'it wasn't just luck,' Billy argued. 'A man like you makes his own luck.'
'Maybe, but it was close,' Longarm said. 'Now what's it to be? Do I get a month's vacation with pay or am I supposed to turn in my badge?'
Billy stood up and began to pace back and forth between his desk and the back wall. Longarm just waited. He figured he had Billy over a barrel and he wasn't about to let him slip off the hook.
'I'll tell you what, Custis. I might be able to get you three weeks. Might. How would that be?'
'Three weeks? All right,' Longarm said after a few moments of hard deliberation. 'But when I get back, if that three weeks isn't approved, I'm handing over my badge. Do you understand me?'
'Of course,' Billy said, looking slightly offended. 'I don't see how you could make it any clearer.'
'Good,' Longarm said. 'Now, is there anything else I should know about this Mrs. Lucy Ortega that you've neglected to tell me? Anything at all?'
'No,' Billy said, pursing his lips in concentration. 'I think that it's all pretty well spelled out. She's young, beautiful, smart, and probably devious. You'll need to be on constant guard. She'll probably try to win your favor, playing to your manliness. But you can't let yourself get personally involved. Consider her to be like... like a coral snake.'
'A coral snake?'
'Yes,' Billy said, clearly pleased with the analogy, 'because they are very beautiful but also very deadly.'
'I'll try,' Longarm said, eyes dropping back to the newspaper picture.
'Do better than try, Longarm. Do much better or you will most certainly be poisoned.'
Longarm scowled, and then turned on his heel and went back to the door.
'Oh, Custis?'
'Yeah?'
'I forgot to ask. Did you put in an expense sheet on that Hollaway business?'
'Not yet. Hell, Billy, I just got back into town a few minutes ago, for crying out loud.'
'They're waiting in our financial department,' Billy said, his blue eyes dropping to regard a memorandum on his desk. 'And they are not too happy with the way you tallied up the expenses for your last assignment. You need to keep receipts and better records.'
Longarm's eyes widened and his lips pulled back from his teeth. 'I'll talk to them in the financial department,' he growled, 'and I'll enjoy the looks on their faces when I tell those paper-pushers where I'm going to deposit my receipts and records from this last trip.'
Longarm slammed out of the door and left Billy Vail chuckling.
CHAPTER 2
'She's all yours, Deputy Long,' the jail guard said, stepping aside so that Longarm could get his prisoner.
Lucy Ortega was not at her best. Her hair was tangled and her dress soiled and torn, indicating to Longarm that she had probably resisted arrest. The cell she occupied was dank and dingy and the light poor, but Longarm could still see that Mrs. Ortega was a beautiful woman. Her skin was flawless and her hair was either black or a very deep mahogany brown. She was tall, at least five-foot-ten, with strong features.
'Good afternoon, Mrs. Ortega,' Longarm said by the way of introduction. 'My name is Deputy Marshal Custis Long and I've been assigned to escort you to Yuma.'
Lucy sat on a hard metal bench that also served as a bed. She glared at Longarm without saying anything, and did not even attempt to come to her feet.
'I guess you don't have much in the way of belongings,' Longarm said, looking around the jail cell and seeing nothing. 'The bailiff has your handbag and the coat you were wearing when you were arrested. We might as well go.'
Lucy just glared at him.
'Ma'am,' Longarm said, stepping closer. 'I want you to know that I'm not real happy about going to Yuma either. Fact of the matter is, Yuma is one of my least favorite places. But you're part of a prisoner swap and neither one of us has any choice about going.'
'Go away,' she ordered in a deep, harsh voice. 'Just get out of here, Marshal, and neither one of us will get hurt.'
Longarm frowned. He had handled women prisoners before, but had never felt very comfortable doing so. He decided to be more firm with this woman. 'Now, Mrs. Ortega, I...'
'Lucy! My husband is dead and my name is Lucy.'
'Sure,' Longarm replied, nodding his head and wondering if Lucy was a little crazy. 'I don't care what I call you. But we do have to go to Yuma.'
'I'm not going back to Arizona,' she said in a flat, no-compromise tone of voice.
'You got that wrong,' Longarm told her. 'I've been ordered to take you to Yuma via Prescott.'
Her hard expression changed and she came to her feet.
'We're going to Prescott?'
'Yes,' he said, 'something about witnesses and evidence. I don't know, but I expect someone will be waiting to tell us everything we need to know. Anyway, we've got to get started while the day is still young. It's a long ride to Prescott, even a longer one to Yuma.'
