“Rocco. He liked hinting at things.”
“Like killing girls?”
“I don’t think Rocco did it. I think the boss himself got tired of them and did it.”
“How’d they die?”
Rudy Beaver shrugged. “I never wanted to know.”
“Why did you hide this from the law? Why didn’t you come to town and tell me?”
“You don’t know nothing, Sheriff, and you didn’t learn a thing from me. Zat clear?”
“Did Crayfish kill Rocco?”
“No, that Bragg kid did it.”
“Why would the kid do that?”
“Beats me, Sheriff. But that Bragg kid solved all of Crayfish’s problems for him, including the calf-rustling of those Jonas boys.”
“Sure is wonderful, how King Bragg solved all of Crayfish’s problems, ain’t it?”
Rudy, he just wheezed and laughed and winked at me.
“That Double Plus brand I saw on some calves, is that Crayfish’s new brand?”
“It is now, because the Jonas boys sort of surrendered it.”
“So when we hang King Bragg, it’ll all be over. The killer got hanged. Crayfish won’t have anyone rustling his calves, and there won’t be anyone blackmailing him either.”
Rudy Beaver wheezed. “You’re a real card, Sheriff. Watch your back!”
“How do you know this stuff, Rudy?”
“Because I’m deaf and read lips mostly.”
“So nobody cares what they say around you?”
“Naw…Lookee here, Sheriff. I’m crazy and I made all this up.”
“Just imagining it, I guess.”
He peered right into my face. “Just thinking stuff up to pass the time. It sure is slow, nothing happening on the place. You get the picture? Just thinking stuff up. I’m crazy as a loon.”
“Crayfish, he’s a fine fellow, right?”
The old boy eyed me. “Nobody pays attention to a crazy old loon like me. Don’t you either. I’m half blind, half deaf, and half crazy, so what I think don’t matter none.”
“You see any of it? You see Catfish do anything to them girls?”
“Don’t even know what you’re talking about, dammit. Now you’re trespassing on private property. This is the T-Bar ranch, mister, so you just turn that horse around and get your skinny butt off the place.”
“How did Crayfish kill them women out there?”
“How should I know!”
“You like to imagine things. That’s what you said. So in your mind, when you’re thinking about stuff around here, how did Crayfish do it?”
“Bullwhip.”
That sure startled me some. I got so I could hardly sit on Critter. “Bullwhip? Whipping those girls he rented from the parlor houses? Whipping them to death?”
“Just my notions floating around in my head,” Rudy said. “Don’t matter none.”
“But you saw it happen? Saw Crayfish—”
“Naw, I’m the hear no evil see no evil do no evil monkey.” He laughed, and suddenly lifted the shotgun until its twin bores were poking straight at me.
“Okay, okay, I’m going,” I said.
“You never was here. I just think up things to pass the time away.”
“Okay, I never was here. See ya.”
I slowly wheeled Critter around, before he kicked Rudy to death, and we edged away. Them black bores of that scattergun sure made my back itch.
The shotgun blast startled me bad; Critter began pitching and screeching. I was lifted out of the saddle a couple of times, and then Critter started to whirl and fishtail and rear up and land hard.
But Rudy Beaver, he was wheezing and slapping his knee, and waving that shotgun all over the place. I looked around for bright red blood on me or Critter, but didn’t see nothing at all, just brown horse and a lot of me sitting on him. That buckshot had splintered some rough-sawn wood of a shed nearby.
“You ha! Hoo we! Har de har,” Beaver was yelling. He had pulled his ancient, sweat-stained hat off, and was flapping it as fast as he flapped his gums. “I bagged a sheriff!”
It didn’t take any encouragement from me for Critter to bolt out of there. I peered back, fearful that the old boy would be lifting that shotgun, and I’d have to shoot him, which I knew I could do. But Rudy Beaver had settled
