Chapters Nine & Ten - Finis

Chapter Nine

“Sheriff, you said there hasn’t been a bank robbery here in over a year, and my hunch is that Cody and his gang is headed this way. It would be a big payday if they hit the First Central or the Bank of Omaha.”

Sheriff Benson looked at Monte, and said, “That it would be, but I have four good deputies that can shoot straight enough to stop any man. What makes you think we can’t?”

“Cody is a planner. A thinker. If he can find just one tiny crack, he’ll squeeze through it and be gone before you know it. And he’s mean. A killer. He wouldn’t think twice about shooting the first person that looked at him wrong.

“My idea is simple enough. Have two of your men in the safe during the day. I’ll be behind the teller’s station at the Bank of Omaha, hidden well enough not to be seen.

When they come in, we have them surrounded, and if they decide to shoot their way out, the other two deputies, along with yourself, will have the exits covered and open up on them. You just need to deputize four other men to cover the other bank.”

“That’s risky, son, but it could work. But if there are a lot of other people in the bank, I don’t want any gunplay. Last thing I need is innocent people getting hurt or killed.”

“I understand. Hopefully, we can get some of the customers in and out fast so when Cody and his gang hit, it would just be the teller and maybe the banking manager at best. But, for my part, I’ll do all I can to keep’em safe.”

“So when do we start doing this?”

“Since it’s after five now, I’d say first thing in the morning.”

“Okay, I’ll let my men know.”

Monte walked out of the Sheriff’s office into a day where the sun was slowing making its way toward darkness.

I’m waiting for you, Cody, he thought. You’re a dead man.

*****

Mike Wesson waited almost two hours before Slim came back from Omaha to give him a layout of the banks.

“Cody, looks simple enough and they have two banks, and both are across the street from each other. The town has four deputies and a sheriff who looks to be in his sixties. I don’t see a problem with any of’em. Both banks got a front and back door and the safes are no more different than the ones we robbed before.”

“Then we do what we did in Hampstead a month ago. Three go into one bank, the rest into the other. Get in, get out quick, no more than three minutes, and shoot any man or woman that tries to stop us. We meet up at the river on the other side of Council Bluffs, and then we head south down into Kansas and lay low for a month.

“We do this tomorrow.”

Mike stood up and away from the campfire, sipping the last of his coffee before taking a walk around the arroyo that hid him and his men well.

Who would have ever known that he wasn’t this infamous Cody. But he had plans that even his men didn’t know about. When they met at the river, he was going to kill all of them and take the money for himself. Why split it any longer? He had been doing a great deal of thinking and had decided to settle down in Kansas, buy a ranch and live out his days as an honest rancher.

It had come to him that there were too many risks involved to continue this way. Yes, become an upstanding citizen, find himself a good woman and just enjoy the rest of his life.

Looking up at the sky which had suddenly become overcast, he decided to get back to where the others were and get inside one of the smaller alcove of caves and wait out the rain.

As he turned, a bolt of lightning came, hitting him directly, and he was gone.

Chapter Ten - It All Comes Together

“Hey, Cody? Are you okay? Man, I thought that lightning got ya good. It was do dang loud, it spooked the horses and the other men are trying to round them up.”

Cody shook his head, trying to clear the cobwebs. His eyes were again focusing on where he was. Looking at Jasper, and looking around him, he suddenly understood, he was back in his own time.

“Mighty glad to see you again, Jasper. Thought I never would again.”

Not catching his real meaning, Jasper said, “I can imagine after getting dang near fried. I’m as surprised as you are that yer still alive.”

For the first time in a long time, a real smile crept over Cody’s face. “You and me both, Jasper. So what have you and the boys been up to?”

Slim cocked his head.

“Guess the lightning did sumptin’ to yer memory. We’re gonna hit the banks in Omaha tomorrow.”

Not wanting to appear that he wasn’t aware, he said, “Oh, yeah. I remember now.” He couldn’t tell Jasper, couldn’t tell anyone what really happened to him. It would make him sound crazy as a loon. “Both banks, eh? That’ll give us a good haul.”

“Yep. I had heard both banks have close to two-hundred thousand in cash.”

“That’s a payday we all can live with, Jasper, but, my friend, you have no idea how good it is to be back.”

Still not catching on, Jasper replied, “Cody, since that day we rode up on you after a posse was after you, I was never in all my life so happy to see ya as I was that day. And once we killed’em all, we’ve been making a killing of our own.”

Getting to his feet, Cody followed Jasper back to camp, and as he arrived, he could see the rest of the boys, Brent, and two others he didn’t recognize, coming back with all the horses in tow.

For him, it felt good, natural, to be back where he belonged. None of them cars, fancy-dressed harlots, or the loud noises. How could people stand all of that he would never understand.

******

Mike Wesson woke up in a hotel room. He was groggy. He had no idea where he was. But the room didn’t look like any of the rooms he had been in for a long time. Then he heard the noises.

People. Traffic. Screaming and yelling. Someone was arguing on the other side of the wall the backboard of the bed was touching.

Getting off the bed, he rushed to the window and looked out.

“Damn! I’m back! This is good, but not so good.”

Reaching for his handgun, he looked down and didn’t see one. He was dressed in the same clothes he was when the accident happened.

“My head hurts. My whole body hurts. Something happened again. Wait … last thing I remember was a storm approaching and then ….”

Looking out the window again, Mike looked up at the sky. A blue sky.

“It had to have been a lightning bolt that hit me. Like last time. The cops! I’m betting they are still looking for me.”

Reaching into his pockets, there was one thing that came back with him. Two-hundred dollars over a hundred years old.

“Hell, this isn’t going to get me anywhere. This cash is useless as tits on a bull. I need to get some quick cash. But how? No money, no gun, no nothing!”

There was a knock on his door.

“Cody, are you in there? This is Jimmy, the desk clerk. I need the rent money, or I’m afraid you’ll have to get out.”

He called me Cody. So the guy everyone thought I was, was here in my time. If that doesn’t beat all. We changed time periods so now we are back where it all started.

He went to the door and opened it and Jimmy took a step back.

“Where is Cody and how did you get into his room without me seeing you come in through the lobby?”

Without a thought, without a plan, Mike reached out and pulled Jimmy into the room and beat him senseless until he was out cold. Ransacking his pockets, he found eighty-five dollars and some change.

“Since he’s the desk clerk, there has to be some money behind the desk in the lobby.”

Leaving Jimmy who was sprawled out across the floor, Mike raced downstairs to the clerk’s area, and started opening drawers until he came across a lock-box. Finding a screwdriver in another drawer, he pried the top up and found another four-hundred plus in cash.

“Not much, but it’s enough to get me on a bus and out of the city.”

He started to make his way over to the Greyhound depot, making sure he avoided any police cars that would drive by.

*****

Cody and his gang rode slowly along the dusty streets of Omaha. Looking around, it was hard for him to believe that everything his eyes took in would look so different one day.

“Which one you wanna take, Cody?”

“I’ll take the Bank of Omaha.” Cody felt it would be fitting after what he had experienced.

*****

Walking quickly from Leavenworth over to Dodge, Mike stayed as close to the shadows as he could to avoid being spotted. He was nervous, sweating, and for the first time in a long time, he really didn’t have a plan on what to do other than getting on the first bus he could out of Omaha.

Just as he cross 10th and Dodge, that was when he heard a voice.

“You in a hurry, Cody.”

That stopped mike in his tracks. Turning around he was looking at someone he didn’t know.

“What’s the matter, Cody? You got nothing to say? You got awful damn lucky before but this time your luck has run out, sucker. Now, I’m gonna make you pay for breaking my hands.”

“Look, pal, I have no idea what you are talking about. I don’t know you and I don’t want to know you. I have a bus to catch, so just leave me—”

He stopped talking when the stranger before him pulled a gun from behind his back and pointed it at his face.

“Cody, you ain’t catching no bus. The only thing you’ll be catching is a bullet to your brain.”

“Look, man! I keep telling you, I don’t know you!”

“Sure you don’t. Just like you don’t remember the night you broke both my hands. The name is Charlie. Charlie Raynes. There, now you know me.”

“Look man, I swear to—”

And just that quickly, two bullets landed into Mike sending him into a sleep he would never wake from.

*****

Cody, Brent and one of the new men, Saul, entered the Bank of Omaha. The only people Cody could see was the teller and he guess, the bank president. This was gonna be easy.

Brent stood by the door. Saul walked up to the teller with Cody, All three men held their guns in their hands.

“I’m gonna make this really easy for you. Open the vault and give us the money or yer a dead man. Ya got two minutes.”

The teller, a young Nicholas McFadden, gulped nervously, and briefly looked down to where Monte lay, then headed toward the vault.

“And you, you behind the desk, go with him. If he has problems, you open it for him.”

In less than thirty seconds the vault was opened, and just as it was, gunfire could be heard from the other bank.

Jasper yelled out. “Cody! Looks like a trap. There must be half a dozen men shooting at the boys!”

Cody turned his head a split-second, when a bullet whizzed by his ear and hit Saul in the chest. Turning back, he saw two deputies emerge from the vault. Without stopping to think, he fired at both of them, dropping them where they stood.

It was then, Monte stood and fired first at Jasper, then pointed the double-barrel shotgun against the side of Cody’s head.

“It’s over, Martin. Drop your gun to the floor.

“Your days of robbing and killing people are over. You’ll hang for your crimes this time and for the murder of my boss and best friend, Dan Barrows.”

“Never heard of him, mister.”

“LIAR! Dan put you up in a room in his home, his wife fed you, helped nurse you back to health, and you repaid his kindness by ambushing him. I ought to kill you where you stand.”

“Like I said, I don’t know the man,” but I think who did, thought Cody. ”So what’s stopping you from pulling the trigger right now.”

“Martin, you don’t know how many times I planned to do just that. But a woman’s voice kept coming back in my head these last couple weeks. Mrs. Barrows. Her words remind me that I’m not like you, a heartless thieving bushwhacking son of a bitch.

“I’ll stick around long enough for the trial and then watch you hang.”

“I don’t suppose if I told you a story and said it was the truth and—”

“I don’t care what you have to say, now get moving to the jail.”

The sheriff and two deputies walked into the bank as they were about to leave.

“So this is that Cody Martin fella.” His eye turned to Monte. “We can take it from here, and I want to thank you for your help. His outlaw friends are all dead across the street and we didn’t lose a man.…” his eyes went to the center of the bank vault. “Damn!”

Looking at Cody he said, “Killing an officer of the law will definitely get you hanged, Martin. I promise you that.”

*****

As with most Cowtown justice systems, the trial was swift, and the verdict was unanimous:. Guilty. Cody was sentenced to hang the following day.

His last night in jail, Cody thought about all that happened and the way it all ended. If things didn’t go the way they did, he would have been just fine. That damned lightning twisted his life around—twice! Guess one could say that the past can meet the future or maybe it’s the other way around. Strangers then, and strangers now, changed his life, only this time for good.

He laid down on his cot trying to get some sleep as outside his cell window could be heard a lot of hammers being used to build the scaffold he’ll be dangling from tomorrow.

*****

At 10:00 on the morning of August 15, 1880, Cody Martin dangled from a rope. He never faltered, never begged, or cried as he walked up the steps to have the noose placed around his neck. He even declined a sack cloth be placed over his head. He stood their defiant until the floor opened under his feet and then it was over.

The crowd that stood around to watch, slowly dispersed and went on about their daily business.

“Now that this is all over, Monte, I could sure use a good man like you as my deputy, and I also think you’d be a fine replacement for me when I retire come this fall.”

Monte somewhat smiled saying, “Thanks for the offer, Sheriff Benson, but I think I’ll just move along.”

“Going back to the ranch, then?”

“Nope. There ain’t nothing for me back there any longer. I’m headed east. I made a friend a promise I would visit her one day.”

“Well, you take care of yourself and if you ever change yer mind, the job’s yours.”

Monte nodded his head, walked over to Midnight, grabbed the reins, and then mounted.

“Midnight, we have ourselves a long journey ahead of us, my friend.”

Turning eastward, Monte thought it was about time he started thinking about new ideas and a new life.

Maybe Mrs. Barrows could help him along with both.