A Different Throw of the Dice

By Eleanor Ward

A missing scene story from 5^th Victim.  This is my take on what may have happened during the time after Augie Helms’ funeral, through Heyes getting shot, and on to their arrival back at the Carlson’s farm, which was never fully documented in the episode.

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Kid Curry looked aghast as a shot rang out and his partner pitched out of his saddle to roll down the incline they were riding along.

“Heyes!” he yelled, leaping from his horse, looking around him for any sign of the gunman as he ran across to Heyes’ motionless form. 

“Heyes!” he called again, pausing momentarily, afraid of finding that his friend was dead, before dropping to his knees and bending to place an ear to his chest, breathing a sigh of relief when he heard a heartbeat.

Gently, he turned his partner’s head to examine a wound there, on his forehead, just on his hairline. By some miracle the bullet had just skimmed his head and not entered. Not that that didn’t mean the wound wasn’t still serious, or life threatening.

Curry looked around.  Since no further shots had been fired, he assumed the gunman had hi-tailed it.

This had to be something to do with the Saturday night poker game they’d been invited to join the previous weekend, he thought to himself.  Two of the players had since been mysteriously shot dead while Heyes and Curry had been working to kill off mountain lions for the Carlson family.

After playing in the game, and getting friendly with all of the players, Heyes and Curry had felt obliged to hang around and pay their respects at the funerals of Judge Peters and Augie Helms, but had then decided to leave town before they themselves might become targets, or else be accused of committing the murders, since they were the only two new people to have joined the poker game and some people would no doubt point the finger at them as the strangers to the group.  In their current situation - trying to stay on the straight and narrow in order to get amnesty - they couldn’t afford to get into that kind of trouble and so, after collecting their pay for killing the mountain lions, they had bid the Carlson’s farewell and, after a few drinks at the saloon earlier that evening, had set off, hoping to find some work at the next town they came to.

In the moments prior to Heyes getting shot, they had been speculating on the likelihood of the murderer being one of the other poker players.  Heyes had been sceptical, but Curry couldn’t think of any other explanation and the fact that they themselves had now seemingly been targeted made him even more convinced.   But he couldn’t think about that now, he needed to get Heyes medical help, as quickly as possible.  He was still alive now, but for how long? Time was of the essence.

They were a good hour’s ride from the Carlson’s house, but there were no other towns any nearer so there was no alternative but to go back there.   But how?

Curry looked around him.  There was nothing that he could utilise to make a sled or stretcher to carry Heyes on. So what was he to do?  The only option was to try and get him on his horse.

Getting to his feet, he crossed to fetch his horse and then attempted to lift Heyes to get him onto it.  Unconscious, he was a dead weight and Curry struggled to lift him but, with a lot of effort, he finally managed to manoeuvre him onto it, breathing heavily from the exertion, before climbing up behind him, to prevent him falling off. Then, catching hold of the reins of Heyes’ horse he towed it behind him as he turned back towards the Carlson’s. 

His instinct was to ride flat out, to get there as quickly as possible, but apart from that being too precarious while having to try and keep his partner from falling off the horse, he was also concerned that the bouncing around from a full gallop could have a detrimental effect on his injuries and so he rode cautiously, praying that Heyes would live long enough to get there.

“Heyes?” he called, periodically, shaking his partner’s shoulder to try and rouse him, but he was dead to the world.

Curry started to worry about the impact of the injury - assuming he didn’t die before he got him some medical help, and assuming that he regained consciousness.  The wound had bled relatively little but there was always the possibility that the force of the impact could have fractured his skull which could cause any number of problems - from memory loss, to physical impairments.  He’d seen people who had survived similar gunshot wounds in the past, and some of them had suffered deafness, blindness, speech and memory problems.  Some had ended up with damage so severe they had reverted to little more than children, mentally, and Curry was afraid for his partner.  He knew Heyes would rather be dead than to lose his faculties or be reduced to little more than a vegetable.

He tried to push the thoughts from his mind, telling himself that couldn’t, wouldn’t, happen to his friend. Instead, he focussed on picking his way carefully along the trail, checking, periodically, that Heyes was still breathing.

Once or twice he had to pull up, as Heyes started to slide off the horse, and try to get him repositioned.  The fact that he was still unconscious, more than an hour after being shot, was concerning and Curry was desperate to get him seen by a doctor as soon as possible. Any delay might prove fatal.

It was lucky, he considered, as he rode along, that the gunman hadn’t hung around to try and kill them both. Lucky for him maybe, but less so for Heyes who might yet succumb to the wound inflicted on him.  But, a different throw of the dice and it could have been him who’d been shot, or even both of them. The implications of that caused a shudder to run through his body. At least he was uninjured and able to get them back to civilisation.  Had both of them been injured, things might have been very different.

His thoughts returned to the Saturday night poker game. On the face of it, all of the players had seemed good, honest people with no reason to want to kill any of the other players. Unless, of course, one of them had an enemy they didn’t know about, but that still didn’t explain why two of them had been killed, three if Heyes should die.

Because of having to ride so cautiously, the hour’s ride turned into nearly two, and it was almost dawn when, with a sigh of relief, he arrived at the Carlson’s house.

Dismounting, he ran up the path and banged urgently on the door until a lamp was lit and a shape appeared behind the glass.

Jake Carlson opened the door, clad in a dressing gown, his expression anxious and not a little perturbed.

“Thaddeus!” he exclaimed.  “What brings you here, and at this ungodly hour?”

“I’m sorry to disturb you, Mr. Carlson, but Joshua has been shot.  This was the closest place to bring him.”

“Shot?”  Jake’s eyes widened in surprise.

Curry nodded.  “Seems like us being at that poker game made us targets too.”

Jake didn’t respond to his comment, saying instead, “Let’s get him inside and I’ll go for the doctor.”

He followed Curry outside and together they lifted Heyes off the horse and carried him inside the house where Rachel Carlson had now appeared, clad in a pink robe. She followed them as they carried Heyes into the spare bedroom and lay him on the bed.

“What happened?” she gasped, eyeing Heyes’ unconscious figure anxiously.

“Someone took a shot at us.”  said Curry.

Rachel shook her head in confusion.  Thaddeus and Joshua weren’t locals, they’d only been in town a few days. What could anyone have against them?

“I’ll get dressed and ride over and fetch the doctor.” Jake told Rachel, who nodded.

“Thanks, Mr. Carlson, for helping us out like this.”  Curry said, gratefully, as Jake headed for the door, while Rachel went off to get dressed.

Curry seated himself at the side of the bed and looked at Heyes. There was a gash on his head, with congealed blood around it, and a dark bruise was already spreading across his forehead. His breathing was shallow and he was as white as a sheet.

Whoever had taken a shot at them had been persistent, in following them that far from town, and Curry wondered at the shooter’s motivation.   They didn’t live here, and they didn’t know anybody apart from the Carlsons and the other players in the poker game.  What could the shooter believe that they knew, or had seen, to make him decide he needed to get rid of them?  It made no sense, but Curry vowed that he wouldn’t leave here without finding the culprit and his reasons for doing what he’d done.  And if Heyes should die… well, he’d cross that bridge when he came to it.

Half an hour later, Jake arrived with the doctor.   Curry stood up and moved to stand by the head of the bed while the doctor seated himself and began to examine Heyes.

“Came as close to killing him as anything I’d ever care to see.” The doctor commented, as he bathed the wound. “There are no fractures, so he should regain consciousness within the next 24 hours.  On the other hand, it could take longer, we’ll just have to wait and see.  In the meantime, he mustn’t be moved. He should be watched.”

“I’ll be here.” said Rachel.

“Anything you can do to fix the boy up I’ll pay for it, Doc.” said Jake, drawing a slightly surprised look from Curry.

“I’ve done everything I can, Jake.” the doctor told him.

Once the doctor had finished his ministrations, Jake and Curry headed outside leaving Rachel to tend to Heyes.

“I appreciate what you said in there Mr. Carlson.” Curry told him, feeling slightly humbled that the Carlson’s would do so much for who, to them, were virtually strangers.

“About what? Getting the boy fixed up? Don’t be silly”

“Mr. Carlson.” Called Curry, as Jake turned to walk away.  As Jake turned back, he said, “One thing’s becoming pretty obvious. Everybody who was in that poker game is in a lot of trouble.”

Jake looked dubious, but said nothing.

Later that day, Curry mounted up with the intention of investigating the case for himself. He was worried about Heyes, but he couldn’t bear just to sit around the house waiting for goodness knows how long for him to come round.  He was also more than a little concerned as to what state his partner would be in when, if, he did regain his senses.  He needed to keep busy, keep his mind occupied, and investigating the shootings would help him to do that.

Jake thought he was being foolish, and looking to get himself killed, but Curry ignored his protestations. He was determined to find out who was responsible for killing Judge Peters and Augie Helms. And if his partner should die too, then he would make the culprit pay, with his life, and gladly go to the gallows for doing so.

With his jaw set, he headed off on his quest to uncover the mystery.  Little did he know that the two murders already committed would just be the beginning.

END