Schuler pointed at Matt with a shaking finger.
“Do I know you?” he asked. “Who are you?”
“I am a friend of Jennie Schuler,” Matt said.
Schuler looked at Matt for a moment, as if trying to process what he had just heard.
“Anyone who has money is a friend of Jennie Schuler,” he said. “She is a whore.”
“I am also the man that’s going to buy you a drink,” Matt answered. He poured whiskey into a glass, then slid it across the table toward Schuler.
“What—what do I have to do for it?”
“Just give me a little information,” Matt said. “That’s all.”
“Information? I don’t know anything about anything,” Schuler said quietly.
“Oh, you know something about what I want,” Matt said. Matt reached out to pick up the glass, then began pouring it back in the bottle.
“Wait!” Schuler said. “What do you want to know?”
“First, let me ask you something. With all the money you got from the train robbery, why are you having to beg for drinks now? Have you already spent it all?”
“I don’t have any money. Paco cheated me out of—” Schuler started to say, then he stopped in mid-sentence. “What money?” he asked.
“The money you got cheated out of,” Matt said. “That is what you were about to say, isn’t it? That Paco cheated out of your share of the money from the train robbery?”
“What train robbery?” Schuler said. “I don’t know anything about any train robbery.”
“Don’t lie to me, Schuler,” Matt said. “I don’t like being lied to. I know you took part in the train robbery because I was there. I was on the train when it wrecked.”
“That doesn’t mean anything.”
“Oh, but it does. It means that you, Odom, Paco, and Bates are guilty of murder.”
“I didn’t murder anyone,” Schuler said.
“If you are talking about the deputy, I know you didn’t shoot him. I know that he was shot by Cletus Odom.”
Schuler’s eyes opened wide in surprise. “How do you know that?” he asked.
“I told you,” Matt said. “I was there. I saw it. I was in the express car when you and the others came in. I saw everything, Schuler. I’m talking about all the people who were killed when you and the others wrecked the train. I’m talking about a little four-year-old girl who was traveling with her mother and her brother. Do you know what happened to that little girl?”
Schuler was quiet for a long moment. “I ain’t got any of the money,” he said. “Like I said, Paco stole it.”
“I don’t care about the money,” Matt said.
“You don’t care about the money?”
“No.”
“Then what do you want?”
“I want Odom,” Matt said.
“There are three others,” Schuler said.
“No, there is only one other.”
“You are forgetting Paco and Bates.”
“I’m not forgetting them,” Matt said. “They are dead.”
“Dead?”
“I killed them both,” Matt said calmly.
Schuler made no response, but looked at the bottle and empty glass on the table. Matt waited for a long moment, then refilled the glass and slid it across the table toward Schuler.
Schuler reached out with a trembling hand—picked up the glass—spilled some, then, steadying it with his other hand, drank it down in one swallow.
“Where is Odom?” Kyle asked.
“I don’t know.”
“You’re lying,” Matt said matter-of-factly. “What are you afraid of, Schuler?”
“Nothin’,” Schuler answered. “I don’t know where he is, that’s all.”
“You do know, don’t you, Schuler?”
Schuler held his empty glass out, and Matt refilled it.
“Don’t be afraid,” Matt said. “I’m here.”
