Episode One
Strange things are said to happen
on the night of a full moon. People turn into wolves. Sweet and shy women take
a knife to their husbands. Men of peace wantonly commit murder.
Rance
Dehner was not a superstitious man. Still, he was observant and had noted that
on nights when the moon was a round orb there were a lot of odd occurrences.
On this
night of a full moon, Dehner was following a killer, Curt Tatum. The outlaw had
tethered his horse to a tree and was heading somewhere on foot. This was
definitely full moon stuff. There seemed to be no place for Tatum to go. Dehner
followed on foot at a safe distance.
Suddenly,
no distance was safe. Curt Tatum moved out of a wooded area into a wide space
dotted only sparsely by a few bushes and trees. The killer was moving toward a
line shack, cautiously, like a mountain lion stalking prey. The shack had one
window at the front, now beaming a faint glow of kerosene yellow. Tatum darted
over to the side of the cabin, where there was only rotting wood. Dehner had no
idea who was inside that shack, but it was no friend of Curt Tatum.
Dehner did
know Tatum by reputation and knew he couldn’t trail closely behind the man
without cover. No matter how quietly he moved, the killer would hear him.
For a
moment, Dehner considered bushwhacking Curt Tatum. The man was a wanted killer.
No one would argue if he brought Tatum in with a bullet in his back. Rance
Dehner quickly rejected the notion. He couldn’t do that.
Dehner
decided to let his presence be known. “Visiting a lady friend, Curt?”
Tatum
wheeled around quickly, one hand hovering over the gun that lay in a holster on
his right hip. He stared intently at the newcomer, then spoke in a voice filled
with mockery. “Well, well, Rance Dehner, thought you and I parted company for
good back in Denver
“Yeah,
Curt, you crept up on me from behind. Pistol whipped me good. I took a couple
of weeks to recover.”
“You coulda
shot me from behind just now; why didn’t you?”
“Company
policy.”
Both men
were trying to size up the odd situation. They were about to have a gunfight
that would leave one of them dead and they both knew it. The moonlight left
their faces in shadow. A slight twitch of the mouth or eyebrows would not give
anything away.
“That
company of yours, Pinkerton ain’t it?” As he spoke, Tatum tried to appear
casual as he took one step forward. The killer was a fast draw, but his
accuracy was faulty and the first shot had to count.
Dehner
pretended not to notice. “No. I work for Pinkerton’s competition, the Lowrie
Detective Agency.”
Curt Tatum
wanted to take another step but decided to hold off. “Ain’t that the outfit
owned by that Limey?”
Rance
Dehner saw his opening. “Some Brits come
over here to start a ranch. They give jobs to hard working cow punchers.
Bertram Lowrie started a detective agency and gives jobs to lazy gunslingers.
But Lowrie does have some standards. He’d never hire a cowardly snake who’d
attack a man from behind!”
“Why--”
Tatum went for his gun as he spoke; Dehner matched his movements. Both men
fired at almost the same time. Tatum’s shot went wide. Dehner’s shot went into
his opponent’s stomach. Curt Tatum began to stagger about, gun still in hand.
“Drop it
Tatum, I’ll only say it once.”
The gunman
hung onto his weapon. Even wounded, Curt Tatum was a very dangerous man.
Dehner’s second shot took the killer down.
Tatum’s
body lay still, his gun now positioned only inches from his right hand. Rance Dehner moved with caution and his Colt
drawn until he could feel for a pulse on the gunfighter’s wrist. Confident that
Tatum was dead, Dehner turned his head toward the strange sound coming from the
shack.
A baby was
crying.
Tomorrow: Episode Two
of Full Moon
