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Episode Eleven concluded with:
“Step out from behind
that bar, Rob. Let’s find out how fast you really are.”
Laverty pounded his fist on the bar and screamed at the man in the doorway.
“You go back to Hell or wherever you demons come from! Leave me alone, Wes
Torveen, leave me alone!”
Rob Laverty began to cry uncontrollably. He rested his head on the bar and put
both arms over it. He refused to look up, like a child hiding under a blanket,
hoping the boogieman would disappear.
But he could hear the voice that continued to taunt him. “I see you don’t feel
up to a gunfight this evening, Robbie. Don’t worry. I’ll be coming back to see
you soon.”
Laverty continued to keep his head down for several minutes after the voice
ceased. When he finally raised his head, all he could see was a vacant doorway
made blurry by the tears that cluttered his eyes.
Episode Twelve
***
“This was found on Stanley Wiggins’
corpse, Mr. Lowrie. It was ripped from the dress that Wes was going to buy for
Rebecca.” Buck Torveen handed Bertram Lowrie a checkered cloth with a note
attached to it.
An angry female voice snapped at
Buck. “My brother did buy that dress
for me. You can bet Blake Oliver got his money from Wes before he sent him out
to be ambushed. Not that Rob Laverty and those other fools could bring it off.
You had to lend a hand, didn’t you, Buck?”
Buck Torveen looked downward as another
male voice spoke to his sister. “This is hard on everyone, Rebecca. You saw the
good side of Wes. But we all know he was a dangerous man. Buck did what he had
to do.”
The young woman sighed deeply, “I
suppose so. I’m sorry, Buck.”
As Buck replied to his sister, Rance
Dehner assessed the five people sitting in the living room of the Torveen
ranch. Two people sat on a sofa: Buck and Rebecca Torveen. Both were tall, dark
haired and tanned by long hours spent in the sun. Buck appeared nervous and
defensive. His sister was angry and seemed inclined to lash out. Her apology to
Buck had been nothing more than a formality, and the tone of her voice made
sure he knew it.
Sitting on a chair beside the
brother and sister was a sandy haired man with long arms and legs that made him
appear gangly. He also looked a bit uncertain of himself, as if not sure he
really belonged. The man had been introduced as Forrest Connors, Rebecca’s
fiancé.
Facing this threesome and sitting on
two rawhide bottom chairs were Rance and his boss, Bertram Lowrie. Lowrie was
tall, almost skeletal in appearance with a prominent nose and chin. The former
British military man had been intrigued by the wire received from Rebecca
Torveen and decided to accompany Rance, since Rebecca had asked for the
services of two detectives.
Dehner tried to get back to
business. “Do any of you know exactly what became of the dress after Buck
placed it in the wagon?”
Buck spoke up immediately. “I didn’t
give the dress much thought till I drove the wagon back here to the ranch a few
hours after Wes was killed.”
“Murdered,” Rebecca said in a low
voice.
A quick grimaced appeared on Buck’s
face, then he continued. “I noticed the dress when I got back to the ranch and
jumped off the wagon. Just left it there.
At the time, I was thinking about how I could break the news to Rebecca
about Wes’…about…Wes.”
Dehner shifted his gaze to Rebecca.
“So, you never actually saw the dress, Miss Torveen?”
The young woman’s voice took on a
neutral quality. “No. Buck told me about it, but I didn’t want to see it.”
Rance tilted his head back to Buck.
“When did you notice that the dress was missing?”
Buck Torveen shrugged his shoulders
in a sheepish manner. “Not until the morning after Stanley was killed. Sheriff
Laverty rode out here and showed me the piece of gingham cloth. I immediately
recognized it as coming from the dress. I’m sure I left it in the wagon, but
when Laverty and I went to check, the dress was gone.”
Bertram Lowrie joined the
questioning. His voice was staccato. “You say the dress was missing. Was the
box still there?”
“No, the box was gone.”
“At the store, did you see Mr.
Oliver place the dress in the box?”
Buck appeared surprised by the
question. He squinted and went quiet for a moment before answering. “No, come
to think of it, Wes and I were busy looking around. Blake just handed me the
box and said the dress was inside.”
Lowrie held up the piece of cloth
with a paper pinned to it. “This note on the cloth consists only of the number
three. Can you explain that?”
Buck Torveen sighed and nodded his
head. “The last time Wes was here, about a year ago, he goaded two of his
former school mates into a gunfight. He killed both of them. He wanted to go
after the rest but the sheriff at the time, Allen Hodge, stood in his way.
Sheriff Hodge had been kind to Wes when he was a boy and my brother didn’t want
to go up against him.”
Bertram Lowrie’s face crunched up
before he spoke. “So, this number three was Wes’ way of telling the men who had
bullied him as a child that he had come back from the dead in order to finish
his gruesome task.”
Tomorrow: Episode Thirteen of One Arm
Lightning
