minute ago?” he asked.
“Like what?”
Truelove’s frown deepened. “I’m not right sure. It was strange, though, I know that.”
“Only thing strange around here is the run of luck I’m havin’,” said Seeley. He gathered up the deck and started to shuffle. “Here we go again.”
A knock sounded on the door.
Both deputies tensed. The door was locked, of course, and if Harrelson had gotten back from the facilities, he wouldn’t have knocked. He would have just called out for the two men inside to let him in.
“Could be somebody from the hotel,” Seeley suggested.
“Yeah, or Long’s got back early.” Truelove stood up. “I’ll see who it is.” He went over to the door, standing carefully to one side as he called out, “Who’s there?”
A man’s voice asked, “Mister, you got a friend name of Harrelson?”
Truelove glanced at Seeley, who shook his head and shrugged. Neither of them recognized the voice. Truelove turned back to the door and said, “What’s it to you?”
“Not a damn thing. But I just came along the hall, and there’s a man out here lying on the floor who’s powerful sick. He says his name is Harrelson and that he knows somebody in this room.”
The glance that Truelove directed toward Seeley this time was full of disgust. He didn’t believe for a second that Harrelson was really sick. All afternoon, Harrelson had been sneaking off for a drink, and he seemed to actually think that the other two deputies didn’t know what he was doing. Seeley grinned coldly and pantomimed a drinking motion. Truelove just nodded. They would have to drag Harrelson in from the hall and try to sober him up, or there might be trouble when Longarm got back.
“Just a minute,” Truelove said as he took a key from his shirt pocket, thrust it into the door lock, and turned it. As he opened the door, he asked, “Where is he?”
A ray of sunlight coming through the window at the end of the hallway glittered for a second on polished steel. Truelove saw that, realized what it meant, and reached desperately for the gun on his hip.
He was too late.
“It’s getting late,” said Longarm. “I’d better head back to the hotel.”
“Late?” Janice Cassidy echoed as she leaned closer to Longarm. The soft thrust of her breast pressed against his arm. “Why, it’s only the middle of the afternoon!”
Longarm glanced at the clock on the wall of the bar in the racetrack clubhouse. It was a banjo clock, much like the one in Billy Vail’s office in the Denver Federal Building. As a rule, they kept good time, and this one said that the hour was rapidly approaching four o’clock.
“Maybe so, ma’am, but I’ve got a train to catch,” Longarm explained. “I have to be on the five o’clock northbound.”
Janice pouted prettily. “So you’d rather be sitting in some smoky, uncomfortable train car than drinking champagne with me?”
“Not hardly! Can’t neglect my duty, though.”
“You men and your duties,” Janice said disgustedly. “Don’t you ever think about anything else?”
“Oh, yes, ma’am,” Longarm replied fervently. “We sure do.”
He had been thinking a lot of things during the past hour as he shared a bottle of champagne with the Cassidy sisters and Senator Miles Padgett in the luxuriously appointed clubhouse. The place was all dark wood and low lighting, just the sort of atmosphere to put ideas into a fella’s head when he was sitting across a table from an obviously wanton young lovely such as Janice Cassidy.
Julie was not without her own charms either. She was every bit as beautiful as her sister, only more reserved. Still, several times Longarm had noticed her watching him with a strange glow in her eyes, and he couldn’t help but recall what Janice had said about the two of them doing everything together.
The image that conjured up in his head was enough to make any man perk up.
Unfortunately, Longarm had never been the sort to forget about his other responsibilities. He had to deliver those counterfeiting plates back to Denver, and the Cassidy sisters would be moving on with the racing circuit. The next stop was El Paso, and then the circuit would head west to Arizona. There was a good chance Longarm would never see Janice and Julie again unless fate happened to take him somewhere near their horse farm in Missouri.
At the moment, he was alone at the table with Janice. Julie and Padgett had gone to the bar to get another bottle of champagne. The senator was thoroughly enjoying himself this afternoon. He seemed to have gotten over his disappointment at his horse’s showing in the race. Leon Mercer had wandered off somewhere and was probably waiting for Padgett outside.
Although Longarm wouldn’t have thought it was possible, Janice moved even closer to him, the legs of her chair scraping a little on the hardwood floor. Her right thigh was pressed warmly against his left leg now. She smiled at him and said, “Well, Custis, if you’re so determined to leave, I suppose I’m just going to have to give you something to remember me by.”
Her hand touched his thigh, slid over it into his lap.
He had spent the last hour half-erect to start with from Janice’s provocative comments and glances. The touch of her soft, warm fingers, even through the fabric of his trousers, completed the job. His shaft sprang to full, rather uncomfortable attention.
“Wait just a second there, ma’am,” Longarm said hurriedly as Janice caressed him. “We’re in sort of a public place.”
“No one can see what I’m doing under the table,” Janice replied sweetly. “It’s too dim in here for that. Besides, I don’t care.” She ran her hand along the length of him and went on. “My goodness, you certainly are an impressive
