Uneasy Partners Read online

  Uneasy Partners

  I. J. Parnham

  Published by Culbin Press, 2022.

  Names, characters and incidents in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2022 by I. J. Parnham

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the author.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

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  Further Reading: Beyond Redemption

  Also By I. J. Parnham

  Chapter One

  “I can see why Sheriff McCormack wanted us to take the prisoner away quickly,” Spenser O’Connor said when he and Nathaniel McBain rode into Green Valley. “It’s a peaceful town that doesn’t need reminding about what happened here.”

  “You’re right, but no matter how bad the criminal we treat them all the same,” Nathaniel said.

  Spenser sighed. “You don’t need to remind me again. I know the routine.”

  Nathaniel conceded Spenser’s point with a nod, although he wouldn’t change the way he treated his colleague. Ten years ago he and Spenser had been outlaws, but a spell in jail had made Nathaniel vow to change his ways.

  He had started working for a man who escorted prisoners from small town jailhouses to Beaver Ridge jail, with notable success. Then, six months ago and shortly after his boss had been killed, he had met up with Spenser again.

  He had accepted Spenser’s word that he, too, wanted to live a different kind of life and they had formed a new partnership. To date Spenser had given him no cause to doubt him, but then again he had yet to face temptation to return to a life of crime, so Nathaniel treated him as the junior partner and a potentially unreliable one at that.

  When they drew up outside the law office both men dismounted, but on a whim Nathaniel stood back and beckoned for Spenser to head inside. Spenser smiled, acknowledging that Nathaniel usually spoke with the law officer and dealt with the paperwork before they took control of a prisoner.

  Spenser then walked inside leaving Nathaniel to check out the immediate vicinity. They had been given only a few basic details about the prisoner, Irvin Bess, and although they had scouted around to work out the quickest route away from town in case of trouble they were unfamiliar with the area.

  To Nathaniel’s delight, few people were outside and none of them were paying any attention to him. Even so, he kept a watchful eye out for potential problems, but those precautions became unnecessary when Spenser came out of the law office alone and sporting an aggrieved expression.

  “I trust you with one task and clearly you failed,” Nathaniel said.

  “You’ve done this job for a while, but this one could be a first,” Spenser said with a sigh. “Last night Irvin overcame Deputy Osbourne and escaped from his cell. Sheriff McCormack is now leading half the town in a posse to track him down.”

  Nathaniel winced. “That hasn’t happened to me before, but we were on time so McCormack can’t blame us. I suggest we rest up here for a few days while he sorts out this mess.”

  “I like the sound of that, but it might be more fun to help with the search.”

  Nathaniel shook his head. “We have our job and the lawmen have theirs.”

  “Except we have a connection to Irvin. Apparently he killed Christian Shepherd.”

  The mention of this familiar name made Nathaniel blow out his cheeks as he cast his mind back to the seven years he’d spent in jail, during which time he’d met Christian. He had been an unusual prisoner, being mild-mannered and polite in a place where only the toughest survived.

  Somehow Christian had found another way. Nathaniel had already served two years of his sentence before Christian had arrived, and several times he had been present when Christian had defused tense confrontations with his calmness.

  “Christian was due to leave a few years after me and he was one of the few people I met in there that I hoped would have a good life afterward.”

  “The same went for me.”

  Spenser adopted a blank expression as he awaited Nathaniel’s verdict, which he provided after a few moments’ thought with a curt nod.

  “First we need to get more details,” he said and then directed Spenser to join him in heading to the Lonely Star, one of the two saloons in town.

  When they entered the saloon it took them only a few moments to pick out a good source of information. The town’s deputy sheriff was hunched over at the bar, the wide space around him suggesting that until now nobody had risked engaging him in conversation.

  Nathaniel and Spenser took up positions on either side of him and once they both had whiskeys in hand, Nathaniel offered to buy Deputy Osbourne another one.

  “Why?” Osbourne said simply.

  “We came to Green Valley to pick up Irvin and take him to Beaver Ridge jail,” Nathaniel said and then provided their names, making Osbourne grunt in acknowledgment. “It seems we won’t be able to do that just yet and we’d welcome more information about him.”

  Osbourne gripped his glass tightly and sneered at Nathaniel and then Spenser.

  “Leave me.”

  “We will, but only after you’ve helped us find him. After all, the quicker he’s found, the quicker you can put this unfortunate situation behind you.”

  Osbourne muttered under his breath and fingered his glass. With him showing no sign that he’d retort, Spenser leaned toward him.

  “We don’t get paid until he’s behind bars and I don’t want to waste time in your godforsaken town,” he said. “So answer Nathaniel’s question before I get annoyed.”

  Osbourne snorted a laugh. “So one of you is being nice to me and the other isn’t. Me and McCormack have done that plenty of times, and sometimes it works.”

  Osbourne gulped back his drink and then with a slow shake of the head he pushed the empty glass to Nathaniel, who bought him a refill.

  “Start at the beginning with Irvin Bess’s killing of Christian Shepherd,” Nathaniel said.

  Osbourne nodded and then spoke without rancor, perhaps because Nathaniel hadn’t asked him asked about the source of his disgrace.

  “Irvin ran the Hotel Bess next door and everyone knew him to be a decent man. Then Christian arrived in town. He was an old friend of Irvin’s and he was down on his luck after a spell in jail, so Irvin gave him money, but Christian wasn’t grateful and they got to arguing.”

  “About what?” Nathaniel said as Spenser frowned, showing that he was also bemused with an explanation that was at odds with their recollections of the man.

  Osbourne rubbed his jaw as he thought about this and then shrugged.

  “Nobody knew, but I guess I’m not explaining myself well. Christian was a quiet man, but somehow he got Irvin all riled up. Then one night, just after they were seen confronting each other yet again, Christian was found shot up.”

  “So it was clear that Irvin did it?”

  “I only spoke with Christian once and I didn’t enjoy it, so I wouldn’t have blamed him if
he had, but he claimed he was elsewhere at the time. When he couldn’t prove it McCormack arrested him. Then we had a trial where Irvin got to tell his side of the story, but it wasn’t enough.”

  Osbourne then sipped his whiskey. He’d now reached the part of his story that he would probably be reticent to explain, so Nathaniel gave him a few moments to choose his words before prompting him.

  “I gather that McCormack then tasked you with guarding Irvin until we arrived, but he escaped?”

  Osbourne moved to take another sip of whiskey, but then slammed the glass down on the bar.

  “I’ve known Irvin for years and he’s a good man.”

  “That didn’t answer my question, unless you’re saying that you trusted Irvin enough to let down your guard and he took advantage?”

  “I reckon I’ve told you everything you need to know,” Osbourne snapped and then gestured at the door. “Now either join McCormack and the rest in chasing around and hoping they’ll come across Irvin or head back to Beaver Ridge.”

  Nathaniel caught Spenser’s eye and raised an eyebrow, inviting him to take over the questioning now that his supportive approach had gathered them all the information it would, but Spenser shook his head. Then he downed his drink and when Nathaniel did the same they headed to the door.

  “I don’t reckon we learned anything that’ll give us a place to start,” Nathaniel said. “We should try the Silver Palace saloon and then Irvin’s hotel.”

  “I reckon we might already have a place to start,” Spenser said with a sly smile. “After what Osbourne told us, your assumption about how Irvin escaped sounded plausible so it shouldn’t have made him angry and refuse to confirm it.”

  “So that’s not how he escaped, but what could be so bad that Osbourne didn’t want to talk about. . . ?” Nathaniel trailed off as he picked up on where Spenser’s musing was leading. “He reckoned that Irvin didn’t deserve to go to jail, so he released him.”

  “That’s what I reckon. He then concocted a tale to cover up what he’d done and like any lie it won’t stand up to being repeated too often.”

  Nathaniel slapped Spenser on the back and then signified that they should still carry on to the Silver Palace in case Osbourne was watching them.

  “That means he would have given Irvin the means to get himself far away from here, or he’s hiding him somewhere nearby.”

  Spenser nodded. “I reckon we should back my hunch that it’s the second one.”

  Nathaniel smiled. “I’ve always liked following hunches.”

  Chapter Two

  For the rest of the afternoon Nathaniel and Spenser nursed coffees in the Silver Palace saloon, having taken chairs in a position that let them watch the Lonely Star. They used the time to fish for more information about Irvin and with the customers eager to talk they got a longer version of recent events.

  They didn’t learn anything that changed their minds that Osbourne knew where Irvin was holed up, but they did get a confusing picture about Christian’s behavior. Even given that people were likely to side with someone they knew instead of a newcomer, the view that Christian was disruptive didn’t ring true based on his behavior in jail.

  “Do you know why Christian was serving an eight-year sentence?” Spenser asked Nathaniel when they’d spoken with enough customers to accept they had gotten all the information they ever would.

  “He didn’t speak about it,” Nathaniel said. “Then again most folks kept their silence.”

  “He must have done something bad to spend longer in jail than we did, so maybe he was different on the outside.”

  “Or maybe something happened inside to change him.”

  Both men shrugged, accepting they had more questions than answers, but they stopped ruminating on the issue when Osbourne came out of the saloon. He stood outside for a while, during which time several people walked past him, before heading off at a quick pace, his behavior suggesting he had been waiting for a moment when nobody was nearby.

  Nathaniel and Spenser moved closer to the window and they just caught sight of Osbourne slipping into the Hotel Bess. As the deputy’s behavior was too intriguing for them to ignore, they stayed by the window, but when an hour had passed with no further sightings of him they headed outside and over to the hotel.

  They booked a room. While Nathaniel distracted the desk clerk by dropping the pen and then struggling to find it, Spenser checked out the last few pages of bookings.

  “Osbourne took a room last night and that was the only time I saw his name,” Spenser reported when they reached their room. “We also got lucky as he’s lodging only three doors along.”

  “So Irvin escapes and later that night Osbourne stays in his hotel,” Nathaniel said with a slow shake of the head. “That looks so suspicious it makes me wonder whether we’ve got this wrong and he is, in fact, just a fool.”

  “I agree, and this hotel would surely have been the first place McCormack searched, so Irvin can’t be hiding here.”

  The two men frowned at each other until Nathaniel rubbed his hands as he tried to regain his earlier enthusiasm for their plan. Then he sat down on a chair by the door, which he edged open a fraction.

  “We’ve committed ourselves to staying close to Osbourne, so we see it through until we’re convinced that we made a mistake. I’ll keep watch on his room first.”

  Spenser nodded and picked a chair to sit on. Later he took over the duty of sitting by the door, by which time it was getting dark so Nathaniel dozed. They had swapped roles one more time when Spenser awoke Nathaniel with a nudge in the ribs.

  “He’s on the move,” Spenser whispered.

  The two men stayed quiet while slow footfalls sounded in the corridor as Osbourne walked past their door. When Osbourne reached the stairs they followed him, adopting the same slow and cautious pace that their quarry had used.

  Even so, when they reached the main door they had to step outside and check in all directions before they spotted him. He was sidling along on the other side of the street while keeping in the shadows.

  As he was the only person nearby his behavior removed any doubt that they had been right to keep watch on him and they stayed by the hotel until he reached the last building on the edge of town. The moment he slipped around the corner they hurried after him, reaching the place where he’d disappeared in around two minutes.

  To their relief he was still visible in the strong moonlight a couple of hundred yards away. He was walking briskly, possibly figuring that now he was out of town he wouldn’t be noticed.

  As it was unclear where he was heading the two men hurried on with their heads down and then settled into staying around a hundred yards back. A mile on Osbourne stopped to check behind him, after which he scuttled along to the side and showing no sign that he’d noticed his pursuers.

  Only then did it become clear that his likely destination was a derelict house. It was nothing more than heaps of burned wood that were only several feet high. The place was close to town and an unpromising hiding-place so it rekindled Nathaniel’s concern that they might be wrong.

  When Osbourne reached what was left of the structure he ducked down to disappear from view behind the debris, so the two pursuers moved on cautiously. They reached a mound of earth around twenty yards from the side of the house and dropped down on to their fronts to monitor the situation.

  Ten minutes passed quietly and then a thud could be heard coming from within the structure. Osbourne whispered something and another person replied, the exchange making Nathaniel and Spenser turn to each other and register their relief with smiles.

  “When Osbourne leaves I’ll take care of him,” Nathaniel said. “You deal with whoever is hiding in the house.”

  Spenser pointed to the side and then ahead, indicating a route that would get him to the back of the house.

  “I should move now before Osbourne shows himself,” he said.

  Nathaniel nodded, so Spenser slipped away. He kept low as he at first headed away from
the house and then scurried in a wide arc until he reached a point where he had a clear view of the space within the heaps of wood.

  Spenser turned his head to either side as he surveyed the area and then gave a knowing nod before turning to Nathaniel. He gave a gesture that seemed to indicate something being tipped over.

  Nathaniel shrugged, so Spenser started to give a more expansive gesture to try to convey his message better, but then he abandoned the attempt and dropped down on to his front. A few moments later the reason became clear when Osbourne stood up.

  He checked around him and then doubled over. Another thud could be heard before he stood up straight. The sound let Nathaniel work out that Spenser had been trying to convey that a cellar had survived within the remnants of the house and someone, presumably Irvin, was hiding there.

  Osbourne scattered wood around as he hid the cellar from casual sight and then set off. Luckily he retraced his steps, a route that would take him past the mound. Nathaniel kept his head down and noted Osbourne’s position from his footfalls.

  When the deputy had walked past him he rose up. Spenser was also rising up as he prepared to move toward the house, and one of them must have alerted Osbourne as he stopped and turned around.

  Nathaniel wasted no time in drawing his gun and levelling it on the deputy. His action made Osbourne’s mouth fall open in shock.

  “It’s over,” Nathaniel said. “Just do the right thing and—”

  Nathaniel didn’t get to complete his demand as with a groan of despair Osbourne kicked dirt at him and then scooted away. Nathaniel turned his head to the side, avoiding getting the dirt in his eyes and then set off after him.

  With every pace he gained on his slow-moving quarry, the deputy seemingly fleeing only because he was angry with himself for getting caught. Sure enough, after covering around twenty paces he stomped to a halt and stood with his head bowed.

  Nathaniel slowed down and walked around him until he was facing him. His cautious move paid off when Osbourne leaped at him and Nathaniel took a quick backward step, avoiding his lunge and leading to Osbourne stumbling and dropping down to his knees.