A marshal obsessed with vengeance and a gunslinger turned lawman stalk a criminal gang intent on silencing a witness.
Daniel Ryan, U.S. marshal, has vowed to catch the notorious Blackwater gang if it?s the last thing he does. The bank robbers murdered his wife and daughter near the beginning of their rampage. The criminals kill all the witnesses to their crimes. Daniel has tracked them for months across the western territories; but, he always seems to be one step behind them. Ryan deputizes Cole Claybourne, one of the fastest gunslingers in the west, to help him run down the gang. Together, the lawmen track the outlaws to the scene of the latest bank robbery.
During their last exploit, the thugs killed several bank employees, some customers and a vagrant in the alley when they fled. While examining the scene, the marshal finds part of a petticoat and a lady?s reticule under the desk in the manager?s office. According to the tellers? notes, only three women conducted business at the bank that day. One of them might be able to identify some of the gang members.
When questioned, all three women tell essentially the same story. They went to the bank, they didn?t notice anything unusual and they left before the robbery. Unfortunately, word leaks to the press that there is a witness and someone sets fire to the boarding house where all three of the women are staying. After the near tragedy, all of the women tell a different story.
Rebecca James, a blonde haired beauty from St. Louis, is the most outspoken of the three. She tells the lawmen although she went to the bank earlier, she had forgotten something and went back to speak with the manager. That was when she heard the robbers, hid under the desk and witnessed the massacre through the crack in the side. Rebecca?s second story is far more convincing than her first. She knows entirely too many little but accurate details that only a witness (or a gang member) would know.
Grace Winthrop is a brunette goddess who fairly vibrates with energy, nobility and sophistication. Her parents are titled gentry who have fallen on hard times. She has come to buy land in America. She went to the bank earlier to close the escrow account. Unfortunately, the man with whom she made the arrangements is dead and his son refuses to sign the new deed. She says she went back to the bank to ask the manager if he knew the address of a good lawyer. Now, Grace is determined to put this whole mess behind her and get on with her life.
Jessica Summers is a cinnamon haired single mother. She has been betrayed and abandoned so often, that suspicion is a way of life for her. She is the only potential witness who seems frightened. She has good reason; she must protect her toddler, Caleb. Word has spread that the outlaws kill all witnesses and their families. Even if she had seen something, she couldn?t testify. She swears she didn?t see anything that would help the marshals catch the killers. All that she wants to do is raise her son in peace.
Someone still isn?t telling the entire truth; but it doesn?t matter. The Blackwater gang will kill all the women and anyone else who gets in their way.
Cole Claybourne has been on the job less than a week and already someone wants him dead. Maybe law enforcement isn?t so different from gun slinging after all.
