Arturo walked around the mule so that it was between them, and he scratched the animal’s large ears. “Do you swear secrecy?”
“Of course! On my life, Arturo!”
The fanner turned to regard Longarm, although he was still speaking to Randy. “And what of this tall friend with the bullet wound in his side? Why should I trust a stranger?”
“Because,” Longarm said, digging into his pocket and showing the Mexican his United States marshal’s badge, “I’m a federal lawman.”
If Arturo was surprised, Randy was astonished. “My God! You’ve been carrying that on your person in Helldorado!”
“No one was going to take it off me unless they killed me first,” Longarm said, “and if they did that, why should I care anymore?”
“You’re crazy,” Randy said.
“You’re a marshal,” Arturo said. “Then you should hear what I have to say about this evil thing that happened to my mother.”
“I’m listening.”
“She ran away from Helldorado and they had chased her almost to this place before the darkness fell. When I found her in this barn, she had been shot.”
“No!” Randy wailed.
Tears seeped from Arturo’s eyes. “It is true. My mother was shot by two of your father’s men.”
“How do you know this?”
“Because she told me who they were.”
“Their names!” Randy choked.
“You do not want t-“
Randy shouted, “Damnit, their names!”
“One was named Dean. The other was your brother.”
“Is the senora still alive?” Longarm asked.
“Se” Arturo said after a moment’s hesitation. “She lives!”
Joy sprang back into Randy’s eyes. “Thank God!” he cried. “Where is she? I want to see her!”
“No,” Arturo said. “She has gone away.”
“But where?”
“To California. To Sonora, Where there are many of our Mexican people. It is just over the mountains, and I have already gone to visit her twice. She is going to be well soon, but she will never return to Nevada.”
Randy bowed his head and Longarm thought the kid was crying again, until he realized that Randy was offering a prayer of thanks.
Before Longarm went to bed that night, Monica changed his bandages and cleaned his wound. “It’s not a very pretty thing for you to see,” he said in the way of an apology.
“You will soon heal, senor.”
“That’s good to hear,” Longarm said, speaking directly to Randy. “There’s a lot of work to be done in the next few days.”
“That’s right,” Randy said, his face set with determination. “There is.”
That was all that Longarm wanted to hear, and later that night he slept better than he had in months. It was almost nine o’clock the next morning when one of Arturo’s children finally forgot to be silent and awakened him with laughter.
Longarm smiled. He realized that to awaken to the laughter of a child was a blessing.
“Breakfast, Senor Long?” Monica asked.
“I apologize for sleeping so late,” Longarm said. “I expect the household has been up for hours, everyone creeping around and trying not to make a sound and wake me.”
“No,” she said, “everyone noisy, but you snore so loud you cannot hear us.”
Longarm chuckled at that, and took his place at Monica’s table. There were eggs, ham, and flapjacks, of which he ate piles. “I swear that if I had regular cooking like this, I’d be as big as a horse.”
Monica beamed, her face round and gentle as she went to see to her children.
Longarm finished his breakfast, and went outside to discover that Randy’s buckskin and his own ugly black gelding were saddled and bridled.
“We’re leaving now?” Longarm asked with surprise.
“I’ve got scores to settle.”
“Whoa up there,” Longarm said. “This is my kind of game and we’re playing by my rules.”
“What does that mean?”
