Chapter 15

Chapter 15: Mysterious Ways

It was after 11:00 PM when Lottie stepped off the train at Topeka. She had thought for over a thousand miles about what she was about to do. She had purchased a large revolver and she was going to give Bowlegs a couple of minutes to give her what she wanted, or she was going to send him to Hell with a hole in his head.

She had tried before and had been too naive. Sweetly begging was never going to produce results, a gun to his head was the only way to get it. Her feet flew through the depot and over the ruts in the street and soon she was down in his end of town. But unexpectedly, there was a light on upstairs, and men were making a great uproar of hollering and cheering. She thought she could hear a few girls in the mix. There must have been a rollicking poker game or something going on up there. She would have to wait. She sat down on a stack of bags of oats and crossed her legs, and lit up a cigarette. After some thought, she decided to kick off her lace-up shoes, to make sure she had the advantage of surprise. The boards on the stairs were creaky and would provide ample warning, but for now that was good, because the bending wood stair steps would give her ample warning and plenty of time to hide if the partyers started coming down. With that kind of racket upstairs, at least she knew he was there.

Hours passed, and the guests departed slowly. The men were greatly enjoying themselves and she was amused about how time passed miserably slow when one is listening to other people have a good time. And even slower when you are waiting to murder someone. Suddenly she heard voices in the stairwell and she snatched up her shoes and pranced into a dark corner to hide. They were finally leaving, bottles in hand, hanging on each other like wounded soldiers. It took the better part of a half-hour for the drunks to stagger out, saying good-bye and not leaving, stopping to pee outside in the street, reliving their wins and losses, and making parting shots with their generous host. Then finally, all was quiet.

Lottie heard some noises and the saw the lights go out, and knew that her moment had come. She quietly climbed the stairs, knowing which boards to avoid lest she make an untimely squeak. She cocked her pistol, and took a deep breath. What if he was with a woman? She had to tell herself to have mercy and just tell her to leave, or get killed too. No, that would not do. The whole idea was to take Bowlegs by surprise. Even if she was able to, a woman screaming would mess up the whole operation. If he was with a woman... Hell, she would have to tip-toe away, and try again the next night. But how long could she hide in a hotel room in Topeka, with nobody seeing her, to avoid warning him that she was in town? He might be living with another woman by now. If he was, she would just kill them both. That would end the marriage for sure.

She was wasting time worrying, besides, that party going on all night pretty much spoke for itself: these were single men distracting themselves from that fact. “Just get on with it Lottie!” She told herself impatiently. She exhaled, and when she got to Bowlegs's bedroom she stood at the door and thought through what she would do, one more time. She had decided to wait until she heard him snore, which would be soon, and then sneak up on him before he had a chance to arm himself. His gun would be hanging in his gun belt on his headboard. She would pull it out as well, and then let the cold barrel of it wake him as it entered his ear. It would be quite delightful. And what could go wrong?

It took a while, but Bowlegs did begin to snore, but just barely. Still, that was all she needed to establish her surprise. The door knob was wet, and the room was alive with the smell of cheap whiskey. He was dead to the world. Laying in his long-handles, barefooted, he still had his hat on. There was no woman. She relaxed and hovered over to the gun and slipped it out, and began to smile. This was fun. Too bad it might end in a murder. In went the gun barrel into his left ear. But Bowlegs just turned away, not yet awake. She reached over and nudged him harder, and put the other pistol in his belly.

Then he woke up, and instantly rolled away from her and off of his bed, and scrambled around on the floor, disoriented, grasping for his revolver in the dark.

“I've got it Billy- Sit still or I will kill you right there.” Lottie said with amazing calm. She even believed herself.

“Who.... who is it? Who the hell is it!!!”

“Billy, I'm your worst nightmare. One of your angry whores who has come for restitution.”

“Lottie.”

“Yes, and I have come to kill you. I have a good life now, and you will never give me a divorce. So I'm gonna end the marriage the only way I can.”

“You want a divorce. OK, I'll give you a divorce- just don't kill me Lottie.”

“I know better, you sly fox. I don't think for a minute that you would. And I think you are planning right now to upset me. But I have a brand new Colt's .45 caliber pistol that will settle this thing once and for all- unless you have a better solution.”

“Well woman, what do you want? Just don't shoot that thing.” Even in danger, Bowlegs could not help but laugh nervously at his situation. “Just tell me Lottie.”

“I WANT... YOU... to get out our gotDAM marriage certificate and burn it right here on the floor. NO TRICKS, where I can watch, and I WANT to never see you again.”

“Well... Lottie, I think we can arrange that.” Bowlegs sounded sincere, so Lottie put her arms down and pointed the guns at the floor. “After you came that last time, I found it and put it in the drawer where I could find it next time. But Lottie...”

“WHAT?”

“That won't make us divorced sweetie. You will still be married to me. You will always be married to me... You can take it to court, but one of those men that just left is the judge. You're just going to have to kill me.” Lottie listened and began to make little tiny tears which rested on her eyelids.

“I will Billy... I will right now. You sonovabitch you have robbed me of everything.”

“I know that's what you think... I've also protected you. You have no idea how many men...”

“How many men what?”

“How many men I have beaten or... killed to protect you. You never wondered I guess about what happened to any of those rough customers who treated you badly- why you never saw them again.”

“You never told me...”

“So now kill me... your legally married husband.”

“You are nothing but a cheat and a pimp Billy. You took advantage of me, you, lied... you sold me... you broke me...”

Billy Bowlegs was through defending himself. He would beg to no one. And he was out of ideas.

“You used me like a pack mule. Taught me to drink and sip laudanum. You killed my innocence and my... soul... you know it. You know you deserve a bullet, maybe ten of 'em! That's why you hide behind the marriage certificate. And.... I WANT... YOU.... TO... BURN... IT.... NOW.”

“I'll get it Lottie- you can light the match.” Billy started to stand.

“On your knees, or I SWEAR, I'll kill you before you straighten your back!”

Billy shrugged and crawled over to his night stand and slipped out a folded sheet of paper. He tossed it on the floor and looked up at her with an empty expression. There was just one thing. Billy could not read. There was no telling what was written on that piece of paper. She had to read it to make sure it was what he said it was. Lottie pointed her pistol at him and dropped his on the bed, and picked up the alleged document- but there was no reading it in the dark.

“I guess I'm not going to kill you tonight Billy, as much as I would like to, but if this ain't the marriage paper, I will come back and kill you in your sleep!” She stormed out and down the stairs into the safety of early morning darkness. She was several blocks down the street when she realized that she was still barefooted.

Lottie found refuge that night at an expensive hotel in Topeka which featured a hotel security guard, and she slept fairly well considering the excitement of the early morning before. When she awoke, she realized that she had collapsed on top of the bed, still dressed, and never moved. And she realized she had not done what she had come to Topeka to do. She hit the bed with a hard punch, wishing she had given it to Bowlegs. And she wanted to hit herself.

Resilient as always, she paid her bill and scooted down to the shoe shop in her sock feet to get a pair of shoes, and then buy some breakfast before the train left for Dodge. She was not about to ask Bowlegs for her footwear. She needed new shoes anyway, since she was recruiting, and needed to look extra prosperous. Not having had much luck on her recruiting trip in Chicago, in fact having gotten in a nasty brawl with an old rival there for poaching on her territory, and having heard about all of the success of girls who had recently gone west, she decided to check out Dodge before she headed back to Jacksboro. After such a long haul, another 500 miles was not such a big deal. If Dodge was good enough, she might just stay there. She pulled up her fancy black satin dress and hopped up on the boardwalk and entered in Schultz's Shoe Shop, and there stood Billy Bowlegs- with her shoes.

“There she is!” Cried Mr. Schultz. Lottie froze, and felt the blood run out of her head. She was pretty sure it had all poured out of her butt as her jaw dropped and she went pale. “We were just discussing your dilemma...” Schultz chuckled smugly as if he were the purveyor of serendipity. Bowlegs stood with a dye applicator, after having just freshened up the heels and soles of her shoes with fresh black dye, right there on the counter.

“Good Morning beautiful. You left your shoes last night...” Bowlegs said so sweetly that she almost believed his air of concern. “We were just freshening them up.”

“Bowlegs was just explaining how you ran off without your dress shoes, and wondering if you had come by to replace them. But as I told him, I have just opened...”

Billy walked gently up to Lottie and handed her the shoes, which had also been cleaned nicely from her weeks on the streets, and shined to perfection. “Be careful- they are still a little damp... best to set them out on the boardwalk in the sun for a few minutes. That will give us time to talk.”

Lottie took the shoes, but she would so much rather have bought a new pair, or gone barefooted, or thrown herself on the railroad tracks in front of a locomotive, than to run into him and these, even reconditioned. Speechless, she took them and nodded and stepped out, hoping Bowlegs would not follow. But he was right behind her. She sat on a bench and began to lace up her shoes... and getting black dye marks on her lovely pink fingers. “Lottie, let me buy you some breakfast, you don't leave until 10:15. We have an hour- What do you say?”

Bowlegs was his old charming self, the man she had met several years before when she was just a young fugitive from the law. She was trapped then, and she was now, but figured that it would be better to know where he was, even to be eating in front of him, than to worry where he might be or what he might be planning. There was something very different about him for sure... he was either the most cool-headed killer, or maybe he was changed for the better. She nodded and headed to the only place you could buy breakfast in Topeka, a couple of blocks away. She would have gone there anyway.

He walked beside her but looked straight ahead, pleased to be seen around town with her, even for a few minutes. He felt a few inches taller walking beside the most gorgeous woman in Topeka, and it reminded him of earlier times.

“You used to take my arm...” He teased.

“You used to treat me like a queen. Made me feel special.”

“Lottie, I could again, if you would give me a chance. I used to polish your boots all the time.” Lottie ignored him, she was determined to get some food and get out of town, and grateful that they would be in public the whole time. They entered F. Poppendick's Restaurant, to survey a full house, and every table occupied. Across the room was a lovely, safe-looking strawberry blonde sitting alone and sipping coffee, and looking very preoccupied. They threaded through the crowd and Lottie put on a smile and asked if they might join her, and she graciously agreed. Coincidentally, both were waiting for the very same train. And as it turned out, both were impossibly in love with the same man

Alvin and Sim walked with Jim French up to the church to join the monks in a dinner given in their honor, and were convinced after some arm-twisting to attend a special midnight Mass afterwards, where Father Swineberg was allowed to give a short homily. He talked about their journey to Mexico as just the same as every other follower of Christ, and with the same potential, the difference being that they would be going continuously in one direction, while those listening made important cycles within a small area, making an essential ripple in the world. This he compared to those who spend their lives just spinning in the circles of mere of survival. He asked broadly to them all, "Which are you- the follower of Christ whose walk will discover, and take you and others to heavenly heights, or that person who repeats an endless cycle of meaningless choices, which lead them ultimately to.... nowhere? You cannot go with me to Mexico, but you can make a great difference right here in Dodge! We cherish your prayers, and will draw comfort from them. So please pray for us every day, as we do for you"

They gave many prayers in Latin, which seemed to go on forever, but they were still out of there before 12:30 AM. Alvin and Sim left immediately, but Jim stayed for a few minutes and visited with Father Swineberg, then followed them back to their wagon because he was staying in the hotel across the street. As they neared the wagon and tent, Alvin noticed that one of the tent stakes had been kicked up, the tent rope loose, and he became concerned. He told Sim to fetch the sledge hammer out of the tool box on the wagon.

Sim trotted over to the wagon, as Alvin threw the tent flap back, only to unveil a total mess. Someone had ransacked their belongings. Then he heard a loud crash and a moan, and as he looked back, he saw a man beating Sim back with their lantern. Sim fought back but fell away from the wagon, dropping the hammer, and the attacker leaped from the front of the wagon, as Alvin rushed to the scene. But the attacker hit the ground hard, rather than using the wheel as a step-down, and appeared to have turned his ankle and rolled to the ground. Enraged, Alvin picked up the hammer and was on top of him before he could even think of the danger or stupidity of attacking an attacker, who was probably armed and desperate. He kneed the burglar in the face as he tried to stand, then drubbed him unmercifully with the hammer handle, and appeared to have knocked him unconscious, because the prowler quit resisting.

Before he could turn the man over, Jim showed up and pulled him off. Then another man leaped from the wagon and ran like a roadrunner towards the buildings across the street. Alvin lunged for him but Jim held him back. "Let it go, cowboy," He warned, "we've already got one body to dispose of."

By then Sim was standing up and rubbing his head, but amazingly coherent. "Who were they?" he asked as if they were minor irritants.

Alvin was much more agitated; his tent and wagon were a mess, and they had destroyed their lantern which he needed to clean it all up. Jim checked the downed burglar, found he was still alive, and stood up and told them to not mess with him. "There's a wheelbarrow behind the hotel, I'll get it and we can dump him in the back alley behind the Lady Gay." This sounded like a good plan, because so far Alvin had avoided the local law enforcement out of distrust. An intruder and an assault would complicate matters too much. Maybe the man would wake up and stagger away, and save all of them a police incident. But Sim was not buying it. "You're not gonna get the Sheriff?" He demanded.

"Normally I would Sim, you know that, but this could blow our cover, maybe expose our whole scheme here...and keep us from leaving later when we want to. Jim is right this time." He pulled several matches out of his vest pocket and handed them to Sim, "Light a candle and try to straighten up inside the tent, I'm goin' over to the Wellborn's and borrowin' that lantern off of their porch."

Sim ducked into the tent and Alvin scooted across the street and down several houses. A figure immediately came out of the shadows and helped the burglar up and they limped across the railroad tracks- just as French came up with the wheelbarrow. Jim stopped, watched a few seconds, then turned around and took the wheelbarrow back where he had found it. Alvin came up and saw Jim rolling the wheelbarrow back into the dark, and assumed he had already picked up his adversary and taken him away. Then he saw what appeared to be two drunks staggering around downtown. "I'd hate to be a policeman in this place!" He scoffed. "The damn sun never sets!"

French returned and explained what he saw, which was of some concern. What if those two came back? And what were they after? "Alvin, it was dark,” Jim explained, “and I'm not that sure, and I wouldn't bet on it, but I think I know that fellow you knocked out. It is a sorry ex-deputy and constant troublemaker we call Bully Brooks. And he's the one who's been brokering the Cheyenne horses here in Dodge. He's bad news. If he was snoopin' around... the worst people in the country have gotten curious about you. And depending on what they found here tonight, you could be their next target.” Alvin listened, as Jim echoed Mace's warnings of a worst case scenario. Just one time he had put his guard down, and gone to church, and damned if they had not seized the opportunity.

“And these fellows shoot to kill." Jim added, in case Alvin had not taken his warning seriously.

“We'll just have to watch closer...” Alvin reasoned, “and now that we know, we won't give 'em a second shot. My guess is they found very little they could use. And if it was Brooks, then that is good, because I laid some whoppers on his head- and from what I have heard, he deserved every damn one of 'em.”

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