you talking about, Rufus having a scar on his jaw?”
“Why, he has. He’s got a white scar about six inches long on his jawbone.”
Longarm tried to sound doubting. “And where did he get that?”
She said, “You know good and well that his daddy clobbered him on his head with a revolver and laid the flesh of Rufus’s face wide open right on that bone. It never did close right and there’s that long white scar there.”
“That’s the left side of his face, isn’t it?”
“Of course it is. You know that his daddy was right-handed.”
“I seem to remember that now.”
“I should think you would.”
Longarm narrowed his eyes at her. “How long ago was that, Lily Gail?”
She said, roaming her eyes around the room, “Oh, I don’t know, six, seven years, I don’t know. Somewhere back then.”
He said with an edge in his voice, “Lily Gail, why are you lying to me?”
“Well, of all the nerve. We’re having a nice conversation and you up and accuse me of lying.”
“The reason I’m accusing you of lying is because you are. The last time we discussed this, you told me that you hadn’t known the Gallaghers that long. You told me that you’d met them through your husband, and that there hadn’t been more than three or four years since you were married to him.”
She sat up in bed and got a huff in her voice. “You might well talk about my dead husband, seeing as you are the one that killed him.”
Longarm said wearily, “You don’t know that I killed your husband and I don’t know that I killed your husband. We were chasing that bunch in far eastern Oklahoma, almost in Arkansas, and I shot a man that we have never proven was your husband. You’ve always claimed I killed your husband because the Gallaghers told you that I killed him, but the Gallaghers may have killed him or he may have just left you. He may be in Mexico right now.”
“I’ll thank you not to speak of him that way.”
“My point is, Lily Gail, that you told me you knew the Gallaghers through your husband.”
“That’s simply not so,” she said. “I’ve known the Gallaghers ever since I was a little girl, I grew up around them. Why, I’ve known them fifteen years or so. The very idea, you making me out a liar like that. Where did you ever get such an idea?”
“You told me.”
“Well, you misheard, that’s all.”
Longarm sat back down in his chair, drew slowly on his cigar, and sipped at his whiskey, thinking. It sounded like a true story. He could not imagine Lily Gail inventing a scar made by a man’s face being laid open by a blow from a revolver. Longarm had seen such an injury, and when they didn’t get stitched up properly, they did leave a long, white, bad-looking scar. He didn’t think she was capable of inventing such a story so quick. Given time and research and reason, she was perfectly capable of passing a lie on as truth, especially with those innocent eyes of hers, but it had come out too easily to have been made up so quickly.
He said casually, “Did the Gallaghers say where they wanted to meet me across the line on the strip?”
“Yes, sir, they did. In Quitman, or just outside of it.”
“Quitman? That’s a boomers’ town. I didn’t think that place was still standing.” He was referring to one of the shanty towns that had sprung up along the Oklahoma line in advance of the land rush that had taken place there. He’d never really understood why the people who had rushed to grab up the free land had been called boomers, but it was a name that suited them well. They had been the dregs of every community from almost every state and territory in the country. By and large, they were either outright crooks or near to the edge. Dollar-grasping, greedy scoundrels who far outnumbered the legitimate farmers who were hoping to find free land where they could make a living and raise a family. The boomers had come through and grabbed what land they could, mostly by chicanery, and then gone moving on to some other rush, be it gold, or land, or whatever.
Longarm said, “Lily Gail, I don’t know about Quitman. That’s a pretty rough little pueblo, and I reckon about half of that town is related to the Gallaghers through one breed or another.”
She said, “They have a sheriff there.”
Longarm laughed. “That’s a good one, Lily Gail. Now let me take my pants off so you can pull my other leg.”
She gave him her look. “Why, whatever do you mean by that?”
Longarm said, giving her a level gaze, “Lily Gail, hope you understand that if the Gallaghers do me serious harm in a way that I won’t ever be able to move again, every federal marshal will be looking for them and for you.”
She raised half up, causing the sheet to fall away from her breasts. “What do you mean, they’d be looking for me? I have nothing to do with this.”
“Lily Gail, don’t fool yourself. I’ve already made known to the right parties that you are the one that contacted me. Now, doesn’t that make you want to tell me about this whole setup?”
She turned to face him full on the bed. She said, her face anxious, “Custis, I done told you everything I know. All they told me is to bring their proposition in to you and see what you thought. That’s all I know. I don’t want no trouble with the United States marshals service.”
“When do you expect to meet with the Gallaghers? Are you going to meet with them in Raton tomorrow?”
He could see the uncertainty in her face. “I don’t know. I’m supposed to meet someone. I don’t know if it will be either Rufus or Clem. I guess they’ll get word by either one of the brothers. Why?”
He looked at her for a long moment. “I’ve got a proposition for them. But if they are not serious about their
