get paid. He dug out her little pistol he had stashed in his vest pocket, leveled it at her and pulled the trigger.

It was the second-to-last thing he ever did, the last being falling to the ground, dead. Erin may not have been able to pull her little gun on him last night, but she could sabotage it so if he (or really, anyone except her) tried to use it, it would backfire and give him what he deserved.

She jumped on Hunter and kicked him into moving, not toward the gate, but toward some boxes stacked next to the little adobe building. She was betting they were full. If they weren't full, they should have been put to some other use. If they weren't full, she and Hunter would bust right into them and this would be the shortest breakout she'd ever heard of.

When Hunter jumped up on the box, it held and he continued on up to the roof of the building, then to the rampart of the fort and over the side. The whole thing only took a few seconds. A couple guards took shots at her as she made her escape, but most were running to the building door. By the time she was out of the compound, a couple of guards on the walls were taking shots, but the sun was down and anyone who can hit a rider at night going full speed wouldn't settle with sentry duty at an outlaw fort in the middle of the desert.

Erin thought about Mother Krom's threat about the wolves, but she didn't worry too much. The guard who had taken her horse back at the fort left her six-gun on her saddle and her rifle in its boot. She could ride for hours before Hunter would need a break. She could be sure Mother Krom would send her men out to look for Erin, but she could outwit them. Tom would have been a threat, but he got what was coming to a former bounty hunter. He'd never been seen again. He had brought in his last bounty.