Preacher's Justice Read online

  “If you don’t like apples, why did you peel it?”

  “For the peel,” Billings replied. He stretched the long, unbroken peel out on the floor. “How long you reckon that is?”

  “I don’t know. Three, four feet maybe?”

  Billings stroked his chin. “Yeah, that’s pretty much what it looks like to me as well.” He sighed, picked up the peel, then opened the door to the little potbellied stove and tossed it in. “That’s not long enough.”

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “That’s not long enough,” Billings repeated. “You see, I’ve got me a two-dollar bet with the mayor of the town on who can make the longest unbroken apple peel. He claims he can do five feet. We’re all set to do it come Saturday.”

  “About Jennie,” Preacher said.

  “We found her down by the riverside. Her throat was cut, but before that, it looked like she had been beat up pretty bad.

  “Found Slater there too. His throat was ripped out. Figure Miss Jennie’s dog did that. The dog was still guarding her. We had the devil’s own time getting to her. I reckon the dog finally decided that we didn’t mean her any harm.”

  “Mr. Ashley said there was a second man. A fella by the name of Ben Caviness.”

  “Well, now, we don’t know for sure that that’s who it was,” Billings said. “I reckon Ashley told you the dog had a man’s ear clinched in his teeth. Funny that he didn’t eat it. It was almost like he wanted us to know there was someone else.”

  “Mr. Ashley seems pretty sure it was Caviness.”

  “Well, some folks did see Caviness and Slater together on the night it happened,” Constable Billings said.

  “All right. If you know that, how come you won’t say for sure that the one who got away was Caviness?”

  “’Cause we don’t have no actual witnesses to the killin’, ’cept for that dog there,” Billings said, pointing to Dog. He chuckled. “And it’s kind of hard to identify someone by his ear.”

  “Do you still have it?”

  “Have what? The ear?”

  “Yes. Do you still have it?”

  “Now, just what in the Sam Hill makes you think I’d hang onto somethin’ like that?”

  “Do you still have it?” Preacher asked again.

  Billings sighed, then walked over to a chest and pulled out a drawer. “As a matter of fact, I do,” he said. “I dried it out in the sun, so it wouldn’t rot away.”

  “I’d like it, please.”

  “What are you aimin’ to do with it?”

  “As soon as I find Caviness, I aim to sew this ear back on his head,” Preacher said. “Then I aim to kill him.”

  “Sounds reasonable enough,” Billings said, handing the sun-blackened piece of leather to Preacher. “Oh, you might want this as well.” He took an envelope from the drawer.

  “What is that?”

  “It’s everything I’ve got on Miss Jennie: complaints she made, and complaints made against her. I don’t know that it’ll do you any good, but I got no need to be keepin’ it now, so it’s yours if you want it.”

  “Thanks.” Preacher said, taking the envelope, then starting toward the door.

  “Preacher?”

  Preacher was nearly to the door when the constable called him. Stopping, he turned toward Billings.

  “Yes?”

  “The man you’re lookin’ for, whether it’s Caviness or someone else, ain’t in St. Louis. I’m pretty sure about that. If he is here and you find him and kill him, well, I just want you to know you won’t be havin’ no trouble with me or the law, seein’ as any son of a bitch who would do somethin’ like that needs killin’ pure and simple. But if you find him in some other town, and you kill him there, then you might have some explainin’ to do.”

  “I know,” Preacher said.

  “What I’m sayin’ is, once you leave St. Louis, there won’t be nothin’ I can do to help you.”

  “I know,” Preacher said again.

  “Just so’s you understand.”

  Preacher nodded, then stepped outside. Dog followed Preacher as he headed toward LaBarge’s Tavern.

  In the shadowed interior of the tavern, Preacher ordered a beer, then sat at a table in the back. Dog curled himself onto the floor beside Preacher’s chair.

  “Folks don’t normally bring dogs into the saloon,” the barkeep said.

  “You want him out, you run him out,” Preacher replied.

  “You,” the bartender said to Dog. He pointed to the door. “Out! No dogs allowed in here.”

  Dog made no effort to respond.

  The bartender came around from behind the bar. “I said get out of here,” he said menacingly. He took a couple of steps toward Dog, but stopped when the hackles went up on Dog’s neck. Dog bared his teeth and growled a low, quiet, but menacing growl.

  The bartender stopped. “I, uh, guess you can stay,” he said, retreating back to the bar. Dog closed his eyes in dismissal.

  Preacher had paid no attention to what was going on between Dog and the bartender. Instead, he busied himself with dumping the contents of the envelope.

  Examining the little pile on his table, Preacher found a document written in Jennie’s neat hand.

  I, Jennie (no middle name, no last name), do hereby file this complaint against Mr. Ben Caviness.

  Last night, while returning home from a job I was doing for Mrs. Sybil Abernathy, Mr. Ben Caviness jumped out of an alley in front of me. I believe it was his intention to attack me, but my dog ran him off.

  There was also a complaint filed against the River Bank of St. Louis, and Theodore Epson, for failing to credit her mortgage payment.

  In addition, there were several documents that had been filed against Jennie. These were much older, the oldest being six years old, the newest one almost two years old. All of these had been filed by Mrs. Sybil Abernathy. The gist of Mrs. Abernathy’s complaints was that Jennie was a prostitute and the practice of her profession prevented St. Louis from realizing its potential as a city of culture and influence.

  There was also a letter in the file from Theodore Epson, responding to an inquiry made by Constable Billings.

  Mr. Theodore Epson

  Chief Teller

  Trust Bank of Philadelphia

  Dear Constable Billings:

  I assure you, sir, that any suspicion you may have that I absconded with cash due the bank is totally without merit. The woman in question, known only as Jennie, was indeed in debt to the River Bank of St. Louis for the mortgage held on her home.

  In point of fact her home was not a private residence as she claimed in her loan application. It was, instead, used as a house of ill repute. Thus, you can see that if a case of fraud is to be made, it should rightfully be made against her, for misrepresenting herself in securing the loan.

  I cannot believe that anyone would take seriously the accusations of a whore against a respectable banker.

  Sincerely,

  Theodore Epson

  “Preacher?”

  It was a woman’s voice and, looking up, Preacher saw Carla coming toward him. Generally, only bar girls and women of the street, plying their profession, would enter a saloon. But Carla was very much at ease in LaBarge’s Tavern. She was not, and had never been a prostitute, but in her younger days she had worked as a bar girl in this very establishment.

  “Carla,” Preacher replied. Preacher was a man of the mountains, but he retained enough manners to stand as she approached his table. “What are you doing here?”

  “I thought I would . . . well . . . I mean, if you don’t have other plans, I thought I might cook supper for you,” Carla said.

  “Cook supper for me where?” Preacher asked.

  “Jennie and I shared a small house over on Olive,” she said. “Well, actually, in the alley behind Olive. I’d be happy to cook dinner for you tonight.”

  “You don’t have to cook for me, Carla. We could have dinner at Little Man’s.”

  Carla smiled. “I
work at Little Man’s,” she said. “Sometimes I just want to get out of there.”

  “Oh, yes, well, I guess I can understand that. All right, how about if we have dinner at Chardonnay’s?”

  “Why, Preacher, one would think you don’t want my home cooking,” Carla said with a teasing pout.

  “No, no, nothing like that,” Preacher replied. “I’m just trying to keep you from going to any trouble for me, that’s all.”

  “You don’t know anything about women, do you, Preacher?”

  Preacher smiled, and shook his head. “Not much,” he admitted.

  “Sometimes, women want to go to the trouble of fixing dinner.”

  “All right, if you put it that way. I’ll be glad to come.”

  “About seven?”

  “Seven will be fine,” Preacher agreed.

  NINE

  Perryville, Missouri

  After leaping off the boat, Caviness managed to swim ashore, though he nearly drowned in the process. He lay on the riverbank for several minutes, trying to get his breath back. Caviness had not considered the fact that someone might be looking for him. No one saw him kill Jennie, so how would they know it was him?

  Finally, Caviness stood and hitched up his pants. When he did, he suddenly realized that he had lost his knife. Then, he discovered he had lost all of his money as well. He looked back toward the river. Evidently, it had fallen from his pocket when he jumped into the water.

  The money was in bills, issued by the Bank of the United States. It was paper money, not coin, which meant that the money was probably scattered all down the river by now.

  “Son of a bitch!” Caviness screamed at the top of his voice. “Son of a bitch, son of a bitch, son of a bitch!”

  Caviness crawled up to the top of the bank. From there he could see the boat moving majestically downriver, its chimneys belching smoke, the paddles slapping into the water, churning a wake that followed behind.

  He had no real idea where he was, and he was wet, cold, hungry, and broke. Now he had to get to Philadelphia. He began following the river south.

  That night, he saw a flatboat that had put in for the night. There were two men operating the boat, and he watched as they made it fast, then built a fire for their supper. The smell of the food made his stomach growl, but he stayed hidden until both were asleep. Then, sneaking down to the boat, he slipped the rope from the tree and pushed out into the stream. The current caught him and started him downriver at a fairly good clip.

  All that night and the next day he rode the boat downriver. He passed Cape Girardeau, because he knew the steamboat was going to stop there and he was afraid they might know about him. The next town south was the small town of Commerce, so he put in there.

  Commerce consisted of no more than a dozen buildings, all parallel with the river’s edge. When he landed, a man came down to take the rope and make the boat fast for him.

  “Howdy. The name is Ferrell. I own a store here. What is it you are carrying?”

  “Axes, shovels, iron stoves,” Caviness replied. He had examined the cargo during the trip down.

  “Are you looking to sell it here? Or do you plan on going down to New Madrid?” Ferrell asked.

  “I’ll sell it here.”

  “Because you know I can’t pay as much as they do down at New Madrid.”

  “What can you pay me?”

  “Well, let me take a look here,” Ferrell said.

  All the while Ferrell was poking through the cargo, he kept glancing up at Caviness. Caviness knew that he was looking at the wound left by the missing ear. Had the boat stopped here as well? Did this man know who he was? Finally, he could take it no longer.

  “What the hell are you looking at, mister?” he demanded, angrily.

  “I’m sorry,” Ferrell said, looking away quickly. “I know it ain’t good manners to stare at somethin’ like that. I was just wonderin’ how you come by a wound like that.”

  “I was bit by a bear,” Caviness replied, sticking to his original story.

  “I’m sorry I was starin’ at you,” Ferrell said, apologizing again. “I know it’s rude, I just . . . ” He let the sentence die.

  “How much will you give me for all this?” Caviness asked.

  “I figure I can pay you one hundred dollars,” the man said. “Like I said, you’d probably get more for it down in New Madrid, but I’ll give you a hundred for it.”

  “I’ll take it,” Caviness said, smiling broadly. What a stroke of luck! This would replace the money he lost when he jumped into the river.

  “All right, just bring your bill of lading on up to my store and I’ll pay you,” Ferrell said, stepping off the boat and heading toward the scattering of buildings.

  “Bill of lading? I don’t have no bill of lading.”

  Ferrell looked back in surprise. “You don’t have a bill of lading?”

  “No,” Caviness replied. In truth, he didn’t know if he had one or not, because he wasn’t even sure of what it was.

  “Mister, how’d you come by those goods if you don’t have a bill of lading?”

  “I won the boat and everything on it in a card game,” Caviness answered.

  Ferrell looked at him suspiciously. “Where?”

  “Up in Ste. Genevieve,” Caviness said. “If you’ll just give me the one hundred dollars, I’ll be on my way.”

  “Can’t do that,” Ferrell replied.

  “What do you mean you can’t? Why not?”

  “Mister, you may not know this, but time was when we had river pirates somethin’ awful. They’re most cleaned out now, but ever’ now and then there’s outlaws will prey on the boats comin’ downriver. So now it’s a law. Anything we buy off a boat has to have a bill of lading. If you don’t have one, I can’t buy your goods.”

  “I’ll sell it all to you for fifty dollars,” Caviness said, watching the money he thought he had slipping away from him.

  “Mister, I wouldn’t give you twenty-five dollars for it. Like as not, the man you won it from stole it off somebody.”

  Ferrell walked away from the boat.

  “Ten dollars!” Caviness shouted. “You can have the whole load for ten dollars!”

  Ferrell stopped, then looked back toward Caviness. “Mister, I’m going to get the constable. He might want to talk to you about that man you won that from.”

  Caviness had no desire to talk to the constable, so as Ferrell walked away, he slipped the rope free and pushed back into the stream. He reached the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio the next afternoon, and there he abandoned the boat on the Illinois side.

  From there he started following the Ohio River. About every other day or so, he would see boats going upriver, but he was afraid to take passage on one of them, for fear they might be looking for him.

  If it hadn’t been for that damn dog chewing off his ear, he could’ve boarded any of the boats and no one would have been any the wiser. But if they were looking for someone with a chewed-off ear, that would make it pretty hard for him to blend in.

  He wasn’t sure if the news had spread to the small towns along the river, but there was a good chance that it had. After all, the boats were making better time than he was, and news like that was generally the first thing folks would talk about.

  When he abandoned the boat, he took the rest of the food with him, but it ran out after a few days. He had one day of absolute hunger, then happened onto a field of potatoes and dug up several of them. Those sustained him for the next several days. Then he was drawn to a travel camp by the smell of smoke from the fire.

  Advancing just to the edge of the golden bubble of light, Caviness stayed in the darkness. That way, he could see but not be seen.

  There was only one man in the camp, an older man from the looks of his white hair and beard. The man had no idea that he was being examined, but the horse sensed the presence of a stranger and began whickering. Alerted, the man looked up.

  “Hello?” he said. “Anyone out there?”<
br />
  “Hello the camp,” Caviness called. “Can I come in?”

  “Sure,” the man replied. “Come on in. I’ve got enough stew for two. I’d enjoy the company.”

  “Thanks,” Caviness said, walking into the bubble of light.

  “You got your own pan?” the man asked.

  “No.”

  “No matter, we can get a piece of bark to use as a plate. Have a . . . God’s name, man! What happened to your ear?”

  “I had a run-in with a bear.”

  “Bear? In Ohio?”

  “Back in Missouri,” Caviness said.

  “Oh, my, you were lucky to survive,” the man said. Finding a flat piece of birch bark, he spooned up some of the stew, then handed it over to Caviness. “I don’t reckon you have a fork or a spoon either,” he said.

  “No,” Caviness replied. “But this’ll do.” He held up a smaller piece of bark and began using it as a spoon.

  “If you don’t mind my asking, how is it that you are traveling with none of the things you need?”

  “I was traveling by boat,” Caviness said. “The boat sank and I lost everything.”

  “Oh. I’m sorry to hear that. Where are you headed?”

  “Philadelphia.”

  “Big town, Philadelphia,” the man replied. “My name is Seagraves. Milton Seagraves. I’m on my way to Cincinnati to take a job with a newspaper. What’s your line of work?”

  “Whatever I can get,” Caviness said. “I’m sort of a handyman.”

  “Well, if you are willing to work, I’m sure there’ll be plenty of jobs for you in a city as big as Philadelphia.”

  “You aren’t carrying a gun?”

  “A gun?” Seagraves replied. He shook his head. “Heavens, no, why should I carry a gun? Ohio is civilized country.”

  “I just thought you might have one,” Caviness said.

  “No, siree, I don’t own one and I don’t intend to ever own one. I don’t hold much with guns. I do have a knife, though,” he said, pulling the knife from his belt. It was a good-sized knife, much like the one Caviness had used to kill Jennie, and the one he had lost in the river.