Brother's Keeper by Robert J. Thomas

offer his hand. Hanley felt strangely uncomfortable and he took another sip of his whiskey. This young man he was facing seemed to have an empty look in his eyes. It was a look that said a lot, and yet nothing, all at the same time.
“Where’s my money? You have the five hundred?”
“I have it. But you have to read the letter before I give you the money. Those were my instructions.”
“Well then give me the damn letter,” replied Sloan, another nasty look on his face. Hanley was getting a little perturbed at Sloan’s nasty disposition and for a moment he thought about walking out and going back to Black Creek and telling Carter he couldn’t find Sloan. But he knew that would cause him problems either from Sloan, or from Carter and right now, he didn’t know which was worse. There was something about this young man that scared Hanley. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out the letter, which was still sealed with Carter’s stamp on it. Sloan grabbed the letter from Hanley and sat down at a table, leaving Hanley at the bar. That was fine with Hanley, he wanted to get this over with and get away from Sloan. Hanley had met his share of mean and nasty men in his lifetime but this young man, however, was one of the worst that Hanley had met so far.
Sloan sat down and opened the letter. He read the letter as follows:
This letter is to be read only by Tim Sloan.
Mr. Sloan,
My name is Dick Carter. After you read the contents of this letter, the
man who delivered it to you will pay you the sum of five hundred dollars
whether or not you agree to the terms of my offer. The five hundred is yours
simply for waiting and reading my letter. Here is my offer.
You have a twin brother by the name of Jess Williams. I don’t know if your
father told you about your twin brother or not, but I can assure you that I am
telling the truth. Now, here is my offer. I will pay you the sum of ten thousand dollars if you kill your brother, Jess Williams, who killed my only son. I know what I am asking you to do is out of the ordinary, but ten thousand dollars is a lot of money. I will be truthful and tell you that your brother is very quick with a gun and will not be easy to face down. If you agree to my terms, make your way to Black Creek, Kansas as quickly as you can. There are men here who are trying to collect a bounty I have placed on his head as you read this letter. If he is still alive when you get here, that will mean that I am already dead and you must contact a man by the name of Cal Hardin. He has the ten thousand dollars and instructions to pay you the money as soon as you bring the dead body of Jess Williams to him to identify. I hope you will take the job. Nothing would please me more, even in my death, than to know that Jess Williams’ own brother would collect the money to kill him. God speed.
—Dick Carter
Sloan folded the letter back up and sat there momentarily thinking about its contents. He knew about his twin brother. His father had told him all about what had happened. Of course, by that time, Tim had as bad a disposition as his father and he really didn’t care. Sloan smiled at the evilness of Carter’s proposal. It was something that he himself would have thought up. Sloan looked back over at Hanley, who was sipping another whiskey at the bar. “I’ll take my five hundred now.”
Hanley slugged down his drink and turned around and walked to Sloan’s table and placed an envelope on the table. Sloan opened it up and counted out five hundred dollars. He smiled. He liked money and what it could buy him, expensive whiskey, the best whores, and a stake in another poker game.
“Any message you want me to take back to Mr. Carter?” asked Hanley, after Sloan finished counting the money.
Sloan looked up at Hanley with a look that ran a chill up Hanley’s spine as well as causing the hair on the back of his neck to stand straight up. “Yeah, tell him I’ll be collecting my ten thousand as soon as I can get to Black