to use it for my wicked seductions, if such was my intention?”
Durler said, “She told me you caught her in our room, making the bed, and-“
“Damn it, she makes all the beds at the same time,” Longarm interrupted. “Besides that, if I was some sort of mad rapist, Miss Prudence, here, has been all alone at my mercy without a husband to protect her. Ain’t that right, Miss Prudence?”
The missionary blushed and stammered, “What are you saying? We’ve never been improper together!”
“There you go, Cal, and meaning no disrespect to your woman, this single gal, here, is no uglier. Well, never mind. The point I’m aiming at is that I’d be too foolish to be let out without a keeper if I’d been fooling with a married-up woman under her own roof with a good-looking single gal alone next door.”
Prudence Lee added, “I can assure you, Calvin, Mr. Long has been a perfect gentleman the times we’ve been alone, and come to think of it, he’s been alone with me more often than with Nan.”
Longarm asked, “Can I let you up now, Cal?”
“Well, maybe I won’t shoot anybody just yet, but I’ve got a lot of questions to ask everybody hereabouts!”
Longarm untied his wrists and ankles and helped him to his feet as Durler muttered murderously, “Somebody’s been trying to pull the wool over my eyes, God damn it.”
“I know. Why don’t we all go over to your place and have us a pow-wow with your woman?”
But when the three of them got to the agency kitchen, they met Nan Durler with a packed carpetbag and a defiant look on her face. Durler said, “Honey, we’ve got to talk about this situation.” But his wife snapped, “I’m through talking, you mealy-mouthed nitwit! If you were any kind of a man at all, you’d have killed him for what he did to me!”
“He says he didn’t do it, Nan.”
“I don’t care who says what to anybody!” Nan Durler exploded. “I’m taking one of the ponies into Switchback. You can pick it up at the livery. I’m going where men know how to do right by a lady!”
She swept grandly out, and as Durler followed, pleading, Longarm caught Prudence by the elbow and murmured, “Stay here with me and let ‘em have it out.”
“I don’t want her to tell him more lies about you. I’ve never met a woman with such an evil tongue!” Prudence said with righteous indignation.
“I have. I’d say her mind’s made up and she’s leaving peaceably. Her notions on collecting a government pension as the widow of a federal employee didn’t pan out, but she’s on her way East and he won’t be turning her around.”
“Oh, good heavens! I didn’t even consider a pension! So that’s why she wanted you both to fight!”
“Only partly. Since Cal ain’t listening, I will confess she did try to get me to do what she said, only I wouldn’t, and she was likely moody enough about it to not care all that much which of us got buried. Since she never figured she’d have to repeat her fool tale under cross-examination, I suspicion she’s given up. He’ll be fool enough to tag along all the way to town, but she’s getting on that train. Her jaw was set for a long trip elsewhere.”
“Well, he’s well rid of her, I suppose,” Prudence said. “But what’s to become of her?”
“Don’t know. Don’t care. She’ll find another man, or failing at that, take up the trade she was likely born for. I doubt she’ll become a missionary.”
Prudence Lee’s eyes narrowed as she snapped, “Just what was that supposed to mean, sir?”
“Just funning.”
Longarm was drinking alone in the Switchback saloon that night when Jason joined him at the bar. Jason said, “Heard you took a room at the railroad hotel.”
Longarm said, “Just for the night. I’ll be pulling out for Denver in the morning.”
“Oh, you finished here?” Jason asked, surprised. “I thought it might have something to do with that domestic trouble out at the agency.”
“Jesus, news travels in a small town, don’t it? The back-fence gossips must have had a lot of fun when Durler’s old woman left on the evening train.”
“I heard something about her leaving him. Surprised you’re leaving, though. When I rode in to see the Crow police off they said you had some loose ends left hereabouts.”
“There’s loose ends and there’s loose ends, Jason. Sometimes, in my trade, it pays to leave a few be. The Wendigo killings have stopped, and I can’t find Johnny Hunts Alone. Meanwhile, there’s more work waiting for me back in Denver and my boss is getting moody about it.”
“I see. So we’ll likely never know how Mendez pulled off some of it, or why, eh?”
Longarm said, “Oh, I got the Wendigo’s moves nailed down. Like I suspicioned, he was using the railroad and those burlap boots to get on and off the reservation. Killed his victims with that South American bolo, and you know the rest.”
Jason scratched at his thick-stubbled jaw. “Damned if I do! What about that Ghost Dancer, killed miles from the track, or old Real Bear, murdered right next door to the agency? No tracks near there, were there?”
“Mendez never killed those two,” Longarm explained, “The Ghost Dancer was killed by … never mind. The point is, the Indian who got rid of a troublemaker before he could get the tribe in hot water did everyone a favor, and what the hell.”
“What about the old chief?” Jason asked, puzzled.
“Oh, that was Johnny Hunts Alone. Real Bear had recognized and turned the rascal in. So he butchered the old man and skinned him. You said the breed was once a hide-skinner, remember?”
Jason snapped his fingers. “That’s right, and Real Bear’s head wasn’t cut off, either!”
