Death in South Park

By G. Allen Clark

Death in South Park. A Clint Boyd Novelette

On the hunt for a blood thirsty killer called The Teacher, Clint Boyd, his partner - Grizzly, both bounty hunters and loners, finds more than they are looking for, in the form of a shapely young woman who sets her sites on Boyd and will do anything to escape the boredom of a rundown saloon and a drunken bum. Set in the Colorado high country during the height of the Colorado gold rush, this novelette looks at the Colorado Territory in its early days. .

• Language: English
• Publisher: G. Allen Clark
• Release date: Sep 17, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370272952

G. Allen Clark

G. Allen Clark has been writing for over 40 years. He was the co-owner of a 2nd hand pickers marketplace in Colorado Springs called The Flipping Peddler. He and his partner sold that business in 2021 and semi-retired to concentrate on refinishing furniture and writing. Retirement is not a way of life he enjoyed. He soon found a new outlet that combined the best of both worlds. In 2023, he bought an 1887 church and opened another antique vendor’s marketplace and used bookstore in Larned, Kansas You'll find it today as "Old Church Antiques and the 2nd Page Bookstore in Larned Kansas"His marketing and business expertise grew from his business and as an Adult education instructor in Small Businesses Entrepreneurship and having owned the market places listed aboveSince 1982, Clark has written various articles and ‘how-to’ e-books. One on Professional Selling entitled “The Perfect Profession” another on “Writing Copy as a Career,” and another on writing structure for managers & professionals, entitled “Writing to be Read.” Multiple Media copies can be found here on Smashwords..

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Death in South Park

A Clint Boyd Novelette

By G. Allen Clark

Death in South Park

Copyright Aug. 2017 by G. Allen Clark

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Chapter 1. Denver - Colorado Territory, Summer

There was never a doubt in anyone’s mind, that Jacob Farley was crazy. A man possessed by demons, was what everyone said of him. Anyone who knew him well stayed away from him. The rule you quickly learned was never buy him a drink, because he would hang on you like a leach for the rest of the night. Tonight was one of those nights. Broke, drunk and wanting to get drunker, Farley was in no mood.

Farley stared across the empty bar room and fixed his attention on the shapely bar maid working at polishing her nails. That’s all she was doing. Despite his repeated attempt to attract her attention, she had ignored him for the last 20 minutes. Sure, his clothes were ratted, sure he had little money, but he was a railroad worker, he worked hard – when he worked - and yet, his beer glass was still empty. He would be damned before he would give her the satisfaction of knowing that she was pissing him off. She gets paid to serve him, not polish her nails. She always ignored him. The fact that he paid good money in this bar earned him the right to some respect. It never did however and if this hadn’t been the only bar close to his digs, he would never come back.

Belle Graves did her best to hide the fact that Farley was boring holes through her with his eyes. She knew the old fart was getting angrier by the minute. She didn’t care. Her approach to dealing with Farley was indifference and she knew that got to him. He was already too drunk for her to be serving him. He stank as if he’d been sleeping in a sewer and his breath would knock over a horse. She was hoping he would explode, not only to lend some excitement to this utterly boring day, but she would have an excuse to throw the bastard out again.

The opportunity came when an empty beer glass went sailing past her head.

Damn you Farley, that’s it. I warned you. You're out of here you son of a bitch. Ed, go get the sheriff I want this idiot arrested.

No need to go getting the sheriff Ed, I'm leaving and I'm never coming back here again.

You better Farley, Ed said, because you know I won't hesitate to have you arrested again. Now get out. As Farley swept through the swinging doors, Ed turned sharply towards Belle.

Belle! - Damn you, you instigated it. Get back to doing your job and pay attention. The stage is comin in.

That's all Ed was lately, a referee. Farley and Belle’s war had started when he threw another glass at her three months earlier. The fact that she pushed him – much as she had pushed them today, didn’t excuse him throwing a glass at her in a fit of drunken rage. She had the sheriff arrest him. When she was bored, or restless – Farley had become the little excitement in her life. Apparently, she was bored again and Ed didn’t know why.

Belle glanced out the window. Sure enough, the stage was pulling up. Ed was really angry this time. In the past, she could always calm him down, but lately she found herself not caring. Besides, she had caught Ed on a number of occasions, flirting with the new gal Katie. Katie, all of 19, had sashayed her cute little ass into the bar late spring looking for work and Ed hired her on the spot. The fact that she couldn’t get an order right, or serve a drink without spilling it, didn’t matter. It didn’t matter to Belle either. She knew the days of her and Ed were rapidly ending. Hell, if Katie came on to ol’ Ed, she would probably kill the old man. Belle went back to polishing her nails.

Chapter 2.

Gingerly stepping down off the stage, favoring his right foot, Clint Boyd surveyed his surroundings. The first thing he wanted to know was how far away the Doc.’s office was. His right foot was now the size of a small pumpkin stuffed in a smaller boot. Boyd hobbled up the steps leading to the sidewalk and away from the dry and dusty street of Denver Colorado. Crowds of people shuffled past him, knocking into him as they hurried on their way. He already disliked Denver. Way too crowded for his taste. Too noisy as well. Like the towns people had tried to pack ten pounds of shit, into a five-pound bag. He reminded himself that he wasn’t staying long.

This was his final destination. It had been long trip and he was starving. Stopping to get his bearings, he spied the Lucky Dollar Tavern across the street. A beer with his lunch would be good. They would also know where the Doc.’s office would be. Making his way across the deserted street was usually not a problem, but with a bum foot, it took twice as long. One lone dog looked to block his way, but even it moved with one look from Boyd.

In most towns, people were non-existent at this time of the day, but not Denver. In this town at this time of year, with the weather being so hot, the sun at these high altitudes baked your skin dry.

A year earlier, in the summer of 1858, during the height of the Pike's Peak Gold Rush, gold prospectors from Lawrence, Kansas established Montana City as a mining town on the banks of the South Platte River in what was then called the western Kansas Territory. This was the first settlement in what was later to become the city of Denver. The town was so new that there were few building, mostly bars and a few other services such as a livery, a stage stop and a general store. The one Doc. was an old vet who also worked on people, having learned his trade by trial and