'No,' Longarm said, 'I'd rather take one week vacation starting today and forget about this woman and about the territorial prison at Yuma.'
Billy's smile melted. 'Well, Deputy, I'm afraid that you do not have that choice. I need you to take Mrs. Lucy Ortega to Yuma as quickly as possible, stopping off at the town marshal's office in Prescott.'
'Why the stop?'
'There's some question of exactly how Mrs. Ortega murdered her husband and where she hid the body. I'm hoping that the boys in Prescott will have filled in some of the pieces of this puzzle so that, by the time you get Mrs. Ortega to Yuma, there is a clear-cut case against her.'
'You mean, there's some doubt if she killed her husband?'
'Not much of one,' Billy said. 'Just yesterday we caught Mrs. Ortega trying to board the train north to Cheyenne. She'd bought a transfer ticket to Omaha, and would have vanished into the East if we hadn't gotten a little lucky.'
'I see,' Longarm said. 'Where's that newspaper with her picture on the front page?'
Billy reached down into his desk and opened the bottom drawer. He drew the newspaper out, unfolded it, and turned it around so that Longarm could see Lucy Ortega.
'Beautiful, isn't she,' Billy said, craning his neck to see the picture he had already stared at longer than he cared to admit.
'Quite,' Longarm agreed. 'For a woman named Ortega, she doesn't look Mexican or Spanish.'
'That's because she isn't. She's Irish. But her husband was a very wealthy Spaniard, son of a grandee or some such thing. Lucy was educated at an exclusive ladies school in the East. She went west, met this Spanish nobleman, and they were married. They were on their ranch in Prescott when they got into a loud argument and she killed him, then vanished. It was just luck that we snared her at our train station.'
Longarm stared at the picture. Lucy Ortega was a real beauty, with long, dark, and lustrous hair. Her face was an oval, and Longarm could see that the picture must have been taken at her wedding because of her dress. She appeared as radiant as expected for a virgin bride.
'What kind of evidence is there against this woman?'
'There were witnesses,' Billy explained. 'Three of them that said they were just outside the room when they heard Mrs. Ortega shoot her husband during a violent quarrel.'
'Heard?'
'That's right. They didn't actually see the shooting.'
Longarm shook his head. 'To tell you the truth, Billy, Mrs. Ortega sure doesn't look like a cold-blooded murderess to me.'
'Do beautiful young women ever look like killers?' Billy asked softly.
'No,' Longarm admitted. 'I suppose not.' He tore his eyes from the picture. 'Is there anything else that you have to tell me about this miserable job?'
'Yes, I'm afraid so. This is going to be a prisoner exchange.'
'A what?'
'A prisoner exchange,' Billy repeated. 'You'll be bringing back some female prisoners from Yuma.'
'Damnation!' Longarm swore. 'How many?'
'I'm not sure,' Billy said, trying to smile. 'Probably only a few, no more than... oh, at last count, a dozen.'
'Jezus, Billy! A dozen women inmates! I quit!' Longarm jumped for the door, but Billy called out, 'Wait. I've been assured that you'll be given more than enough help by the Arizona Territory officials. Please, be reasonable and hear me out, Custis. That's all I'm asking. Hear me out.'
Longarm hauled up at the door and turned around. 'When you say 'help,' how much and who?'
'I can't tell you for sure. I can promise you, however, that the Arizona Territory is footing the bill for a prison wagon in addition to a couple of their own lawmen who will accompany you and the female inmates back to Denver.'
'Great,' Longarm said with complete disgust. 'I'm supposed to haul a wagonful of wicked women clean across a thousand miles of burning sand and sage then over a mountain range. Are you folks out of your minds!'
'Perhaps,' Billy confessed, 'but I have every confidence that you'll do just fine.'
'Easy for you to say,' Longarm growled.
'All right. I admit that this is not going to be entirely pleasant. That's why I've gotten permission to reward you with two full weeks of paid vacation beginning on the very day that you return.'
'A month,' Longarm said between clenched teeth.
'I beg your pardon?'
'This is going to be a murderous job and you know it, Billy. I want a full month.'
'Out of the question!'
'I have it coming!' Longarm stood up and he was angry. 'Look at me, dammit! I'm whipped. I haven't had a single day off in over a year! I'm getting burned out and I'm just about ready to quit.'
'You wouldn't!'
'I would,' Longarm said, his voice hard-edged. 'This Central City job was close, Billy. Real close. You sent me into a hornet's nest with all them brothers, and it was only luck that kept me from getting gunned down.'
