Scanning July and early August…
And now we are back to where we left the story at the end of Book Two. Allie Summer and Rob Conners were dead—at least Trent Tolliver thought so, and everybody in River Bend had accepted the death of Conners. And there was one man who was greatly afraid that the Lady Ranger had also met her doom. More on that in a moment.
To briefly get caught up. Kelly Kramer had recovered well enough to leave the hospital—provided someone stay with her. Kelly Atkins volunteered and moved in with her namesake. Kelly K was still weak and thus very tired, but gradually her strength was coming back. All of River Bend knew of her ordeal, but no one knew why she had been shot. Ben had asked her not to tell people that the assailant had mistook her for Kelly Atkins, so when asked, she replied, “I really don’t know who it was.” And that was the truth. “Some drunk who was mad at his wife, I suppose.”
“That’s a terrible part of town,” she was told by one of the ladies in town. “There are always killings there. You should stay off C Street.” That was an admonition that Kelly didn’t need any more.
People continued to tell her—and Kelly Atkins—how much they looked alike. Both of them were getting a little tired of it, but it was part of life. The two Kellys were becoming good friends, and, to build her strength, Kelly K went to a couple of socials over the next few days. She usually sat with Kelly Atkins, and they did that largely to tease people. Many a man would come up to them and say, “I’d like to have a dance with one of you, but…which is which?” Kelly Kramer wasn’t up to dancing yet, so Kelly Atkins would always stand up and say, “I’m Kelly Kramer, and I’m trying to get introduced in town. I’d love to dance with you.” She could fool most of the men, but sometimes their eyes gave them away. Still, they had fun with it.
Kelly Atkins remained in deep grief over the “death” of Rob Conners. The funeral had been the day after the body had been brought to town. There had been some socials that had distracted her mind—for the moment. But, when she was alone…for several days after the body had been brought to River Bend, Kelly cried herself to sleep at night. Vernon Hatter’s body—aka Rob Conners’ body—was buried in the same cemetery as Nicholas Backstrom’s, but given a much nicer headstone and a prominent plot in the graveyard. About a week after the funeral, Kelly went to the graveyard. She went to Nicholas Backstrom’s grave first. She pulled the weeds, but discovered there was nothing left inside her for him. When she went to the Conners grave, she pulled out the letter that he had written to her—she always carried it with her--and read it for the umpteenth time. She then knelt and wept for at least 15 minutes.
“Oh, Rob…Rob…Rob…why? Why did you leave? Why? We could have been so happy together…” Kelly had never realized before the true depths of her feelings for Rob Conners. She pictured in her mind that smile, that cynical, eye-twinkling smile that only Rob Conners had…and the tears flowed again. She remembered the first time they met (see Whitewater, Book Three, Chapter One). I almost shot him…well, not really…but I thought he was a gunslinger…Then she smiled through her tears. He blew my shotgun apart…then bought me another rifle…he paid off our debt or we would have lost our ranch…he could be so sweet, so thoughtful…. Kelly idly picked at the grass as she knelt beside the grave, thinking back, a small smile on her lips because of the memories…then the pain began again when she thought I’ll never see him again…Then anger burned inside her…I’m going to go kill Trent Tolliver. Kill him, kill him, kill him…just like I did his brother…
And then a bomb exploded inside Kelly Atkins’s head. Trent Tolliver killed Rob because Rob killed one of his brothers…
It was Trent Tolliver who shot Kelly Kramer, thinking she was me…
Why didn’t I realize that before?
She looked down at the grave where she believed Rob Conners was buried. “I’ll get him for you, Rob. He’ll come back to kill me…but I’ll kill him instead…”
If somebody had heard what Kelly was saying, they might have thought, “I’d shore hate to be Trent Tolliver when Kelly Atkins finds out where he is…”
But Kelly Atkins wasn’t Trent Tolliver…or anywhere in his league…
August 15, the same day Allie decided to return home from her vacation, but before her encounter with the wolves and Tollivers…
On this day, another visitor rode into River Bend. Death was on his mind, too—the death of his best Ranger. Captain W. T. McConnell, head of the territorial Rangers, hitched his horse in front of the Marshal’s office and went inside the building.
Ben was there, and he stood up and gave a small smile when he recognized his old boss. They shook hands. “Captain,” Ben said in a brief greeting. “Please have a seat. Would you like some coffee?”
“Yes, I would, if you don’t mind,” McConnell replied, pulling up a chair in front of Ben’s desk. “You’re looking well. Does marshal work agree with you?”
Ben hesitated as he poured two cups of coffee. “It has its ups and downs.” He shrugged as he handed McConnell a cup. “But you can say that about any job.”
“That’s true,” the Captain said. “The Rangers miss you. You’re welcome to come back any time you wish.”
He and Ben idly talked shop for a couple of minutes and then Ben asked him, “What brings you to River Bend? A fishing trip, I hope.”
McConnell sighed, leaned forward and put his cup on Ben’s desk, and shook his head. “No, I’m afraid not. Ben, have you seen Allie? Did she stop by here…well, any time in the last month?”
“No, I haven’t seen her. I’m assuming, from your questions, that she’s missing.”
“Yes. She left several weeks ago on a vacation. Said she was headed up to the mountains north of here to do some fishing. I told her that vacation time was limited to two weeks, but she said she’d be gone a month.” Then he shook his head again. “It’s been longer than that, and Allie would keep her word.”
Ben was thoughtful. “So…you’re afraid she might have gotten injured…or worse.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of, yeah.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m actually on my way to Idaho. I have to testify in a trial over there. Idaho won’t extradite the prisoner—Artie Karnes—back here like they ought to, so I’m having to travel there. The trial isn’t for 10 days, so I thought I’d snoop around the mountains a little, see if maybe I could get lucky and find her.”
Ben looked skeptical. “There’s an awful lot of mountain up there, Captain.”
“I know. But I’ve got to do something.”
“She could have fallen off a cliff and you’d never find her. The buzzards would pick her clean.” Ben, of course, had no idea how close that guess came to being true.
McConnell nodded, but said, “What would you do, Ben?”
Ben gave him a wry smile. “If I were on my way to Idaho and had a few days to kill, I’d go up into those mountains and look for her.”
The Captain smiled ruefully. “But, Ben, I can’t believe Allie fell off a cliff. She could move around in the forest like a snake and climb rocks like a mountain goat. Allie Summer ending up at the bottom of a ravine is just…not the way I picture her…”
“Well, maybe she’s just enjoying the fishing and decided to stay a little longer. It could be totally harmless.”
McConnell shook his head. “No, she wouldn’t be gone this long, Ben. She loves the Rangers too much and she’d know I’d be worried about her. And again, she told me she’d be back in a month.” Actually, she hadn’t said that. She had said “a month…maybe.” But the Ranger captain hadn’t paid especially attention to her last word, and….there was something else. A “something” that made him the good lawman that he was. He looked at the River Bend Marshal. “Ben, I can make a few days allowance, but….have you been a lawman long enough to get…gut feelings? Just that…sense…that something isn’t quite right. I don’t know how to explain it.”
Ben nodded slowly, thoughtfully. “Yeah, I think I know what you mean. If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, and has webbed feet like a duck, pardon me if I conclude it’s a duck.”
The Captain smiled. “Yeah. Something like that.”
“And that’s the way you feel about Allie.”
“Yeah. Something like that.”
Ben felt a little agitation. “Captain McConnell, I know what Allie Summer means to you. And I know what she means to the Rangers. I’d go up there and look myself, but my deputy is away on an assignment and all I’ve got is a part-time Joe sittin’ this chair when I need to sleep, so I just can’t get away.”
“I’m not asking you to, Ben. I was just hoping that you had seen her recently.”
“I wish I had.”
W. T. McConnell rose from his chair, preparing to leave. “Well, thanks for the coffee. It’s nice to see you again, Ben, but I’d like to get on down the road a bit, so I’m not going to stay the night. The sooner I can get into those mountains, the longer I can search.”
“I understand,” Ben said, standing up as well. They shook hands. “Oh,” Ben added, “there’s one more thing you might be interested in knowing, if you haven’t heard already.”
“What’s that?”
“Rob Conners is dead.”
McConnell’s face registered shock. “No. I hadn’t heard that. What happened?”
Ben still had the wooden grave marker that the Tollivers had left by the dead body. He showed it to McConnell. “We buried him about two weeks ago.”
The Ranger Captain frowned as he read part of the writing. “’The same fate awaits anybody who ever kills a Tolliver.’ Conners killed Tristy Tolliver a few months ago. I guess Trent was gunning for him.” And then a lightening bolt shot through his head. “Oh, no,” he said.
“What’s the matter?” Ben asked.
McConnell looked at the marshal, his face grave. “Did you know that Allie killed another of Trent’s brothers, Twain, this spring?”
Ben stared at McConnell. It didn’t take him long to add two and two. “Oh, no.” Then he said, “That’s it, Captain. That’s the answer.” He then quickly recounted what had happened to Kelly Kramer. “I never did find out, for sure, who shot her, but it must have been Trent Tolliver. Kelly Atkins killed Top several weeks back when he was about to dry gulch me.”
McConnell grimaced. “Yeah. I knew he had been killed here, but I didn’t know who had done it. You say Kelly Atkins killed him?” McConnell had met Kelly, briefly, during the Nicholas Backstrom affair.
“Yes. She’s a dead shot with a rifle.” And Ben rapidly told of those events, too.
McConnell was still confused. “But if Kelly Atkins killed Top, why did Trent shoot the other woman?”
Ben half-grunted. “Because she looks like Kelly Atkins’ twin sister. You’d never tell them apart in the dark. Case of mistaken identity. That’s the only explanation, because from what I’ve been able to learn, there’s nothing in Kelly Kramer’s past that would warrant somebody wanting to kill her.”
McConnell looked very thoughtful. “You realize what will happen, don’t you, when Trent finds out he shot the wrong woman.”
Ben had already arrived there, of course. “He’ll come back.”
“He’ll come back,” McConnell repeated. “He won’t rest until she’s dead.”
“Or he’s dead, one of the other. And then there’s still one other Tolliver alive, isn’t there.” Ben looked away, thoughtfully. “And Allie killed one, too,” he said almost to himself. He shook his head. “It’s obvious that Trent and his men have been in the River Bend area. He shot Kelly Kramer here and killed Rob Conners close by.” He paused. “If he got into those mountains and found Allie…”
McConnell slowly nodded. “Ben, this is more serious than I thought it was.”
Ben pursed his lips and blew out his breath. “Captain, we’ve got to find that guy. He killed Rob, he may have killed Allie, he shot an innocent woman here, and he’ll probably be back here to correct his mistake.”
McConnell shook his head in disgust—more at himself than anything else. “Allie asked me several times to let her go after the Tollivers, but I wouldn’t give her permission. They’ve never broken a law—that can be proved against them—in this territory, so we can’t really touch them.” He looked at Ben. “Allie could have ‘touched’ them.”
“Yeah.” Ben grunted a chuckle. “And they never would have ‘touched’ anybody again.” Then, his countenance grave, he said to the Ranger Captain, “You can only hope he didn’t find her—before she saw him coming.”
And, then within the next five seconds, Ben thought the Ranger Captain looked about 10 years older. “If she did see him first, Ben, then why hasn’t she come home?”
And Ben Baker had no answer for that.