HELL HATH NO FURY (A Jess Williams western novel) (7 page)

             
“Welcome back, Mr. Williams, although I sure wish it was under better circumstances,” said Joshuha.

             
“Thanks Joshuha, and I have to agree with you on that,” replied Jess.

             
“I guess you must have gotten my message I sent out to you over in Black Creek.”

             
“Yes I did and I headed straight here as soon as I read it. Joshuha, tell me exactly what happened,” said Jess.

             
“Well, first those two men, Cliff Hunt and Darrel Clemmon killed the sheriff. They waited for him to come out of his office and they opened fire on him with Winchesters. Then they came in here and knocked me out cold by cracking me in the head with the butt of a Winchester. By the time I woke up, I heard Ingrid upstairs screaming and I heard those two laughing about what they were doing to her. Then, I heard two shots and no more screaming, but those two bastards were still laughing when they came down the steps. I think they would have shot me too, except I was still on the floor and still dazed pretty bad. When I finally got my wits about me, I ran upstairs and found Ingrid in her bed all beaten up with two bullet holes in her; one in her chest and one in her head. It was just a horrible thing what happened to her. Before I got back downstairs, those two were riding out of town at a full gallop, still laughing about what they had done,” said Joshuha.

             
“You said their names were Cliff Hunt and Darrel Clemmon?” asked Jess.

             
“Yeah, and I’ve got wanted posters for you to look at, Jess. They were delivered to the sheriff’s office; but since the sheriff was dead, I took them and saved them for you so you could see what they looked like, hoping it could help you find them,” said Joshuha, handing Jess the two wanted posters of the men.

             
“Thanks Joshuha, this will help, but I have someone with me who can pick them out real good. She was raped by the same two men and she’s lucky to be alive today. These two men will pay dearly for what they did to her and especially what they did to Ingrid and I promise you they won’t be laughing when they get what they deserve,” replied Jess, staring down at the two wanted posters, burning the images into his brain so that he would never forget them.

             
“Well, I haven’t heard much on their whereabouts, but I can send out some wires to some of the towns around here to see if anyone has spotted them,” said Joshuha.

             
“Thanks Joshuha, but I’ll take care of it myself. I want to wire United States Marshal Frank Reedy. If there is any information on those two, he’ll know about it,” replied Jess.

             
“Alright, but if you need anything at all, you just say it.”

             
Jess left the saloon and walked over to the small telegraph office and sent wires out to a dozen town sheriffs and one to Marshal Reedy. Then, he walked down to Jena McDiermont’s boarding house to find Jena and Annie drinking tea in the kitchen. When Jess walked in, Jena gave Jess a big hug.

             
“Jess, I’m so sorry about what happened to Ingrid. I know that you were quite fond of her,” said Jena.

             
“She was a real nice person and didn’t deserve what those two men did to her,” replied Jess, as he helped himself to a cup of coffee from a pot on the stove.

             
“Your friend Annie told me all about what happened to her and I was shocked to learn it was the same two men. I believe they must be doing it quite a lot,” said Jena.

             
“Yeah, but they won’t be doing it for much longer, I can promise you that,” replied Jess, as he sat down next to Annie.

             
“So, Annie tells me that you’ve been teaching her how to shoot better. I have to tell you, I believe that this is the first woman gunslinger I ever met. I didn’t want to let her in at first, but when she said she was with you, I figured it was okay. I have both rooms available upstairs for the two of you,” said Jena, with a little extra emphasis on the word
both
and Jess knew exactly what she meant.

             
“Thanks Jena. We might be in town a few days while I wait for any replies to the messages I just sent out regarding the whereabouts of those two men.”

             
Jena reached inside a pocket on her shirt and pulled out her late husband’s gold pocket watch to check the time. “Well, it’s almost two in the afternoon, Jess.”

             
“Why are you checking the time? Are you charging by the hour now instead of by the day for rooms?” asked Jess, somewhat curious.

             
“No, I’m just checking on the time because I want to see just how long it will be before you end up killing someone,” replied Jena. The three of them sat there for a few hours talking. Jena and Annie did most of the talking. Jess didn’t say much, he was still trying to control the rage that had built up inside of him and he wasn’t having much success at it.

XXX

              Jess and Annie were just finishing up with some late lunch Jena insisted on making for them when they heard two gunshots that sounded like they came from the saloon. Annie stood up along with Jess and Jess put his hand up to stop her.

             
“No, you stay here and protect Jena while I go over to the saloon,” said Jess, in that new tone of voice he seemed to have ever since he heard about Ingrid being beaten, raped and killed. Annie knew he was not asking. He was telling her and she knew she’d better listen.

             
Jess looked over at Jena before heading for the saloon and Jena was looking at her late husband’s watch. Jena smiled at him.

             
“Well, you almost made it a whole three hours,” said Jena.

             
Jess headed for the saloon and when he walked inside he had both of his cut down shotguns out, one in each hand since he didn’t know exactly what he was walking into yet. He found two men sitting at a table and they had Joshuha tied to a chair and Joshuha had been shot in his left foot. The one man sitting at the table was holding his pistol in his right hand; but he wasn’t aiming at anything, it was just dangling. The two men looked up at Jess and the fact that they were staring down two double barreled shotguns that looked more like pistols kept them from making any movement that might cause the man holding them to use them.

             
“Don’t even think about lifting that pistol of yours up and your partner there would be smart if he placed both of his hands on the top of that table and not move a muscle. Now, what in the hell is going on here?” asked Jess.

             
“What business is it of yours?” asked the one man who was still holding his pistol, making no attempt to lift it for fear that he’d find himself full of buckshot.

             
“I’m making it my business. Joshuha there is a friend of mine and I don’t exactly appreciate you shooting him. Joshuha, how bad are you hit?” asked Jess, not taking his eyes off the two men and they both knew it too.

             
“It hurts like hell, but it’ll heal up, although I’ll be limping for quite some time. Damn sons-of-bitches, they robbed me of all my cash, shot my new mirror behind the bar and then they tied me up in this chair. They kept insisting I had more money hidden in here and when I told them they got all the cash I had, that one there shot me in my left foot and kept telling me that if I didn’t tell them where the extra money was hidden, they’d shoot me in the other foot!” exclaimed Joshuha.

             
Jess walked past Joshuha and closer to the two men. He didn’t want to hit Joshuha with any of the buckshot that he might let fly if either of the two men moved a muscle. “Well boys, it seems like you have two choices. One, you holster that pistol you are holding in your hand there and both of you stand up and place your hammer straps back on so I can lay these two shotguns down on the table and remove my hammer strap from my pistol. Then we’ll see how tough you two are when you ain’t shooting some unarmed man.”

             
“And what the hell makes you think we are agreeable to that?” asked the man who was still dangling his pistol.

             
“Because neither of you are going to like the second choice,” replied Jess.

             
“And what the hell is our second choice?” asked the second man who had remained silent up to now.

             
“I simply unload all four of these barrels on you two boys, which will make quite a mess in the saloon. This is unfortunate for poor Joshuha here because he has a bad foot now because of what you did to him. He shouldn’t have to be mopping up all that blood you boys are going to lose,” replied Jess.

             
“I don’t believe you would just shoot us down like dogs. What kind of man does that?” asked the first man.

             
“The kind of man who is giving you a choice and I really don’t care about which one you pick, but rest assured, I will surely do it. So I suggest you pick the first choice that I gave you,” replied Jess.

             
The two men were beginning to change their attitudes from defiant to slightly worried. “Well, what if we want a third choice?” asked the first man.

             
“What third choice?” asked Jess.

             
“You let the two of us walk on out of here after we return the money we took from the barkeep,” replied the first man.

             
“I can’t do that?”

             
“Why not?” asked the second man.

             
“Because you shot my friend here in the foot and I know that the two of you will be waiting outside of town when I leave and I’m betting you’ll try to shoot me in the back,” replied Jess.

             
The two men looked at one another for a moment and then the first man, who was obviously the leader of the two, spoke up. “I guess you ain’t really giving us much choice so I suppose we’ll choose the first choice you gave us. I’ll do as you say and holster my pistol and we’ll put the hammer straps on until you can put your shotguns down. I’ll face you first, since I’m faster than my partner here.” Both men stood up and placed the hammer straps on their pistols.

             
“That’s not necessary. When it comes time, you two boys can go for your pistols at the same time if you want,” replied Jess.

             
“You mean that you aim to take on the both of us at the same time?” asked the first man.

             
“That’s exactly what I mean to do,” replied Jess, slowly removing his hammer strap after placing the shotgun in his right hand on the table next to him.

             
“Well, why didn’t you say so before,” replied the second man, the two of them gaining some confidence now since it was two against one.

             
Jess placed the second shotgun down on the table and faced the two men. “I guess you can slowly remove those hammer straps now.”

             
The two men slowly removed their hammer straps. The first man looked at Jess. “Well, since it’s two against one I figure you’re going to go down so I’d like to know what your name might be because maybe we can get a little reputation if you are known as a man who is quick at skinning leather.”

             
“My name is Jess Williams, and just to set the record straight, I don’t plan on going down,” replied Jess with that cocky smile.

             
The name sunk into the two men like a bullet when they realized who they were facing in a gun fight, but it was too late to do anything about it now. They both said
“shit”
and went for their guns at the same instant. The next thing that sunk into the two men was two slugs from Jess’ pistol, which dispatched the two men to wherever men go after they die. Jess cut the ropes off Joshuha just as Annie came running into the saloon.

             
“What the heck happened?” asked Annie.

             
“Not much,” replied Jess, “just dealing out justice to two more men who think they can do whatever they want to other people. They won’t be causing any more trouble for this town or anyone else again for that matter.”

             
Annie walked over to look at the two men to see if either one of them was one of the two men she was looking for, but they weren’t. Jess sent her to fetch the doctor in town to tend to Joshuha’s foot. After that, Jess and Annie went back to Jena’s place for some supper and then they both retired for the night.

CHAPTER EIGHT

              In the morning, Jess went to check on any messages regarding the two men who killed Ingrid, but not until he finished with a big breakfast cooked up by Jena and Annie. He was happy to find a message from Marshal Reedy. Marshal Reedy’s message informed Jess that Darrel Clemmon was last seen in Buford, Kansas. Jess was happy about the message, but he was still not smiling. He was boiling up inside, the rage needing to get out and when it did, it would not be a pretty sight. He rushed over to Jena’s place and thanked her and told Annie to go and get the horses ready to ride. Jess thanked Jena and he had to fight with her to make her take money for the rooms. Jess met Annie at the livery and he climbed up in the saddle. Annie could see the purpose in his eyes and even his body movements seemed more deliberate.