your judgment about things like that. But I think it’s a case of a woman’s imagination running away with the facts.”
“Why’s that?” Longarm asked.
“Look, this whole thing has to do with politics, Longarm. Not revenge. Not some dumb story from out of that poor woman’s past. You know how some people think the whole world revolves around them and anything that happens only happens because it will affect them. Right?”
“I’ve knowed folks like that, sure. We all have. But this widow woman …” He shrugged. That just wasn’t the way he’d read Janie. Not really.
“Okay, so maybe that’s putting it a little too strongly. But you get the general idea of what I’m saying, don’t you?”
“I think I do.”
“Good. Because these killings really don’t have anything to do with some dim and dusty incident from the past. The reason there is something that she can think is a connection is simple, Longarm. The boys who were being young and silly at the shivaree those years ago were all the young men of their particular generation who grew up here. And quite naturally that same crowd of boys are now grown men. Grown men who run things politically in this town. And who want to run things on a wider scale if they can manage it.”
Longarm raised an eyebrow.
“This crowd in Addington, Custis, is trying to take over the remnants of the old Whig party and turn it into their big chance to make a major move. They call themselves the Texas First party, and by moving into what little is left of the old Whig crowd they have the votes to dominate the Whig organization here and in about five or six other counties in east Texas. It’s a sort of leverage. The Whigs have a good share of the influence here. Not quite a majority but almost. I mean, this is kind of a stickin-the-mud bunch in this area. They don’t let go of the past easily. So the Whigs aren’t exactly powerful, but they are close to it. And they stick tight. They’re well-known for voting as a bloc. Very solid. So by forming a scant majority within the Whig organization and then controlling it, the Texas Firsters have been able to virtually double their influence. Fifty percent plus one and they get the other forty-nine percent as a gift, so to speak. Theirs to do with as they wish. D’ you see where I’m going with this?”
“Could be.”
“Of course you do. They figure to take firm root here and then grow like a weed, like a vine taking hold in one spot and pretty soon expanding all around it. If they can get a firm hold here, Longarm, next they’ll have a voice in the state capital. Senate, House of Representatives, state supreme court, wherever they can get a toehold. And that is all entirely legal. Don’t get me wrong. My boss has no grief with anything they do that’s legal and aboveboard. So long as the Texas First party members are elected fair and square, we’ll do everything we can to protect them and to guarantee their rights. Unfortunately, there are rumors … which now look to be something more than rumors … about their methods for gaining control of some political offices.”
“Norman Colton, you mean?”
“It’s possible. Colton wasn’t a Texas Firster. His appointment to office came out of Washington, you know. And he was loyal to his party. Just like Pete Nare was loyal to his party. Which was the opposition to the current administration but there again he was no Texas Firster.”
“And the first man who was killed? What was his name again?”
“Meyers. Wil Meyers.”
“Right. Thanks.”
“Anyway, you asked about Meyers’ political affiliation,” Amos reminded him. “The truth is that I don’t know. I haven’t wanted to be too nosy about the other murders. I can safely bring up anything relating to my so-called cousin Norman, but I didn’t want to tip my hand about Meyers. Now, of course, it looks like there’s a pattern beginning to show so I’ll be free to ask around some more. But still as a concerned relative. I’ll leave the official investigating to you since you’re out in the open about it.”
Longarm nodded. “And your boss in the Rangers thinks the Texas First party is beginning to have some influence inside the Rangers, I take it?” That was the wrong thing to say, he saw immediately: the open friendliness in Amos’s eyes was instantly replaced by a veil of—at the very least—caution.
“The Rangers don’t get involved in politics, Deputy. Never!”
“No, I reckon you don’t,” Longarm said quickly. But it sounded lame even to him.
Of course Amos’s anger was more than answer enough. Damn right the head man in Austin was afraid that this Texas First crowd was trying to influence law enforcement as well as put their people into elected office. And when someone started trying to take that kind of control, well, any sensible citizen would tend to open his eyes and his ears wider than usual and prepare to defend the rights his government was supposed to guarantee for him.
“D’ you, uh, want a piece o’ pie t’ go with that,” Longarm suggested in a peace-making effort.
“If you’re buying, sure,” Amos said, accepting the unspoken apology in the spirit Longarm intended.
Chapter 19
It was no trick to find out where the latest murder took place. A large sign painted in bright red lettering proclaimed the location of Nare and Son, Hardware and Farm Implements, Offered to the Gen’l Public at Wholesale Price.
The two-story building was perhaps twenty feet wide but ran the full depth of the city lot, which was a good seventy or eighty feet or so. According to what Longarm had overheard earlier in the police chief’s office, the top floor was given to living quarters and the ground floor to business. There was an alley running along the east side of the building, and that would be where the door was, the one Peter Nare opened to find a gun staring him in the face.
Naturally enough the store remained closed after the proprietor’s death. If there was family left to take over the buisness, they would not likely do so until after a suitable mourning period. The top-floor windows, at least those that could be seen from the street, were closed, and there was no way for Longarm to tell if anyone was there. Seeing no policemen in the vicinity he assumed the chief was already in possession of whatever information was available. If any.
Longarm figured there was at least a strong likelihood that this killing and the two previous ones, including that
