The Whippoorwill Trilogy - Sharon Sala Page 0,281

his body. His body was cold to the touch, and when she lifted his hand, it was beginning to feel stiff. The bodies of people who’d just died were still supple. She’d seen enough dead people in her time to know that several hours had passed since this man took his last breath. This meant her killer was, most likely, a good distance ahead.

Again, she began to look for the killer’s footprints, but it seemed he’d disappeared into thin air. It wasn’t until she began searching the other outbuildings that she realized the old man had owned a horse and it was gone. This changed everything. Now the killer was mounted, as well.

After a few more minutes of trying to make sense of the tracks coming and going from the house, she found what appeared to be a fresh trail, moving west.

So he wasn’t going to Denver City. She wasn’t familiar enough with the surrounding area to know what lay west of the burgeoning town except more mountains, but if she kept on going, she was bound to find out.

For the first time since she’d ridden away from her home, she got scared. What if she lost the trail? A horse was a horse. How could she tell one’s trail from another? How would she ever live with herself again if she let a man get away with Eulis’ murder?

Determined not to be defeated, she convinced herself that there was surely something she was missing, so she retraced her steps around the old man’s place. It wasn’t until she went back into the stable that she noticed a difference in the tracks. The horse was missing a shoe on the right front hoof.

She grunted in satisfaction. That was what she’d needed to find. She wouldn’t look back at the old man—there was nothing she could do for him but try and find the person responsible for his death. She mounted up—ignoring the gut-wrenching pain in her chest—refusing to acknowledge that when this journey would be over, Eulis would not be waiting for her at the end.

“Come on, T-Bone. Let’s go.”

The dog barked as they disappeared into the trees.

Robert Lee could tell by the deterioration of the tracks he’d been following, that he was at least three, maybe four hours behind Letty. As he’d ridden away from the house, he’d taken some comfort from the knowledge that the pup was with her. He would be some protection against animals or humans, but completely useless against a man with a gun.

He found the stalker’s camp as easily as Letty had, and was somewhat surprised, then impressed, with her ability to track. She’d moved unerringly with the descending footprints on the back side of the mountain.

Later, when he rode into the old man’s camp and found him dead and a horse obviously missing, he realized the stakes had gone higher. The killer was no longer on foot. But unlike Letty, he immediately caught the fact that the horse was missing a shoe. This would make it much easier to track, although the prints of Letty’s horse were now mixed with those of the killer. All he could do was follow and pray he didn’t get there too late.

For hours, George rode with a cocky assurance, unaware he was being followed. He made no effort to hide his tracks, and once stopped for more than an hour to rest and to water the horse at a small creek. At that time, he dug into his stolen food and ate the piece of fried fatback that had been in a skillet on the old man’s stove, as well as some cold johnnycake. Later, as the horse was resting, he felt a pain in his belly and quickly took to the bushes, leaving a calling card of his own without bothering to bury it.

After raiding the old man’s place, he was now in possession of a horse, food, and a bedroll. When night came, he would be sitting pretty. He still had some cold johnnycake and a couple of pieces of jerky, a large piece of flint for building fires, and a good-sized piece of uncooked fatback wrapped in a piece of thin, greasy cloth. He had a half-sack of dry beans, and about three pounds of cornmeal, as well as a spoon, and a couple of small pots, well-blackened from many outdoor fires. For a man who’d been without anything, he felt a great sense of well-being.

It wasn’t until he saw how far the sun