Annie Gets Her Gunmen Read online

  Dane startled. “Virgil was poisoned?”

  Garrett hadn’t told either Annabel or Larsen how Virgil had died. And he suspected very few other people knew the cause of death beyond the sheriff, the doctor and maybe Cletus.

  “How did you know he was poisoned, Edna?” he asked quietly.

  She lifted her tear-filled eyes and stared at him for a long while. “It was an accident.” She blinked and tears escaped from her lower lids and trailed down her cheeks. “Honestly, I didn’t mean for it to happen.”

  Garrett and Larsen steered a resigned Edna over to the hotel for a more private conversation. They ended up in her room because she wanted to put the baby down for a nap. She got Charlotte settled in a small bassinette resting by the foot rail and seated herself on the brass bed.

  “Why don’t you start at the beginning, Edna, and tell us what happened, so we can decide the best thing to do.”

  She nodded and started talking in a low tone. “When Virgil came to the hotel last year to tell me what happened to John, he also stayed behind to comfort me. I cried so hard, I could hardly catch my breath.” Her eyes mashed shut, and she sobbed. “I let him hold me and hug me and kiss me. I shouldn’t have had relations with him. It was very wicked of me, but I was so sad, I barely knew what I was doing.” She paused for so long Garrett thought she might not finish her story.

  “It’s understandable,” he murmured to reassure her. If Virgil weren’t already dead, Garrett decided he might want to kill him again. Preying on a woman an hour after her husband died was the most despicable thing he could think of. “Please continue.”

  “John and I had been married for almost seven years. We’d never had any children, so when I got back home and found out I was carrying a child, I thought it was a blessing from God. My own little miracle. A baby that John and I had always wanted.

  “And then Charlotte was born, and it was obviously not John’s baby. Even as a newborn, she looked exactly like Virgil, down to the dimple in her chin. His family was furious. They kicked me out of their home and told me to find the bastard’s father and never darken their doorstep again.”

  “So you came back to Pine Haven this year to let Virgil know he had a child.”

  Edna gave him a wan smile. “Yes. I came all this way to let him meet our beautiful Charlotte, and he didn’t even care. He dismissed me on the first day I arrived. I showed him our child, and he scoffed. Said he refused to believe he was the father of any bastard girl child and then he accused me of having sexual intimacies with other men.

  “He said I probably slept with every man in town right after my husband died.” Tears spilled down her cheeks again. “He called me horrible names. Worse even than what John’s family had said.”

  “I’m sorry, Edna. That was unkind.”

  She wiped her face again with both hands. “I decided that if I stayed this week for the competition and allowed Virgil to spend time with Charlotte, he’d discover he loved her, too, and change his mind. Maybe he’d even want to marry me and make a family.”

  “But Virgil wasn’t interested.”

  She closed her eyes and shook her head. “After three days of trying to follow him around and having him run from me, I decided to wait outside of his room. When he finally showed up, he was angry. He hit me in the face.” She put her fingers up to the eye with the fading bruise. “He dragged me into his room and told me the most vile thing.”

  Larsen murmured, “What vile thing?”

  “Virgil told me he was the man who started the saloon brawl last year where my John died and…and...” She interlaced her fingers in her lap and studied them as she spoke, obviously trying to calm down enough to finish the rest of her story. “Worst of all, Virgil told me he was the one who killed John.”

  Garrett and Dane exchanged glances again. Virgil has just leapt to most vile bastard of all time in Garrett’s book. “Why did Virgil kill him?”

  Her lips quirked, and she sobbed. She shook her head and seemingly tried to get hold of herself. “Virgil wanted to sleep with me. He bet someone that he could get into my bed and between my thighs easily, even if he had to kill my husband to do it. So he did. He cracked John over the head with the spittoon and killed him. So then he could come and comfort me and win his bet.” She started sobbing again. “And I let him.”

  “He told you this himself?”

  She sniffed and nodded. “He said no one would believe me if I repeated it. I figured he was right. I broke away from him and ran out of the room. He yelled after me not to come back unless I wanted to open my legs and fuck him.” Her cheeks turned pink as she finished.

  “Is that when you dropped the handkerchief?”

  Her solemn gaze traveled to his eyes. “No. That must have happened the day he died.”

  “Will you tell us what happened?”

  Edna suddenly got a blank look in her eyes. She stared at the wallpapered room at seemingly nothing and lowered her voice. “I wanted him dead. He killed John. He defiled me. And worst of all, he cast his own daughter aside as if she were trash. I procured a bottle of whiskey, added a large portion of some yellow powder arsenic, shook it until it dissolved, and then went to his room to leave it for him.”

  “Where did you get the arsenic?”

  She didn’t look at him but answered, “John’s family owns a dry goods store in Nebraska. It wasn’t very difficult.” Her eyes suddenly glassy with more unshed tears, she continued, “So there I was, standing in his room and the most foolish thought crossed my mind. What in the world would I tell Charlotte about her father if she asked after him one day? She was bound to ask eventually.

  “I stood there with the poisoned bottle in my hand and laughed out loud. I think I went a little crazy, and even though he deserved it, I just couldn’t go through with my ill thought-out plan. I simply couldn’t kill my child’s father.

  “As I turned to leave, Virgil came in. At first he was spitting mad. He slammed the door and advanced toward me until he saw the bottle of whiskey. He grinned and wrenched the bottle from my fingers even as I fought him off.”

  Edna sat up straighter on the bed and stared at Garrett with the most earnest expression. “I swear to you, Sheriff Butler, I tried to take the bottle back, but he uncorked it with his teeth and started to take a drink.

  “I told him it was poisoned, but he said something about me being one of those temperance bitches and drank half the bottle down anyway. He grabbed me and pulled me back onto the bed with him. He said I must want to be fucked since I came back to see him. I struggled to get myself free, and that must have been when I lost Annabel’s handkerchief. She loaned it to me on the way here when we were in the stagecoach. I’ve been carrying it for several days in my pocket, trying to remember to give it back.”

  Edna wiped her face with both hands removing the tears. “I never meant for Annabel to be blamed for Virgil’s death. It was all my fault. I won’t let her take the responsibility.”

  Garrett crossed his arms and tried desperately to think of a way to get Annabel out of jail and keep Edna from being hanged for murder the moment her tragic story came out.

  Larsen cleared his throat and sent Garrett a what-the-hell-do-we-do-now stare.

  “Does anyone else know what Virgil did to your husband?”

  Edna shrugged. “I don’t know. No one has stepped forward since I’ve been here.”

  Garrett thought of something Cletus had said regarding the lengths to which Virgil had gone to lure unsuspecting women to his bed and seeing more than one bastard child in town resembling Virgil.

  If Cletus had knowledge of who murdered Edna’s husband, John Dempsey, and had never come forward, maybe a deal could be struck to save not only Annabel but also Edna.

  * * * *

  Dane wasn’t sure if Garrett’s plan of attack to free Annabel would work but agreed to give it a try. It certainly was a better alternative to roaring into the jailhouse with guns firing to rescue Annabel in a blaze of glory.

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nbsp; Instead, he agreed to fetch Cletus from the contest area and sternly encourage him to join them all at the jailhouse. Meanwhile, Garrett escorted Edna over to carefully explain how Annabel’s handkerchief ended up in Virgil’s room without disclosing the unfortunate fact that she’d added arsenic to the bottle in his room.

  Both Dane and Garrett agreed Edna shouldn’t tell the sheriff about doctoring the whiskey. They easily supported her contention that it had been a tragic accident. She warned him and tried to stop him from taking a drink, but Virgil didn’t listen.

  If they could paint Virgil as a brutal debaucher of innocent women, Garrett figured Sheriff Barnes wouldn’t be too intent on seeing a widow with a baby swing in the hangman’s noose. Her crime was in his mind accidental and very certainly justified.

  “Why do I gotta go over to the sheriff’s office?” Cletus asked in an over-loud voice.

  Dane tilted his head to one side and smiled. “Apparently, you have information on some circumstances regarding Virgil’s death. We’d like you to please cooperate so Annabel doesn’t sit in jail for something she didn’t do.”

  The townsfolk within earshot of their conversation began murmuring about the earlier drama. Cletus shrugged. “All right, I guess I can try and help out.”

  Once inside the main room of the jailhouse, Dane saw that Annabel had been released from her jail cell and currently sat next to Edna. They occupied the only two chairs available. Barnes half sat on the front of his desk, and Garrett stood beside him, the four of them in a rough arc. He and Cletus formed the final edge of the small circle.

  Sheriff Barnes put his focus on Cletus. “Is it true Virgil told you he caused a bar brawl and murdered John Dempsey last year so he could go cozy up to his grieving new widow?”

  Obviously, Cletus wasn’t expecting the question, if his initial wide-eyed, slack-jawed expression was any indication. “John Dempsey?”

  “He was my husband,” Edna said. Baby Charlotte slept peacefully in the crook of her arm.

  Cletus glanced briefly at the baby and then at Edna’s face. “That baby looks exactly like Virgil,” he said in a near whisper.

  Edna lifted her chin. “That’s because Virgil was her father, but you already knew that, didn’t you? You knew what he did to my husband before he came calling that night. Were you the one he had the vile bet with in the first place?”

  Cletus’ shoulders drooped. “No. I didn’t bet him, but I knew Virgil went to tell you about John bein’ dead, and afterward he bragged about fucking…I mean sleeping with his widow.

  “When you showed up here a year later totin’ a baby that looked exactly like him, it wasn’t a stretch to suppose Virgil had been tellin’ the truth.”

  “So you knew he killed John Dempsey, and you never reported it, is that right?” Sheriff Barnes asked brusquely.

  Cletus wrung his hands together. “Virgil may have said that, but how was I to know if it was true or not?”

  “Why didn’t you report it, Cletus? A man was dead. He left behind a young wife. She was violated in the most atrocious way upon learning about her husband’s death. You had the whole year to mention either incident, and you didn’t.”

  “Why would I? It was just brag talkin’ amongst a couple fellas at the saloon late one night. I didn’t know he really did any of it.”

  Barnes ignored his explanations. “Beyond the fact that you covered for a murderer for a year, I’ve had the mayor on my ass for the same amount of time. When Virgil was murdered two days ago, he told me this would be the last annual shooting contest until we could get folks to stop killing each other.”

  Cletus straightened up and squared his shoulders. “Well, that ain’t hardly fair. We had lots of years when no one died during the shooting tournament.”

  Sheriff Barnes slid off the desk and onto his feet. He leaned in close to Cletus. “That’s not the point.”

  Cletus looked at Edna. “Well, I guess considering that Virgil told Mrs. Dempsey that he didn’t want any part of a bastard baby girl, maybe she had a reason to kill him, too.”

  “Anyone else you’d care to point the finger at? Not that your word is any good anymore for lying by omission in John Dempsey’s death and covering up what happened to his widow.”

  “I explained that already. And besides, I thought the mayor said that you had a piece of evidence that Miss Wallace was in the room. How come she’s already free?”

  Dane thought Sheriff Barnes might explode in an angry tirade, but he remained calm as he said, “The only reason I arrested her was because you cast doubt in her direction, even before the item in question was found.

  “To that end, Mrs. Dempsey has explained how that piece of evidence innocently ended up in Virgil’s room when she went to tell him about the child he’d fathered. Miss Wallace has been completely absolved of any wrong doing in Virgil’s death.”

  “Are you finished with your questions? Can I go now?” Cletus asked. The petulance in his tone made Dane’s blood boil. He had a huge hand in Annabel being arrested and embarrassed. He ought to be publicly humiliated like she had been.

  Sheriff Barnes pushed his face close. “You will get your ass outside, get up on your platform, and tell anyone left in the area that Miss Wallace is innocent. She will get to keep her first place win, her plaque, and bag of coins. You will blame yourself for her arrest.”

  “But I—”

  “Shut your pie hole!” Barnes finally lost his temper and yelled. “Either do as I say or I’ll agree with the mayor and close your contest down for good.”

  “Fine. I’ll go make an announcement.” Cletus then clamped his lips flat and exited the room with a slam of the door on his way out.

  “I don’t expect he’ll go out of his way, Miss Wallace,” Barnes said. “But I’m convinced you had nothing to do with Virgil’s death. You may go.”

  “Thank you, Sheriff Barnes. I know you were reluctant to arrest me in the first place.” She looked at Edna. “What about Mrs. Dempsey? Surely she can be spared.”

  Barnes exchanged a look with Garrett. “I have a few more questions for her.”

  “Will you allow me to ask them?” Garrett asked.

  Dane thought Barnes looked relieved. He answered, “I’d be much obliged, Butler.”

  “Edna, listen carefully to my question. Did you force Virgil to take a drink of any poison the night he died?”

  She looked at him for a solid minute before she answered, “No. I did not force him to take a drink of anything.”

  “Did he tell you he killed your husband last year?”

  Tears welled up in her eyes. “Yes. When I told him about our baby, Charlotte, he told me the whole sordid story. He gloated about when he told me he never wanted to see me or the baby again. He said not to bother repeating it as no one would believe me.”

  Garrett smiled at her, straightened, and looked at Barnes. “Anything else you need to know, Sheriff?”

  Barnes scratched his chin, looked at the ceiling for a few seconds, and then shook his head. “No. I’m satisfied. I’ll report to the mayor that Virgil may have gotten a bad batch of whiskey. Obviously, it was an accidental death.”

  Dane and Garrett escorted the ladies from the jailhouse and returned to the hotel.

  “Thank you both for what you did.”

  Garrett shook his head. “We didn’t do anything, ma’am, except ensure justice was served. I’m confident that the important truth came out. You should move forward. Make a life with your daughter.”

  A wan smile shaped her lips. “You’re right. I’m not sure where I’ll go now. ”

  Annabel put an arm around her shoulders. “You should try a fresh start in a new town where no one knows the details of your tragic past.”

  Edna snuggled her daughter close and wished them well before departing to her room.

  Dane sidled closer to Annabel. “Don’t think we’ve forgotten what you did?”

  Her eyes widened, and a blush came into her lovely cheeks. “What did I do?�
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  “You beat our pants off in the shooting contest, sugar. I hope you’re proud of yourself. Now we have to wait for a whole year to resolve our three time championship issues.”

  Annabel laughed. “You’re so silly. The two of you will have to wait at least three years for that.”

  Garrett’s brows narrowed. “How do you figure that?”

  “I plan to beat the pants off of you at least two more times. Neither of you has a chance in this contest until I become the first three time champion.”

  Dane figured she’d find a way to get their pants off more than twice in the coming years. If he had anything to say about it, anyway.

  Epilogue

  A year later – Priceless, Colorado

  Annabel sunk her shoulders lower in the bath water and squeezed the cloth between her fingers. Soapy water dribbled first on her knee, then slid all the way down her thigh to the thatch of hair between her legs. Her clitoris twitched with desire as she waited for Dane and Garrett to arrive.

  Glancing at her grimy hands, she sighed and started scrubbing the dirt from them. She wadded up the cloth and lathered the cake of fragrant soap in the folds. It took a little while, but she was finally able to wash away all the gun oil from her fingers and beneath her nails.

  Gun making was often dirty work, but she loved it. She spent the better part of her days crafting guns and rifles. The best part being that she didn’t have to hide what she did. Dane and Garrett had never once hindered her aspirations in this matter.

  In fact, they’d allotted one of the large out buildings, near the main house, for all her gun making supplies and even provided her the means to sell a few of her designs. They knew men in the area who were willing to try out the craftsmanship and products of a female gun-maker. She’d even had a few second sales from satisfied customers.

  Of late, Annabel had spent quite a lot of her time crafting two very special guns, one for each of the two important men in her life. She hoped to be finished by the end of the year to present her creations as gifts.