Kun, praise the Lord, and he told me he'd broken off with her friendly before she could have confessed to her husband about anybody.'
Bela Nagy said, 'I didn't see it. After twelve hours in a mine a man needs his sleep. But both Hodiak woman and Ilona Kovaks say they saw Magda leaving forever around midnight, when her man was in mine.'
Longarm glanced at the American straw boss as he mused, 'A gent in charge of a blasting crew would be missed if he nipped out to murder a wayward wife, wouldn't he?'
The American mining man said he'd just been about to say that.
Longarm said, 'I wish he didn't have an alibi. This whole puzzle would have a simple answer. I could say he was lying. It just makes no sense for a cheating wife to cover up for a lover who's called her a sex maniac and turned away from her.'
The mining man suggested, 'She might have been thinking of poor old Attila. Old Zoltan ain't just mean to women. He's got their men scared shitless of him. Ask Bela here.'
Bela Nagy whimpered, 'Hey, I no afraid to stick up for my Eva. I told you she wants to go out with him, and he says maybe, someday, he will make honest woman of our Eva. He say she's still too young for him.'
Longarm grimaced and said, 'At least he's being truthful about that. He says he's not the man Magda rode off with in that buggy at midnight. Even if he had been, where in thunder might she be now? I know for a fact she ain't staying with him at the Dexter Hotel. Could anyone here tell me whether his labor recruiting takes him a heap of other places?'
The straw boss nodded and said, 'He takes the train east from time to time to round up stray greenhorns on the New York waterfront. But now that you mention it, he ain't done that since Magda Homagy ran off with somebody. Do you remember the exact date, Bela?'
Nagy thought, shook his head, and said, 'More than two weeks but less than six. Who looks at calendar when women gossip?'
Longarm said, 'Never mind. I can ask at the Santa Fe ticket window in town whether your well-known labor contractor paid one or mayhaps two train fares east in recent memory.'
He took a thoughtful drag on his smoke and added, 'I doubt he has. Kun struck me as a slick talker. His kind don't tell fibs that are easy as that to check. The picture looks a tad less confounding if we take his word, for now, and buy Magda Homagy leaving home with some other gent entirely.'
The straw boss brightened and suggested, 'That's who she might have been trying to protect, instead of Zoltan Kun!'
Longarm shrugged and said, 'Sounds a little more sensible. When her man confronted her about gossip he'd heard, it wouldn't have done her much good to name another gent she'd been screwing. Her grasp on English, and Colorado, was skimpy as all get-out. But she could have been slick, and mean enough, to grab the name of a better-known American off the pages of some handy newsprint.'
Longarm blew a smoke ring, peered through it at a dusty gob pile outside, and continued. 'On the other hand, she might have been out to get a man she hated killed. Everyone agrees she had a spiteful nature, and Homagy did say she taunted him with the size of a younger man's dick.'
The two other men in the shack exchanged glances. The straw boss agreed, 'She must have hated old Attila. That's a cruel thing to say when you know it's true, and you say she just picked out a rival from a newspaper?'
Longarm nodded soberly and said, 'I mean to chide her for that, if ever I catch up with the hard-hearted gal.'
CHAPTER 22
Longarm didn't want to keep taking his hired mount in and out of the livery, So he tethered it outside his hotel as he went in to see if any telegrams had been delivered there to a Gus Crawford.
None had been. Things seemed to be simmering down over in the Indian Territory. But the room clerk confided, 'You had you a caller whilst you was out, Deputy Long. He asked if we had us anyone named Custis Long registered here, and seeing we don't exactly, I felt it best to say no and just ask him how this pal of his could get in touch, should he ever show up.'
Longarm handed the helpful clerk a cheroot as he told him he'd always admired a man who could think on his feet. He asked the clerk if he could name or describe the mysterious visitor, and muttered in mighty dirty Spanish when the clerk said it had been Attila Homagy in that same summer seersucker.
The clerk added, 'Said he was staying with friends just outside of town. Said he'd drop by later, after the night train from Amarillo pulls in. Seemed anxious to catch up with you, Deputy Long.'
Longarm muttered, 'That makes two of us. I've had just about enough of this shit, and by now even a fool greenhorn ought to be able to see I have witnesses on my witnesses if he keeps pushing his luck with me!'
The clerk gulped and said, 'I figured he didn't have your continued good health in mind. In this business you get to where you can tell when a couple is really married too. Don't ask me how.'
Longarm lit his cheroot for him and observed, 'I just now said I thought you were smart. I'll be waiting out front for him when the train from Amarillo rolls in around midnight.'
The clerk allowed that might be easier on their potted paper palm trees. Longarm didn't want him going to the local law, so he said, 'I doubt it'll come to more than just talk. The Bohunk had me down as somebody else for a spell. I'm sure he's seen the error of his ways after trailing me all around Robin Hood's Barn and doubtless talking to other folks about me.'
He glanced at the wall clock and added, 'I was wondering how come I felt so empty. It's after noon and I only had ham and eggs with one coffee for breakfast.'
He headed for the front entrance, aiming to go round to the cheap restaurant he'd had his breakfast in. But Cora Brewster came through the door breathless, dressed in a riding habit with her dark hair pinned up under a straw boater. The moment the young widow laid eyes on him, she gasped, 'Custis! That Attila Homagy is back in town hunting high and low for you! They just told me at the notions shop! He knows you're somewhere in town!'
Longarm smiled down at her and said, 'No, he don't. He was just asking. He thinks I might be coming in at
