There was no one to trade punches with. Mercer lay flat on his back a couple of yards away, unmoving except for his mouth, which kept opening and closing although no sound came from his lips. His eyes were wide open.
Longarm got to his feet and went over to kneel at Mercer’s side. Mercer’s horrified gaze fastened on Longarm, and he said, “Can’t … can’t feel anything!”
Longarm saw then the odd angle at which Mercer’s head was resting. The man’s neck had broken when Longarm tackled him and both of them hit the ground so hard. That might have been his own neck, thought Longarm, had Mercer not hit the ground first and cushioned Longarm’s landing.
“Your neck’s broken, Leon,” Longarm said. “No telling what else got busted up inside. You might as well tell me where those plates are. I’m going to find them anyway.”
“In my … coat,” sobbed Mercer.
Longarm reached inside the coat and found the plates in an inside pocket. He took them out and held them so that Mercer could see them. “Too many folks died because of these,” he said, “including Janice Cassidy.”
“I … I never meant for Janice to be hurt! We … we just wanted … to be rich!”
“Money ain’t going to do you much good where you’re going, Leon, not even real money. No telling how long you’ll live, but I reckon you’ll spend the rest of your days lying in a bed in a prison hospital, rotting away.”
Even though Mercer couldn’t move, his eyes seemed to reach up and clutch at Longarm. “Don’t leave me like this, Long!” he pleaded. “Shoot me! Put a bullet through my brain!”
“Sorry, Leon,” Longarm said as he stood up. “If you remember right, you took my guns. I couldn’t shoot you now—even if I wanted to.” With that he turned and walked away, and behind him, Leon Mercer began to scream. The sound went on for a long time.
Chapter 14
Longarm unwrapped the soft cloth from the bundle in his hands and laid the two rectangular pieces of metal on the desk in front of him. “There they are,” he said. “That’s what all the fuss was over.”
Chief Marshal Billy Vail looked at the printing plates for a moment, then glanced up at Longarm. “Don’t look like much to die for, do they?”
“Or to kill for,” Longarm agreed as he sat down in the leather chair in front of Vail’s desk. It was morning in Denver, the hands of the banjo clock on the wall resting at a little after ten o’clock. Longarm was damned tired, having been on the train all night. He felt grubby too, having come straight here to the Federal Building from the depot. He had wired most of the details of the case to Vail from Carson City, but he wanted to get those damned plates off his hands as soon as possible. As soon as he was finished here, he intended to head for his rented room on the other side of Cherry Creek and see if he could scare up a tub of hot water from his landlady. He wanted a nice long soak, eight or ten hours of sleep, and then maybe a bottle of Tom Moore. All those things might make him feel human again.
“I’ll contact the families of the deputies who were killed in Albuquerque,” said Vail as he put the printing plates into one of the drawers of his desk. “I want to let them know that the man responsible for their deaths is going to pay.”
“Mercer’ll be paying for a long time too,” said Longarm. “The doc in Carson City said he ought to live, but he won’t ever feel anything from the neck down again.” A shudder ran through Longarm’s rangy body. “There at the end he was begging me to shoot him, Billy. Maybe I should have.”
“Hell, no,” snapped Vail. “Leon Mercer used his position as Senator Padgett’s assistant to set up a scheme that could have ruined the country’s economy, not to mention being responsible for the deaths of several people. It would have been even worse if you and Miss Cassidy and that watchman hadn’t made it out alive. Whatever happens to Mercer, he’s got it coming.”
Longarm chuckled. “I thought a lawman was supposed to be impartial, Billy.”
“Impartial, hell,” Vail said with a snort. He paused, then added, “By the way, Senator Padgett’s still got a burr up his tail about the way you treated him. Good God, Custis, did you have to slug the man? He is a senator, you know.”
Longarm took out a cheroot and rolled it between his fingers. “I explained all that to him back in Carson City. I was pretty sure he wasn’t really mixed up in the counterfeiting, but I had to make it look good for Mercer. And if I’d been wrong about Padgett, well, then, he’d have been behind bars where he belonged. Don’t see how anybody can be mad at me over that.”
“Still, I think it would be a good idea if you made yourself scarce around Denver for a while.”
Longarm sat up straight and said in an aggrieved tone, “Make myself scarce? Hell, Billy, I just got back!”
“I know that.” Vail reached for one of the many documents scattered on his desk. “I’ve got an assignment here that’s just right for you, though. There’s a big ruckus over in Kansas, at a place called Hugoton.”
Longarm held up his hands. “Just stop right there, Billy. You know I’ve never been one to shirk my responsibilities, but I’ve got something else I have to do first. I promised to escort a lady back to Missouri. Maybe I can stop by this place in Kansas on the way back and straighten ‘em out.”
“You’re talking about Julie Cassidy?”
Longarm nodded solemnly. “After that stable collapsed, there was no way of telling if her sister died in the fire or from being trampled by that horse. All that really matters is that Janice betrayed Julie. That hurts mighty bad— but I reckon Julie still loved her anyway. It’ll take some time for her to get over everything that happened.”
“And you expect to help her get over it, I suppose.”
“Don’t you go leering about it, Billy Vail,” Longarm warned sternly. “If you tell anybody I said it, I’ll deny it, but I reckon I’d rather help Julie get back on to her feet instead of off of ‘em.”
“Don’t worry, Custis, your secret’s safe with me.” Vail shoved the documents aside. “All right, go to Missouri. I suppose you’ve earned it.”
Longarm stood up. “Thanks, Billy.”
