Dr. Mauldin’s face was turning from red to blue. “If you don’t do this, for my mother, you’re of no use to me at all,” Pritchard said. “I’ll end you, right along with Shipley. My mother’s dying, I’ve got a posse on the way, and I’m fresh out of time.” He thumbed back the Colt’s hammer with a loud click. “So are you. What’s it going to be, Doc?”

Dr. Mauldin bobbed his head up and down, signaling his cooperation. Pritchard withdrew his revolver, lowered the hammer, and released him. The physician fell to all fours, gasping for air.

“I guess my time’s up,” Shipley said. “Go ahead and shoot, Ranger.”

“Who said I was going to shoot you?” Pritchard said, reaching for a pillow.

Chapter 55

Chapter 55

Dovie Pritchard died in her son’s arms, a smile on her angelic face despite the pain. She expired shortly after Burnell Shipley’s “heart attack.”

Her dying words were to ask her son’s forgiveness. The last time she’d seen him, when he was seventeen years old and leaving Atherton supposedly forever, he swore he’d never pardon her for what she’d done.

“Of course I forgive you, Mama,” he said, brushing her hair from her face. “You ain’t done anything to need forgiveness for. I love you.”

Dr. Mauldin signed both death certificates, as Pritchard specified, and swore to testify to their veracity if ever required. Which was prudent, on his part, since a grieving Pritchard swore to hunt him down and make the sputtering agony of Burnell Shipley’s death seem like a mercy killing if he didn’t.

Pritchard sat for a while, cradling his mother’s body. Dr. Mauldin left, promising to notify the local undertaker to care for her remains.

“We’ve got to go, Samuel,” Ditch finally said. “It’s getting on toward evening. We need to get back to Paul and Idelle, and come up with a plan for when that posse arrives.”

Pritchard nodded and gently released Dovie. He kissed her on the forehead and covered her with a sheet Ditch found in a closet.

Pritchard and Ditch checked their guns and left the hotel by the back stairs. While fairly certain they’d taken out all the deputies and marshals in town, they didn’t want to risk gunfire from any holdouts. They selected a route they’d frequented as boys to navigate the woods. It took longer than going through town, but they soon reached their destination.

When they arrived behind the schoolyard they found Rusty, along with Paul and Ditch’s horses, hidden in a copse of trees. There was no sign of activity at the schoolhouse. With their rifles at the ready, they left the cover of the forest and crept up to the school.

“Paul?” Ditch called out. “Idelle?” There was no answer.