( music playing )
( hawk screeches )
( gunfire )
( door clanks )
( whip cracking )
( gunshot )
( trigger cocks, fires )
( hawk screeching )
( piano music playing )
Long day?
Long life.
What's your name?
Susannah.
Ooh! Lovely.
( chuckling )
What's you real name, sugar?
I don't even tell my customers that.
Why should I tell you?
Don't tell me, then.
Quinn, I suppose.
Even lovelier.
What do they call you?
Can't remember.
Make it Cricket.
Yeah, them boys outta Texas know a lot more about cowhide
than they do about a woman's.
Where you from, Q?
It doesn't matter.
It's my gift to you.
Obliged.
New Orleans.
Amarillo, El Paso, Tombstone.
You may have seen more of these territories than I have.
Well, they can keep them territories.
Got any smoke on ya?
Ain't proper for a young gal like yourself
- to be poisoning your... - Either you give it to me
or I start scratching around on the floorboards
for a soggy little stub.
Obliged.
My playin' may be poor, but I'm not entirely sure that's necessary.
Found it under my bed.
I suppose a little friend in your garter could be a blessing.
- Don't play that. - Oh, I like this tune.
- Well, I don't. Stop playing it. - I gotta play something.
You looking to play it with a harp? I think I told you to stop.
I ain't them boys, Miss Q.
I ain't never even been to Texas.
Do you suppose a gun this small
would be enough to put me down?
You think it'd kill me outright,
or would I have to bleed to death?
So much tawdriness comin' from such a lovely place.
This is how you like your women, piano man?
Everything looks much lovelier when the sun comes up.
Or at least less ugly.
This territory can be punishing.
But you strike me as especially stubborn.
Survivors are stubborn.
I knew a survivor like you once.
She was the meanest, stubbornest,
most savagely beautiful, hellfire-and-brimstone,
spittin' she-devil to ever spread hateful blood
on the same boards you're standing now.
You offerin' me a bedtime story?
Thought you had a date with a Derringer.
Some years ago
when the brass on that bar wasn't quite so tarnished
and the flies in them whiskey bottles
- still had... - Wait.
- You told this story before. - I reckon' I have.
And that's the way you start it?
That's the way it starts.
Ain't you gonna give it a name?
Any good story's gotta have a name.
( sighs )
( clears throat )
The Tale of Cassidy Red:
A ballad of love and hate.
( piano music playing )
Can I get something for ya?
( whistles )
You had me worried you weren't gonna
make it tonight, handsome.
What's a girl gotta do to get you alone?
Sounds fun.
What do you say we go upstairs
and get a little cozier?
What the hell are you thinking calling me that?
Why don't you just use my real name while you're at it?
Well, maybe I should have just called you Ginger?
Did you even bother reading my letter?
I gave you specific instructions, Rowena.
I thought you wanted to be invisible.
Invisible like water, not molasses.
Well, they don't serve either in this place.
He's gonna be here any minute.
He's not coming in here until I says so.
- What did you tell him? - Don't you worry.
I told him exactly what he needed to hear.
And he'll definitely be here?
What did I say?
I need a brush.
Give me the belt.
You have to be joking.
Where are you gonna hide holsters in a corset?
Give me the belt.
Look, I'm just gonna drop them the minute he closes the door.
And make a goddamn racket doin' it,
but you get close enough, and you can choke
the sound of this little bastard off in his beard.
It's a whore's gun.
Well, that sure as hell ain't no missionary costume.
Anybody washed this thing since Harley died in it?
You ready?
I'll take that as a yes.
( piano music playing )
That was fast.
Too drunk to get his boots off.
Left him passed out in my bed.
Want me to get Davy and Elle to toss him out?
Let him sleep it off for a few.
When he wakes me might not remember he already paid me.
Whiskey me, honey?
( sighs )
You may want to rat hole some of that silver, Rowena.
He's here early.
Yours?
All yours.
Is she here?
She certainly is.
Think I'll like her?
Oh, I think you'll be very...
what's that word you always use?
Satiated.
You'll be that.
You give her the twice over?
I don't wanna go up there and get a switch blade in between the ribs.
Don't you trust me, darlin'?
You got something for me, Kearny?
It's, uh, Saturday.
Has been all day.
Will be for a few hours more.
I mean, isn't Monday the day?
You can't expect me to cancel my plans
and come all the way across the street
to settle something that could have been sorted on Saturday evening.
Can you?
You gotta give me some time to get my affairs in order.
I can give you an hour to get your affairs in order.
How about that?
( saloon chatter )
Apologies for my rudeness...
though I must admit, I was selfishly hoping
I might catch you in a moment of impropriety.
I just want you to know how happy I am
to have you with us.
See, I pride myself on being a good host,
so any girls that join us here in a professional capacity,
well, I like to welcome them... personally.
I like to think of myself as the Royal food taster,
risking harm to my person, so as to shelter our customers
from any potential poison in the product.
Now there's no need to sequester yourself in the shadows.
( chuckles ) If an egotist, like Rowena admits
to a new hire being attractive, well, then it certainly
is not a matter of opinion, so come on out here.
Let's have a look at you.
Well, if it isn't Miss Josephine Cassidy.
Make peace with your God, Tom.
For what crime do I owe this death sentence, hmm?
Loving you?
How about killing an innocent man?
Doesn't a dying man deserve one last smoke, Cass?
( trigger clicks ) How'd you do it?
- How'd I do what? - How'd you kill him?
The red skinned paramour.
Wasn't Rowena supposed to talk you into using a Derringer?
You think I'd trade my weapon for an empty garter gun?
I suppose the daughter of a whore is smart enough to know never to trust one.
You've got exactly five seconds to unburden yourself and confess to me
how you killed Jakob. Or I could leave it a mystery
and splatter your brains all over the wall.
- Who told you I killed him? - Five...
Oh, your trustworthy old pal, Rowena.
- Four. - Scrupulous to a fault, that one.
I mean, when was the last time a hooker lied to get something they wanted?
- Three. - Who says Jakob is dead?
Or maybe she told you exactly what you needed to hear
to get you to come back.
Back to this town.
Back to me.
You're lyin'.
Am I?
I am so happy that you're home, Cass.
( shouting ) We all are. Aren't we boys?
( Joe gasps )
( Joe moans )
Y'all remember Joe Cassidy?
Of course you do.
Who could forget a prickly pear like her?
I like your new hair, darlin'.
It softens your face.
( crying, coughing )
I am sorry if I hurt you, Joe,
but you hurt me first.
Matter of fact, you shattered my heart
into jagged shards and then sprinkled them pieces all over that campfire.
If you have any heart still left to beat,
I aim to silence it for good.
( laughs )
That's my girl,
staunch to the last.
Let's find this heartbreaker a soft place to lay down
them fiery locks, shall we, boys?
( Joe groans )
And how did you think this was going to end exactly?
( Joe coughs )
( Joe moans )
With your blood on my boots.
( moans )
( metal clasping )
( grunts )
Well, I'll be. This bracelet fits a lot better
than that ring you lost interest in so quickly.
( spits, grunts )
Ain't neither of you long for this world.
Enjoy your last night together.
Joe?
Jake?
( groaning )
You're alive.
I am now.
Lemme guess. They share some poison berries
that Jakob had holstered just in case this ever happened?
Not every one in every story is quite as hung up
- on martyrdom as you are. - Since I don't know what that word means,
I'm gonna go ahead and take it as a compliment.
They say that when lovers are pulled apart by fate and circumstance,
their bond is only strengthened,
as if the heart responds to challenge with resolve.
Are you an authority on love, Cricket?
May I continue?
Josephine Cassidy
was conceived and delivered in that room right there,
daughter of Harley O'Houlihan,
one of the founding members of Belle Vue's most profitable enterprise,
and Cort Cassidy,
part-time killer, full-time drinker.
A young girl who grows up in a saloon,
sees and hears things no child should ever have to,
but when Harley went to work, she'd banish her daughter
from the Belle for days at a time.
Joe would ride out to Cort's ranch
half a day's ride south of Ruby.
Often as always, Rowena would come along.
She was a product of the barkeep taking liberties
with one of Harley's gals,
pretty young thing named Jill, who died giving birth.
Nobody in Ruby paid Rowena no never mind,
so she followed Joe back and forth across that desert,
looked up to her like a sister.
Besides the occasional meal, Cort only really had one thing
to offer his daughter,
after all, even when half in the bag,
he was still a sinister shot.
( whistles )
Hey!
Back in them days,
a hired trigger like Cort Cassidy
could wipe entire families of Apache off their land,
spilling orphans into the desert.
One of them orphans wandered for months through open country
'till he made the mistake of squatting the wrong property.
Hey.
What ya got there?
You're trespassing on my father's land.
And that tree you're digging in belongs to us.
So, whatever you have there is now our property.
Hand it over.
Do you hear me, Cochise?
I said, hand it over.
Give it to me!
( grunts )
Hey!
( boy groans )
( boy moans )
Tom Hayes, you're a bully and a thief.
Leave the poor Apache alone. Can't you see he's a half wit?
I'm gonna knock the teeth out of your head, you little whore.
Call me that again.
He's just a jackass, you know?
A donkey.
A burro.
Do you talk?
I'm not gonna take it, you silly redskin,
I just wanna see it.
You better light outta here.
Tommy's gonna be back with his daddy soon,
and then you've really had it.
He knows where you hide that thing now.
Can't very well leave it behind.
It'll be gone by morning.
Come on, then.
Come on!
That jackass will never look in here.
He's scared of snakes.
Ha! I knew you could understand me.
What's in there that's so damn important anyway?
Yaqui silver?
Them missionaries teach you to talk?
Y'all scalp 'em afterward?
What the hell's this for?
( musical pinging )
I think that's the most wonderful horrible sound
I've ever heard.
What's it say?
Yazzie.
What's that? Your tribe?
No.
That's your name?
No.
Yazzie.
That's your family?
It's your family's name?
Yes.
What's your name?
Everybody knows all the best names come out of this silly book.
That's where my name comes from.
See?
Guess my folks were expecting a boy.
What? You like that name?
You can't be Jakob. Jakob is Joseph's daddy
and I already got me a daddy, see?
That's Cort.
That there's Harley.
Your family?
My folks.
Not much of a family.
Fine, you can be Jakob,
but at least do this.
Otherwise it's just weird.
I been wearing this for way too long.
You wear it.
What's that?
I ain't gonna hurt ya.
Look, I got one, too.
Them saguaros really let you know
if'n you get too close.
Got any more scars, Jakob Yazzie?
Josephine! Rowena! Where'd y'all run off to?
Don't worry, he won't come out here.
He's more scared of them rattlers than you are.
This might be the ugliest goddamn thing I've ever seen.
A local prospector, by the name of Hank Hayes
amassed a small fortune when the Apache were forced out
of the mountain to make way for silver mining.
He was something of a patron saint to the town,
as his deep claims had paid for Ruby's courthouse,
the saloon, and the education of his only son, Tom.
( chuckles )
Ain't ya gonna plug him for what he done?
What he did.
What did he do?
Little red bastard gave me this.
Sure'n you wanna stick to that story?
Poor little squirrel couldn't kick his own ass.
I reckon them gals up there the one's that gave you that bruise.
Perhaps he felt guilty about all that Apache blood
staining the silver he took out of them hills.
Or maybe he was just trying to get a rise out of his ornery son.
Are you Apache or Yaqui?
You understand me, don't you?
Yes.
Well, what's your name, son?
Hank Hayes made a decision,
and with that, Tommy had himself a new brother.
Joe! Get over here.
Hell's that around your neck?
Give it here.
Josephine!
Joe, Come back here!
The thrill of kindred spirits and youthful possibilities
fueled the untarnished heart of a child.
But the journey to adulthood rides saddled with the sting of reality.
And by time Joe Cassidy had been poisoned
by her father's prejudice and her mother's opportunism,
she had forgotten all about her fellow outcast
and landed in the arms of his brother,
the better prospect.
Jake, look out for my fiancée now.
She's the most valuable thing on this ranch.
How long you reckon you'll be?
Shouldn't be more than a few weeks.
Bisbee, Tucson, Phoenix.
Collect on the old man's claims, so...
I'm sorry, Tom.
Your father was good to me.
Well, let's hope he's good to us from beyond the grave.
Got a feeling it's gonna cost me a fortune
to buy that woman a new family tree.
What are you talking about?
Well, I can't very well have the whole territory
knowing who my wife's parents really are.
It's a scandal we're gonna bury under sand and gold.
If it's what she wants.
( chuckles )
Look after the ranch, little brother.
Jake!
If things aren't exactly the same as I left them when I get back,
you and I are gonna have words.
What the hell are you doing out here pointing rifles at cans?
You're gonna get black powder all over that frock, you know.
I'll spray powder all over that red smirking...
You should be thanking me, Joe Cassidy.
You're far too dignified a specimen to be denting cans in public.
No wonder they pay good money to pick your people off this land.
Oh! Your dad took that job very seriously.
The man took pleasure in his work.
You don't know nothin' about my daddy.
You're probably right.
But just think, if Tommy's daddy hadn't paid so much
good money to your daddy, to use this thing on my daddy.
You'd be missing out on the pleasure
of my company right now.
If that story's supposed to make me feel sorry for you...
I don't need your pity, Mrs. Hayes.
It ain't Mrs. Hayes yet.
Pardon me, Miss Cassidy.
I won't make that mistake again.
Promise.
( thunder rumbling )
Damn it to hell!
( Jakob growls )
Oh, oh, cottonfrickin' son of a...
What's all the singing about?
Ain't it a little late to be doing a rain dance?
Can't get the goddamn nail in, unless I get my face
underneath the goddamn hole.
Do I have to get up on the ladder and do it for you?
I wouldn't want you to rip your corset.
( groaning )
Oh, don't you dare hit me with that thing.
Hold this.
Well, come on up here.
This would be a lot easier to do from on top of the roof.
It's raining on top of the roof.
( hammer thumping )
Give me that.
Reckon it won't be too long before you start complaining about being hungry.
- What's that one? - What one?
That one? That big black sumbitch who keeps
- circling the same spot over and over again. - Oh, that one.
We call that one, Angel that Draws Salt from the Earth.
Really?
No.
You ass.
( both laughing )
Why do you assume I know what every bird, snake, and rodent is called?
I don't know. Don't your people have some sacred bond
with the land, sky, and every animal in-between?
My people? You were born here, too, you know?
I've spent a hell of a lot more time with your people than my own.
You really don't know what that thing is?
Of course not. That's why I asked.
It's a turkey vulture.
What are you, thick or something?
Oh, the hell with you.
Hell with you.
( Joe laughing )
What's he circling?
Food.
I know that. What kind?
Hell if I know.
Something that ain't dead yet.
Do you remember when I pulled a gun on Tom for you?
What?
We were kids.
Tom was beating you senseless and I got the drop on him.
Reckon you're confusing dreams from memories.
Yeah, I do that sometimes.
You comfortable in that?
How do you mean?
You're soaked in sweat twice through and your hands are swollen
from those frilly manacles.
Does that dress make you happy?
He gave it to me.
Looks like it's dinner time.
( birds squawking )
If a man arrives home early from his journey,
he may very well find his house empty and his bed cold.
Tom Hayes made such haste riding home from Bisbee
that he was rewarded with the kind of welcome
that no man ever recovers from.
( coyote howling )
How did they meet?
She was a pro. He was a customer.
Ain't hard to make friends on the second floor
of the Belle Vue.
Does he still visit her?
Once a week, every week for the last twenty years.
- Does she charge him? - ( Joe giggles )
That's not a conversation that I'm especially interested in having with my mother.
Why are you so curious about Harley and Cort?
I'm curious about you.
And Tom mentioned you didn't want people knowing
that Harley and Cort were your folks.
Tom doesn't want people knowing they're my folks.
I could give a shit.
But he can't have people knowing that his in-laws
are a whore and her steady drunk.
Do you love him?
Of course not.
( trigger clicks )
Then why are you marrying him?
I thought he could take me away from all this.
Away from this town.
Does that make me a horrible person
to use someone like that?
Not necessarily.
I'm relieved you think that.
Why?
Because I'm not marrying him, Jake.
I don't know if I can take you away from this place, Joe.
I know.
But here I am.
How did that bastard become sheriff anyway?
There were rumors that when Tom Hayes
realized his fiancée was fixin' to leave him
for his adopted brother,
that he used his daddy's fortune to buy himself a badge.
Who'd vote for a monster like that?
The mines had dried up,
the railroad hadn't passed through here yet.
Tom Hayes was the only person in town with any seed.
And he planted it in all the right pockets.
Why didn't people just leave?
Lot of them did.
Before Hank Hayes passed on, this town was fixin' to be
another Bisbee.
Plenty of farms, homesteads, ranches, promise.
But when his son became sheriff,
this palatial establishment we're currently residing in,
as well as Harley O'Houlihan's pleasure parlor upstairs,
became the center of this town.
And the only profitable business left in it.
With the engagement called off,
rumors began to swirl as to why Tom Hayes
hadn't just gunned down his fiancée and brother.
But he never threatened the lovers,
nor involved himself in their affairs.
Instead, he took up residence in the Belle Vue.
Using his father's money and political influence,
he set about rewriting the rule of law in Ruby.
Still, Joe and Jakob behaved cautiously
around Tom at all times.
Uneasy about the new sheriff's intentions,
they made quiet preparations for their escape.
But shortly after Tom had taken control of the saloon,
Harley's consumption reared up with a fierce vengeance.
So, at Rowena's pleading,
Joe decided she couldn't leave her mother to die alone in a brothel.
When Harley passed and the lovers were finally free to run away,
they decided to do so separately.
Worried they might be spotted by Hayes or his deputies,
Joe left first and Jakob stayed behind
to collect on his poker winnings.
Once he had the money, he would ride out to meet her
and they would head west together.
That was the plan.
Tom Hayes could have killed the lovers,
and that would have been the end of this here story.
But in the glow of that campfire,
he decided death was too good for 'em.
He wanted them to hurt the way that he had hurt.
And the best way to hurt a person
ain't to hurt that person,
it's to hurt the person they love.
How did he do it?
He shot him.
In the street?
Harley's room.
Did you see it?
I didn't have to.
Then how do you know?
He's dead, Joe.
I'm going back to Ruby.
You can't do that.
They'll be on you the moment you set foot onto Main Street.
There's no place in that town he doesn't have eyes.
If you go back to Ruby and get yourself shot,
- then what did he die for? - What did he die for?
If he were still alive, he'd beg you not to do anything foolish.
He'd want you to stay away.
You best take that little whore's advice to heart, Josephine.
Mama was a whore.
Well, she'd be the first to admit that.
Is that how you see 'em?
As whores first and women second?
I'd trust the judgment of a whore
over just about anyone.
You trusted Harley?
You think she loved you?
Why you so concerned whether your mama and I loved each other?
Because she's dead, Cort.
I thought you should know there won't be warm body
and a bottle waiting for you above the Belle anymore.
- Your mama, she... - Don't hurt yourself, Cort.
Maybe you can get together with all of Harley's regulars.
Who knows how many brothers and sisters I have scattered
- all over the territory. - ( gun shots )
I'll pluck your eyebrows off
if you don't watch your mouth about your mama.
Harley O was the decentist woman I ever had the...
If you loved her so much, then how come you didn't take her away from this life?
I told her every time I saw her that I loved her.
She never came to see ya?
Sent that Rowena out here to deliver a few letters.
You and I have both had someone taken from us.
You can't hunt down consumption,
but I can put a bullet in the heart of that seed sucker
who killed Jake and made a slave out of Harley.
Good. You just leave me out of it.
You're too busy pinin' for a whore you can't even shoot straight.
I shoot just fine, young lady,
but stomping into a suicide mission
to avenge some Apache bastard that gives you the vapors
just ain't the way I planned on ending my life.
Are you sure you want your last words in this world
to be a slur about a man who died today?
( trigger clicks )
As far as I'm concerned, that Apache bastard
is the only family I got.
Well, you got every right to go and seek your revenge.
But I don't owe him nothin'.
I thought there was a good man buried
inside that poisonous husk.
You may have me confused with someone else.
You may have thought that Apache
was the only family you ever had.
By God, now I'm really the family you got left.
I'm going to Ruby to kill Hayes
with or without your help.
Well, you gonna see your mama again,
a lot sooner than I will.
Hayes woulda already plugged you twice
in the time it took you to aim your first shot.
I thought you said you didn't want any part of this.
I don't. Don't mean I'm averse to entertainment.
What sick sense of humored sumbitch
taught you how to shoot?
Hell, maybe some people just can't be taught.
( chickens clucking )
If you want poultry for supper, I suggest using a hatchet.
You smoke them hens with a bullet,
the meat just ends up tasting of antimony.
You ever do any actual ranchin'?
This spread's about as useful for ranching
as a cactus is for a saddle.
So then how'd you pay for all this?
( gunshots )
So killin' still pays well.
Pays a hell of a lot better than conspiring.
Unarmed Navajo, Apache, Chinese, women and children, they deserve it?
You will forgive me if the judgment
of a petulant child smacks of hypocrisy.
And you think killing Hayseed Hayes
is gonna give you that satisfaction?
I'll let you know.
What are you closing one eye for?
Close one eye, you just gonna see half as much.
Plus you just gonna end up spraying wide
cause you ain't got no depth perception.
I know you think I'm an ancient, bigoted, drunken fool,
and you're not wrong. But tell me, Lady Vengeance,
how is it that someone twice your age
and twice as drunk as you can get three dead eye shots off
in the time it takes you to get one?
- Because you've been practicing your whole life? - Wrong.
Because you're so drunk, you're not even trying to aim?
That's close.
I ain't got time for the ramblings
of a lonely pickled reptile.
You're so busy lookin' that you ain't seein'.
For every second you spend crossing your eyes at your target...
( yelling )...you lose two split seconds you could have spent firing!
Tell me how, Cort! Tell me how to shoot like you.
Look, I ain't never asked for anything,
and you ain't never given me anything.
I gave you my name.
Give me something I can use, Daddy.
Give me something I can use to defend myself.
You don't wanna defend yourself,
you wanna take a man's life.
Josephine.
Now your hand is on its way from wherever it was
to pointin' directly at your target.
A weapon is just something it happens to pick up along the way.
The holster tosses you the gun
as your hand rides by it.
The gun matches the speed of your hand.
It joins it.
Go again.
- ( Joe chuckling ) - What was that?
- I shattered the son of a bitch. - No, you didn't.
- I did. - No, you did not.
You took three to the chest
before you even had a chance to fire your first shot.
Go!
Go again!
Why is your hand shaking like a punch-drunk pugilist?
There ain't no blood left in it.
Tell your veins to pump the blood where it's needed.
You in charge of your hand,
or it in charge of you?
I guess that answers that question.
- Better. - I missed.
Yeah, your eyes don't aim, your arm aims.
When you blink, does your weapon discharge?
- No. - What discharges your weapon?
- My hand? - Your arm.
Hand is an extension of your arm.
- Fingers an extension of your hand. - All right.
Your arm aims the gun. Your finger pulls the trigger.
- Now they do the work, so they make the rules. - All right.
- Your eyes don't even hardly factor into it. - All right!
All right, then.
- ( horse whinnies ) - What are you doing, Cass?
- Don't call me that. - Why not?
- He calls me that. - Who?
You know who.
Hate that crooked son of a bitchin' badge polisher?
- Yes. - You wanna put two in between them blank
- beady eyes of his? - Yes.
You want him to answer for Jakob?
- Yes. - Draw that Colt!
( gunfire )
Better.
( snoring )
You all right?
- What's it look like? - Looks like you haven't slept.
What's it to you?
Are we gonna go shootin' or you wanna get into bed?
I want you to leave me alone.
( Joe sighs ) You know, I thought you were gonna help me.
Help you do what?
Help you get yourself killed?
I'm not like Harley, Cort.
I'm like you. ( chuckles )
I never wanted to believe it, but I can't deny it any longer.
So what?
So you're the best shot I've ever seen.
And if you can make me half the shot you are,
I'll be twice the shot Hayes is,
- so I shouldn't have a problem... - So you can what?
Why don't you put that bottle down
and come with me back to Ruby?
Aren't you listenin' to me, girl?!
( sobbing )
- You shouldn't have come back. - Why?
Because you were safe. You'd gotten away.
You should have stayed there.
You couldn't bear the thought that he won, could you?
So, whether he shot you yesterday or hung you tomorrow,
- I should just let him get away with it? - To hell with him.
I knew I couldn't trust you to look after yourself.
The hell with you, too.
I leave you alone for five minutes
and you get your skinny ass caught.
Nobody asked you to come back here.
If I hadn't come back here you'd have a noose around your neck by now.
- I can take care of myself. - Clearly.
Bump off Hayes, then what, huh? You shoot your way out?
I didn't care what happened after I killed him.
- Joe, you have to be smarter than that! - No, I don't, Jake.
No, I don't! You're the smart one.
You've always been the smart one.
And I thought you were dead, so I didn't give a damn
if they plugged me the minute I left that room.
Harley's room.
Hell, it's where she died, after all.
Worse places to take my last breath.
( chuckles )
He ain't never gonna leave us alone, is he?
Not as long as we're both still alive.
( piano music playing )
Ever spent any time in lock up?
I have.
Didn't care for it much.
They didn't let you bring your piano in with you?
If memory serves, my jailbird days
preceded my ivory ticklin' days.
Oh, you didn't play piano as a child?
( chuckles ) No, there weren't a lot of pianos where I come from.
Where's that?
Not too far from here.
This town is like a well.
Anything gets too close and it ends up fallin' in
and never climbin' out.
That's why smart people keep their distance.
Even if they're dying of thirst.
Why haven't you left?
What?
What's keeping you here? You got family?
Family?
No.
You hogtied to this piano?
Getting a lot of satisfaction out of serenading
drunken lowlifes on their way to Nogales?
Ask me another question.
What made her believe Jake was dead
in the first place?
She made a mistake.
And what was that?
She trusted someone.
( Tom whistling )
When my father died, he said I wish you could have been
more like your younger brother.
He said I could have learned something from my brother.
This was never about you, Tom.
It shows what you know about a man's heart, Cass.
- Don't call me that. - A man loves what he loves
because that's what he loves.
It ain't got nothin' to do with whether or not it loves him back.
You holstering a rejoinder, hard breather?
You don't have to do this, Tom.
Let her go. She's innocent.
Innocent says you.
You realize this woman started her evening
by pointing a gun at the publicly elected lawman
of this here municipality?
Who exactly elected you?
And the penalty for attempted murder
of a sheriff in Hachitoa County
is death by hanging.
And what's his crime?
Just keep me here and let him go.
Tell you what.
Why don't we make this easy on ourselves.
Hmm?
Two bullets.
Two bullets to change your world.
The way I figure it, you can pick up that gun,
shoot the other one,
shoot yourself,
and then the two of you can shuffle off
in a blaze of glory all "Romeo and Juliet" fashion.
Or you could pick up that gun,
shoot me,
shoot the other one,
and then toss the gun back at my lifeless body
and convince whoever comes through that door in the morning
that I was consumed by a fit of homicidal suicidal jealousy.
Or I could just shoot you twice in the head
and not give a shit what anyone thinks.
It is going to be hard to convince anyone
that I got two in my own head before I went down, Cass.
Don't call me that.
Then when they find out who was responsible in the morning,
you're both gonna swing anyway.
Maybe just one in the head
and Jake and I make your suicide sound real convincing.
I dropped four rounds at my feet,
popped myself with the fifth,
and then left a live one in the barrel.
There is not a deputy in this town
that's gonna believe I was drunk enough for that.
Sorry, Cass.
- Joe, don't! - Come on, Cass!
Come on! Put us all out of our misery.
Make Papa Cort proud.
- Joe! - ( gun clicks )
You see that?
I just told her you were gonna get
your neck stretched in the morning,
and she still couldn't help but use those precious
imaginary bullets on me.
You may think this woman loves you, Jakob,
and you may be right,
but I can Goddamn well guarantee you
she ain't got the necessary faculties to love your ass
half as much as she hates mine.
She truly is her father's daughter.
Well, I guess the main question of the evening is,
which one of you gets to go first in the morning?
Cause the second one gets to watch.
( Tom whistling )
Big night for him,
getting to watch us suffer.
That man suffered because of us, Josephine.
He ain't a man.
He's a boy. Always been a boy.
He didn't deserve what we did to him.
He hasn't recovered.
We may have caused him pain,
the difference is we never took any joy in it.
His daddy had a saying,
an open door might invite the bad,
but a closed door rejects any possibility of the good.
It's all right to get angry, Jake.
I reckon you got enough anger inside you
for both of us, Joe Cassidy.
How'd we end up here, you and I?
There ain't no one else I'd rather spend my last night on Earth with.
( glass shatters )
Oh. ( chuckles )
I'm sorry, darlin', did I wake you up?
I didn't mean to frighten you.
I brought some hooch, but it looks like you started without me.
That's all right, as long as you're not too drunk
to rub my tired feet.
Sheriff Hayes sent me.
Got me up out of bed.
Said his best man was stuck in here all night,
cold and bored, doing his job,
guarding the condemned and all.
Said I oughta come and keep you company.
Said I was to do whatever you asked,
whatever you wanted, for as long as you wanted,
and I said, "Yes, sir, Sheriff, sir."
Did I do wrong?
You're not gonna send me all the way back
up to the Belle before sunrise, are you?
That's what I thought.
Don't be greedy, we ain't got enough blankets
to carry the whole Goddamn arsenal.
Where we gonna stash 'em?
Do I have to do everything for you two? Use your imagination.
And don't forget them cartridges.
Those are thirty thirty Remington shells, genius.
It's a Winchester. It's a fourty four caliber rifle?
Okay, then.
Hand me that satchel.
( thumps )
Rowena?
Well, you may have lost your looks, Jake,
but at least you still got your eyesight.
What the hell are you doing here?
What's it look like, Ginger? I'm springin' you.
Why?
I mean, she's got a real gratitude problem, don't she?
Well, maybe I'll just spring him.
And I leave your ass for Hayes to string up.
- Rowena, listen to me. - Why should I ever trust you again?
You're the reason we're in here.
I made a mistake, now I'm trying to make it right.
You told me Jake was dead.
- You told me he was dead! - ( Rowena screams )
You left me out there believing he was dead this whole time.
- Then you helped Hayes trap me. - Joe, don't!
- Why shouldn't I just wash these bars with your... - Joe!
- ( Rowena gasping ) - You helped that son of a bitch and now you're in here.
Why should I believe you?
It wasn't my fault! He lied to me.
You lied to me.
- He promised me. - Promised you what?
That he'd let me go?
He promised me that if I helped him lure you back he'd let Jake go.
The hell you say?
( gasps )
I thought that maybe if he knew I was the reason,
someday he might look at me the way he's always looked at you.
You both need to get outta here. Right now.
- No! - ( gunfire )
( Rowena gasping )
Take care of him for me.
Hayes: Poor sweet little Rowena. Shame to see her go.
Just when I was beginning to trust her.
But aiding in a jail break is punishable by death.
That's just law of the land, I'm afraid.
You confound me, Cass.
Shedding tears for that little turncoat
who was more than happy to trade your life
for a chance to dig her claws into your redskin.
I'm gonna kill you.
You're in no position to be making threats, my old friend.
Maybe I'll just string that noose up right about here.
I wish you would.
I really do.
And that is exactly why I won't.
Hachitoa County municipal code expressly forbids public execution
before 7:00 a. m. on the Lord's day.
I oughta know. I wrote the law myself.
You look out that window, you should be able to see
the sun hit them gallows at 7:01.
Enjoy the show.
( screaming )
- ( man grunting ) - ( Joe gasps )
( Joe moaning )
Well, you're not looking your best, Josephine.
But I guess you proved me wrong.
You still alive.
No thanks to you.
I am sorry, darlin'.
I've had just about all the apologies I can handle for one morning.
Think you can knock Hayes off a gallows with these
before he has a chance to string up your boy?
If you can keep those bastard deputies off me.
Don't think you gonna be exchanging no gunfire wearing that frock.
Well, well.
If it isn't the surviving members of the Cassidy clan.
Why don't you just let 'em go, Tom?
The three of us will ride outta here.
You'll never see us again.
Not a very strong bargaining chip, Cort.
What makes you think I'd ever let this one get away again?
Do you have any idea how many guns are on you right now?
You got any idea how many eyes are on you right now?
I own them eyes.
That boy may be an arrogant ornery troublemaker,
but that don't make him a criminal.
You really gonna execute an innocent man
in front of all creation?
Who's gonna stop me, Cort?
You?
Your daughter?
Them whores?
You ain't gonna do a goddamn thing.
You're gonna stand there and watch me hang
this backstabbing, freeloading home wrecker.
Then you are gonna turn tail on Harley's child
and run to your dusty bottle back in the desert.
Drop that door, Boggs.
He killed Rowena!
She was unarmed and alone and he shot her in the back
like the coward sumbitch he is.
Are you really gonna spend your lives giving half your nut
to a murderer just 'cause he has a badge bought and paid for?
When you gonna say enough is enough?
( gunfire continues )
Hold your fire.
Hold your...
( screaming )
Cass...
Listen to me.
Y'all can ride out out here. I promise not to follow you.
I mean it. Just get on out of here.
Kill an unarmed man.
If loving you is punishable by death,
then I'm gonna go with a clean conscience.
I love you, Joe Cassidy.
I'll see you in...
( bell tolling )
Come back to me, all right?
Joe!
That was fast.
Not quite fast enough.
I'm so sorry, Jake.
Don't you dare do this to me again.
I thought you were dead.
Joe, please.
And that was so much more painful than this.
I can't do this without you.
Yes, you can. For me, you can.
Anything for you, Joe Cassidy.
I love you, Jake.
Were you just trying to make a point
or is that story true?
I'm afraid it's true.
And a lady like yourself deserves the truth.
I appreciate that, Cricket.
It's gonna be awful cold in my room.
I don't know where you plan on sleeping,
but we could fight off that chill together.
Now that's the finest offer I've had in many years, Q.
And I'd be the luckiest man in the territory
if I were to accept such a gift,
but I ain't loved but one woman.
And she's the only one I can imagine falling asleep next to.
Do you think of her when you play
all them melancholy love songs in here?
Every single note.
It's almost sunrise.
Getting to be about that time.
I ain't never seen a sunrise.
( chuckling )
- Well that's... that's tragic. - Why is that?
A sunrise is at least twice as beautiful as a sunset.
Twice?
It's more magical,
more symbolic.
More deeply cleansing.
To the sunrise.
May she never take a day off.
Whew.
You know, I'm pretty sure that train depot faces East.
What are you saying, young lady?
I'm saying, that platform would be a mighty fine place
to see the sunrise.
Watch the steam from the dawn train
gettin' closer by the minute.
Nogales behind, Tucson ahead.
Ain't nowhere but here, Q.
You know, leaving this place
don't mean you've left her behind.
Uh, you forgot your little friend.
Ain't my friend, and I don't plan on needing him.
( clanging )
Hey, Q!
Let a humble admirer pay your way.
Appreciate the offer, but I ain't never bought
myself a train ticket before,
and I'm kinda looking forward to it.
Don't you dare get off that train 'till you spot
someplace out that window you ain't never seen before.
You take care of yourself, ivory tickler.
( piano music playing )
( music playing )