Suzanne Brockmann - Infamous

Everyones heard the story about Marshal Silas Quinn and the infamous gunfight at the Red Rock Saloon.

A travelogue to the American Southwest says it better than I ever could:

Like the sinking of the Titanic or the Great Chicago Fire, like the burning of Atlanta during the Civil War or the age-old feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys, the legend of the violent showdown between Marshal Quinn and the Kelly Gang in Jubilation, Arizona, in 1898 is known to every schoolchild across this great land.

It is the quintessential story that defines the heroic struggle of good men to tame the wild lawlessness of the Old American West, and although it has been told and retold dozens of times, the drama and tragedy never get old.

Says who?

Id always kind of hoped that the interest in this tale would finally just fade away, but here it is, the year of our Lord 2010, and some Hollywood types are making yet another motion picture about the hoopla. This ones called Quinn, like the man is Cher.

Anyway, kids, here we go again. Someone obviously believes that the countless films already madeboth silent and talkiesarent already overkill. Ive always treated em as comedies, and gotten a good chuckle from the lot.

And then there were the dime novel versions of the story. I used to read em aloud to my great-grandson, the pair of us laughing like damn fools at the melodrama.

Unhand her, I say, you egregious villain, you contemptible dastard, you odious blackguard! Quinn roared.

Wed try our damnedest, but with that mouthful of fifty-cent words, it was hard to keep a good roar going. Of course, we werent Silas Quinn, the lionhearted and valiant savior, friend to widows and orphans, a knight in shining armor on his dauntless white steed.

But then again, Silas Quinn wasnt Silas Quinn either.

At least not the honorable, well-educated version of the man from the legend, with his powerful vocabulary. The Quinn I knew had never bothered to learn to read. His favorite adjective started with an F and was far overused. His preferred name-calling noun wasnt even close to dastard or blackguard. It started with a C and ended with a sucker.

Which is not the type of historical correction that a man wants to tell a wide-eyed six-year-old. Particularly one whose mother cooked me dinner every night.

So we kind of skipped over that part as we compared the truth to the fiction.

The legend was what it was, or so I tried to teach the boy, same as I taught his grandfather, and father, and all of his many aunts and uncles and cousins before him. It didnt harm us. We had, without a doubt, gotten the last laugh.

It was there, that chuckle of appreciation, at every sunrise, every sunset, and every time I sat out on the front porch of my house, lost in my memories of lying in the arms of the woman I loved.

But I digress.

I should probably repeat the legend herein case its been awhile and you need a brief refresher in the whats, the whys, and the wherefores.

Here it is, in a nutshell, again taken directly from that travelogue:

In 1898, Marshal Silas Quinn rode into the silver-mining town of Jubilation, looking to bring law and order to that wild but prospering corner of the Arizona Territory. He did so quickly, eager to send for his beautiful young wife, Melody, having decided that Jubilation would be a good place for them to call home.

But he sent for her too soon. Not long after her stagecoach rolled into town, the Kelly Gang arrived, too, accompanied by the notorious gunslinger and gambler, Jamie the Kid Gallagher.

Tension in Jubilation soon hit the boiling point, and Marshal Quinn courageously went up against the outlaws in the Red Rock Saloon. Outgunned seven to one, Quinn single-handedly killed five of the vicious gang members and sent two men running for the border.

But Kid Gallagher was among the survivors, much to Jubilations misfortune. To avenge Bo Kellys deathnot because they were friends, but because Kelly owed him moneyGallagher kidnapped Melody, and left town with both the marshals wife and the entire contents of the Jubilation Bank and Trust.

Desperate to save the woman he loved, Silas Quinn raced after them, but arrived too late. Melody was already dead at the Kids vicious hand. Overcome with rage and grief, Quinn shot the outlaw, who died without telling a soul where hed hidden the fortune hed stolen.

Marshal Silas Quinn quietly lived out the remainder of his days in Jubilation, making the town safe for all who lived there. He prospered and remarried in 1899. His second wife, Agatha, bore him a daughter, but he died from what historians believe was a burst appendix shortly before the child turned six.

His final words were of his beautiful Melody, and some think that, in truth, he died of a broken heart.

And okay. All right. Some of that is true.

The towns name was Jubilation, and it was in the Arizona territory. And Silas Quinn did diepraise be to Jesussome years after his second wife bore him a daughter. And yes, his first wife, Melody, was uncommonly beautiful, Ill grant you that, too.

But that nickname, Kid? Pure fiction.

Matter of fact, the entire legends a crock of carefully manufactured horseshit. Its about as historically accurate as the Three Little Pigs, with its oversimplification of good versus evil.

And I should know, because I was there.

Im the big, bad wolf.

Thats right, my name is Jamie Gallagherno Kid, I never was a Kid. In fact, I barely had a childhood. And while Ill hold to that truth that the legend never hurt any of us, enough is enough.

Its about damn time that I climb out of this pigs stewpot that Ive let myself be jammed in, and help my great-grandson, A.J., set the story straight.

Jubilation, Arizona
Present day

The son of a bitch was going to make her lie.

Sons of bitches, Alison Carter corrected herself, because her adorable new friend Hugh was part of this hideous charade. In fact, it was rapidly becoming crystal clear that thisher impending liewas the young production assistants reason for bringing her here, to this undetermined level of hell. Oh, it looked like the dusty street outside of movie star Trace Marcuss huge trailer, but it was definitely hell.