The next morning Longarm stood looking down at the floor in the sheriff’s office. The sheriff said, holding his arms out, “Marshal, I don’t know what happened. I come in the office a little before eight and they was gone. Cell doors was wide open. Reason I didn’t come over to the hotel and wake you up was I figured you’d come and got ‘em. Changed your mind or something.”
“No,” Longarm said, “I didn’t change my mind.”
“Somebody must have let ‘em out. Only thing I can figure.” Longarm sighed. “No, nobody let them out.”
“I didn’t tell you we didn’t have a night man, did I?”
“No, no, you didn’t.”
Longarm stared back toward the empty cells. He’d had a good supper, a good night’s sleep, a shave and a bath, and a fresh change of clothes. He’d thought he was feeling pretty good until he got to the jail. It was his own fault. He must have been out on his feet to have trusted Carl Lowe in a little jail like this one. He wondered if they had gone before he was in bed. He wouldn’t have been surprised. He just hoped that Rita didn’t get the little man killed before he could get rid of her. But he doubted it.
He said, “When is the next train that would get me up to Denver?”
“Denver?” The sheriff looked at him questioningly. “I thought you was headed west.”
“I was,” Longarm said. “I was. Now I want to go to Denver.”
The sheriff said, “Well, the train to Phoenix is due in a little over an hour. I reckon you can get a train to Denver from there. Trains run all over out of Phoenix. You figure they are heading for Denver? Your prisoners?”
Longarm turned for the door. He said, “I don’t know. But that’s where I’m going to start looking.” He started toward the hotel to collect his belongings and get down to the train depot. This was one report he’d rather tell his boss, Billy Vail, in person rather than try to write it up.
The sheriff had walked out the door, following him. He said, “Marshal, what makes you think they’ll head for Denver?”
Longarm didn’t look around. He said, “For one thing, Denver ain’t got no sun nor desert nor mules.”
“What?”
“It’s a long story,” Longarm said. He shook his head. He reckoned, on balance, he’d done more good than bad. At least he hoped Billy Vail would see it that way.
