“Yeah, Cowboy.“ Vin lowered his head for a few seconds and allowed the relief that was blanketing him to be absorbed consciously. Since the first night in Peter‘s Gap, almost a week earlier, he’d had a bad feeling. The nagging had continued to grow until he had recognized the source. Badden was going to come after Chris. At that point, the concern had become agonized anxiety. Now, Vin could breathe easy. His best friend was safe.

Tanner glanced up at Buck. The scoundrel hadn’t moved a muscle since Nathan had started swabbing, stitching and bandaging. Vin squeezed Chris’ hand and stood up.

“He’s okay,” the tracker said quietly. Buck nodded, though his eyes didn’t leave Chris’ face. “Ya okay, Buck?”

“Yeah. Just... yeah.” Without prompting, Buck slipped his arm across Vin’s shoulders. The two men stood together, watching as Nathan fussed. After riding together for only a few months, Vin and Buck shared something more valuable than gold. Both loved Chris like a brother. He was the rock in their lives. While exceptionally independent, each needed Larabee. Chris gave their lives meaning. For Buck, it was his past. He and Larabee had a history that provided them with brotherhood. In Buck’s eyes, they were creating tomorrow’s history today and thus their brotherhood could only continue to grow. For Vin, it was his future. Never to ride alone again. He and Chris were soul brothers. Time didn’t play a part in their brotherhood. A single look and their souls had touched. A bond for eternity.

“Stretcher’s ready,” J.D. called. They couldn’t drag it behind a horse. The men were going to have to carry Larabee down the side of the mountain.

“Nathan?” Buck inquired, as the healer rose to his feet.

“He’s going to be fine. Wound’s clean and stitched. He didn’t lose much blood. Outside of a bit of shock, which will pass with rest, he’s going to back to his happy self in a couple of days.”

“Happy self?” Buck muttered. “I think you’re asking a bit much.”

“A couple of days?” Vin challenged.

“Probably be sitting in the saloon asking for a drink tonight,” Nathan stated easily. He nodded to both Tanner and Wilmington. He understood how traumatic this had been on the pair.

“Alright, brothers, let’s get going. J.D., here, is hungry and you know what he’s like when he’s hungry.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” the youth demanded.

“Let us just say that your pitiful moaning about your growling stomach is enough to cause us to expel what little is in our stomachs.”

“Don’t start, Ezra, or I’ll bring up...”

Chris listened to his friends as they argued light-heartedly. He felt safe and content. Badden was dead. His men were safe. His family was at his side. Life felt good.

**********

Buck placed a glass of whiskey in front of Chris and Vin. They, Nathan and Josiah were collected around a table in the Royal. Larabee had been carried home by his friends and had slept all afternoon. The moment he awoke, he had headed here. He was sore and a little weak, but the relief of knowing that those he cared about were safe, wiped away any of the discomfort.

Vin, too, had slept most of the afternoon. The ordeal the group had been through had taken a great deal out of the young man who was recovering from the worst strain of influenza any of them had seen. Like Larabee, Vin had joined his companions the moment he was able to.

Ezra crossed the room and dropped down into a spare chair, shaking his head with disgust. “I have had a most unpleasant week,” the gambler grumbled.

“How do you figure that?” Buck asked.

Standish picked up Josiah’s drink and drained it. “First, I had to endure sleeping out in the wilds for several nights in a row. Then, on the one evening I was able to sleep indoors, it was in a livery, in a place called Dusty Nowhere and I had to share accommodation with three goats, four chickens, two cows, nine horses and an abundance of creepy crawlies that I don’t wish to discuss. Then, I rode through a hurricane, arrived in a town that could only offer me lodgings with parasite infested rodents and every time I was about to win a pot, I was called away. To top it off, I have been half drowned, beaten, asphyxiated, thrown over the side of a cliff and now, as if that isn’t enough... An amateur with a streak of good luck that is positively nauseating has cleaned me out!”

“I’ll drink to that,” Vin stated, raising his glass.

The other men raised theirs, their faces decorated with amused smiles. Ezra stared at them in total and complete disgust.

“Anyone seen J.D.?” Nathan asked as Buck refilled the groups’ drinks, including an extra glass for Ezra.

“He still hasn’t solved the mystery and you know what he’s like once he’s got his mind set on something,” Buck chuckled. “Last I saw him, he was... here he comes.”

The boys turned and watched as J.D. raced toward them. “I know what happened!” he whispered in roar that echoed off the walls of the room.

“I’ll drink to that,” Vin claimed, raising his glass again. The rest of the men around the table did also. They were happy and they were content. Buck and Josiah set about refilling everyone’s glasses after they had been drained.

“No, fellas, I know what happened! Look, I need you all to come to the church.”

“Now?” Josiah asked.

“In about half an hour.”

“I’ll drink to that, too” Vin chuckled, instigating another round.

**********

Thirty minutes later, the rest of the Seven made their way to the church at the end of the street. Buck was fussing around Chris like a mother hen, but Larabee successfully ignored him. With his oldest friend’s enforced help, Chris made it to the top of the stairs and then he led his men into the large open room.

Inside, the regulators were shocked to discover the church contained others. Wilhelm Von Otter and Mrs. Von Otter were sitting on the front pews looking mystified. Mr. and Mrs Schultz were seated on the other side of the aisle, looking equally perplexed. Dr. Holstein and his wife were in the second row. Father Tom and Sheriff Brewer were standing to the left.

J.D. raced down the aisle and greeted his friends.

“J.D., what’s going on?” Buck asked. It was one thing to support the youth’s flights of fancy, it was another altogether to allow him to embarrass himself in front of others.

“You’ll see. Come and take a seat.”

Vin and Chris exchanged a glance and then moved down to the third row and took seats. Nathan, Josiah, Ezra and Buck sat behind them.

J.D. moved to the front and nodded to everyone. “Thank you all for coming. You’re probably wondering why I’ve gathered you all here today.”

“Oh, God,” Buck cried lowering his face. “Tell me he isn’t going to say, one of you is the murderer!”

“I have been investigating what happened to Elsa Schmidt and James Thorpe and I think I may have unravelled some of the mystery. All of you are here either because, you knew Elsa or, I wanted you to know what happened.”

The youth swallowed. “You see, Elsa was in love. Not with James, as she wanted her father to believe, but with Wilhelm Von Otter.”

John Schultz glanced across at Wilhelm. “With him?”

“Yes. Wilhelm and Elsa paid James to pretend to be her boyfriend because they wanted Mr. Schmidt to look on Wilhelm favourably... but he never would. Mr. Schmidt ran James out of town and thought that would be the end of it. But it wasn’t, because Elsa was married.”

“WHAT?!” Schultz cried. The peacekeepers exchanged surprised glances.

“Wilhelm and Elsa ran away to Black Pool to be married.”

“And the old man found out?” Dr. Holstein asked.

“I’m not sure about that. What I do know is that Elsa was devastated because her father was still insisting that she marry, you, Mr. Schultz. But she knew she couldn’t. She was already married.”

“So that’s why she took her own life?” Mrs. Von Otter asked.

“No. We’re getting things out of sequence. First of all, James returned to town.” J.D. glanced at the old lady sitting in the front row.

“I killed him,” she whispered. There were gasps from just about everyone in the room. “It was an accident.”

J.D. shook his head. “No, it wasn’t. You said that James attacked you, but he had no reason to. Wilhelm had already paid him. He wasn’t angry with you or anyone else. He just wanted his horse back. But you thought he had come back to claim Elsa. And you weren’t about to allow him to get between your son and the woman he loved.”

“That’s a lie!” Mrs. Von Otter shrieked.

“You lied to me about a lot of things, Ma’am. You said you liked James, and yet everyone else that I spoke to said you hated him. You couldn’t understand why your son had insisted on hiring him. You didn’t know that James was working for Wilhelm. When James came back, you were horrified. I’m guessing that he turned his back to you when he was collecting his horse. He had no reason to fear you. That’s when you used the shovel to beat him to death.”

Vin glanced at Chris. “Kid’s good.”

“I taught him everything he knows,” Buck claimed, leaning forward and beaming at his two friends.

“I’m right, aren’t I, Mr. Von Otter? Was it one blow or more? Self-defence would have been one, maybe two. I had a look at the skeleton. Not only was his skull crushed, but both of the arms were broken. James tried to defend himself, but you, Mrs. Von Otter, just kept hitting him.”

Wilhelm Von Otter dropped his face. He had known.

“James had been a bloodied mess when your mother had called you. That’s why you panicked. You knew that once anyone saw his body, they’d know it hadn’t been self-defence.”

Chris turned to Vin. “Kid’s really good.”

“And I taught him everything he knows,” Buck claimed, again.

“Mrs. Von Otter?” Sheriff Brewer asked quietly.

The elderly woman’s face was white. She burst into tears. “I couldn’t let him... I mean, Wilhelm loved... and that James...” The woman began to sob. Wilhelm put his arm around his mother.

“So James was murdered,” Father Tom murmured.

J.D. nodded. “He wasn’t really even involved. So, James was gone, Mr. Schmidt still wanted Elsa to marry Mr. Schultz, but she was married to Wilhelm Von Otter. Then the rumours started. The rumour that Elsa was pregnant with James’ child. But it wasn’t James’ child.”

“Whose was it?” Mrs. Schultz asked.

“No one’s. You know that Mrs. Schultz. You were the one who started all of the rumours about Elsa. About her being pregnant. About her seeing a lot of men.”

“Bridget?” her husband asked.

“She was!”

“No, she wasn’t. But you were in love with Mr. Schultz and so you had to turn him against Elsa, because you knew he loved her.”

“I...”

John Schultz stared at his wife.

“Telling a few lies usually doesn’t get someone killed. But it did in this case.”

“Elsa’s father heard the rumours and accused her of being pregnant. That was the fight that the entire town heard. Elsa accused her father of killing James. It was that night that Elsa was found hanging in the church tower.”

“Her father?” Dr. Holstein asked.

“No. Her father loved her. Whoever killed Elsa, didn’t love her.” Everyone began to look around the room.

“Mr. Von Otter was her husband. He loved her. Mr. Schultz was about to become her fiance, and he loved her. But you, Mrs. Schultz, you hated her.”

Bridget Schultz pulled her shoulders back. “Okay, I hated her. Elsa got everything she wanted. But that doesn’t mean that I killed her.”

“You’re right,” J.D. agreed. “This afternoon I’ve been talking to all of the people who say they’ve seen Elsa’s ghost. And I asked them what she was doing. I realized, that she was leading them here, to the church. To the place where she died... where she had been murdered. Elsa used to polish the pews at night and she would go to the bell tower to polish the bell. You were with her the night she died.”

“No, I wasn‘t.”

“Yes, you were. I know you were, because that is what the ghost has been trying to tell everyone. For the last forty years Elsa has been trying to get people to come here. She kept pointing, not to bell tower, but to one of those pictures.”

Everyone turned. On the left wall of the church were dozens of photographs. The people of New Munich had captured the growth of their town in pictures.

“Most of the photos are of the buildings being built and of picnic days. But there’s one of the bell tower. One of you and her in the bell tower together. That’s what Elsa has been trying to tell everyone. You were in the bell tower that night with Elsa.“

Vin turned to Chris. “He’s really, really good.“

Buck was too stunned to comment.

“What happened up there? Did Elsa tell you that her father was arranging for her to marry the man you loved the next day? Because he feared she was pregnant and she had to have a husband quickly.”

The people in the church began to mutter. “That’s right, isn’t it, Mr. Schultz? You were going to marry Elsa the next day.”

John Schultz was staring at his wife. “You killed her?”

“No, John, I...”

“You said you found her hanging,” the old man gasped.

“I did!”

“No, you didn’t. You hit Elsa and knocked her out, or dazed her. And then you tied the rope around her neck and pushed her body over the edge,” J.D. accused.

“No! I didn’t!”

“How’s he gonna prove this?” Ezra murmured.

“I went through Dr. Holstein’s records. His father was the one who examined Elsa after her death. I noticed that a section he had written had been scribbled out. With the help of a candle I was able to read what he’d written. Elsa had a lump on the back of her head. I couldn’t understand why the doctor would cover that up and then I realized something. Now, you’re Bridget Schutz, but before you were married, you were Bridget Holstein. The doctor was your brother. He realized Elsa had been murdered but he suspected you and that’s why he never said anything.”

“Bridget? Tell me it’s a lie! TELL ME!” John Schultz screamed.

“John! You can’t believe any of this?! You can’t possibly believe that I would...” Unfortunately, there was guilt written all over the woman’s face.

“You had to kill her or lose the man you loved,” J.D. whispered.

Bridget Schultz stared into her husband’s face. “After all these years,” she whispered, “I’ve finally lost you to her.”

John rose to his feet slowly, shaking his head. “No, Bridget, you lost me to her forty years ago.”

Sheriff Brewer stepped forward and ushered Mrs. Schultz, Mrs. Von Otter and Wilhelm Von Otter from the church. He honestly didn’t know what he was going to do with them, but clearly, he needed to do something.

The Holsteins rose to their feet, stunned, and strode from the church. Only John Schultz remained. He walked up to J.D. and offered his hand. He said nothing. Then he turned and disappeared out the back door to the cemetery where the girl he loved had laid for forty years.

J.D. lowered his face. He felt drained. It hadn’t been easy. He had seen it all as some sort of adventure, but it hadn’t been. These were real people. Elsa had been a real person. Her life had been so tragic in the final few months.

Dunne’s companions rose to their feet and gathered around him.

“I take it back, J.D. All the silly comments. You did it, Kid. I’m proud of you,” Buck whispered.

J.D. raised his head and smiled a soft smile.

Ezra walked across to the wall of photos. The gambler moved along them searching for the one of Bridget and Elsa in the bell tower. Standish reached for it and picked it up. One of the women was smiling at the camera, that Ezra guessed, was Elsa. The other girl was Bridget and she was glaring at Elsa with true hatred.

“Mr. Dunne, I take my hat off to you. You made up the part about the ghost leading people here to the church, though, didn’t you?”

J.D. nodded. He’d done that for effect. “I was looking at the pictures the other day. I realized that Bridget hated Elsa and that there was a possibility that Elsa hadn’t been up in the bell tower alone. That’s when I went and had another look at Dr. Holstein’s records.”

Vin patted J.D.’s shoulder. “Well done, Kid.”

Chris simply smiled.

Josiah slipped his arm across J.D.’s shoulders. “You didn’t let her down, John Dunne. You found justice for her.”

“I don’t know what good it’s done, though,” J.D. murmured, wandering across to the open back door. John Schultz rose to his feet, stood for a few more seconds and then, with shoulders hunched, he moved off.

“You cleared a young woman’s name. She didn’t take her own life. You’ve done a really good thing, J.D.,” Nathan stated, gently.

J.D. continued to stare at the spot where John Schultz had been kneeling. The boy walked down the stairs and started across the cemetery. There was a woman tending to a couple of graves. She turned and smiled at the boy. J.D. nodded to her and stopped in front of Elsa’s grave.

The boy frowned. The gravestone was old and weathered and yet, in J.D.’s mind, Elsa Schmidt was a young, vibrant and pretty girl. Like the photo that Wilhelm had... J.D. froze. He spun around. The young woman! That was the young woman in the photo! Elsa! But she was gone! J.D. raced to the spot where he’d seen her. The ground was soaking wet and muddy and yet, there were no footprints!

J.D. stood frozen. At first, he didn’t know what to feel. Had he seen what he thought he had? Had he imagined it?

“She’s free, now,” Josiah stated. J.D. spun around, startled. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to... you okay?”

“Yeah,” J.D. panted. “What do you mean, she’s free?”

“Elsa wanted people to know that she hadn’t taken her life. She was a Christian girl, so that was important to her. You have provided her with the justice she was seeking. If there was a ghost, I don’t think they’ll be seeing her anymore. She’s free. Thanks to you, John Dunne.”

**********

The day was bright and crisp. The town’s population had dropped by half already. Larabee and his men were still in Peter‘s Gap. Chris had only been knifed the day before and Nathan didn’t want him in the saddle for another day or so. ’I don’t want those stitches busted.’

Chris scanned the saloon. Buck and J.D. were entertaining no less than a half a dozen women. Ezra was engaged in a game. Father Tom, Josiah and Nathan were playing cards at a separate table and Vin was seated beside him. Everything was as it should be.

Larabee reached for the bottle of bourbon that had been a gift from the people of Peter’s Gap. Vin grinned. The bottle had survived the fire.

“Don’t mind a drop of bourbon.”

Larabee opened the bottle and poured each of them a glass. The gunfighter turned to his friend. There was something that was troubling him.

“You tried to stop me.”

“Huh?” Vin asked perplexed.

“Badden. I was going to shoot her.”

Vin nodded, reached into his pocket and handed his friend five bullets. Larabee’s eyes narrowed. Four had been tampered with. Anyone who fired those would find their gun blow up in their face... probably take their arm with it.

“I couldn’t understand why she was begging you to shoot her. Back-up plan.”

Chris eyed the bullets. “These were in my gun?” He’d used one from the chamber to kill the gunfighter. These were what were left. Like Russian roulette.

“That’s what she was doin’ in the room. Your holster was hangin’ on the dresser.” Chris nodded, thoughtfully. He had hung it there thinking he would be staying in the room, but he had gone to play cards with Buck and J.D. “I reckon she probably came to kill me, but when she saw your guns... I musta woken up. She only had time to replace four of them.”

Chris put the bullets on the table. “When did you realize?”

“When she was shoutin’ at ya. She wasn’t lookin’ at your face. She was lookin’ at your gun. Got a picture of the dresser in my mind.”

“Thanks.”

Tanner smiled. “Any time, Cowboy.” Larabee grinned. He raised his glass. Vin did the same. Both men paused.

“She was a sick woman,” Vin muttered.

“To justice?” Chris asked.

Tanner nodded. “To justice.” Chris lifted the glass to his lips. Vin frowned. Without warning, he grabbed his friend’s wrist. Chris stared at him.

“She invited you to toast her death.”

Larabee dropped his eyes to the bourbon and then smiled. “You’re a suspicious bastard, Vin Tanner.”

The tracker was still frowning.

Chris lowered his glass to the table. “You don’t really think...?”

“I wouldn’t put it past her.”

Larabee sighed. “She’s dead. It’s over now.”

“No one could have survived that fall, Vin.”

Ezra’s voice interrupted Tanner’s thoughts. “Good Sir, may I suggest that you retake your seat.”

Vin and Chris glanced in their friend’s direction. There was a man standing, facing off against the seated and particularly calm gambler.

“You’ve been cheating!“ the furious card player snarled.

“Sir, your ability with cards resembles that of a fish attempting to swim through molasses.“

“Larry, Joe,“ Ezra’s opponent snapped. Two men stood and joined their companion. Tanner and Larabee exchanged a weary glance.

Across the room, Buck and J.D. moved into position. Josiah and Nathan rose to their feet.

Vin grinned as he and Chris pushed their chairs back. No matter what the future held, no matter what threat the Seven faced... whether it be revenge, retribution or justice, they would face it together.

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---

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© May 2002 Aussie Lass. : This relates only to the creative property in this story. The distinctive way the story unfolds, the specific dialogue and unique situations are mine. I acknowledge that some of the characters and settings belong to the owners of “The Magnificent Seven” and I thank them sincerely for turning a blind eye so I can borrow them. (g) No infrigement of copyright was intended and no profit has been made from this story... so, please don't sue me. It wouldn't be worth your while.