Valdez Is Coming: A Novel Read online

  “You see that smoke?”

  The segundo looked at R. L. Davis, not at the sky.

  “I reckon you can see that smoke a good piece,” R. L. Davis said. “We’re about a mile. I reckon you could still see it eight, ten miles.”

  The segundo said, “If he’s no farther than that and if he’s looking this way.”

  R. L. Davis grinned. “You see what I mean, huh? I was sure you would, though I wasn’t putting much stock in Tanner getting it.”

  “Be careful,” the segundo said. “He’ll eat you up.”

  “I don’t mean that insulting. I mean he might want to think about it a while, seeing things I don’t see——”

  “Hey,” the segundo said. He took time to squirt a stream of tobacco to the dry-caked earth. “Why do you think he’d come if he sees the smoke?”

  “Because they’re friends. He brought him clothes and his guns.”

  “Would you go? If you saw your friend’s place burning?”

  “Sure I would.”

  “No, you wouldn’t,” the segundo said. “But he might. If he sees it he might.”

  “It’s worth staying to find out,” R. L. Davis said.

  The segundo nodded. “Worth leaving you and maybe a few more.” He started off, reining his horse toward the far bank, then came around to look at Davis again. “Hey,” the segundo said, maybe smiling in the shadow of his Sonora hat. “What are you going to do if he comes?”

  7

  “You don’t have to tie me,” the Erin woman said. “I’ll wait for you; I won’t run.”

  Valdez said nothing. Maybe he had to tie her and maybe he didn’t, but a mile from Diego Luz’s place now and the smoke gone from the sky an hour, he tied her and left her in the arroyo, marking the place in his mind: willows on the bank and yellow brittlebrush in the dry bed. He left her in deep shade, not speaking or looking at her face.

  Though he looked at her over and over as he made his way to Diego Luz’s place, picturing her in the darkness of the high meadow, the woman lying with him under the blanket, holding her and feeling her against him and for a long time, after she was asleep, staring up at the cold night sky, at the clouds that moved past the moon.

  In the morning the sky was clear, until he saw the smoke in the distance, seven miles northwest, and knew what it was as he saw it. Valdez packed their gear without a word and they moved out, across the meadow and down through the foothills toward the column of smoke. At one point she said to him, “What if they’re waiting for you?” And he answered, “We’ll see.”

  They could be waiting or not waiting. Or he could have not seen the smoke. Or he could have continued with the woman southeast and been near the twin peaks by this evening. Or he never could have asked Diego Luz to help him. Or he never could have started this. Or he never could have been born. But he was here and he was pointing northwest instead of southeast because he had no choice. At first he had thought only about Diego Luz and his family. But when there was no sign of Tanner, no dust rising through the field glasses, he began to think of the woman more. When she was still with him when they reached the arroyo, he knew he wanted to keep her and tied her up to make sure of it.

  Following the dry stream bed north, Valdez saw the tracks where Tanner’s men had crossed; he noticed the prints of several horses leading south. He continued on a short distance before climbing out of the arroyo to move west. This way he circled Diego Luz’s place and approached from a thicket beyond the horse pasture, studying the house and yard for some time before he moved into the open.

  It might have been a dozen years ago after an Apache raid, the look of the place, the burned-out house and the dog lying in the yard; but there were people here, alive, and a team hitched to a wagon, and that was the difference. They waited for him by the wagon, Diego Luz and his family.

  Valdez dismounted. “What did they do to you?”

  “What you see,” Diego Luz said. He raised his hands in front of him, his hands open, the swollen, discolored fingers apart.

  “Did they harm your family?”

  “A little. If they did any more I wouldn’t be here.”

  “I’m sorry,” Valdez said.

  “We’re friends. They would have come with or without Mr. R. L. Davis.”

  “He was with them?”

  “He saw me in Lanoria with your clothes. Jesus, my hands hurt.”

  “Let me look at them.”

  “No looking today. Get out of here.”

  “What did they ask you?”

  “Where you are. Man, what did you do to them?”

  “Enough,” Valdez said.

  “They want you bad.”

  “They could have followed me.”

  “But Mr. Davis brought them here. Listen,” Diego Luz said, “if you see him, give him something for me.”

  “For myself too,” Valdez said. “You’re going to Lanoria?”

  “My son is taking me to get these fixed.” He looked at his hands again.

  “Will they be all right?”

  “How do I know? We’ll see. I just need to get one finger working.”

  “I’ll take you,” Valdez said.

  “Go to hell. No, go where they can’t find you,” Diego Luz said. “I have my boy and my family.”

  R. L. Davis came across the Erin woman because he was hot and tired of riding in the sun.

  He had moved south along the arroyo with the three riders who would watch with him. “If he comes he’ll come from the southeast,” the segundo had said. But after the segundo left, R. L. Davis thought, Who says he’ll come in a straight line? He could work around and come from any direction. He told this to the three riders with him and one of them, the bony-faced one who’d picked up the little girl and who’d broken Diego Luz’s hands, said sure, it was a waste of time; he’d like to get a shot at this Valdez, but it didn’t have to be today; the greaser was in the hills and they’d find him.

  That one, God, when he’d picked up the little girl, R. L. Davis wasn’t sure he could watch what the man wanted to do. Her being a tiny girl.

  After a while he said well, he’d double back and take a swing to the north. The others said they’d get up on the banks and look around and head back pretty soon. Good. He was glad to get away from the bony-faced one, a face like a skeleton face, only with skin.

  So R. L. Davis moved back up the arroyo. He wasn’t looking for anything in particular; there was nothing out here but the hot sun beating down on him. He saw the willow shade up ahead and the bright yellow blossoms of the brittlebush growing along the cutbank. The shade looked good. He headed for it. And when he found the Erin woman in there, sitting in the brush, tied up, he couldn’t believe his eyes.

  It was a lot to think about all at once. Valdez was here. Had been here. He’d put the woman here out of the way and gone to see Diego Luz. And if he left her like this, tied hand and foot, with a bandana over her mouth, then he was coming back for her. The woman was looking at him and he had to make up his mind fast.

  He could pull her up behind him on the sorrel and deliver her to Tanner and say, “Here you are, Mr. Tanner. What else you need done?”

  Or he could wait for Bob Valdez. Throw down on him and bring him in as well as the woman. Or gun him if that’s the way Valdez wanted it.

  The woman looked good. He’d like to slip the bandana from her mouth and get a close look at her. But he’d better not. There was a little clearing in here and rocks that had come down the cutbank. There was room in here to face him. There was room deeper in the brittlebush for his horse, if the son of a bitch didn’t make any noise.

  God Almighty, R. L. Davis thought. How about it? Bring them both in.

  Once he’d moved the sorrel into the brush, he got his Winchester off the saddle and settled down behind the woman, behind some good rock cover. He saw her twist around to the side to look at him, her eyes looking but not saying anything. Probably scared to death. He motioned her to turn around and put one finger to his mouth.
Shhhh. Don’t worry; it won’t be long.

  Crossing the pasture from Diego Luz’s place, Valdez saw the willows in the distance marking the arroyo. There had been some luck with him so far, coming in and going out, though he didn’t know Tanner and he wasn’t sure if it was luck or not. He didn’t know yet how the man thought, if he was intelligent and could anticipate what the other man might do, or if he ran in all directions trusting only to luck. Luck was all right when you had it, but it couldn’t be counted on. It worked good and bad, but it worked more good than bad if you knew what you were doing, if you were careful and watched and listened. He shouldn’t be here, but he was here, and if the luck or whatever it was continued, he would be in high country again late this afternoon, letting Tanner find him and follow him, but not letting him get too close until the time was right for that.

  When he talked to Tanner again it had to be on his own ground, not Tanner’s.

  The sawed-off Remington was across his lap as he approached the willows and entered the cavern of shade formed by the hanging branches. Holding the Remington, he dismounted and stood still to listen. There was no sound in the trees. He moved along the bank of the arroyo, beyond the thick brush below, to a place where the bank slanted down in deep slashes to the dry bed. He worked his way down carefully. At the bottom, as he entered the brittlebush, he cocked the right barrel of the Remington.

  The Erin woman sat where he had placed her. She did not hear him or look this way. The bandana covered the side of her face and pulled her long hair behind her shoulders, which sagged with the weariness of sitting here for nearly an hour. You hold her all night and tie her in the morning, he thought. You make love to her, but you’ve never said her name. Now she turned her head this way.

  He saw the startled expression jump into her eyes. He moved toward her, watching her eyes, wide open; her head moved very slightly to the side and then her eyes moved in that direction. Off to the right of her or behind her. Valdez shifted his gaze to the rocks and deep brush.

  He moved forward again, a half step, and a voice he recognized said, “That’s far enough!”

  “Hey!” Valdez said. “Is that Mr. R. L. Davis?”

  “Put down the scattergun and unfasten your belt.”

  Valdez’s gaze shifted slightly. There. He could see the glint of the Winchester barrel in the brush and part of Davis’s hat. He was behind an outcropping of rock, looking out past the left side, which meant he would have to expose half of his body to fire from that place. If he’s right-handed, Valdez thought. He remembered Davis firing at the Lipan woman across the Maricopa pasture and he said to himself, Yes, he’s right-handed.

  “You hear me? I said put it down!”

  “Why don’t you come out?” Valdez said.

  The sawed-off Remington was in his right hand, pointed down, but with his finger curled on the trigger. He looked at the brush and the edge of the rock outcropping, judging the distance. He imagined swinging the shotgun up and firing, deciding how high he would have to swing it. You get one time, Valdez thought. No more.

  “I’m going to count to three,” R. L. Davis said.

  “Listen,” Valdez called. “Why don’t you cut out this game and use your gun if you want to use it? What’re you hiding in the bushes for?”

  “I’m warning you to put it down!”

  “Come on, boy, use the gun. Hey, pretend I’m an Indian woman, you yellow-ass son of a bitch.”

  There. His shoulder and the rifle barrel sliding higher on the outcropping, more of him in the brush, and Valdez swung up the Remington, squeezing his hand around the narrow neck and seeing the brush fly apart with the explosion.

  “Hey, you still there?” He shifted the gun to his left hand and drew the Walker. There was a silence. He glanced at the woman, seeing her eyes on him, and away from her.

  “I’m hit!” Davis called out.

  “What do you expect?” Valdez said. “You want to play guns.”

  “I’m bleeding!”

  “Wipe it off and try again.”

  Silence.

  “Boy, I’m coming in for you. You ready?”

  He saw Davis at the edge of the rock again, seeing him more clearly now with part of the brush torn away. Davis came out a little more, his left hand covering his ear and the side of his face.

  “Don’t shoot. Listen to me, don’t.”

  “The first one was for Diego,” Valdez said. “The next one’s from me. I owe you something.”

  “I didn’t leave you, did I? I didn’t let you die. I could’ve, but I didn’t.”

  “Pick up your gun.”

  “Listen, I cut you loose!”

  Valdez paused, letting the silence come over the clearing. He heard another sound, far away, off behind him, but his gaze held on Davis.

  “Say it again.”

  “After I pushed you over. That night I come back and cut you loose, didn’t I?”

  “I didn’t see you that night.”

  “Well, who do you think did it?”

  His gaze dropped to the woman, to her eyes looking at him above the bandana. He heard the sound again and knew it was a horse approaching, coming fast up the arroyo.

  “I left you my canteen. I can prove it’s mine, it’s got my initials scratched in the tin part, inside.”

  Valdez raised his Walker to shut him up and motion him out of the brush. Davis started out, then stopped. He could hear the horse.

  “Come on,” Valdez hissed.

  But Davis hesitated. The sound was louder down the arroyo, rumbling toward them. Davis waited another moment then yelled out, “He’s in here!” throwing himself behind the outcropping. “Get him! He’s in here!”

  Valdez reached the woman and pushed her over. He turned, moving crouched through the brittlebush, at the edge of it now, and stepping out of it as the first rider came at him from thirty yards away, drawing his revolver as he saw Valdez and the barrels of the Remington, then seeing nothing as the ten-bore charge rocked him from the saddle. The second rider was down the arroyo coming fast, low in the saddle and spurring his horse, his handgun already drawn, firing it from the off side of his horse. Valdez raised the Walker. He thumbed the hammer and fired and thumbed and fired and saw the horse buckle and roll, the rider stiff, with his arms outstretched in the air for a split moment, and Valdez shot him twice before he hit the ground. The horse was on its side, pawing with its forelegs, trying to rise. Valdez looked down the arroyo, waiting, then stepped to the horse and shot it through the head. He walked over to the man, whose death’s head face looked up at him with sunken mouth and open eyes.

  “I hope you’re one of them Diego wanted,” Valdez said. He turned toward the yellow brittlebush, loading the Remington.

  “Where was he?” the segundo asked.

  “He must have been in them bushes and fired on them as they come by,” the rider said. “I was back a piece, up on the west side looking for his sign. When I heard the gunfire I lit up this way and they was coming out of the draw.”

  The segundo held up his hand. “Wait. You don’t want to tell it so many times.” He squinted under his straw hat brim toward Tanner, mounted on his bay, looking down at them in the arroyo.

  Tanner saw the two bodies sprawled in the dry bed. He saw the dead horse and the yellow-baked ground stained dark at the horse’s head. He saw the segundo and a man standing next to him and a half dozen mounted men and a riderless horse nibbling at the brittlebush. Tanner kicked the bay down the bank to the stream bed. He stared at the dead men, then at the segundo, a stub of a cigar clamped in his jaw.

  “This man,” the segundo said, “is one of the four we left.”

  “You left,” Tanner said.

  “I left. He says they went south looking for a sign of him. Then after a while the piss-ant you hired, something Davis, he come back this way.”

  “Let him tell it,” Tanner said, judging the man next to the segundo as he looked at him.

  “Well, as he says we worked south a ways,�
�� the rider said. “Davis come back first and we spread out some. Then these two here must have started back. I was down there a mile and a half, two miles”—he pointed south, more at ease now, a thumb hooked in his belt—“when I heard the shots and come on back.”

  “Where were they?” Tanner said.

  “When I come back? They were laying there. He must have been in the bushes and fired on them as they come by. As I got close they was coming up out of the draw and going west.”

  “Who’s they?” Tanner asked him.

  “Two men and a woman.”

  “You saw them good?”

  “Well, I was off a ways, but I could see her hair, long hair flying in the wind.”

  “You’re saying it was Mrs. Erin?”

  “Yes sir, I’d put my hand on the Book it was.”

  “You see Valdez?”

  “Not his face, but it must have been him. One of these boys here was blowed off by a scatter gun.”

  “That one,” the segundo said. “This one, I don’t know, forty-four or forty-five, in the chest twice, close together.”

  “That’s five men he’s killed,” Tanner said. He drew on the cigar stub; it was out, and he threw it to the ground. “What about Davis?”

  The rider looked up. “I figured he was the other one with them. Once I saw he wasn’t around here.”

  “That’s the strange thing,” the segundo said. “Why would the man want to take him? He’s worth nothing to him.”

  “Unless he went with him on his own,” Tanner said. “Mark him down as another one, a dead man when we catch up with them.”

  “We’ll get him for you,” the rider said.

  Tanner looked down at him from the bay horse. “Did you fire at them?”

  “Yes sir, I got down and laid against the cutbank for support and let go till they was out of range.”

  “Did you hit anybody?”

  “I don’t believe so.”

  “But you might have.”

  “Yes sir, I might’ve.”

  “That range you couldn’t tell.”