THE DODGE CITY MASSACRE (A Jess Williams Novel.) by Robert J. Thomas

dollars in damage in there. The two rooms you two were staying in are completely destroyed including most of the furniture. There are holes in every wall and both doors and windows are destroyed not to mention that I won’t be able to rent out those rooms until I can get them fixed,” complained the owner.
                  Jess reached into his pocket and pulled out a wad of bills. He still had a lot of the money he had taken off the bodies of Burton Stiles and Harvey McBain a few weeks ago. He counted out five hundred dollars and handed it to the owner. “Will that cover your expenses?” asked Jess.
                  The owner smiled. “It sure will and then some. Maybe I’ll join those two rooms into one large suite and charge a little more money for it. Thanks Mister, I appreciate it, but most of the other renters are telling me they plan to check out tomorrow if you two gents decide to stay here.”
                  “Don’t worry about that,” replied Jess. “Tell them we ain’t staying another night in any hotel in town. We’re going to have to stay at a camp outside of town from now on.”
                  “Alright, I’ll let them know. Do you two want to stay in the two rooms that are empty until morning?” asked the owner.
                  “Thanks for the offer, but no. It’s only a few hours until daylight and we have to guard these bodies here so if you don’t mind, we’ll stay right here on the porch until morning and then we’ll be leaving town,” replied Jess.
                  The owner left and Jess and John took turns taking naps in the rocking chairs on the porch. In the morning, they took turns going up to their heavily damaged rooms and retrieved their belongings. Jess noticed some holes in his leather pouch he used to carry his cartridges for his Sharps buffalo rifle and he figured that he would buy another one along with another new hat before he left town. To his surprise, his saddlebags were untouched, which was nothing short of a miracle. He met Bodine downstairs and the two of them led the horse hauling the wagon full of dead bodies down to the sheriff’s office. Only one of the deputies, Justin Watts, was in the office making a pot of coffee. He walked out and looked over the bodies of the twelve men. He noticed three of them right away and they had bounties on their heads.
                  “Well, I know those three for sure. I don’t know how much bounty is on their heads, but I’ll check for you and let you know. It’ll take several days before I can let you know about the other seven, but when I do, I’ll let you know and you can file a claim for the bounty,” said Justin. “I’ll stop by the hotel and leave a message for you if you’re not there.”
                  “We’re not staying at the hotel anymore,” replied Jess. “We’ll come into the office in a few days and check with you.”
                  “Okay, that’s fine with me. By the way, I have to tell you that what happened last night—well, it was surely an experience of sorts.”
                  “I suppose that’s one way of putting it,” replied Jess.
                  Jess and John rode out of town and headed east until they were out of sight and then they turned north toward some hills they could see about three miles away. They would make camp there for a few days and then they would move to a new camp. That way, the chances of someone discovering where they were and trying to ambush them again would be low. Soon after they turned north, John finally broke the silence.
                  “Last night I was listening to the shots and after the shooting stopped, I heard one more shot that sounded like it came from the end of the street. What exactly happened?”
                  “After it was all over, a man rode out of the livery and started