“Seventy-five hundred dollars payable only if you can tell me where to find Cox.”
“Sit down,” Beverley said. “I’m going out for a while.”
“In this weather?”
“I’ll be fine,” she said. “I don’t want any part of this and I suspect that it’s all secret business.”
“That’s true.”
Diana gave her friend a hug and helped her into a heavy coat. “This won’t take long. Good-bye.”
“Good-bye?”
“I’ll see you again,” Diana promised.
Beverley glanced at Longarm. “She’s not going to be putting her life in danger, is she?”
“No.”
“All right.”
As soon as Beverley was gone, Diana said, “How about a slice of pie?”
“No thanks.”
“You need something to eat because we have a long trip ahead of us, Marshal.”
“What do you mean ‘we’?”
“I’m coming with you.”
“No!”
“Then the deal is off,” she said, finishing her coffee and walking to the coat rack, where she began to work into her own heavy coat.
“Where are you going?” Longarm asked.
“I’m disappearing, of course. I’ll find Nathan and kill him myself.”
“And that’s worth fifteen thousand dollars and prison?”
“I think it is, yes.”
Longarm shook his head. “I’ve never come across anyone as stubborn and pigheaded as you are, Miss Frank.”
“Together, or separate. Which is it going to be, Marshal Long?”
“Together.”
“Good!” Diana brightened. Her green eyes were a little bloodshot but still beautiful, and now that their differences had been settled, she seemed to take on fresh inner resources. “Let’s go?”
“Where?”
She looked at him with surprise. “Why, to the train station so that we can ride Governor Ganzel’s private car, of course.”
“Well …”
“But first, the money.”
“No,” he said. “First information.”
“All right,” she said. “Nathan Cox went west.”
“To what was once his family ranch near Prescott, Arizona?”
She looked amused. “Is that what you think?”
“Yeah,” he said, “it is.”
“Then you’re wrong.”
“So, where is he going?”
“You’ll find out,” she said, extending her hand for the cash, “just as soon as I’m paid and we ride that special train.”
Longarm gave the woman the seventy-five hundred dollars that his desperate superiors had been more than happy to provide and then, before he could ask any more questions, Diana swept out the door and he chased her through the rain all the way to the Denver Pacific Railroad yards.
Chapter 3
“The governor is waiting for you inside his special coach,” Billy Vail said as Longarm and Diana hurried through the downpour and the muddy train yard. “Be warned that he’s not in a very good mood.”
Longarm growled. “I’m not in a very good mood either, but that isn’t going to cause Governor Ganzel to lose any sleep. By all rights I should be riding a first-class seat to Boston and sipping on a little brandy.”
“Good evening, Miss Frank,” Billy said, ignoring Longarm’s complaints. “I’m sorry that you had to come out in this bad weather.”
“I don’t mind,” Diana said. “It will be a real treat to ride up to Cheyenne in the governor’s coach.”
Billy’s jaw dropped. He swung his eyes to Longarm. “Nothing was said about Miss Frank coming along with
