Part 45 (2/2)
”I'm not getting a doctor for you. Get out of here before somebody comes in.”
”d.a.m.n you, you son-of-a-b.i.t.c.h,” Frank gasped. ”I told you I need a doctor.” Frank pulled his gun, but he had trouble lifting it. He felt terrible weak, weaker than he'd ever felt before. Everything seemed out of focus. Regis's rage-twisted face seemed to hang in s.p.a.ce.
Regis rushed behind a counter, opened a drawer, and drew out a six-shooter. ”You should have gone to Montana that first time, Frank.” Regis lifted the gun and fired. The noise of the explosion rocked the small building.
The pain as the bullet buried itself in Frank's chest was like a white-hot poker being driven into his flesh. ”You double-crossing b.a.s.t.a.r.d,” he gasped as he fired one time.
Regis Cochrane's body quivered under the impact of the bullet, and slumped to the floor.
Tyler was only a short distance away when he heard the first m.u.f.fled shot. Sprinting down the alley, he turned into a sharp elbow at the second shot. He reached the back door of the bank to find the gunman slumped against the counter.
”The b.a.s.t.a.r.d tried to kill me,” the gunman muttered. ”He tried to kill me.”
It took no more than a moment to find Regis Cochrane's body. He wasn't dead, but he was seriously wounded. Tyler turned back to the dying killer. ”Who paid you to kill Miss Singleton and her father?” he asked, urgent in his need to know before the man died.
”Cochrane,” the man managed to mutter in a voice that was a whisper.
”There were two other men. Who are they?” Tyler bent lower. The man's voice was a bare thread.
”Ed and Toby.”
The front door opened and someone rushed in.
”Where are they?” Tyler asked. ”If you want to see Cochrane pay for what he did to you, tell me where I can find them.” Tyler had to put his ear almost to the man's lips to hear his answer.
”Ed and Toby Peck,” the gunman said in a bare whisper. ”They went to Mexico.”
Tyler wanted to ask the name of the town, but it was too late. He was dead.
”Is he dead?” Hen asked.
”Yes,” Tyler replied. He stood. ”He told me the names of the other gunmen. All we have to do is get them to testify against Regis.”
Together the brothers walked to where the banker still lay in the floor.
”If you want him around long, you'd better get a doctor in a hurry,” Hen said.
”You're going on trial for murder, Cochrane,” Tyler said to him. ”Rustling, forgery, fraud, and I don't know how many other things.”
Regis eyed him with a malevolent glare. ”You have no proof, and you won't have any. Ed and Toby are dead. They were scalped by Apaches twenty miles below the boarder.”
”Your Apaches or real Indians?” Tyler asked.
Regis shrugged.
”I'm going for the doctor,” Hen said, ”or he's not going to make it.”
”Hand me my coat,” Regis said, as Hen hurried from the building. ”I can't be seen without my coat.”
He refused to let Tyler help him put it on. ”You're just as stupid as all the rest,” he said, gasping hard for breath. ”You think you can beat me, but you can't. I don't need Daisy's ranch any more. They let me in on the deal. I already won.”
He struggled to get his arm in the sleeve, then his body went slack. He was dead.
Chapter Twenty-nine.
Daisy was devastated. Guy had never loved her. He had only been after her ranch. But most of all she was horrified to learn that Regis Cochrane had been the man who hired the gunmen to kill her father.
”I'm glad you decided to let everyone think Frank Storach killed Mr. Cochrane when he wouldn't help him escape,” Daisy said. ”It would break Adora's heart to know what her father tried to do. And poor Mrs. Cochrane would never be able to hold her head up again.”
”I'm just sorry Guy will get off as well,” Tyler said. ”I'm sure he was in on his father's plot.”
”Not the part to kill daddy,” Daisy said. ”I can't think well of Guy, but he would never do anything like that.”
”I'm not interested in Guy or his family,” Tyler said. ”I'm only interested in marrying you as soon as possible.”
”Soon enough for us to leave for the ranch during this calendar year?” Hen asked.
”I told him we couldn't go home until after the wedding,” Laurel said, explaining her husband's dark mood to Daisy. ”It was either that or take you back to the ranch until you're ready.”
”I know you're still very upset over the Cochranes,” Tyler began--”
”I'm not going to put off marrying you because of it,” Daisy said.
”A quiet wedding with just a few people,” Laurel suggested.
”Today?” Hen asked hopefully.
”Soon,” Daisy promised.
”Now I think it's time to leave them alone,” Laurel said, taking her husband by the arm and propelling him toward the door.
”But they're so slow to get to the point,” her husband objected.
”I think they're there.”
”They'd d.a.m.ned well better be. At the rate they're going, you could have a second baby before the wedding.”
”Not by myself.”
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