Wild Country

Chapter Forty-Two

Jerome Garner moved with studied machismo, slapping a Stetson against expensive whipcord breeches as he entered the parlor. He was one of those men with the kind of presence that fills a room. Quantrill recognized the other two men as Longo and Billy Ray. Jerome made a showy, unnecessary gesture seating a holstered forty-five-caliber automatic more firmly on his thigh. Jerome tossed his hat into a chair. Without a by-your-leave, he crossed to the cigar box with a few long strides, tossed cigars to his cronies, unwrapped one for himself.

Jerome Garner had already glanced at Quantrill, who was partly in shadow, before turning to his father. "Just got in from the south end. Pop. I hear the boys nailed a—" He then did a very slow, almost casual, double take: lit the cigar and squatted so that his nose was within two feet of Quantrill's. "Well," he said, smiling, savoring it as he drawled, "as I live and breathe and kick ass, look who we have here." He straightened to his full height and chuckled at the impassive Quantrill.

Mul Garner looked up at his strapping son with fondness, perhaps seeing himself across the years. He was smiling at first, but saw something in Jerome's face that brought a crease to his forehead. To Jerome: "You know young Coulter?"

"Yeah. I know him." A luxurious smoke ring curled from Jerome Garner's mouth. "He's one of those fat-cat deputy marshals out of Junction and his name's not Coulter."

Quantrill met the old man's gaze and nodded. No point in telling them he was now an ex-deputy; in fact, with the memory of Judge Placidas's dying statement ringing in his ears, Quantrill thought it might be better to let them think he was still on the force. "They call me Coulter sometimes," he said, half in truth. "My real name's Ted Quantrill."

Silence, discounting the provocation of Jerome Garner's repeated chuckle. Then, from the old rancher: "Thought your face looked familiar. You fought with the rebs; did a holo broadcast with Jim Street. Made quite a splash with Street's paramilitary people, as I recall." His face troubled now, Mul Garner put the cigar aside. "Jerome, send your men back to their poker game," he said quietly.

Without hesitation Jerome said, "Wait on the porch, boys." As the two waddies moved to the front door, Quantrill saw something very like a silent plea in the face of the elder Garner, but only grim pleasure in the reply. "This is a slick one, Pop. Regular-little weasel. See that dark circle on his sleeve? S'posed to be a Department of Justice patch there. And if that wasn't bad enough, he's the one helping out on Sandra Grange's pissy little spread."

The father: "Don't bad-mouth your neighbors, Jerome."

The son: "Don't tell me what to do. Pop."

Concannon: "Easy, Jer, he's your daddy."

Jerome: "You're not, Cam. Fuck you."

Mul Garner stood up to face his son, and Quantrill was reminded of the dominance ploy of Ba'al. Perhaps Jerome Garner gave you no respect unless your eyes were higher than his. The old man nearly qualified, though he no longer stood as straight as he once had. "Jerome, how many men have you hired on, who use names they weren't born with?"

Jerome shrugged carelessly and waved the question away. "I don't know and I don't care. I shit-sure care why he's snoopin' on my — our land."

Quantrill told him.

Another mirthless chuckle, studying the ash on his cigar. Then Jerome turned to his father. "Playin' doctor to a fuckin' killer hog? You really believe that. Pop? Well, let me tell you what I think. I think this little stud has a hard-on for a piece of land. I think he'd like to marry into it; yeah, the Grange spread. And her fenceline is smack against ours, and if he could figure a way to frame a neighbor on some trumped-up charge, he might be in position to get more land in exchange for droppin' those charges. That's what I think." He jerked a thumb toward the foreman. "I think Cam knew who he was all the time. How 'bout it. Cam: didn't you loan Sandra Grange a van for this goddamn deputy to drive?"

"Couldn't say," Concannon replied, and glanced innocently at Quantrill. "Was you the fella in Miz Grange's soddy?"

"That's right," said Quantrill, endorsing the evasion. "I'm also the guy who spent half a Saturday rounding up spare parts near Corpus for Garner Ranch."

Jerome Garner felt the reins slipping from his grasp and seized them quickly. "I don't give a good shit about that, but I been watching you suck up to Sandra Grange, weaseling in next to what's mine—"

"And cuttin' Miz Grange out from your remuda of fillies, Jer?" Cam Concannon spoke softly, but the truth had a cutting edge of its own.

"You're lookin' for a fat lip," said Jerome furiously, and took a step toward the foreman.

But also toward the seated Quantrill, who came up. poised on the balls of his feet, at the ready. He hurt all over, and was now running on reserve energy, but he had seen Jerome Garner operate before at Saturday dances. The big bastard liked to crowd you. In his present condition, Quantrill could not afford to take the big man lightly.

Mul Garner reached for his son's arm and simultaneously began with: "Cam, don't push him, you know how—" But Jerome, with his free hand, flicked his cigar hard toward Quantrill's face from a double arm span away.

Quantrill's open-handed wave batted the cigar down and, without pausing to consider it, he responded in kind. The glowing end of the stogie caught Jerome at the throat, sent sparks showering under his chin.

Jerome wrenched his arm free from his father's grip, brushing with both hands at his neck, then pointed a trembling finger at Quantrill. "I'll teach you to do that when I got one hand pinned."

"Be reasonable, Jer," said Mul Garner, kicking the live cigar toward the fireplace.

"Never start until you're ready," Quantrill said to the pointing finger as calmly as he could.

"You're courtin' trouble," said the old rancher to Quantrill.

"You and me goin' to knuckletown, little man. Outside," said Jerome, pointing toward the porch.

Mul Garner lifted one hand; let it fall against his leg. "I can't let you do this, Jerome."

"You'll play hell stopping me, Pop. He asked for this. And if he tries to run for it, I'll tell the boys to shoot to kill."

"They're Jer's men more'n his daddy's," Concannon said.

"That's a fact," added Mul Garner. "My mistake. At least give me the Colt, Jer.” Jerome made that one small concession, dropping the nickel-plated sidearm onto a chair cushion.

In another time, Quantrill would have forced the issue then and there, in the room, which offered several advantages. But the parlor would have ended as a shambles. He waved the big man ahead of him. "I'd hate to get shot coming out the door," he said.

Jerome Garner marched out to the dimly lit porch, pulling thin leather gloves from a hip pocket. They gave him still another advantage. The two men outside turned expectantly. He let the main door swing open, held the frame of the exterior screen door until Quantrill was passing through, then kicked the frame hard.

Ted Quantrill would have been surprised if that door hadn't been used as a weapon. He moved sideways, with a sudden change of pace so that the wooden frame banged harmlessly shut, and let his shoulders slide along the stone wall.

Jerome was already hurtling forward to catch his victim staggering from the door, off-balance as he swung one pointed boot at groin height.

Quantrill was not there; the wall was. A working waddie has low broad heels for everyday wear, but Jerome was more rider than worker and fancied the tapered high boot heels that added two inches to a man's elevation. As one boot caromed off the limestone wall, he bent backward to catch his balance. In that position, wearing "show-off boots, he could be literally spun on one narrow heel. Quantrill's caulked sole caught the big man behind his lifted thigh, began the spin Jerome himself had set in motion; kept it going with an elbow in his kidney.

Jerome Garner grunted, fell sidelong, and Quantrill elected not to follow him down. The truth is, Quantrill hoped to put Garner out of action with a kick to the solar plexus. Garner had made it clear that his only rule was "win," starting with a flung cigar, and he started out on his home turf with huge advantages in height, weight, and reach. In Quantrill's position, it was a disadvantage even knowing how to spell Marquis of Queensbury.

But Jerome anticipated that kick, rolled to the steps, saw that he was clear, and bounced up without a pause. Now he took a boxer's stance. Left-handed. Quantrill recalled that Garner had snaked the forty-five out of its holster with his right; as a wrong-hander himself, he knew the devastating effectiveness of an unexpected change-up. Yet Garner was not especially quick.

"You're no southpaw," Quantrill said, breaking his usual rule about silence in a fight, and made himself smile. Garner's only reply was to shift into a comfortable right-handed stance, sticking his left out, but he did it without haste. That was what the smaller man had hoped.

Quantrill was in and under that left guard instantly, its wrist gripped in his own left hand, his knees bent, right shoulder down to belt level, his right foot planted between Garner's as he turned away, straightened his legs, and lifted on the man's belt. Garner's right fist caught him hard behind the ear, but the big man's feet were high in the air by this time.

Quantrill kept his hold, forming a pivot over which Garner flew, and helped his momentum by pushing off with both feet. Garner hit the porch flat on his back with a splintering crash, the smaller man flipping over with him, Quantrill's right hand sinking into his enemy's belly with most of his weight behind it. Most men would have been paralyzed by this blow to the solar plexus.

But Quantrill, trying to continue his roll, felt his hair grabbed in a big paw; was flung into the stone wall face first. He heard and felt the septum crunch; it was not the first time Quantrill's nose had been broken — but it was not a thing you got used to.

Without looking, Quantrill pushed away from the wall with both hands, dodging to one side. That is why Garner's kick, with both feet, only propelled him farther and spasmed his thigh muscle instead of breaking his leg. Quantrill went down on one knee, stuck the other leg out to quell the horrendous cramp, then watched Garner struggle to his feet, doubled over, mouth open as he fought to breathe. The big man needed another ten seconds before his diaphragm would draw air but mustered the energy for another rush, trying to drive Quantrill off the porch into the tangle of rose thickets. One hand still across his belly, Garner flung the other gloved fist in a sweeping backhand that might have shattered a man's jaw.

To give Garner his due, he had never faced an opponent whose synapses were off the normal scale of human responses. Quantrill rolled onto his back, lashed out savagely with his good leg, and caught Garner at the upper end of his shinbone. It was a miss, for Quantrill was starting to think in terms of permanent disabling techniques and had aimed at his kneecap. It was not a miss that Garner could enjoy much. With his first gasping intake of breath in too long, the big man reeled, both arms wide to keep his balance. Quantrill came up squatting, leaped up to plant one foot for a disabling kick, and ducked as a clod of hard dirt whizzed past his face to spatter against limestone.

He would never know who threw the clod; only that Mul Garner stood in the doorway shouting, "Next man who interferes can draw his wages!"

With a growling whine of desperation, the younger Garner used this tiny lapse of Quantrill's concentration, falling on him with a bear hug. Quantrill felt his feet leave the porch, butted upward against the big man's chin, and felt himself swung in a great arc as one would swing a child. When his feet struck the limestone wall he simply pushed away with all his strength. Nor did he quit butting under Garner's jaw.

Then they were toppling into the rose brambles, Garner taking most of the punishment. The stuff rustled and snapped like brittle cables, driving a thousand hard spikes through cloth into their flesh as they struggled. Neither could complete a telling blow with fists, for the thorns made any sudden movement a tug of war. But Quantrill had the advantage in that the top of his head was in position to repeatedly ram under the fine manly jaw of Jerome Garner, and he rang the Garner chimes until Jerome's mouth was bleeding worse than Quantrill's nose. But the Garner clan seemed to have more stamina than sense. Jerome kept struggling.

Long ago, Quantrill had been taught to figure ways to make anything — absolutely anything — into a weapon. Now, seeing a thick rope of rose stalk sag between his face and Garner's, he managed to grip it; thrust it against the big man's throat and jerked.

Jerome Garner howled like something trapped in a cave; drew another breath.

In that intake of breath Quantrill said, "Give it up."

Garner, in a crying rage: "Fuckyouman," but he was no longer slugging against Quantrill's skull.

Quantrill, pierced in a hundred places by thorns, felt as if attacked by hornets, though it hurt worse to grasp that inch-thick rose stalk. He knew Garner must be feeling the same agonies, but, "Call it quits," Quantrill said between clenched teeth, "or I'll saw your god-damned head off."

It was exactly the kind of wild exaggeration needed for a man of Jerome Garner's excesses. His hoarse sobs might have been two-thirds fury, but through them he said, "I quit, then get off me yougoddamsumbitch, YOU HEAR?"

Quantrill released the thick stalk with some difficulty; it had driven thorns into his hand in a dozen places. Silently, letting young Garner make enough noise for the both of them, he half crawled, half tumbled onto packed dirt that had once been covered with grass. He pulled at Jerome's shirt, saw his friends hurrying near, and stepped back saying, "Help yourself, the hell with it."

Cam Concannon had moved to the steps to monitor the fight's last moments. Old Mul Garner still stood near the doorway without expression until Jerome began his litany as his waddies moved in.

"Little fucker's a trained killer, lookoutformyface!"

Mumbling: "Let go my hair, Jer."

"I know when I'm suckered into a fight. Just wait. Now pull, no don't, shitfire anyhow!"

Quantrill hobbled farther into the glow of the porch light, trying to extract thorns from his palms with his teeth.

From the old rancher on the porch: "Cam, take the man wherever he needs to go. Rocksprings clinic, if need be. I'll pay, but I don't want to see him again. Ever."

But by now Jerome was extracted from the rose thicket, and his tears were one hundred percent pustulating fury.

"Cocksuckin' deputy tried to plain kill me, gonna saw my head off! No knee-high pissant does that to me on my own land. Fill my hand, Billy Ray," he said, hobbling as badly as Quantrill and spitting blood.

The cowpoke hesitated, his hand on his sidearm.

"Fill my hand, damn you!"

Mul Garner, from the porch, only said, "Cam," and held out his hand. The foreman drew his old-fashioned peacemaker, held it by the barrel, tossed it to the rancher at the same moment Billy Ray handed his own handgun over to Jerome. Then, in a voice that had once ruled a million acres, the rancher called, "That's not how I raised you, boy."

A stream of ropy crimson spit whacked the ground from Jerome's mouth as he raised the pistol. Quantrill whirled, saw Longo menacing him from the side with a medium-caliber automatic, and waited. Jerome: "I'm not anybody's boy. Not for a long time now."

"No, I guess you're not. But you're dogmeat if you pull that trigger." Mul Garner kept his elbow cocked so that the old Colt pointed aloft but did it in a practiced and familiar way. "I taught you fairness. I never saw a sign of it tonight."

Jerome's anguish was turning him into something half man, half child. Turning to face his father, the weapon pointing downward, staring up wet-faced onto the light, he all but bawled, "You're protecting a goddamn enemy of mine, Daddy!"

"I had to. Maybe because I protected you too long."

Jerome, chest heaving, stared at Quantrill. "Daddy, you have to give him to me. You have to!"

"I promised him his walking papers, Jer. I'm backing it as far as I have to. That's final."

His last phrase took something out of Jerome. "It's the same as disowning me," he snarled.

"Not you, son. But I'll always disown plain murder." Mul Garner nodded toward the distant bunkhouse and lowered the handgun. "Take your men. Come back alone and we can talk when you've calmed down in an hour. Or tomorrow."

Jerome began to limp away, handing the weapon back to its owner, spitting again, speaking loudly without looking toward the porch. "Tomorrow's too late. Goddamn you, old man, got in my way once too often. You and your lickspit Concannon." he said, and spat again, flanked by his men.

Mulvihill Garner shaded his eyes, watching them retreat, the pistol hanging in his other hand. He seemed unaware of the tears that dampened his cheeks. "I wonder if I could've done it. Cam take this little cougar off my land right now." he said, and handed the weapon back to his foreman.

Concannon hurried off into the dark for a vehicle, and Quantrill sat down on the porch steps, holding a thumb against one nostril to stanch the blood that still flowed from his nose. "I owe you a warning, Mr. Garner." he said.

Garner tossed him a kerchief the size of a small parachute. "As a man, or a deputy?"

Wiping his face: "Same thing. I really was hunting that boar, but the Justice Department could send men after your son or some of your men. one of these days."

"I'm not an idiot. Quantrill. But I've let Jerome pretty much take over this spread, and if he's abused my trust, this is no place for a deputy to flaunt a badge. Most of the men aren't as much my men as they are his. Now it's come to a head, no thanks to you. I came within an inch of turning you over to my son, you know."

"Yessir." Quantrill hawked and spat.

Pause. Then, "You really serious about the Grange girl?"

Quantrill nodded and tried to smile. His face was numb. "Maybe 'hopeless' would be a better word."

"She's a good neighbor. Maybe you'll be one, in time. Just give Jerome plenty of room, it's all I ask."

"I will, sir." Quantrill turned, got up slowly as he heard the clatter of an old diesel four-wheel-drive vehicle. He placed the bloody kerchief on the steps.

"He just needs to grow up," Mul Garner called as Quantrill walked toward the pickup. It was as near an apology as the old man could muster, and it was offered hopefully. He would not have harbored that hope if he had heard the muffled hovercycles moving out from his equipment barn without lights, moments before Concannon drove off with Ted Quantrill.