“I went private,” Kane said.
Longarm blinked and did not understand. “Meaning?”
“Meaning I provide a service to the people for a fee. A very modest fee that pays my salary and that of my deputy.”
Longarm had never heard of such a thing. “And the politicians and businessmen in Bodie went along with this?”
“Hell, no!” Hec declared. “They tried to run us out of town. They even hired a new marshal, but we made sure that he didn’t last any longer than the ones before him.
Longarm rubbed his fingers across his eyes. “So you’re telling me that neither one of you were elected or even serve at the pleasure of the town council?”
“That’s right. Not anymore.”
Longarm came to his feet and began to pace back and forth, his mind in no small amount of turmoil. “This is the town’s jail and office, is it not?”
“Oh, yeah,” Kane said. “And I pay them a monthly rent, just like any businessman would.”
“But you’re not a businessman,” Longarm said pointedly. “You’re the marshal and the man in charge of keeping the peace.”
“Don’t tell him his damned job,” Hec Ward warned. “He knows it better’n you ever will.”
“Listen to me, Custis,” Kane said, obviously trying to be patient. “I already explained to you how our Boot Hill is filled with men that thought they were smart and tough enough to be Bodie’s town marshal.”
“Yeah, but-“
“So there came a point where I knew that I had to be tougher and smarter than all the others. I had to do things that … well, didn’t sit right with folks. I hired Hec to watch my back and to give me a hand. And then when we finally crushed the worst elements in Bodie, the cowardly town council up and decided that we were being a little too hard on folks and that our services were no longer wanted or needed.”
“And that’s when you went into business for yourselves.”
“That’s right,” Kane said. “You see, if Hec and I would have handed over our badges and just ridden away, Bodie would have returned to being as lawless as it was before I arrived. All of my work would have been for nothing. My town would have become … simply a jungle. A place where only the fittest would be able to survive.”
“He had no choice,” Hec Ward growled. “Anyone could see that.”
“So,” Longarm asked, “where does Henry Olliver tie into this story?”
“Olliver was a misfit,” Kane said with a tolerant smile. “His father owned a blacksmith shop, but then the old man got drunk and got shot. Olliver sold the blacksmith shop and decided to become a preacher.”
Kane laughed with contempt. “Custis, can you even imagine that? In this town, a preacher?”
“I’ve seen some very bad towns that had two or three churches,” Longarm grimly replied.
Kane’s smile died. “Well, maybe you have, but we don’t have them in Bodie. And anyway, we’re all that is keeping the peace here. This town is like a bucket of poison ready to boil over. We keep a lid on things.”
“You didn’t finish the story about Olliver.”
“Oh, yeah,” Kane said. “Well, when some of the rougher elements in town got drunk and decided that they ddidn’t want a church and a preacher in Bodie, they beat Henry Olliver half to death. Broke his jaw and his nose and a couple of ribs.”
“Three ribs,” Hec said. “Broke the jaw in two places. Olliver lost a lot of weight last year.”
“That’s right,” Kane said, “he did. Anyway, he wanted me to arrest his attackers. Trouble was, they jumped him from behind and he never saw their faces. He thought he could identify them but he had no proof. You’ve heard all this before, Custis. Probable suspects can’t be tried in court without hard evidence.”
Longarm nodded.
“Olliver must have sustained some brain damage during the beating because he started accusing everyone of trying to kill him. Even me!”
“Me too,” Hec grunted.
“And so he became sort of the town lunatic,” Kane said. “He’d preach hellfire and brimstone on the street corners. He’d go into the whorehouses over on Bonanza Street and preach to them ladies of the night too. He became a big nuisance, and I’d have to lock him up for his own protection sometimes.”
“Seems to me,” Longarm said, “that a nuisance is just that—a nuisance. Not someone that you expect to see gunned down.”
“Olliver was starting to rouse the town against the saloons and the whorehouses,” Kane said. “He’d found some crazy followers and they were becoming pretty vocal. He was causing things to start festering. I tried to protect him, but it was impossible.”
“So that’s who you think shot him down last night? A saloon owner or madam?”
“Not a madam, but one of the toughs they hire to police their whorehouses. Hec and I make daily visits to those places and try to keep the peace, but there’s always trouble.”
“And you do this for a fee? These visits, I mean,” Longarm said quietly.
“Well,” Kane said, winking. “We sometimes take our fees out in trade. Don’t we, Hec?”
The big, brutish deputy guffawed, and Longarm walked over to the window and stared out at the street, trying
