“Moved out this morning.”
“No.”
“Yes, and I’m glad. You should have seen all the men she had trooping in and out of this building!” Rose winked. “And I’ll tell you something else, Marshal, they didn’t come to talk about the weather.”
“No,” he said, “I don’t suppose they did. I didn’t realize that Miss Frank was that kind of woman.”
“Well,” Rose said, dropping her voice to a whisper, although they were alone in the hallway, “let’s just say that Miss Diana Frank was not a pillar of virtue and that she didn’t audition for the church choir. I, on the other hand, have very high moral values … on most issues. Are you married, Marshal?”
“Ah … yes,” Longarm lied.
Rose had little porcine lips and now they formed a pout. “Too, too bad,” she said, her smile dying. “Otherwise I might just be interested in getting better acquainted.”
“I must find Miss Frank.”
“Why? Was she that good?”
“Actually, I … I have a package for her.”
Rose’s blue eyes lowered to his sides. “I don’t see one.”
Longarm was getting annoyed. “I really do need to find her quickly, Rose. Can you help me?”
“Oh, all right. If Diana isn’t visiting her best friend, you might try the saloon in the hotel just down the street. It’s called Hannigan’s. That was Diana’s favorite hangout when she wasn’t visiting with her best friend.”
“I know the place.”
“I used to go there too,” Rose said, making a face. “But the people just got too high-toned. And the bartenders, they all wanted tips and tried to push all that expensive stuff on you so that the joint could increase its profits. You know how those places are.”
“Yes, but…”
“They like to think that they cater to the upper crust, but they don’t. Not really. They just overcharge the regular people, the ones that kept them in business.”
“Did you ever see this man come here,” Longarm said, slipping Nathan Cox’s picture through the crack in the doorway.
Rose giggled. “Oh, sure! Nathan was just as snooty as Diana. Wouldn’t hardly give me the time of day. A real ass, but awful handsome. Like you, Marshal. Sure you wouldn’t like to come in and join me in a drink or two?”
“Unh-unh,” Longarm said. “I’m married, remember?”
“Oh, yeah. Well, there are marriages and then there are marriages.”
“Where does Miss Frank’s best friend live?”
Rose returned the picture. “How bad do you want to know, big boy?”
The woman’s eyes and tone of voice left no doubt as to the fact that she was no choir girl either. “Not that bad,” Longarm said, starting to leave.
“Oh, all right!” Rose called over the yapping of her dog. “Diana’s best friend Beverley lives in apartment six, just down the hall.”
“Thanks!”
“Don’t mention it,” Rose said, kicking her little mutt away from the door and then slamming it hard.
Longarm banged on Beverley’s door until it was opened. After introducing himself, he said, “It’s very important that I find Diana Frank as soon as possible. I understand that she moved out but that you were her close friend.”
“That’s right,” Beverley said, leaning up against the doorjamb smoking a thin black cigarette. “Diana went to borrow some money so that she could buy a ticket on the next train to Cheyenne. In the meantime, she’s staying with me. What do you want to see her about, Marshal?”
“About a man named Nathan Cox.”
Beverley made a face that did nothing to improve her looks. “That sonofabitch was as crooked as a snake. He used Diana. Promised her the world. Said that he was going to come into some big money and that they’d get married and he’d take her back east.”
“But he didn’t.”
Beverley dropped her cigarette on the hallway rug and stomped the life out of it with her heel. “Hell no! Cox ran out on Diana with a pocketful of her money. That’s why she’s leaving Denver. It’s been painful and she’s bitter. Besides that, I kind of think she wants to find and then kill the smooth-talking sonofabitch.”
“What for?”
“Castration.”
Longarm blinked and started to laugh, until he saw that Beverley was serious. “Well,” he said, “before she tries that, I need to find him first.”
“Is he in trouble?”
“Yes.”
“Big trouble?”
