Divergence
By: Yolande
Epilogue
Dunne rummaged through his saddlebags. He glanced casually along the road hearing the approach of the wagon heading their direction. “I don’t get it.”
“What don’t you understand?” Jackson asked.
JD looked at Larabee, but the gunman glared menacingly at the occupants of the wagon. Dunne could see the anger simmering below the surface. “I just don’t understand why Vin and Ezra let him go?” Dunne nodded again at the wagon. It was loaded to the brink with numerous wooden chests, a dining table and an assortment of chairs hanging off the side. Albert Mitchell sat next to his wife on the board seat and their son Teddy sat next to his mother. The young family was headed back East to be closer to their daughter.
Vin slipped from between the buildings. Hearing JD’s comment, he couldn’t let it pass. “Mitchell didn’t do anything so bad. He was desperate for the money, but couldn’t bring himself to turn me in to collect it. I had a better chance of starving to death, than being hung.” Been through a lot worse at times, he mused.
Dunne started, not hearing the tracker’s arrival until he spoke. “He almost got you and Ezra burnt to a crisp!”
“That was an accident, JD. And he hurt Ezra worse than he did me.”
“That’s another thing. Why would Ezra agree not to file a complaint?”
Tanner shrugged. “You’d have ta ask Ezra that.”
Dunne sighed hoping Chris or Nathan would come to his aid, but both remained silent on the issue. If anything, Larabee seemed to agree with Dunne that Mitchell should not have been allowed a second chance.
The wagon lumbered past the lawmen. Albert looked stoically ahead, not risking a glance to his right as he came level. It clambered at a snail’s pace, every so often someone would rush forward and wish them farewell. It was several long minutes before they passed through the town limits.
“You finished?” Chris asked the tracker. There seemed to be some other silent and unspoken message that passed between the pair, but Dunne couldn’t guess at it.
“Gonna stay on for a few more days.” Got some things I gotta do, some people I need ta talk with.
Damn, if he hadn’t expected this. “Standish know you were staying?”
“Didn’t tell ‘im.” But he probably guessed.
“Want some company?” Just me…I’ll send Nathan and JD home with the others.
“Sure, cowboy. Need someone ta watch my back on the way home. Thanks.”
The End
