The Whores of Horizon

By Betty Birdsell

The day of Eliza's murder started out like many others of the miserably hot summer that Jeanette Tremain turned twenty-six. It was almost dawn when she hauled herself out of bed. Whores normally don't get up early considering the late hours they keep. Jeanette was not like other whores. Even her bed was different from that of most whores. It was carved of dark mahogany to look like fine lace. The headboard was reminiscent of peacock feathers and rounded at the top. The footboard sloped downward on each side, somewhat like a waterfall. She had saved long and hard to buy that bed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press
• Release date: Mar 21, 2022
• ISBN: 9781982275150

Book preview

Copyright © 2022 Betty Birdsell.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced

by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including

photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval

system without the written permission of the author except in the case

of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Balboa Press

A Division of Hay House

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.balboapress.com

844-682-1282

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or

links contained in this book may have changed since publication and

may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those

of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher,

and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use

of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical

problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The

intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you

in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any

of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right,

the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are

models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 978-1-9822-7516-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9822-7515-0 (e)

Balboa Press rev. date: 03/21/2022

Contents

Chapter 1 The Carnage

Chapter 2 The First Day After

Chapter 3 The Whores

Chapter 4 (The Night And Next Day) Wade & Jeanette

Chapter 5 The Killer’s Warning

Chapter 6 The Saloon is Sold

Chapter 7 Fixin’ up the Saloon (Plans)

Chapter 8 The Trip to Plainview (We see the killer again)

Chapter 9 The Return Trip

Chapter 10 Jake & Bobby (The return trip)

Chapter 11 Dabney, Mert & Dammit

Chapter 12 The Indian (Big Bob Bogat)

Chapter 13 While Jeanette is in Denver, Frenchie’s in charge

Chapter 14 Bobby, Jake, & Jimmy (Gone Fishing)

Chapter 15 Tessa’s Quest

Chapter 16 Tessa’s Secret

Chapter 17 Tessa’s Boy

Chapter 18 The Gambler

Chapter 1

The Carnage

The day of Eliza’s murder started out like many others of the miserably hot summer that Jeanette Tremain turned twenty-six. It was almost dawn when she hauled herself out of bed. Whores normally don’t get up early considering the late hours they keep. Jeanette was not like other whores. Even her bed was different from that of most whores. It was carved of dark mahogany to look like fine lace. The headboard was reminiscent of peacock feathers and rounded at the top. The footboard sloped downward on each side, somewhat like a waterfall. She had saved long and hard to buy that bed.

A small plain-colored bird sat on the heavily green-clad oak tree outside her second-story window softly serenading the head-whore of a saloon that had never been named. In spite of the assumed serenity of the morning, a feeling of dread crept around with the breeze that fluttered the flimsy curtains covering the single window of her room.

Jeanette couldn’t remember exactly how whoring came to be her means of making her way in the world, yet there she was, reaching across her bed, that rectangle of paid-for company, to pull the red satin sheets from between the mattress and the bed springs beneath. She crossed the room and dropped the tangle of cloth into the basket of dirty laundry that Mellie would soon come for. That was when she heard the screams. At first, she thought they were coming from the peacocks Joe kept out back of the saloon. Then she realized that the signals of dire trouble emanated from one of the rooms down the hall. She spun around and ran for the door, tangling her foot in the edge of the clean sheets she had laid out on a chair the night before.

She reached for the doorknob, kicking the sheets away from her foot. The knob turned in her hand and the door flew open, knocking her backward over the chair. Eliza, the new girl who had arrived not many weeks before, fell into her room. She clung to the lion’s head doorknob with a blood-drenched hand. As the knob slipped out of her hand, she fell so slowly to the floor that she appeared to be melting into the rug. Her once-beautiful face had been brutally slashed. Her blood-soaked camisole was ripped and allowed Jeanette a much unwanted view of her heaving, slashed breast, but only one; the other had been savagely removed. Terror filled her eyes as she reached out her hand. Oh, God! Jeanette! Help me! she begged. Jeanette’s legs gave way. She dropped to her knees and half-crawled to Eliza.

As Jeanette reached the suffering whore from down the hall, a man’s shadowy, stooped-over shape appeared near the doorway. Collecting Eliza in her arms, Jeanette looked up toward the man, Help me with her, she pleaded with him. He looked down at the two of them, the rose-patterned rug now one muted color, a result of the pooling of Eliza’s blood. He didn’t make a move to help. His face was hidden in the shadow of his hat. The dimness of the hallway disguised his size and build, but Jeanette knew he was smiling. She heard it in his deep, hoarse, voice as he said, You whores deserve pain! And yours, Jeanette, is closer than you think. With that, he turned slowly, deliberately, and simply left, fading into the blackness of the saloon’s back stairs.

The man was to visit the brown-haired whore in her nightmares for weeks to come. He was to be an evil force, driving ever forward in her life, an evil like none she could have imagined before Eliza’s murder.

Chapter 2

The First Day After

The flurry of activity following the murder continued late into the morning. It seemed that everyone in town had, on that day, at one time or the other, loitered in the hallway or was still lurking in Jeanette’s doorway. Sheriff Tollison shouldered his way through the small, curious crowd, came into her room, and pulled a satin-covered footstool up close to her. He asked, You gonna be okay?

She took a deep breath, I guess so. I’m scared, though. That killer doesn’t know that I didn’t see his face. His hat was low and the hallway was so dark that I couldn’t tell anything about his build either. Do you think he’ll come back, Judd? Not wanting to frighten Jeanette even more, Judd chose not to answer.

As she told him what the killer had said, it occurred to her that she could rely only on him and Wade Carrins. She didn’t trust anyone else. The girls she worked with and her customers were pretty much the only other people she knew. An avocation such as hers didn’t bring her into contact with the best of the townspeople, especially not the ladies.

Jeanette’s bedroom was hot with the heat of summer and with the milling of the people who wouldn’t leave. The heat caused her head to pound. Suddenly she jumped up from the beautiful