Before Ryan had the chance to progress with his questioning, another knock came on the door. This one didn’t have any of the patterns the companions agreed on.
“Who is it?” Ryan asked.
“Albert,” the dwarf said in a loud whisper.
“Where’s Doc?”
“Doc sent me on.” Albert sounded slightly out of breath or nervous.
Ryan didn’t know which it was. He rolled back the SIG-Sauer’s hammer with a thumb, lessening the pull tension on the trigger to something over two pounds. “Why?”
“Kirkland’s people have got Mildred,” the dwarf said.
“How do you know?”
“Me and Doc saw her ourselves.”
Ryan gestured at Jak. The albino stood, filling his hands with the leaf-bladed throwing knives. Ryan signaled Jak to take the dwarf.
The teenager nodded.
Pulling the door open, Ryan leveled the 9 mm blaster between the dwarfs eyes. To his credit, Albert already had his hands up. Nobody stood in the hallway behind the dwarf.
“Get in,” Ryan ordered, keeping the SIG-Sauer still.
Dean took the .38 pistols out of the little man’s holsters while Jak pinned him in place with a blade on either side of his throat.
“You don’t have to worry—” Albert began.
“Shut up,” Ryan commanded. He walked into the hallway with the 9 mm blaster beside his leg. His senses were on triple red, reading every shadow before him. He tried the door to J.B. and Mildred’s room and found it open. That discovery created a bad feeling in him that only got worse when he found the blood spots on the white sheets of the bed.
He returned to his room. “Fireblast!” he swore.
“Mildred?” Krysty asked.
“Somebody took her,” Ryan answered.
“Was she still alive?” Krysty asked Albert.
“I couldn’t tell,” the dwarf said.
“Where’s Doc?” Ryan repeated.
“Went after the wag they were carrying her in.”
“Who?” Ryan asked.
“Only person I can figure,” the dwarf answered, “is Kirkland’s people.”
“The sheriff?”
“He wasn’t one of the men I saw.”
Ryan went to their gear and picked up the Steyr. He glanced back at Krysty. “I’m going after J.B., let him know what’s going on. Everybody just sit tight here until I get back.”
“Be careful, lover,” Krysty cautioned.
Ryan nodded. He put the Steyr over his shoulder, barrel pointing down, so he could swing it up into position.
“Him?” Jak pointed to the dwarf, not removing his knives.
Ryan stared hard into the little man’s eyes. “Cut him loose, but watch him. Right now the only people we trust is ourselves.” He left the room by way of the window.
“Dad,” Dean called back, “I can come with you, cover your back.”
“You’ll cover my back better here,” Ryan said. “Man doesn’t have a place to come back to, he’s a dead man running. Could be we’ll have to fort up in here. You and Jak have a look around—without alerting any of the staff here—and see if there’s anything we can use.”
Dean nodded, accepting his father’s decision.
Ryan glanced at Krysty. “Back as soon as I can.” Then he made his way along the eaves overhanging the boardwalk below. The clouds remained generous, masking his movements. He moved slowly and carefully enough that there was no sound.
At the end of the eaves, he dropped into the alley and headed for the gunsmith’s shop.
COLD WATER DOUSED Mildred and brought her back to wakefulness. “Goddamn,” she shouted. “Do that again and I’m going to find you some day and choke you to death with your own entrails.” She blinked the moisture out of her eyes, trying to clear her blurry vision.
“Not quite the sentiments I’d expected to hear from an educated woman.”
Mildred focused on the voice, making out Kirkland seated in a chair across the small room. Two men, one of them carrying a small metal bucket, gathered to his left.
“Go fuck yourself,” Mildred said.
Kirkland only laughed. “I assure you, I am not quite the refined and eloquent man that you perhaps thought I was earlier in the day.”
“I never made that mistake,” Mildred replied.
Mildred shifted on the straight-backed chair she sat in. Leather straps held her in place. Her hands were tied behind her, and her ankles were tied to the chair legs. “Maybe you want to explain this.” She let her peripheral vision skate around the room.