proper, no matter whether he did it or not. We’re going to have justice here. You understand me?”
“I sorta don’t.”
“You bring in evidence, someone who actually saw Crayfish shoot those punks, and I’ll cancel the show for you.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I want evidence. I’ll spell it out. E-V-A-D-E-N-C-E.”
“I understand, Your Honor.”
He turned down the wick. “And don’t wake me up in the middle of the night again. Especially for this nonsense.”
He let me out, and I heard the door thunder shut and the bolt drop. It sure was dark. I’d never seen it so dark. There were stars up there, but nothing to guide me and I hardly knew where to go. Back to my room at Belle’s boardinghouse, I supposed, but I didn’t want to sleep. I didn’t know what I wanted to do, except pull this case wide open and find out for sure what happened there in the Last Chance that evening. I had a day and a half to find out, and after that it would be too late. I didn’t know how to stop this freight train that was roaring down the rails.
I found my way to the boardinghouse in the blackest night I’d ever known, and climbed the creaking stairs to my room, mostly by feeling my way. I was just at my door when I sensed it was ajar, and when I slid my hand out, it was ajar, all right. I pulled my Colt .44 out, and jammed the door open with my boot. At the same time I jumped aside, waiting for the assassin bullet to sail by. But it didn’t happen.
“I don’t bite,” she said.
I wasn’t sure who was in there, but a flaring lucifer resolved that for me. The match revealed Queen, sitting on my bunk. She was dressed proper all in blue, but I wasn’t sure she intended to stay that way, from the brief smile she flashed at me. She lit another match and put it to the kerosene lamp and replaced the chimney, and stared at me primly.
“You can put that away,” she said, staring at my piece.
“How do I know you ain’t got a mess of hardware on you?” I said. “Last time we knocked heads together, you must have been carrying more metal than a hardware store under all them skirts.”
She pouted a little. “Well, I’m not,” she said. “I’ll prove it.”
She stood up and started undoing all them buttons down her front.
“Wait!” I said, wondering why the devil I was trying to make her stop. “Wait!” I said, real weak. I had to say that just for the record, so no one could accuse me of not slowing her down, but she was a spitfire and ignored me, so I quit whispering it.
She wasn’t in a stopping mood, and pretty quick she had that blue dress undone and was pulling it off, and I was too interested in all that to tell her to get it back on again. Then she was in her chemise and petticoat, or whatever all that stuff is called, and this time she did stop, sort of. She ran her hands all over herself, showing me that she didn’t have any derringers or howitzers or Gatling guns or mortars or torpedoes or grenades hidden in there somewheres.
“Happy now?” she asked.
I nodded. She sure was pretty.
“Then you can put your revolver back where it came from.”
I obeyed her. I’m danged if I can understand why I’d obey her and why she could boss me around, but that’s what she was up to.
“Am I pretty?” she asked.
“Miss Queen, you don’t need to ask.”
She smiled. “That’s the first civilized thing you’ve ever said to me.”
“I’m not used to smiles. When you’re with your pa, all I get is cold stares.”
She sighed. “When I’m with my father, I’m under his big thumb. I can’t escape it. I’m his wind-up toy. You know what he tells his friends about me? She’s a pistol. That’s what he calls me.” She smiled again. “But right now, I’m not under anyone’s thumb. And he thinks I’m sound asleep in the hotel. And the only pistol I’m interested in is yours.”
I was sure getting sweaty. “See here, miss, I’m a peace officer,” I said, because I couldn’t think of anything else.
“I like you, Cotton. That’s one reason I’m here. The other reason is to find out about my brother. Whether there’s anything new—”
“I knew it. You think you can tempt me into cutting him loose.”
She stared at me so bleakly I felt bad.
“I didn’t mean that,” I said. “I sure don’t have women figured out yet. My ma, she always told me I needed a sister.”
But the coldness was back in her face again. The other Queen. She rose, and reached for the blue dress.
“I’m trying to save your brother,” I said. “I don’t think he did it. I get little pieces together, but the judge, he just hits them with a flyswatter.”
She stared, and sat on my bunk. “You don’t think he did it?”
“No, I don’t. But trying to stop this here execution is like trying to stop an express train. I can’t even slow it down.”
She sat there in the lamplight, her gold flesh glowing, the blue dress crumpled in her lap. She looked to be at
