“Neither can I just now. But we know there is a reason. Has to be a pretty damn good one too for them to go to all this trouble about it. Now that we know there’s something to look for, I expect we’ll figure it out eventually.”
“I cannot believe those men would engage in a conspiracy to murder anyone,” the marshal declared.
“No, sir. I been thinking about this plenty, as I expect you can imagine. I got to believe the same thing. Colorado politicians can be about as greedy an’ nasty as the rest of ‘em, but murder isn’t usually one of their methods. Devious, sure. Lying, cheating, selfish, grab-with-both hands assholes, yes. But murderers? I don’t think so. So I been kinda leaning toward another conclusion that I got no proof for whatsoever, Billy.”
“Yes?”
“What I’m beginning to think, Boss, is that we got two different things going on here. I think somebody, for what they musta considered good reason, decided to throw that bomb at one or more of the people in that carriage. They wanted to kill somebody. Just exactly which somebody—or somebodies—remains to be seen. Then after they done that, Attorney Cotton and those other men, the state senator an’ congressman and maybe others too, they jumped in with a plan of their own. Again we don’t know why, but we do know that they’re covering up the commissioner’s death. At least to you, they are, though it was in all the newspapers and everywhere public that him and his wife were killed.
“What I got to think, Billy, is that these are two separate things, done for two different reasons, an’ they aren’t necessarily connected except by happenstance.”
Billy pursed his lips and scratched his neck. He hadn’t shaved in two days or more, and he was beginning to look a trifle on the scruffy side. Probably was starting to itch too. “it could be.”
“Damn right it could.”
“I can’t think of anyone who had a reason to kill me,” Billy admitted. “Nothing special anyway.”
“All right. What about Mr. Terrell? Would anyone want him dead?”
“Not more than several hundred, I suppose. All I do is chase them. He is the one who puts them away.”
“Anyone that he mentioned in particular lately?” Longarm asked.
Billy scratched some more. “He did mention one investigation that he intended to take before a special grand jury later this year.”
“Yes?”
“Sedition, that one was. He said a group of anarchists were planning to disrupt the exercise of lawful authority in Colorado and several other Western states and territories.”
“Anarchists?”
“That’s right. Apparently there is a nest of them living on the north side, somewhere in those tenements north of the tenderloin district. Jason said they were mostly Middle Europeans. Serbs and Slavs, some Italians, I believe. We didn’t talk about it too much. He only mentioned it so I could think about providing help with his investigations when the time came. I understand he had his own sources of information, some inside contact who was willing to inform on the others in the—what did he call it?—cell, I believe was the word he used. A cell of anarchists bent on destroying our form of government so they could replace it with what they refer to as ‘man’s natural state of self- reliance.’ Some stupidity like that. You know the kind. No taxes, no controls, free love, all that horseshit. The whole bunch of them are probably lunatics.”
“Fanatical lunatics?” Longarm asked.
“Could be,” Billy said.
“Fanatic enough to throw a bomb that would wipe out not just the government officer who was a direct threat to them but a friend of the president too?”
“It makes sense, in a manner of speaking.”
“Yeah. Doesn’t it.”
“I think you should look into that,” Billy said. “Look in Jason’s files. There should be something there on the progress of his inquiries.”
“All right, Boss. I damn sure will,” Longarm promised. “First thing.”
Which would, of course, be something of a trick since he wasn’t supposed to be there at all, but over in Utah with papers to serve.
Still, it was something that needed to be done. “In the meantime, Boss, whyn’t you give some thought to what we can do to figure out what Cotton and that crowd are up to with this charade of theirs.”
“That I will, Longarm. That I will.”
Longarm checked his watch. He’d told Deborah he would meet her back at the bench where she took her lunch once he was done talking with Billy. He was more anxious than ever now to find out what she’d learned about the possible survival of U.S. Attorney Terrell.
“You take care of yourself, Mr. Janus,” Longarm said. “An’ I’ll be back to check up on your progress later.”
“Do that, Doctor. You just do that,” Billy said with a conspiratorial wink.
Chapter 36
“Pssst! Henry. Over here.”
“Longarm. What are you doing here?”
“Waitin’ for you, actually. I didn’t want to miss YOU.”
Henry glanced nervously down the street in both directions, but no one was paying the least bit of attention to them.
