no doubt in some tricky code, since we know you never had no Cousin Anna, but that don't matter. Tell her about the real deputy marshals over in Saint Paul, Deputy Long!'
Longarm smiled thinly at the defiant little thing, still trying to recall where he'd seen those eyes before, and explained, 'It only took my pals in Saint Paul one visit to determine Laughing Larry had been boarding at that same address under the very name you evoked in your telegram, which would still be on file by the way.'
She said, 'All right, Uncle Chief gave me the name of another old army pal to call on if I needed help and he wasn't around. Uncle Chief traveled a lot. I don't know anything about any code. I was just told to wire Uncle Leroy that Cousin Anna was getting married and let his old army pals take it from there, see?'
Sheriff Tegner stood up, reeling some, as he snarled, 'I see you think I'm just a dumb Swede you can brush away from your guilty fresh face like a housefly! But you can't fool me with your slippery answers, Helga Runeberg! I'm arresting you in the name of the people of Brown County for murder in the first degree and-'
Longarm moved with surprising speed to catch the older lawman as he lurched the gal's way, but seemed to be fixing to go another. The tall deputy said soothingly, 'I told you to go easy on them caraway seeds. You're too upset to question the witness calmly. So why don't you step outside for some fresh air and let me see what I can find out from Miss Helga, Sheriff?'
The older man muttered, 'Hang her, I say! Hang her as high as she blew poor Vigdis Magnusson's pretty blond head!'
But Longarm still managed to ease him outside. Helga Runeberg was frog-belly sweaty and pale as he turned back to her. But she managed a brave enough front as she said, 'Drunken old fool! He hasn't a thing on me, and he'd know that if only he'd stay out of the aquavit!'
Longarm smiled knowingly and nodded, but warned, 'He is the sheriff, and that gal Laughing Larry killed in my place was mighty popular in New Ulm. I'd hate to face a local jury, stuck with even the circumstantial evidence we have on you. That's what they call it when nobody saw you actually pull the trigger. Circumstantial evidence.'
She said, 'Damn it, I was right here on my own land, miles away from New Ulm, when that stuck-up blonde was killed!'
Longarm soberly informed her, 'Miss Viggy wasn't stuck up. She was blown up. Laughing Larry would have been miles away by now had not I beat his train into the depot. I didn't know it was him before I got there. I ain't that smart. I only figured whoever it was would want to get out of town suddenly, and seeing I did know a train was about to pass through...'
'I don't know who or what you're talking about,' she said. 'You were there when I told my boys not to gun you down like the dog you were born. Were you there when somebody instructed a killer from out of town who his target might be and with whom he'd be planning to spend the night?'
Longarm sighed and said, 'I sure hate small-town gossip. But I do thank you for tying up that loose end, ma'am. You see, I solve these tougher ones by tying up one loose end after another until none seem to be left and I get to make my own arrests. I'm a tad more scientific than Sheriff Tegner.'
He let that sink in. Then he told her, 'I want you to listen tight and weigh all the words of either of us before you toss more sass my way, Miss Helga. Sheriff Tegner's up for another term in the coming elections, and he needs an arrest and conviction so bad he can taste it.'
He let that sink in before saying, 'I'm sore about poor Miss Viggy too. Since you seem to have heard some gossip, I have no call to tell another lady why. Suffice it to say I am out for blood. But I can be flexible, not having to produce anyone for a local court. I want the big fish, on federal charges. I want him so bad I may just see my way clear to toss a few smaller fish back.'
She hesitated, looked away, and bitterly replied, 'Forget it. I have this family spread to think of. We both know I'd have to move far away and change my name forever if I ever turned state's evidence on a man like Calvert Tyger!'
Longarm nodded pleasantly and said, 'Pinamiyeh, as your Santee neighbors would say. That's exactly the sort of loose end I like to tie up, and we've been wondering how come Calvert Tyger keeps dying all over this country. Would you like to try for the way those hot hundred-dollar notes got scattered even wider, ma'am?'
She hesitated, then softly murmured, 'I have your word I won't have to sign anything or repeat one word of this in front of anyone else in this world?'
He hesitated in turn before cautioning her, 'I can only bend the law so far. It's my duty as a potential witness against you to warn you I can't turn my back on a serious felony. But if I'm right about you only aiding and abetting, and you'd like to tell me just what in blue blazes has been going on, I see no reason to drag your name all over the arrest warrants once I know who I really want to arrest.'
She poured another cup of coffee, this time for him, as she choked back a sob and confessed, 'You were right about my sheltering Uncle Chief and, all right, a couple of other boys who might have been a bit wild. But I swear I've never taken part in any felonies myself, and that was no lie about Uncle Chief knowing nothing about that robbery in Fort Collins.'
She waited until he'd sipped some coffee without calling her a liar to her face, and then she added, 'He was never after you when you shot him either! I can see now how you might have thought he was. But he and some other boys he rode in with a few weeks ago were only following you about in hopes of finding out who'd sent you after them. Uncle Chief never bought that story about a bank note from that payroll robbery attracting you all the way to New Ulm. He said he'd heard they were turning up all over, and besides, he didn't know about any robbery in Fort Collins. He was afraid someone was trying to frame him and his friends.'
Longarm asked where the rest of the poor framed gang might be. She shrugged and said, 'Uncle Chief never told us. He did say they'd all agreed to split up and lay low for a while after the last big job they pulled. He never said what that one had been. Just that he found it awfully surprising that you and your own pals were after him for that Fort Collins robbery he knew nothing about, see?'
Longarm must not have looked as convinced as she wanted him to. For the next thing he knew she was standing mightily close as she put both hands on his upper sleeves, smiled timidly up at him, and asked if he thought she was out to give false testimony. She smelled so fine he had to smile back, and up this close she didn't seem quite so plain after all. Her perky nose was sort of cute, and her eyes were downright naughty as he stared down into their smoky blue depths.
Then something clicked in the back of his skull and Longarm put his coffee cup aside to soberly say, 'I reckon I can go along with most of what you just said, Miss Helga. I'll see if I can get the sheriff not to arrest you this morning.'
