California Killing Read Online Free PDF

staggered across the open ground. She snatched up the rifle, ramming the stock into her shoulder, aiming the weapon, forcing her hands into rock stillness.
    Dexter and Wood faltered, seeing the hate-filled menace in the woman's eyes. Edge, his lean face expressionless, moved on to within ten feet of the woman. Then he halted, hooding his eyes to pale blue slits which missed nothing - the broken wheel, the distress of the horse still in the shafts, the unmoving man beneath the wagon, the tense stance of the woman, the condition of her rifle.
    He kept hisvoice low and toneless. "They had a stagecoach. Top man was a little guy named Hood with no hair and eyes like they were trying to get out of his head."
    The aim of the Symmes did not waver from Edge's chest. "I don't need reminding," Magda said dully and there was a hint of hysteria in her eyes. "Move around and on."
    "We do and you'll stay here and your man will die. We can fix the wheel and be in The Town With No Name before sundown."
    "I'll take my chances," Magda said. "One step that isn't around the wagon and I'll fire."
    Edge looked away from her, down at the ground to where the indentations made by her splayed body had been baked into a rock-hard mold. "Some men have hurt you, ma'am," he said softly. "Don't mean all men mean you harm."
    "Move on."
    "We need the wagon."
    John Stricklyn groaned. Magda's eyes flicked to the side, filling with new expression. But she did not move.
    "Move on."
    "Squeeze that trigger and you'll get hurt worse than me," Edge warned.
    "Please, ma'am, we want to help," Dexter pleaded.
    Edge began to stretch out his arm and took a step forward. "He's right."
    Magda saw the action as the gesture of a man seeking to touch her. All the revulsion of the rape welled up inside her and she gave a choked cry and squeezed the trigger.
    The muzzle jerked skywards as the paper cartridge exploded. The rifle clattered to the ground, trailing black smoke. Magda staggered back, screaming and clawing at the bloodied mask which moments before had been a beautiful face. Her body hit the ground and writhed as her head rolled from side to side, spraying scarlet droplets.
    "Oh, my," Wood gasped as he squatted and began to retch dryly.
    Dexter rushed forward and crouched beside the woman as death rattled in her throat and she became still, her hands falling away, the fingers inscribing red trails down the front of her white dress.
    "What in the hell happened?" the rancher croaked as he straightened up, his crinkled skin looking pale beneath its tan.
    Edge stooped and picked up the rifle, holding it out to show the rancher how the breech mechanism had been ripped apart to shower the woman with twisted fragments of metal. Then he showed him the muzzle. "Mud in there dried as hard as the barrel, he said evenly."Blast had to come out someplace."
    He hurled the smashed rifle down among the rocks in the bowl and moved across to the side of the wagon. There was a dipper hung over the rim of the water barrel and he used it twice, one to drink and then to pour refreshing coolness over his neck. "Warned her she'd get hurt," he said, bending to examine the broken wheel.
    Wood heard the splash of water and scuttled across to the wagon.
    "Can you begin to imagine what those animals put her through?" Dexter demanded. "She was in no state of mind to listen to anything a man said."
    Edge moved to the log lever. "I ain't much for drawing pictures," he muttered and tested his strength against the log. The wagon inched up.
    Wood extended the dipper to Dexter, who drank with an angry frown adding more creases to his face.
    Edge scowled at them. "You guys figure to take a bath as well before you give me a hand?"
    "Right with you," Wood answered with an ingratiating half-smile as he scampered to get the spare wheel.
    Dexter was less eager as he knocked loose the retaining pin on the broken wheel and seemed to draw some kind of secret pleasure from the amount of time Edge had to take the