Deadshot and Rider arrived in the town a few hours later. As usual, they decided to go to the sheriff’s office first. Deadshot had been there before, but he couldn’t remember the sheriff’s name. That didn’t matter because it had been years, and it was possible that there was a new sheriff in town. As luck would have it, it was the same sheriff that Deadshot had met years ago. He recognized the man’s face immediately and was happy that the sheriff remembered him, too.
“Deadshot!” the short and stocky man roared. His hair had turned white, but he was still as excitable as Deadshot remembered.
Deadshot shook his hand. “Forgive me, I remember your face but not your name.”
“Sheriff Cooper,” the man replied with a smile. “No worries, my wife is like that. Can never remember anybody’s name.”
“Well, I’m glad I’m not the only one,” Deadshot laughed.
“I haven’t seen you in ages. It must be what? Ten years?” Sheriff Cooper asked. “What brings you to my town?”
Deadshot waved his hand, indicating for the kid to join them. “This is Rider,” he told Sheriff Cooper, causing the kid’s eyes to grow big with surprise. He had probably thought that Deadshot had forgotten his name since he never called him by it. For some reason, it had stuck.
Sheriff Cooper shook the kid’s hand, being respectful as always. That was one thing that Deadshot remembered about him. The man treated everybody fairly.
“Nice to meet you, son,” Sheriff Cooper said.
“You as well,” the kid greeted in return.
That was enough pleasantries. Deadshot liked the sheriff, but they were not there to visit. They were there on business. “We are looking for Quincy Callaway,” Deadshot informed Sheriff Cooper.
The sheriff’s eyes grew big with surprise, and he sucked in his breath. “Never expected to hear somebody say that in my lifetime,” he replied.
“The best that killed the kid’s father and abducted his mother and sister.” Deadshot squeezed the kid’s shoulder. “I promise to help him get justice.”
“You always were a good man.” Sheriff Cooper glanced between the two of them. “How do you know each other?” he asked.
Deadshot smiled. “The kid showed up at my door a couple of months ago, asking for help, and here we are.”
“Do you have any leads?” Sheriff Cooper asked.
Deadshot shook his head. “Unfortunately, no. We’ve been searching far and wide but haven’t come across anybody who’s seen Quincy or his gang.”
“Well, I might just be able to help you.” The sheriff hadn’t stopped smiling since Deadshot and the kid arrived. “One of our ranchers claimed to have seen Quincy and his gang a few months ago. He said that they rode past his ranch, and it looked like they had two women with them. By the time he came to me and we arrived back at his ranch, there was nobody there. We followed the tracks for a little while, but we couldn’t follow them too far. We did send a warning to our neighboring towns, though, but none of them ever saw him.”
“Somebody actually saw him...” The kid sounded amazed, as if he couldn’t actually believe it.
Deadshot simply felt relieved. He knew that eventually, they would come across some helpful information. Finding somebody like Quincy was never easy, but it was possible.
“You think you can show us the way they went?” Deadshot asked.
“Of course,” Sheriff Cooper agreed immediately. “Let me just grab my hat.”
Sheriff Cooper took them to the ranch and even introduced them to the rancher. The man was helpful enough and explained to them what he had seen that day. It sure did sound like Quincy and his gang, and the kid’s face lit up when the man described the two women that he had seen with them. The kid was convinced that it was his mother and sister, and that was good enough for Deadshot. When they were done talking to the rancher, Sheriff Cooper took them all the way to where they had stopped following the horse tracks.
It was a couple of miles out of town and heading in the direction of the desert. Suddenly, everything made sense to Deadshot. Maybe nobody could find Quincy because he was hiding in the desert. Maybe the rumors about him having lived in the desert as a child weren’t false at all. The kid turned to Deadshot, his face as white as a ghost. He had had the same realization, and without having to say a word, they both knew where they had to go look.
Chapter 33
Rider hadn’t really expected to find any useful information when they entered the town. Sure, the sheriff had been nice, but the odds of him knowing anything about Quincy were slim to none. Then, out of the blue, Sheriff Cooper gave them the lead they had been looking for. It wasn’t much, but it was something, and the first real information they had gotten since they started their search months ago.
Deadshot had told Rider about the rumors regarding Quincy. Having grown up in the desert, Deadshot had heard those rumors years ago when he was still bounty hunting, and men were wondering where Quincy was hiding. During the search for Quincy, some of the men had whispered those same rumors, but there had never been any proof. The fact that Quincy and his gang were heading in the direction of the desert wasn’t exactly foolproof, but it was something. And something was better than nothing.
If Quincy and his men were hiding in the desert, it would make complete sense that nobody had ever been able to find them. The secret hideaway was so secluded that it was basically off the maps. Deadshot was convinced that they needed to lookfor Quincy in the desert, and although it terrified Rider, he knew that the bounty hunter was right. He might not be much of a tracker or have a lot of experience, but his gut told him that the answers they had been looking for were in the desert.
There was, of course, a possibility that they were wrong and heading in the wrong direction. Quincy and his gang could have gone past the desert completely, skipping it and eating somewhere else. Hell, they could have gone to Mexico for all Deadshot and Rider knew. There were so many ifs and maybes, but both of them believed that they had to go to the desert, and so that was where they were heading.
Not many men ventured into the desert, and those who did hardly ever survived to tell the tale. Deadshot had heard of men who went searching for riches in the desert and died. He had also heard of men returning from the desert but never being quite the same again. The desert was a cruel place, and it messed with those men’s minds, making them see things that weren’t real.Terrifiedwasn’t really the right word for what Rider was feeling; it was so much more.
