Dillinger - Jack Higgins [51]
Chavasse picked it up. 'Just the thing for me, the worst shot in the world.' He also selected a revolver and pushed it into his waistband.
Dillinger felt funny about Rose taking a revolver and an ammunition belt and strapping it around her slim waist. He handed her a rifle. 'Better take this, too. Don't know if we'll get close enough for a handgun.' What he was really hoping was that she would stay as far back as possible. 'I've always had to take care of women,' he said. 'I never thought there'd be one watching out for me.'
At the hotel a couple of Mestizos were using Rose's horses to clear the debris of the burnt-out porch.
'Careful,' Rose was saying. 'Don't damage the main part of the building.'
Just then she saw what she had been waiting for, a single rider coming fast. Within seconds, Nachita was pulling up alongside her, his breathless pony stomping and whinnying.
'What did you find out?' she asked.
Dillinger and Fallon both came over to hear, Chavasse and Villa joining them.
'Ortiz is clever. From where he is, he can see you coming at a great distance. The closer you get to his camp, the harder it will be for you to retreat rapidly. It is a natural fortress of stone, high ground that overlooks the path up.'
'Will he harm Juanita?' Rose asked.
'Not until he gets want he wants.'
'And that is ... ?'
Nachita nodded toward Rojas, who was approaching with his patron.
'Would he harm her after he got what he wanted?' Rose asked.
'To a man like Ortiz, the wife of an enemy is a piece of the enemy. That is why he killed Dona Clara. The child of an enemy is the same. He has not killed her because she is the meat, the goat tied to the stake that makes the mountain lion come within range of his gunshot.'
Dillinger, who had been silent, now spoke. 'I hope to hell you've got a good plan.'
'In my many moons,' Nachita replied, 'I have learned a plan that succeeds is a good one, and a plan that fails is a bad one. This one seems to depend on whether we can trick Ortiz, or whether, as he plans, he can trick us.'
13
They were making last-minute plans to leave Hermosa. Nachita was to be on the lead horse, Villa, who also knew the territory, immediately behind him. Then Rivera and Rojas, Fallon and Chavasse, all of them armed. Rose offered Dillinger one of her horses, a gentle mare, for the ride into the desert.
'I don't care how gentle the goddam horse is,' Dillinger said, 'I can't ride.'
Rose said, 'I can't believe there is something you can't do, Johnny.'
'I never said I was perfect. How about joining me for the ride in the Chevvy.'
For Rose, who had learned to ride when she was very young, sitting a horse was second nature. 'I don't know,' she said.
'The car smells better than a horse,' he said.
'Not to me. I hate the smell of gasoline.'
'Don't you drive?'
'No,' she said.
'You've never driven?' he repeated unbelievingly.
'Never.'
'Then we're even. Come on, I promise not to try to talk you into the back seat, so help me, Hannah.' He held up his right hand as if taking an oath.
Up ahead, she could see that the others were getting restless.
'All right,' she said, tying up her horse and sliding into the passenger side. 'I don't know how far you will get with this up the mountain.'
'Far enough.' He'd checked everything that was checkable on the car to make sure it was in as good running condition as it could be. He'd cleaned the air filter. He'd vented the gas cans in the trunk so there'd be less danger of an explosion. He'd put in a jerrycan of spare water, remembering when he hadn't had any. Though he loved to ride with the top down, he prudently raised it because of the heat and because they might be observed from above and he didn't want Ortiz to know how many people were in the automobile.
'Let them get a head start,' Dillinger said. 'We'll catch up easily.'
'Are you afraid?' Rose asked.
'Afraid of what?'
'I guess that answers my question.'
'Sure, I'm afraid of getting bullet holes in this beauty. I haven't seen a body shop since arriving in