Longarm said, 'He wasn't out to tell me. He was out to tell you. Would you have tried to stop a friendly fellow lawman from reporting my murder federal after you'd already said yourself you suspected they were worried about me at the bank a fellow victim worked at?'
Sheriff Tegner allowed he might not have.
Longarm continued. 'He'd have come to New Ulm aboard that earlier westbound today. He'd have had plenty of time to scout around and pick up some gossip about the man they'd hired him to kill before he ever paid that false courtesy call on you. When I got in like a big-ass bird with his saddle gun already out, Laughing Larry grabbed the chance to throw me off guard whilst casting suspicion on Banker Plover, see?'
Sheriff Tegner grumbled, 'Not really. Them same gossips said that blonde you were sparking had been sparked by her boss in the past. So who's to say he might not have sent away for a tougher cuss because he was jealous but afraid to take you on man to man?'
Longarm shook his head and said, 'The hired killer. I was wondering about cigar smoke and how such a sweet little thing wound up in position to outrank and supervise two full-grown bank tellers. But had Plover been that serious about his part-time play-pretty...'
'How do you know they were only playing part of the time?' asked the county deputy Longarm knew best.
Longarm was aware of others drifting in for a closer look now, so he kept his voice down as he replied. 'I happen to know she had heaps of playtime of her own. This dead dynamite expert knew it as well. He slipped over to her known place of residence to set up his infernal device with me as the intended target. But there was a chance the other gent you just mentioned could have come calling and been as unpleasantly surprised. So how often does a hired killer either lay suspicion on a true client or blow him all to hell with dynamite?'
The sheriff said that made sense. But his senior deputy pointed out that Laughing Larry had been a homicidal lunatic.
Longarm shrugged and said, 'Anything's possible, once you toss out all the remotely sensible reasons to kill folks. It's possible anyone here in Brown County could have sent for a hired killer just to see whether I died with my eyes shut or open. But if it's all the same with you, I'll start with more logical suspects.'
Sheriff Tegner blinked and asked, 'You mean you got some good as Banker Plover?'
To which Longarm could only reply, in a weary tone, 'How would you like me to list 'em, alphabetical or numerical?'
CHAPTER 25
It was just after midnight when Longarm finally made it back up the river to that raft and told Mato Takoza not to flap those raggedy buzzard wings and moan at him like that.
The spunky little breed acted mighty happy to see him, once she knew who'd come calling at that hour. But she'd have likely acted as happy whether she'd meant it or not. So Longarm held a few things back until she was making him happy inside the shanty, bare-ass with her on top. Then he told her he had some other happy surprises for her, and rolled her on her back to open her wide and probe her deep as he told her he'd been scouting her old Bee Witch, as he'd promised her he would.
Long-donging anyone that pretty would have been easy in any case, but she'd been extracting honey all afternoon and smelled like she had, even after an afternoon swim in the chalky river water. She took all the organ- grinding inspired by all those Wasichu gals through a long chaste day as a personal compliment. So when she threw both her arms and legs around him to crush him tight against her tawny tits, he kissed the side of her neck and murmured, 'I like you too. Now I have some questions to ask, and before you answer, I want to give you a couple of tokens of good faith.'
She demurely asked what he wanted to know, and assured him she would never lie to him, never.
He murmured, 'Don't see why not. We lie to you folks all the time.'
As she stiffened under him he quickly said soothingly, 'Always for your own good, just as your kind tells us things we'd like to hear instead of things that might upset us. Meantime, what's a little lying betwixt friends, and I hope you understand how awkward it would be for me to testify in any court of law against a sweetheart I just shot my wad in.'
She started to cry with her legs up around his waist, and it sure felt interesting inside her. So he began to move in her just a mite as he said, 'I'm fixing to tell you everything I know about your Santee plot and its likely outcome first.'
She said she didn't know what he was talking about, gripping him tighter with her strong brown thighs. But he didn't move any faster as he insisted, 'Sure you do. The Chambruns and those other breed homesteaders have only been leaving a little out. Nothing any of you have done is go-to-prison illegal. If it was, a land and railroad speculator I know would have been in jail a long time ago.'
She pleaded, 'Faster. Do it to me faster, Wasichu Wastey!'
He kept teasing them both with long, measured thrusts as he calmly said, 'Someone in your Indian land- development syndicate figured out who the Bee Witch really was and what she was really up to. They sent you to beg her for a job, pretending to be a poor little orphan with no connections with those other Santee moving in up and down the banks she was surveying for her railroad.'
She sobbed, 'Hear me, I am an orphan! I have nobody. Nobody. Not even a man of my own kind to keep me company on this lonely raft!'
It was starting to feel too good again to talk. But as Longarm started pumping faster she demanded, 'Have you ever met any other men out here with me, red or white?'
He kissed her, came, and moaned. 'We'll get to that part in just a minute. First I'm telling you right out that the old railroad survey gal got back East all right with all her money and a bonus for a job well done. I got two wires in a row this evening from a railroad dick who'd know about such matters. Neither me nor Whispering Smith have any idea where she got rid of that pony.'
Mato Takoza groaned she was coming too now. So Longarm pounded her over the pass to Paradise, and let her get some breath back before he said, 'I got a later wire from a Wasichu who delights in scalping other Wasichus, so listen tight.'
When he was certain she was, he told her, 'A robber baron who pulls such tricks all the time must have
