Longarm stared at him, not sure what the information meant. “Did you find sign where the body might have been dragged off? Or were there wagon tracks or anything?”
Davis shook his head. “Nope. Nothing. Of course that country is so damn hard and rocky, but there should have been some kind of sign. But I didn’t see any indication that a party had been in there. There was horse tracks, of course, and boot marks, but they could have been mine. You can’t figure time on sign in that hard a ground. Best I could say was that somebody come along, loaded Goustwhite across his horse, and rode off with him.”
“You check the undertaker?”
Davis nodded. “Right before you come in. He was just up. But no, there wasn’t no fresh bodies. I couldn’t just up and ask about Goustwhite because I’m the only one supposed to know he’s dead.”
“Hmmmmm.” Longarm rubbed his beard. He wanted a shave, but it was coming very close to decision time on a number of matters. He said, “You get anything out of Rebeccah?”
Austin shook his head. “Not anywhere near what I put in her, I’ll tell you that. That woman is a bottomless pit. I couldn’t fill her up fast enough. If I hadn’t been on duty, I’d of thought I was having a pretty good time until about the fourth go-around.”
“It must run in the family,” Longarm said. He told Davis a little about his evening. “You didn’t stay the night, did you?”
Davis shook his head. “She played out about midnight and I struck a trot out of there. I needed a rest. Besides, I was anxious to tell you about Goustwhite disappearing.”
Longarm said, “Does the name Dan Hicks mean anything to you?”
Davis looked startled. “Where the hell did you hear that name?”
Longarm told him. “What about it?”
Davis pushed his hat back. “Hell, Longarm, he used to be a running mate of that Vince Diver we been talking about. But I thought Hicks was doing some state prison time up in Huntsville.”
Longarm got up. “Let’s go to my room. I’m just about filled plumb up with this foolishness. Somebody is playing fast and loose with the law and I intend on putting a stop to it. We got to sit down and lay our cards out and see what kind of hand we got.”
“You sure you don’t want me to go back out there and question that Rebeccah again? I’ve nearly recovered.”
Longarm gave him a look as they walked out of the dining room. “Why don’t you try and act like a law officer even if you ain’t got the makings of one.”
Davis said, “By the way. I didn’t mention it, but that Rebecca woman has a damn fine house with good furniture. Two-story. And she’s got some good horses and some mighty fat beef cattle that are kept up in a feed lot.”
Longarm said, “I ain’t surprised, the money they are taking in.”
“But her husband is dead.”
Longarm gave him a look. “Maybe he is and maybe he ain’t. I got a feeling that everything around here ain’t exactly what it seems. Some towns get by with ranching, some have a river that brings in trade. Some have a railroad going through them. Some have a sawmill or other industry. I think we got us a town and a county whose backbone is theft and robbery.”
“Can we prove it?”
Longarm thought for a few strides. “I don’t know. I may have to bend a few laws to do it. That would be about where you come in.”
Austin Davis stopped dead in his tracks. “Like hell.”
Longarm put the key in his door, unconcerned. “Now, Austin, you wouldn’t want to go to prison for failing to obey the orders of a superior in the Marshals’ Service, would you?”
Davis said, “You sonofabitch. I knew you was bad news the moment I laid eyes on you.”
Longarm pushed the door open. “You don’t like bad news, don’t read the newspaper.” He motioned with his hand. “Let’s get sit down with a bottle and try and figure this out.”
Chapter 7
They sat down across from each other at the little table in Longarm’s room. He had gotten a bottle from his saddlebags and set it between them along with two glasses. Longarm said, “We are going to have to wind this mess up in a hurry. That is the last bottle of good stuff and no more to be had around here. And I’ll be damned if I’ll drink rotgut just to help out this rotten town and county. We get them in the next two days or I’m going to leave them to their own devices.”
Davis reached out and poured them both a drink. “I hate to hear you talking like that, Marshal. A bounty hunter needs some law to make what he does legal. And you are the only law around here, now that you got the sheriff locked up. You up and run off, I might have a hell of a time collecting on this reward paper I got.”
Longarm tossed back half of his drink. “I knew I could count on you, Davis, to take an unselfish approach to the matter.”
“Well, what have we got? Have we got a starting place?”
“Yeah, I’d say we got a starting place. I’d say the windmill that is pumping all the water is Dalton Diver. But knowing it and proving it are two different matters.”
“How you figure he set it up? How you figure he got it going?”
Longarm shrugged one shoulder. “Of course I can only guess at that, but I got to figure that this Vince Diver played a big hand in it. We already agreed that a bunch of Mason County country boys didn’t know anything about robbing and stealing and killing. So they got them some help in here to show them how it worked. I think that Vince
