inside the wall, your partner’s likely anxious to rejoin us.”
He frisked the midget, relieving him of a man-sized S&W Detective Special .38 and saying, “Shame on you, sonny!” before he motioned the dwarf to a seat in a far corner and, still covering him, relit the room’s candle. Then he went over to where Mabel Hanks was yelling curses through the mattress and pulled down the folding bed.
The naked woman rolled out of the wall and sat up, staring wildly around through the hair hanging over her face as she gasped, “What in the hell’s happening?”
Then she spotted the midget in the corner and sighed, “Oh, shit!”
“Let’s talk about it,” Longarm suggested. He saw the girl moving as if to get to her discarded nightgown and said, flatly, “You just stay put, honey. It ain’t like we’re strangers and have to be formally dressed. Either one of you can tell me who the hell you are, as long as somebody says something sudden.”
The one called Cedric said, “We’re private detectives. Our badges are in the other room. You want to see them?”
“I’ll take your word for it. Why were you detecting me? I don’t remember being wanted anywhere. Last time I looked, I was toting my own badge for Uncle Sam.”
Cedric said, “Hell, we know that. We’re out here after the reward.”
“What reward would that be, friend?”
“The one on Frank and Jesse James, of course. Our agency works for the railroad and the James-Younger Gang has been playing hell with their timetables. We was on our way to Crooked Lance, same as you, to fetch that Cotton Younger back to Missouri.”
“Don’t you mean to make a deal with him? Maybe a deal to spring him loose in exchange for Jesse James’s new address?”
The midget detective shot a weary glance at his naked female partner and sighed, “I told you they said he was a smart one, Mabel. Look what your hungry old snatch has gotten us into, this time!”
“Oh shut up, you little pissant! It’s not my fault! I told you you were overplaying your part!” She smiled timidly at Longarm and added, “You might as well know the truth. I’ll admit I did try to find out what you might know about Cotton Younger and the odd situation up in Crooked Lance. You see, one of our agents came out here a week ago and…”
“Spare me the details. I know something in Crooked Lance seems to eat lawmen for breakfast. As to overplaying parts, I’m sort of interested in why Cedric, here, was trying to creep in on us just now.”
“I done no such thing!” the midget protested, adding, “I had my ear against the plywood when all hell busted loose out there! I can see someone was using the old paper trick, but, honest Injun, you are barking up the wrong tree.”
“Why were you hiding under the bed, then?”
“Hell, I was scared! I heard running in the hall, cracked open the door, and saw you bounce out stark naked with a full-grown gun in your fist! Before you could turn and blow my fool face off I dove for cover. You know the rest!”
“You’re likely full of shit, but saying you ain’t, did you get a look at anyone attached to them running footsteps?”
“No. Whoever it was made the stairwell before I got to the door. Ain’t you aiming to put that gun away?”
“Maybe. Tell me something a man with his head against that plywood might have heard.”
“What are you talking about? All I heard was you and Mabel—you know.”
“I don’t know. I know what she was saying as I heard the key hit paper. If your ear was next to that plywood, you must have heard it, too.”
The woman blushed, for real this time, and stammered, “Longarm, you’re being nasty!”
But Longarm insisted, “Cedric?” and with a malicious grin at the naked woman on the bed, the midget said, “She said what you were doing to her was just lovely.”
Longarm lowered the muzzle of his.44, nodded at the woman on the bed, and said, “You can get dressed now.”
Mabel Hanks leaned over, grabbed up her nightgown and put it on, gathering the other things in one hand. He saw she was looking at the two gold eagles lying on the rug near the foot of the bed and said, “Leave ‘em be, honey. I don’t know what I owe you, but twenty dollars seems a mite steep, considering.”
“You-you son of a bitch!”
“Will you settle for two bucks? I understand it’s the going price, these days. I don’t hold it against you that we never finished the last time.”
She swept grandly out, too mortified to answer. The midget dropped off the chair with a smirk and edged his way for the door, saying, “I’d be willing to split that reward, if you want to talk things over.”
“You talked just enough to save your ass, old son. And by the way, you need a shave. You and your Mama hit Crooked Lance with that stubble on your pretty little chin and there might be some who haven’t my refined sense of humor!”
Cedric hesitated in the doorway with a sly smile on his ugly little face as he asked, “You don’t aim to give our show away, Longarm?”
The big lawman laughed good-naturedly and asked, “Why should I? I’ve enjoyed the show immensely!”
