Flathead Fury Read Free Page B

breath. “Durn dropped a tree on them.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œAre you hard of hearing? A week after Martha gave Durn a piece of her mind, I went off to hunt. Simon was chopping a tree for firewood. He waved as I rode off. That was the last I saw him or my Martha alive.”
    â€œBut what makes you think Durn was involved?”
    â€œLet me finish. I got back about sundown and found both of them lying under the tree Simon had been chopping. They were crushed to bits.”
    â€œThe tree might have fallen on them.” Fargo had heard of similar mishaps in his travels.
    â€œThat is what Durn wants everyone to believe. But I know better. I found a bump on the back of Martha’s head.”
    Fargo shifted in the saddle, and forgot to hold his breath. “You just said a tree fell on her. There were bound to be bumps.”
    â€œThe tree didn’t fall on her head . It fell on her chest. After someone knocked her out and laid her and my brother right where the tree would land on top of them.”
    â€œDid your brother have a bump on his head?”
    Thaddeus took exception. “Are you trying to rile me? No, he did not, but I am willing to bet my bottom dollar he was stabbed.”
    â€œYou saw a knife wound?”
    â€œI think there was one,” Thaddeus said uncertainly. “It was hard to tell. The tree made a mess of him.”
    Fargo was skeptical. It seemed to him that the old man was blaming Durn for what might have been a simple accident. He made a remark to that effect.
    â€œThat is how Durn does it. He kills quietly, and smartly, so he isn’t ever blamed.”
    â€œI don’t know,” Fargo said. In his capacity as an investigator for the army, it was important he stick to the facts and not make the mistake of believing others without proof.
    â€œSo much for us being friends,” Thaddeus grumbled. “Mike Durn has you hoodwinked, and you haven’t even met him yet.”
    â€œI will soon enough.”
    Thaddeus fell silent, leaving Fargo to his thoughts. Although he did not mind helping the army out, it was not his usual line of work. But Colonel Travis was a friend, and he would do what he could.
    The situation was compounded by the fact that Polson was so far removed from civilization. Normally, the town marshal or county sheriff would handle things, but Polson did not have a marshal and was not in an established county. For that matter, Polson was not part of a state, either. It was in Nebraska Territory, which stretched from the Canadian border to the north clear down to Kansas Territory in the south.
    Not that the legal niceties mattered all that much. Since the federal government was trying to set up an Indian reservation, and rumors had filtered back of an organized effort to prevent it by driving the Indians out, the problem was clearly under federal jurisdiction.
    So Colonel Travis decided to send in a special investigator.
    Enter Fargo.
    Â 
    The sun relinquished its reign to the gathering twilight.
    As Fargo had reckoned, by then he was within sight of Polson and the south shore of Flathead Lake.
    â€œI hate coming here,” Thaddeus Thompson remarked. “It makes me think of Martha, and how she met her end.”
    â€œDid anyone take a look at the bodies besides you?” Fargo asked.
    â€œI never thought to ask. I dug the remains out from under the tree and buried them. Then I came here and accused Mike Durn to his face.”
    â€œWhat did he do?”
    â€œHe called me a loon, and most folks believed him.”
    â€œMost?”
    â€œA few still have their backbones. Sally Brook took my side but she is only one gal and there is not much she can do.”
    â€œHow would I go about finding her?”
    â€œSally runs a shop for ladies. She sells dresses and hats and such. You can find her there most any hour of the day.”
    As they neared the lights of Polson, Fargo recollected more of the local geography. The