“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Megan whispered to Longarm. “This town is about ready to explode.”
“I know,” he said. “I’m surprised that Kane is still alive. Megan, you can almost feel the hatred these people have for him.”
“My father was tough,” Megan said, “but he was a pussycat compared to Ivan Kane. Why do they keep him in office?”
Longarm glanced back at the side alley. “That’s a good question and one that I’ll have to get to the bottom of before I leave.”
“Shh!” Megan whispered. “Here he comes!”
Kane was smiling when he reappeared, but the man he had spoken to looked anything but happy as he went back inside his emporium.
“Custis. Megan. I apologize for not making the proper introductions, but that was Mr. Harvey Boone, who, along with J.W. Wright, owns this thriving establishment.”
“Mr. Boone appeared to be very upset about something,” Longarm said.
“Oh, he was!” Kane chuckled. “He had just gotten wind that it was time for my annual raise. And since Mr. Boone and Mr. Wright are among the most prosperous of our merchants and proprietors, they will have to pay accordingly.”
“Your wages are not paid by taxes?”
“What taxes?” Kane snickered. “The last time that Mono County tried to assess a business or sales tax, the tax collector was beat to a pulp and run out of town on a rail!”
“Did you arrest those responsible?” Longarm asked.
“Those responsible wore masks and the attack took place in a whorehouse about midnight. No,” Kane said, looking amused, “I think you can well imagine that the tax collector was not very popular and there were no witnesses to the beating.”
“I see.”
“Good,” Kane said, “because it’s important that you do see.”
“How much is your salary?” Megan blurted out.
Kane had been about to continue their walk down the boardwalk, but now he suddenly stopped, planted his feet, and said, “I’m not sure that is any of your business, young lady.”
“My father was the marshal of Reno for sixteen years and never made more than a hundred dollars a month.”
“Well, pity him,” Kane snapped. “Maybe he should have come to a town like Bodie where everyone was trying to kill him so that they could return to their lawless and wicked ways.”
“My father,” Megan said defiantly, “had plenty of troubles in Reno, and he was shot three times in the line of duty, but he always came back and made sure that the law was upheld. And by that, I mean the laws of the State of Nevada.”
“Well,” Kane said, voice taking on a hard edge, “this is California, and it’s a boom town with all that trash and riffraff that big money attracts. We have no civic committees. There are no church socials along the Truckee riverside, and you’d be damned hard pressed to find anyone who owns a bible.”
Kane started walking, leaving Longarm and Megan to either hurry after the man or to give up the excursion. They hurried after Kane, who shouted over his shoulder, “Miss Riley, your father had a bunch of Sunday-school kids compared to what I have to deal with every day here in Bodie. He has no idea what tough really is, Miss Riley. I know he thinks that he’s had some close shaves and been in some tight fixes, but he hasn’t. Not really.”
“You’re an arrogant ass!” Megan shouted. “You dare to say that my father had it easy!”
“Compared to what I’ve had to fight in my town, yes.”
“That ties it,” Megan said, eyes blazing. “I’m going back to the hotel.”
“I’d better escort you,” Longarm said.
“We’d both better escort her,” Kane stated flatly. “The few respectable women in Bodie are known to most everyone. All the others are just assumed to be whores. And you, miss, dressed in those man’s clothes but showing all the curves of a young woman, would prove to be a riddle that the more unsavory element in Bodie would find irresistible.”
“I can take care of myself,” she said.
Kane looked at Longarm. “I think you had better get her attention, Marshal Long. This is no time for a female temper tantrum. This young lady needs to be educated about life in a mining camp.”
“He’s right,” Longarm said. “You can’t just stomp off and expect that, because you pack a six-gun or a derringer, you’re going to be all right. It doesn’t work that way in a town like this.”
“Why not!” Megan swung around and looked up and down the street. “This place strikes me as being evil!”
“That’s because it is,” Kane said, offering her his arm, which Megan ignored.
“If it’s so evil, why haven’t you done something to change it?”
Kane shrugged, his craggy face hardening. “The only thing that can shackle the greed and evil in evil men is fear. If they fear punishment, they will desist from acts of wrongdoing.”
He turned to Longarm. “You’ve been in more than a few towns like this, Custis. Why don’t you tell this young lady the truth? Am I right, or am I wrong?”
“You’re right,” Longarm said. Then he added, “But there are a lot of men who are neither good nor evil, but
