“Maybe not, Janie. Maybe I don’t at that.” He tugged his Stetson on, bent to give her a chaste kiss on the cheek, and got the hell out of there. Amos—Lester Colton these days—was waiting in the lobby downstairs.
Chapter 33
“Having fun, Longarm?”
“Not really. It’s beginning to feel like work.”
“If you’re looking for sympathy…”
Longarm grinned and offered his friend a cheroot, which Amos declined.
“Anybody I know?” Amos asked.
“That’s always possible, ain’t it?”
“You’re just a regular little old fount of information this evening. Feeling kinda smug after this afternoon, huh?”
“This afternoon?”
“You know. The chief of police? Last I heard, him and the magistrate were talking about could they make an assault charge stick.”
“Talking about could they make sure all the witnesses would stick to the party line in other words.”
“I will admit that one hears two widely varying accounts about what happened,” Amos said. “But I’ll tell you what I think.”
“What’s that?”
“You should have hit the son of a bitch.”
“Come again?”
“You should have punched him, Longarm. Kicked him. Beaten the shit out of him. Any one of those would have been fine. I mean, a man can stand being beat up. I never heard of anybody, you or me included, who isn’t ever going to come up against somebody else who’s stronger or quicker or just plain luckier on a given day. But what you did to him, Longarm, picking him up and dumping him into a rosebush.”
“It was only a lilac,” Longarm protested. “No thorns.”
“The man is skinned up pretty good.”
Longarm shrugged.
“Okay, lilac, fine. The point is, his pride could have taken being beaten by you. But what you did, treating him like he was some sorry-ass kid that you didn’t even have to bother whipping, that cut deep. Bone deep. Bender won’t ever forgive or forget, I can tell you that much.”
“T’ tell you the truth, I don’t much give a shit. All I want out of Addington is out of Addington. You know?”
“With your murderer.”
“Well, yeah, with a murderer. That’s what I come here t’ do.”
“At least in that, you have an ally you might not have counted on. Sergeant Braxton is four-square in your corner on letting you get your man quick as possible and then get the hell out of here. Brass seems to be about the only one around who recognizes that Norm Colton’s killing should be handled as a separate matter so you federals can be satisfied and the local affairs can take place without any outsiders looking on.”
“If I were planning what those boys are, I think I’d follow good advice when I heard it,” Longarm said.
“You, uh, wouldn’t ignore a threat to the Constitution of the United States, would you?”
“Of course not. But I got to tell you that I think it would take an awful lot more than a bunch of east-Texas assholes like these Texas Firsters to represent any kind of a threat. So until or unless I see good reason t’ change my mind about that, all I’m looking at here is the death of one federal employee. Any other killings the same party or parties may’ve done are strictly the affair of the local law, far as I can see it.”
“I’ll make sure Braxton understands that. Could be he’ll convince Bender to cooperate with you instead of raising his hackles every time you come into view.”
“I’d appreciate that, Lester.”
“All right then. Oh, and by the way. This afternoon while you were off dancing with the police chief, I did some asking around. It seems there is some doubt about whether all the town records are intact.”
“Oh?”
“And guess what sort of records they think are missing?”
Longarm waited. Hell, Amos didn’t want an answer anyway. Not really.
“I heard someone at City Hall say they think the poll records and voter-registration books are missing.”
“Mm, now imagine that. The Whig party secretary dead and now the town clerk. Records missing from both. This is beginning to look kinda interesting.”
“Sure does give somebody room to make a fresh start, doesn’t it?” Amos said.
“All I got t’ say is that it’s a damn good thing everybody in politics is honest, because a situation like this could give an unscrupulous person opportunity to rewrite history just about any way he wants it.”
“Like excluding names off the registration lists if those people are likely to vote the wrong candidate.”
“Yep, it’s just a damn good thing nobody around here would stoop so low as t’ do a thing like that. You thirsty, Lester?”
