“Let me tell you something, friend,” Henry said. “Your authority does not exceed ours. So stay well out of our way and maybe you will not have to go to jail.”
“Jail? Me? Marshal, I ain’t done nothing but what I was told. An’ that’s the natural truth.”
“Yeah, I’m sure it is,” Longarm said. He jammed his Colt back into its holster and turned away, Henry following close behind. The guard vacated his chair at the earliest possible instant, and went tearing off down the hospital corridor like his life depended on it.
Longarm and Henry entered Billy Vail’s room without knocking. Henry, Longarm saw without comment, looked close to tears when he saw the boss alive and well and lying in the narrow hospital bed there.
“Should be pretty much over with by now,” Longarm said, pulling his watch out and checking the time. “The rest of the boys should’ve had time by now to pretty much round all of them up. The ones we know about anyway. Likely there’s more, but we’ll find out about all that when we’ve had a chance to talk to the big boys.”
Before Billy could answer there was a commotion at the door, and Acting U.S. Attorney Cotton came bustling in. “You two had better have a good explanation for this or you will find yourselves out of work, I can assure you. You are interfering with an ongoing investigation.”
“Is that so?” Longarm asked.
“Yes, it most certainly is. I just hope you have not destroyed all our work thus far. Hasn’t Marshal Vail told you? He is here on an entirely voluntary basis, at the specific request of the president of the United States. We have good reasons for all this, reasons which you are in no position to understand, yet the two of you come charging in here like a pair of bulls in the proverbial china shop. You threaten one of my special deputies with a gun. You expose your own employer to danger. I … I don’t know what other harm you may have caused.”
Cotton marched into the center of the room with two handsomely dressed young men behind him. Two men, Longarm noticed, who pretty much fit the description that John Boatwright had given him for the two men who claimed to be newspaper reporters. Perhaps also the two men Carl Beamon was supposed to meet the night he was killed? Longarm wouldn’t have been surprised if that were so also.
“I’m sure my people didn’t mean to interfere with your investigations, J.B.,” Billy said.
“Perhaps not, Marshal, but you never know what damage they may have caused. Why, those Indians have sympathizers everywhere. You don’t know who you can trust.”
“The Indians that are responsible for the bombing that killed Mrs. Troutman?” Longarm asked.
“That’s right. The Ute tribe. We have definitive proof now that they were behind the attack. The problem is that we do not yet know which misguided whites may be supporting them.”
“Now ain’t that interesting,” Longarm drawled. “You have proof, eh?”
“That’s right, we do, and-“
“Commissioner Troutman knows all about it?” Longarm asked.
“Of course he does, and believe me, Marshal, the commissioner will be most upset when he learns that your people are not cooperating.”
“You’ve seen Commissioner Troutman, J.B.?” Billy asked.
“As recently as last night,” Cotton declared. “We had dinner together and talked about the results our people are obtaining.”
“Now that’s extra fascinating,” Longarm said, “because the way I understand it, Commissioner Troutman was killed in that bomb blast. Him an’ his lady too.”
“That is what we wanted the public to believe,” Cotton said smoothly. “The marshal here is in on the real truth. Has been all along. Tell him, Vail. Tell your man what you know.”
“What I know, J.B., is that I haven’t seen either the commissioner or the United States attorney. I’ve only seen you and the senator and the congressman. And of course Longarm here.”
Cotton sniffed. “Yes. Longarm. Did he tell you that he is supposed to be on assignment elsewhere? Did he mention that he is neglecting his official duties while he charges around interfering in plans decided upon by wiser minds than his?”
“He did mention that to me, J.B. As a matter of fact, he did.”
“I think a reprimand is in order at the very least, Marshal. I intend to recommend that. In writing, if you wish.”
“Recommend anything you damn please, J.B. Although I don’t know your recommendation will carry much weight. Not coming from a jail cell.”
“Jail cell? Whatever are you talking about, Vail?”
“You made a lot of mistakes, J.B. One of the lesser ones was allowing me to lie around here with nothing much to do but think. Once Longarm brought me information to work with, I began trying to deduce just why you and your friends in the cattle industry would do a stupid thing like pretend the commissioner was still alive and why you would keep me here in this hospital. Do you know what I came up with, J.B.?”
Hell, Longarm wanted to hear the answer to that one, whether Cotton did or not. He knew they would get it eventually from the people that Smiley and Dutch and the rest of the boys were busy putting in handcuffs this morning. But it wasn’t anything Longarm had quite worked out himself yet. He thought he had a part of it. But not everything.
“I know, of course, that the bombing was not done by the Utes,” Vail went on. “My people cleared that up this morning when they found the anarchists’ headquarters, complete with a stockpile of explosives, bomb-making equipment, and what have you. Those anarchists now are all either dead or in the custody of the Denver police.”
Longarm thought J.B. Cotton looked a mite pale upon receiving that unwelcome news.
“The bombing was unrelated to the plot you and your cronies developed. That had to be a spur-of-the-moment
