whiskeys.
“I talked to your friends at the apartment. Beverley told me that you were planning to leave Denver.”
“Did she tell you why?”
“She did,” Longarm said. “We’re both looking for Nathan Cox. That’s why I came to find you. I thought maybe we could help each other.”
Diana smiled and then she wagged her finger in his face. “Just how could we do that, Marshal?”
“I need to find him in a hurry. You want to find him too. Maybe we can pool our information and find him together.”
“He took every dollar I could beg, borrow, save, or steal and ran away with it,” Diana said, bitterness creeping into her voice. “It was my fault. I should have known better than to trust a man like Nathan.”
“Everyone makes mistakes.”
“I make a career out of misjudging men,” Diana said morosely. “I never seem to learn how to pick them.”
She took a drink and looked into Longarm’s eyes. “Why do you want to find Nathan?”
Longarm just had a feeling that he could not fool this woman and any attempt to do so would badly backfire. “We think he also took some of the taxpayers’ money, Miss Frank.”
“He took a whole lot more of yours than mine, didn’t he,” she said with a smug little smile.
Longarm leaned across the table. “What makes you think so?”
She leaned back. “Got a cigarette?”
“No.”
“Cigar, then?”
“Yeah, but they’re not exactly the kind a lady would enjoy and-“
“I’m certainly no lady,” Diana said, her anger flaring. “So, Marshal, let’s just cut the damn flattery! I heard enough sweet-talking bullshit from Nathan Cox to last me a lifetime.”
“All right.” Longarm kept a couple of nickel cheroots in his coat pocket, more for chewing than smoking. But now he brought out two and slid one across the table to Diana.
They both bit off the tips and Longarm struck a match with his thumbnail. “If you’re ready to talk, Miss Frank, I’m ready to listen.”
“It’s a sad, sad tale of betrayal,” she said. “I loved the man. I really did. He’d worked for the Treasury Department for a lot of years, had nice friends and seemed to be a solid citizen. I thought that he was … well, a big, big cut above the pair that you just threw out of here.”
“He fooled the government too,” Longarm said. “If that’s any consolation.”
“Not much. How much did he take the mint for?”
“We don’t even know yet,” Longarm said. “But it could be a … fortune.”
“Jeezus!” Diana cussed, slamming her fist down on the table so hard, whiskey spilled from their glasses. “I was afraid of that. So,” Diana asked, leaning back in her chair and studying him with slightly unfocused eyes. “Exactly what would you like me to tell you?”
“It’s real simple, I want to know where I can find Nathan Cox.”
Diana stared for a moment, then she shook her head. “And if I did help you, what would I get out of it for my trouble?”
“Revenge.”
“Not enough,” she said. “Not nearly enough. I can get revenge without the government’s help. In fact, the kind of revenge I’m looking for would be illegal.”
“He’s going to prison for a long, long time,” Longarm said. “I don’t think that you want to do the same. You’re still a young and beautiful woman.”
“Not so young and not so beautiful. Anyway, don’t flatter me, remember?”
“Sorry.” Longarm exhaled a cloud of blue smoke up toward the ceiling. “What do you want from us in addition to the apprehension and long-term imprisonment of Nathan Cox.”
“Torture him?”
“No can do.”
“All right,” she said, “I want my money back. All of it! And I want a lot of interest besides.”
“How much did he steal from you and how much interest?”
“He took me for three thousand dollars. I want ten from you, Deputy Marshal Long.”
“That’s pretty steep interest on your money.”
“I got a feeling that it’s chicken feed compared to what Nathan has taken the government for. Am I right?”
Longarm wondered how Commissioner Malcomb Hall and Governor Ganzel would take to this blackmail. And then he remembered the anxiety in their voices, their offer for a private railroad car, and their dire, if overstated, predictions of bankrupting the state and possibly even the federal government if Nathan were allowed to churn out bogus hundred-dollar bills.
