Shoot-Out at Sugar Creek

Book 6: Caleb York Western

by Mickey Spillane, Max Allan Collins

Genres: Westerns

Synopsis

Legendary crime writer Mickey Spillane's celebrated tin-star hero Caleb York returns in the explosive Western saga by New York Times bestselling author Max Allan Collins. This time, Sheriff York will have to keep his wits about him as he goes toe-to-toe with a powerful cattle baroness who is manipulative, clever, and out for revenge... Inspired by the timeless Westerns of John Wayne and the hardboiled heroes of classic crime fiction, bestselling legends Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins turn up the heat on their tin-star tough guy Caleb York--in a gun-blazing showdown with two women ranchers calling the shots... It starts with an abusive, drunken young scoundrel who resists arrest, holds a barmaid hostage, and gets what he deserves from the blazing .44 of Sheriff Caleb York. The New Mexico lawman doesn't regret taking such deadly action, but the late youth's powerful mother, cattle baroness Victoria Drummond, seems bound to feel differently. To York's surprise, Victoria takes the news with stoic resignation--all she asks of him is a favor: help her convince Willa Cullen--the love of Caleb's life--to sell her the spread that Willa's late father had carved out of the wilderness. Willa, every bit as strong-willed as her rival, refuses to give up her land without a fight. Sheriff York anticipates an ugly showdown brewing with himself in the dangerous middle. And before he can stop it from escalating, the seductive cattle queen sends an army of hired guns to Sugar Creek, the sole source of water available for Willa's herd. York finds himself caught in the crossfire of a savage shoot-out between Willa's cowboys and Victoria's gunfighters. No matter who wins, it's going to be a bloodbath... In a climax in the tradition of Spillane's classic I, the Jury, York must face a beautiful deadly female who promises heaven but intends hell, while the devils in her employ plan to remove Caleb York from God's good earth.

Release date: April 27, 2021

Publisher: Kensington Books

Print pages: 320

Sample

In the flickering yellow light of a brass oil lamp, Caleb York, seated at his big beat-up wooden desk, filed through wanted posters like a card player checking the deadwood discards for an ace that had eluded him.

Closing in on forty, but not too fast, York was a big man yet lean, his jaw firm, his reddish brown hair gray at the temples. His pleasant features softened their rawboned, clean-shaven setting, his eyes the color of well-worn denim and fixed in an all but permanent squint.

His gray shirt with pearl buttons and black string tie, and the black cotton pants tucked in hand-tooled black boots, said city—as did the black frock coat hung on a nearby wall peg, a calvary-pinched black hat on another peg next to it. But the gun belt with Colt Single Action Army .44—coiled on his desk like a rattler waiting to be roused—said something else.

He was the county sheriff—and de facto marshal—of Trinidad, New Mexico (population three hundred or so but growing), alone in a plank-floored jailhouse office whose two barred street windows were letting in only darkness. The wood-burning stove was unlit—this was April, the worst winter in anybody’s memory mercifully over, but the smell of spring flowers on the prairies had been supplanted by the stench of death.

Here in town, at least, the bouquet of horse manure and the whiff of beans cooking across the way in the modest barrio represented the normal scent of spring in the Southwest. Not that anything much was normal about the aftermath of what folks were calling the Big Die-Up.

The snow had begun last November, a seeming relief after the Hades-like heat of a dry summer, worse the farther north you went, Montana, Wyoming, the Black Hills. By early January, plateaus were painted a crystalline pearl, dry river bottoms buried beneath drifting white. Cattle starved to death by the thousands, owners caught flat-footed without enough hay stored for such a disaster. New Mexico hadn’t been hit quite as hard, but hard enough. The spring roundup—hence, “die-up”—would not happen at all, which meant hardship for ranchers in the area, in particular Willa Cullen and her Bar-O.

Willa was of a special concern to York, whose relationship with the willful young woman—who had inherited the biggest ranch in these parts from an otherwise childless father—had, over the near year York had been here, gone from cool to warm to cold to (more recently) hot, pleasantly so.

When he’d ridden into Trinidad, he’d been a nameless nobody, just passing through, on a westbound journey on which he had benefited from a rumor that Caleb York—celebrated Wells Fargo detective notorious for not bringing them back alive—had been shot down like a dog. He’d decided to leave it that way, at least until he got to San Diego, where the Pinkerton people might choose to resurrect his infamous name to make use of his reputation for their commercial purposes (and his).

Till then, he’d intended to stay dead. It had gotten old, facing down gunhands and saddle tramps who sought to steal his hard-earned, blood-soaked reputation by killing him for it. York was, after all, a dime novel hero—but he’d made not a nickel from those pen pushers’ work . . . was such a thing right? Buffalo Bill had at least got a show out of it. Only a handful in the Southwest bore York’s kind of gunfighter fame—Wyatt and Virgil Earp, John Wesley Hardin, Wild Bill Hickok, Bat Masterson maybe.

Circumstances had led York to an extended stay in Trinidad, with his name exposed and a badge pinned on his shirt with a couple of women who interested him encouraging an extended stay. One was Willa, a blonde Viking of a girl who could make a plaid blouse and Levis look like a wedding night.

The other was Rita Filley, and that was who burst into his office as he leaned forward in flickering lamplight, looking at dangerous ugly faces on wanted posters.

Rita’s face, though tightly distraught, her usually smooth brow furrowed deep, was anything but ugly—rather, a heart-shaped home to big brown eyes, a turned-up nose, and full, red-painted lips, parted at the moment in heavy breathing. That mouth in such a condition York had witnessed before, close-up, but this was different.

The young woman, in a blue-and-gray satin gown worn in her role as hostess of the Victory Saloon, had been running, her full bosom heaving (York had witnessed that before, as well). She was otherwise slender, a striking woman whose pale complexion spoke of her Irish father but whose features recalled a Mexican mother. She stopped in the now-open doorway, her hands propping her there, framed against the night.

“Caleb,” the sultry voice panted, “you’re needed at Doc Miller’s!”

Rita, who had inherited the Victory from the sister whose murder York had avenged, was not to be taken lightly. Without asking of the circumstances, the sheriff rose from the hard chair, snatching the gun belt from its slumber and strapping it on as he joined the woman, who’d already stepped back outside.

Rita was on the move again. He kept up as he buckled the gun belt. Their footsteps echoed off the narrow boardwalk as they hastened.

“You remember Conchita,” she huffed.

“One of your girls.”

When Rita first inherited the Victory, the upstairs had been a bordello. A few months ago, at York’s urging, she had converted the second floor into her own quarters and limited her girls to dance hall duties—cavorting with the cowboys and clerks, encouraging drinking, but anything beyond that was their own business . . . and not on the Victory premises.

“Working of late,” he went on, “at the Red Bull. Correct?”

De Toro Rojo was a prosperous cantina in the barrio, offering spirits on the first floor and spirited putanas on the second. Despite a city ordinance forbidding such activity, York looked the other way. Men white and brown and black would find a place to slake their various thirsts, and not having the carnal side of things serviced at the Victory was victory enough for him.

Rita sighed and nodded, not breaking stride. “I discouraged it, but she has a child with a hungry mouth.”

The night was cool, the moon full and high, Main Street almost glowing ivory, a benign memory of a white-choked thoroughfare not so long ago. They quickly walked through this somber setting toward the three-story brick bank building.

Rita, her words rushing much as she was, said, “She was not even working tonight . . . not above. She was waiting tables, and when she refused to go upstairs with him, the bastard dragged her outside. Threw her on the ground and . . .”

Rita choked back tears.

“I get the picture,” he said.

But she went on.

“He thrashed her,” she said, voice trembling. “Then he . . . he ravaged her.”

“You saw this?”

“No! I’d have stopped it. I’d have shot him dead. Which is what you should do, Caleb. You really should.”

“Who did this?”

But Rita was already scurrying up the stairs alongside the bank building. Dr. Albert Miller’s office was on the second floor. York followed Rita up to the little exterior landing and inside.

In the modest waiting room, Jonathan P. Tulley—York’s deputy—was pacing like an expectant father, albeit one with a double-barreled baby in his arms already.

The bony, bandy-legged Tulley—reformed drunkard; desert rat turned deputy—was damn near resplendent in store-bought duds—flannel shirt, woolen pants, and jaunty red suspenders, the wispy head of white hair and matching beard trimmed now, with only the shapeless canvas thing that passed for a hat an echo of his prior position as town character.

“Caleb York!” the deputy blurted, coming to a sudden stop. “There be mischief afoot!”

“Mischief,” a lower-pitched, calmer voice intoned from the doorway of the surgery, “is, I’m afraid, a gross understatement.”

Portly little Doc Miller came in, wiping his hands with a red-splotched rag, like a bartender cleaning up after a sloppy customer. The physician was in his rolled-up shirtsleeves, his string tie loose and limp, brown suit typically rumpled, his eyes weary behind the wire-framed glasses.

York said, his voice soft but with an edge, “What’s happened to this girl?”

The sheriff stood just inside the door off the landing, with Rita at his right and Tulley having fallen in at his left, as all three faced the physician with expressions that expected the worst. They were not disappointed.

“She has been beaten to within an inch of her life,” the doctor said. “Not a medical term, perhaps, but an accurate one. And that’s not the worst of it.”

Rita said, eyes glimmering with tears, voice filled with rage, “He attacked her! Violated her!”

Tulley was frowning. “Punishing her like that was sinful. But she lay with men for money, did she not? Ye can’t say she was ruined, can ye?”

“Rape,” York said, “is rape. Doc, has she said who did this?”

The physician’s eyebrows rose above his glasses. “She has. The Hammond boy.”

“William Hammond,” York said.

It was not a question.

Hammond was the son of Victoria Hammond, widow of Andrew Hammond, a Colorado cattle baron who had died a year or so ago. His wife had, through intermediaries, been buying up the small spreads that had suffered so terribly in the Big Die-Up, and was now ensconced in the ranch house of the biggest of the smaller ranches, the Circle G.

The Hammond woman had only moved in last week and York had not yet met her. In fact, he’d had it in mind to ride out there this week, in part because of a nasty episode several nights ago involving her son, who had threatened a Bar-O cowboy with a pistol at the Victory, in an argument over one of Rita’s girls.

The saloon owner had pulled in Deputy Tulley, on his night rounds, to help a bouncer of hers eject the young man—who was perhaps twenty—and give the troublemaker a choice between a night in a cell or riding home without further incident. The boy had been arrogant and sneering (Tulley had reported to the sheriff), but accepted the latter option.

“He’s a handsome boy,” Rita was saying, “but a mean drunk.”

Tulley said, “I was doin’ my nightly rounds and Miss Rita came out of the Victory with an arm around that poor bloodied chile, walkin’ her along as best she could.”

Rita interjected, “She came looking for me. Needing help. Looking like stumbling death.”

Tulley went on: “I helped get that poor soul to the doc’s, up the stairs and within, and stood guard here while I sent Miss Rita for ye. Done the best I could, Caleb York.”

“You did fine, Tulley,” York said. He turned to Doc Miller. “Can I see her?”

The doc thought for a moment, then nodded. “I’ve given her laudanum, so she may drift off soon . . . at least I hope she will. Come with me, Caleb. . . . Rita, Tulley, stay out here, would you?”

York followed the physician through the private quarters beyond—sitting room, small kitchen, past the open doorway of the physician’s bedroom and on to a spare room with a metal bed and a dresser with a basin and pitcher.

In a white hospital-style gown, Conchita was under a sheet, head sunk into a plump feather pillow. York knew her to be a pretty girl of perhaps eighteen, but that prettiness was lost under the welter of bruises and contusions, her eyes so puffy and swollen, only slits remained through which she might see. Her arms were outside the covers, exposed by short sleeves and just as heavily bruised, the impressions of strong, brutal hands left behind. Her right forearm lay at an impossible angle, as if an invisible hinge had been broken within her.

Doc nodded toward the terrible arm. “I haven’t set that yet. That’s next.”

“Any other broken bones?”

“Some ribs. We’ll bind her. She’s lucky he didn’t break more bones. She’s lucky he didn’t kill her.”

“I would not call this girl lucky, Doc.”

Doc’s eyebrows went up. “Well . . . perhaps not. But she’s lucky you’re sheriff, because not all lawmen in this part of the world would take her part in this.”

“But you figure I will.”

“I know you will.”

York approached the girl’s bedside.

“Conchita,” York said, leaning in, his voice a near whisper, “can you tell me the name of the one who did this?”

York already knew, of course, but he needed to hear it from her.

The girl’s lips were fat with swelling, like some terrible fruit gone too ripe. “I . . . I should not have . . . said.”

“No. You should say. You must.”

“I was . . . crazy with pain.... I should . . . not have . . . said.”

“Was it William Hammond, Conchita?”

“I . . . tell the doctor . . . when he ask . . . .Don’t know . . . what I was saying.... I did not mean to say . . . The pain, it spoke for me.”

“Was it the Hammond boy?”

The eye slits managed to widen. “He will . . . kill me.”

“No. He won’t. Conchita, do you know who I am?”

“You . . . you’re the sheriff.”

“I’m Caleb York. Do you know who Caleb York is?”

“He . . . you . . . famous.”

“For what, Conchita?”

“For . . . killing the bad people.”

“That’s right. Now I want you to tell me who did this.”

She did.

York took her left hand in both of his and gently squeezed. He smiled at her. She smiled back, or he thought she did. With those puffy, battered lips, who could say for sure?

Leaving the doctor to his patient and his ministrations, York joined Rita and Tulley in the waiting room. They had taken chairs but bolted to their feet upon seeing him.

“Rita, why don’t you stay here for a time,” York said, taking her hands in his. “Doc’s got a broken wing to set and maybe he can use you at her bedside. Tulley, you and the scattergun join me. We’re gonna track that boy down and talk to him some.”

“I’d give ’im a good hidin’, were I you, Caleb York.”

“We’ll try to arrest him.”

Rita’s eyes narrowed and she nodded to him, interpreting that in her own way.

Back out on the boardwalk, in the ivory moonlight, the two men walked along, the tall one and the bandy-legged creature. Over to the left, the barrio mostly slept, but the glow of the Red Bull was like a fire licking at the edge of the moonlight. Outside the adobe jailhouse on this side of the street, someone was pacing, much as Tulley had been earlier, a squat figure whose footsteps made the boardwalk groan.

As the sheriff and deputy advanced, who this was became plain: Cesar, proprietor of De Toro Rojo, a hooded-eyed, bandito-mustached hombre gordo with wet strands of black hair plastered across his round head, whose untucked cream-color shirt and matching trousers were somehow baggy despite their wearer’s size.

Cesar stopped in place, facing them as he recognized the approaching pair.

“Sheriff!” the bar owner blurted. “You are just who I wish to see!”

Rarely did the man whose business was half bar and half bordello react this favorably to Caleb York stopping in front of him.

“This hijo de Satanás,” Cesar burst out with, “first he drag that poor muchacha outside por violación, then he come back in and he wave his gun around and bother my girls and my cliente.”

“Did you go to that girl’s aid, Cesar?”

“No. He have a gun.”

York was already crossing the street, Tulley tagging along on one side, Cesar on the other.

York said to the cantina owner, “And you didn’t come looking for me till he came back in and started disturbing your customers?”

“No. No.”

“Did you help her in any way?”

“No. She stagger off into the night. I think to myself, he will be satisfied now. But, no—he bother my other girls!”

“And your cliente, too, right?”

“Sí.”

That was no surprise to York. He figured it would take Cesar more than one raped prostituta to come looking for help.

York said, “You go on ahead with Tulley and go in the back, through the kitchen. I’ll take care of this, but, Tulley? You do any shooting you feel necessary.”

“Happy to, Sheriff.”

The deputy and the cantina owner scurried down the shabby rock-and-dirt lane separating the facing adobe hovels, raising a little dust.

By day, the humble barrio was by turns sleepy and bustling, no one in a hurry, yet somehow always in the midst of activity, chickens navigating and pe. . .