Diver nodded vigorously. “Yessir, and that is a fact and one I’m more than just a little proud of. See, word was getting around about what a good thing Vince and Dan had going. So some of them border ruffians got to insisting they be brought in on the jobs. Well, Vince seen he couldn’t refuse them without raising hard feelings. So he took ‘em in—one at a time. Naturally, they got to ride the pinto. Wasn’t long before them trashy felons wasn’t so all-fired interested in joining up. I figure we done the whole country a good service by ridding it of some mighty undesirable folks. Wouldn’t you say that was a fact?”
Longarm glanced away and shook his head. He said, “Mister Diver, some of your reasoning just gets right on by me.”
“Yeah,” Austin Davis said. “What about this Jim Squires? He married one of your daughters, and I’d bet you horseshoes to half-dollars he ain’t dead.”
Diver’s face suddenly went beet red. He pointed an outraged finger at Austin Davis and said, “Now there, if there ever was a case called for law work, he is one! I let that young villain marry my daughter Salome without payin’ the full bride price. Put half down. The understanding was he was to go off on a job and bring me the balance of the money, but that hellion never even meant to stick to his bargain. Right after the marriage ceremony the gang took off for Fredricksburg, and that scalawag peeled off from the bunch and hurried right back to Salome and went to dipping his biscuit in the gravy! Now, tell me that ain’t crooked! An’ I ain’t got my money yet. That damn fool daughter of mine up and fell in love with the fool, and I might as well consider her just a dead loss. I’ve complained about it to Vince, but he just laughs. Now, if you are here to bring justice to this affair, I’d like to commend your eyesight to that bit of thievery!”
Longarm and Austin Davis tried to keep straight faces, but it was hard going. Longarm cleared his throat and said, “Mister Diver, let’s get back to this other business. I take it that some of this money was being brought back to the county. Other than what was given you for your daughters, how did the county get any good out of the robbery proceeds?”
“Why, through the bank. I thought you was on to that.”
“How did that work?”
“Well, Vince give Ernest Crouch part of every job, and Crouch put it in the bank and then distributed it around the county by making loans.” He shifted his eyes around as if to keep from being overheard and said furtively, “Though I got to tell you there has been more than a little dissatisfaction on that score. Lot of folks think Crouch has been charging some mighty high interest rates, up to eight percent. It’s left some ranchers and farmers where all they can do is pay off the interest, let alone touch the principal on their loans. But I reckon costly money is better than no money at all, which is what we had before this scheme got started.”
“How much has Vince turned over to the bank so far?”
Diver frowned. “Well, I ain’t exactly sure, but Vince says it is somewhere about fifty thousand dollars.”
“is that half of what the bunch has robbed and stole?”
Diver gave him a sly wink. “If you was Ernest Crouch asking me, I’d say yes, because that was the deal as was struck in return for Vince and the boys having a safe haven. But I know my own son. If you was to hold my feet to the fire, I’d say Vince give the bank closer to a third.”
Longarm stared at the man a moment, took a sip of his coffee, and then glanced at Austin Davis. Davis shrugged. “I ain’t got no more questions.”
Diver said, “That’s pretty much all I know, Marshal. Only question is, what will you give me for it?”
Longarm sat thinking for a moment. He said, “How long will it take you to get in touch with Vince, Mister Diver?”
Diver shook his head dismissively. “An hour at most. He stays pretty close ‘round here. All I got to do is give a note to Robert and, unless he’s out hooting and hollering, he’ll be along Johnny quick.”
“Today is Monday. I want his bunch to rob the Mason State Bank on Wednesday morning at nine o’clock. I believe that is when the bank opens.”
Diver stared at him for a moment, horrified. “Rob our own bank? Hell, that don’t make no sense. I’ll never be able to convince my boy of that.”
Longarm took a drink of coffee. “Explain it to him this way. Tell him it’s a way of throwing the law off the track. Tell him there are a couple of federal marshals nosing around and they are coming to the conclusion that the gang is part of Mason County. Tell him that a robbery of the bank, especially with that pinto horse right up front identifying them, would make the marshals think that the gang ain’t Mason County grown. Tell him it would take a lot of the pressure off.”
Diver looked worried. “I don’t know about that.” He rubbed his chin. “Vince might see the sense in that, but it would upset the hell out of Ernest Crouch. He wouldn’t take kindly to having his bank robbed.”
Longarm said, “They ain’t actually going to rob it, Mister Diver. But it will look like they have. Tell Mister Crouch it will make it very convenient for him to fix up his books for the bank examiners.”
Diver still looked dubious. “What are them?”
“Mister Crouch will know. And I guarantee you he will think it is a good idea, especially if no money leaves his bank but he can claim he was robbed of twenty-five or thirty thousand. I would imagine that will fill in a lot of holes he’s got in his accounting.”
Diver looked thoughtful. He said to a far corner of the kitchen, “What are you aiming on doing, Marshal?”
“I’ve told you from the very first that my main intent is the gunhands, the hot triggers. That includes your son, Mister Diver, along with the rest of them. Dan Hicks, Jim Squires, the other Goustwhite brother.” He looked at Austin Davis. “Who am I leaving out?”
Davis shrugged. “We need to make a list, there’s so damn many of them. And they keep switching around.”
Longarm said, “What I want is as many men as your son can round up coming in to rob that bank Wednesday morning.”
“You going to gun them?”
Longarm shook his head. “No. I will have it so arranged that they won’t have a chance. There will not be a shot
