Part 17 (2/2)

I peered into the darkness. I could see the outline of Jim Murdock and two others. A bottle was being pa.s.sed among them. Jim took the bottle and took a long pull before handing it off.

”That's not going to please your folks,” I said. ”Did you contact them, like I asked?”

”Sure did,” he said. ”Telegraphed them right away, just like you said, after I gave you that letter to my sister. My dead sister.”

His manner was oddly aggressive.

”Let's talk about this tomorrow,” I said.

I turned, but Jim's hand shot out and grasped my right wrist.

”What are you doing?”

He pulled me into the darkness.

I screamed, but there was so much noise on Front Street already that I doubt anybody heard it. Then he clamped a hand over my mouth and put his face so close to mine that I could feel the heat from his flushed cheeks.

”You played me for a sucker,” Jim said.

I tried to pull away, but Jim's friends stepped closer, their thighs pressing against me.

”Oh, you know what I'm talking about,” he said. ”You're nothing but a fraud. A d.a.m.ned fraud. Do you know what kind of telegram I got back from my folks in Ohio?”

I tried to shake my head.

”Of course, you don't,” he said. ”You got no powers.”

His friends laughed. I was having trouble breathing.

”The telegram said my sister, Katie, was alive,” Jim said. ”The newspapers got it wrong when they listed her among the dead, because she was identified by the necklace. But she had given the necklace to her best friend to wear. They were sitting side by side when the train plunged into the Ashtabula River. My sister was hurt bad, and was in the hospital and unable to talk for weeks, but she survived. And that means you lied.”

He removed his hand and I gulped in air.

”Jim,” I said. ”It wasn't like that.”

”Then tell me how it was like.”

”I was trying to help you.”

”You have a funny way of helping people. You took my money.”

”I only kept five bucks,” I said. ”I'll give you the money back, Jim, but please let me go.”

”I don't want your money,” he said.

”Then what do you want?” I asked. At this point, I was expecting to be raped.

”To teach you a lesson,” he said.

One of his friends picked me up by the waist, while the other jammed my feet in a burlap sack. I started swinging my fists as hard as I could, but Jim caught my hands and cinched my wrists together with latigo. He pulled off his red kerchief and stuffed it into my mouth, to m.u.f.fle my shouts. They pushed me down in the sack, pulled it over my head, and tied the end shut with a length of rope.

Then one of them slung the sack over his shoulder, with my stomach over his shoulder and my head down. I could feel each footstep in my breastbone as he carried me away from Front Street.

I was now certain that after they raped me, they would murder me. Strangely, I wasn't frightened-but I was royally p.i.s.sed. I wriggled and kicked and spat the wad of kerchief from my mouth.

”Putain!” I shouted. ”Put me down right now or you all are going to be sorry you were ever born. I don't like guns, but I don't mind rocks. Come morning, I'm going to find each of you and take a stone about the size of a baseball and hit you so hard in your sensitive parts that you'll be singing soprano in the saddle.”

”Jim, she sure does talk,” the one carrying me said.

”We'll see how much she talks when we throw her in,” Jim said.

I stopped struggling.

”What?” I asked.

We kept walking.

I began imagining all the places they could throw me.

The river, barrels, wells.

”Jim, where are you taking me?”

”Shut up.”

Bas.e.m.e.nts, cellars, closets.

”Really, Jim. This is not something you want to do. It's kidnapping, and there are laws against that, even in Dodge City.”

”It's what you deserve, you b.i.t.c.h fraud.”

Caves, crevices . . . holes in the ground.

Then I could feel the man carrying me was walking uphill, and I could hear the sound of gravel skittering with each step.

The open grave on Boot Hill.

Now I was frightened. No, I was terrified.

I squirmed and wriggled as hard as I could, but I had no leverage and the man holding me was just too strong.

”You other two,” I said, ”you'll be hanged for kidnap and murder, along with Diamond Jim. Is that what you want? All you have to do is let me go and I won't say a thing.”

The man carrying me laughed.

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