their way, it wouldn’t really matter.
“I was thinking that there might be a fire here in the stables,” Mercer said as he straightened from his task. “A regrettable thing, of course, but at least some of the horses will survive. Too bad that Marshal Long and the watchman here will both die in their valiant effort to free the horses.”
Janice nodded. “I like it. That way any evidence will be destroyed in the fire.”
“Exactly.”
It could work, Longarm realized. Folks would be bound to wonder what he had been doing out here at the racetrack when disaster struck, but it would go down as an unanswered question. There would be nothing linking Janice and Mercer to his death.
“I want Caesar left in here to burn with Long and the old man,” Mercer said. He laughed harshly. “Not only is Padgett locked up for something he had nothing to do with, but he’s going to lose that precious racehorse of his too.”
Janice shrugged. “Some of the horses won’t make it out of the fire. It’ll look more realistic that way. I don’t care if Caesar is one of them. I want Matador out, though.”
“I thought you didn’t like horses,” commented Longarm.
Janice looked squarely at him. “I won’t hurt Julie if I don’t have to.”
“But if she got in your way, then she’d have to die too, right?” Janice lifted the pistol in her hand. “That’s enough out-“
Then Mercer yelled, “No!” as Longarm’s hand dipped suddenly toward the pocket where the derringer was hidden. He slashed at Longarm with the gun in his hand. Longarm twisted aside from the blow and drove his left elbow into Mercer’s side. Mercer gasped in pain and staggered to the side as Longarm palmed out the derringer.
Janice fired her gun at that moment, and what felt like a giant hand slapped the side of Longarm’s head. He toppled to the hard-packed dirt floor of the stable, the derringer slipping out of his fingers as he fell. Waves of darkness rolled toward him.
“Hurry!” he heard Janice saying, as if from a great distance. “That shot may draw attention! We have to hurry!”
He felt hands grab him and start to drag him, but then the darkness caught up to him and washed over him, wiping out everything else.
He woke to a loud crackling and the frantic whinnying of terrified horses. Thick, acrid smoke stung his nose and eyes. Blinking rapidly against the tears that filled his eyes, he rolled onto his back and kicked his way into a sitting position. He had already figured out that his hands were tied together behind his back.
Longarm’s head hurt like the very blazes, but his thinking was clear enough. Janice’s bullet must have creased him, he thought, clipping his head just enough to knock him senseless for a few minutes. He could sense that he had not been unconscious for long. Long enough, though, for the two of them to tie him up and start the fire that was even now consuming the stable around him.
He was sitting with his back toward the building’s entrance, he realized. As he started trying to turn around, someone suddenly grabbed his hands. A woman’s voice shouted over the roar of the fire and the screams of the horses, “Be still, Custis! I’ll have you loose in a minute!”
Longarm twisted his head and saw her kneeling behind him, and thought for a second that Janice had relented and come back to free him. Then, as a knife began to saw at the ropes around his wrists, he realized that it was Julie rescuing him, not Janice.
“What are you doing here?” he bellowed.
“I followed you!” Sobs wracked her even as she worked at his bonds, and he suspected not all of them were caused by the smoke. “I wanted to see what you were doing that was so mysterious! I … I almost wish I hadn’t found out!”
Longarm knew what she meant. She must have overheard the conversation he’d had with Janice and Mercer. Julie had to know now that her sister was part of Mercer’s murderous schemes.
The ropes parted under the knife in Julie’s hand. She had only nicked Longarm a couple of times while she was cutting him loose. As he pushed himself a little unsteadily to his feet, she caught hold of his arm and gestured toward his head with her other hand. “You’re hurt!”
Longarm knew she was pointing at the gash on his noggin where Janice’s shot had grazed him. “It’ll be all right! he assured her. “Now, you’d better get out of here while you still can!” He began looking around for the unconscious watchman.
The man had regained consciousness, but he was trussed up the way Longarm had been, and there was a gag in his mouth as well. His rheumy eyes were wide and bulging with fear. Longarm took the knife from Julie, bent over the watchman, and began cutting the ropes. Over his shoulder, he said again to Julie, “Get out of here!”
“I’m going to let the other horses loose!” she cried, ignoring his command.
Longarm bit back a curse as Julie darted away along the center aisle of the stable. Several empty stalls full of hay were blazing intensely, and flames were beginning to climb up the walls of the stable. If the fire continued to spread, not only would this building be engulfed, but the adjacent grandstands would probably go up in flames too. There was nothing he could do about that; the conflagration was already too far advanced. All he could hope for was to get himself and Julie and the old man out of there. The ropes fell away from the watchman’s wrists as Longarm finished cutting them. He tossed the knife aside and grabbed the old man’s arms, lifting him to his feet. “Move, old-timer!” Longarm shouted at him, pushing him toward the entrance.
By this time, Julie had opened a couple of the stalls that were still occupied. A glance around the stable told Longarm about half of the racehorses were gone, freed no doubt by Mercer and Janice as they started the blaze. The two horses Julie had just freed galloped wildly out of their stalls, forcing her to jump back out of their way. As the animals disappeared into the thickening smoke, Longarm hoped they wouldn’t get confused and run right back into the burning stable once they reached the outside. Horses had been known to do that very thing.
Longarm saw the watchman stumbling toward the entrance; then he turned toward the other stalls. He knew Julie wouldn’t leave until all the horses were rescued, so the quickest way for both of them to get out would be for
