“Your apology is accepted, Marshal. Please continue.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He touched the brim of his Stetson in Mrs. Burdick’s direction, then went on. “Clementine here likes to get a fella drunk an’ take him off somewhere private. Except while he’s busy gettin’ his pants off, she sidles up behind an’ makes like she’s gonna hug him. Least that’s the way we figure it from what’s found afterward. Nobody’s ever survived t’ tell us for sure. Thing is, she gets behind a fella like that an’ slips a loop o’ piano wire over his head. One good tug is all it takes. A garrote, I think the rig is called. It crushes the windpipe. Pull real hard an’ it can practically cut a man’s head off. Though I don’t think she’s ever quite managed t’ accomplish that. Came close a few times, though.” Longarm smiled. “There’s some lawmen I know over east of here that’re gonna be real happy t’ see Clementine sitting in a federal prison where they can file extradition papers on her.”
“You bastard,” she hissed.
“You’d have t’ ask my folks ‘bout that, not me,” Longarm responded.
“Trust me.”
“Yeah, Clementine, I’ll just do that. You bet.”
“But what about the man who shot at you?” Burdick asked. “You say she has been working with someone here?”
“That’s right. Murder for hire would be my guess. Though who would want me dead I really don’t know.” He smiled, although no mirth reached his eyes. “Not anyone in particular, that is. For sure, though, I never seen any of these fellows before this trip here. An’ none of them is on any posters that I know about. So whatever reason someone has for wanting me dead, I’d say it’s a cash transaction an’ our boy is a professional gunman.”
“A gunfighter using a .22 pistol?” Burdick asked, his voice expressing rather obvious disbelief.
“That reminds me, Howard. You an’ the other fellows can quit looking for that gun. I thank you for your effort, but there’s no pistol hidden over there t’ be found.”
“But how-?”
“Right under my damn nose,” Longarm said. “The whole time the gun was right under my nose an’ I never noticed.”
“I don’t understand,” Burdick said.
“None of us did. Which was the whole point o’ this guy’s way o’ doing business. You know how Clementine has her favorite weapon an’ method? Well, so does her boyfriend. An’ I got to say that he’s a kinda clever sonuvabitch. Until you figure it out, that is.”
Longarm dipped two fingers into his vest pocket and pulled out the scrap of misshapen lead that had caught inside his wallet a little while earlier.
“This right here is what gave him away,” he said with a great deal of satisfaction.
At the rear of the crowd that had gathered close around Longarm and his prisoner there was a slight stir. People began edging nervously away in anticipation of more gunplay.
Chapter 35
“Oh, I don’t think you folks got much t’ worry about here. My guess is that our boy would rather take his chances in a court o’ law than standing face to face against me with a six-gun.” Longarm grinned.
“Isn’t that so, little man?” Longarm said to the mild, meek-looking little dandy with the cane and the fancy clothes.
“Me? You would accuse me? But really, sir. You searched me yourself this morning. All these gentlemen saw. I had no revolver then and I have none now.”
“That’s right, mister. You didn’t have no revolver. Nor no pistol o’ any kind. That’s just as true as true can be.”
“Then surely, sir, you cannot think-“
“Oh, but I do. An’ I can prove it easy enough. You think you still got the wool pulled down over my eyes? ‘Fraid not, mister … what is your name anyhow?”
The little man straightened to his full height. Which was at least half a head shorter than Longarm even so. “I, sir, am Herbert Amos Hancock.”
“Called?”
“Mister Hancock to you, sir,” the little man said with a brave show of haughty disdain.
“Yeah, sure, Herbie,” Longarm drawled. “You wanta lay down your gun now, please?”
“I already told you, Marshal. I have no firearm. As you yourself determined not two hours ago.”
“Herbie, lemme put it this way. I can show these folks what I mean after I take the thing off your dead body. Which I will damn sure do—shoot you down, that is—if you don’t lay down the weapon. I can take it that way or else you can hand it over nice an’ quiet, after which time you an’ me will talk about a deal.”
“A deal, sir?”
“Ayuh. The big thing you win is that you get to keep on breathing for a spell. Second thing is that once we chat, an’ you tell me who it is that hired you … and why … then I tell the judge how cooperative you been and-“
“Marshal. Marshal Long? Listen to me.” It was Clementine Bonner. Longarm wasn’t real surprised. If there were favors going to be passed around, Clementine would want to make sure she was first in line and to hell with her erstwhile partner.
“Yes, Clemmie?”
“Now wait just a minute there, Marshal,” Herbert Amos Hancock rushed to say. “It was me you offered the deal to, not that woman.”
