Longarm said, “You sent him out to the Nelsons?”
The sheriff looked up. “Yeah, that’s who he was asking for.”
Longarm pointed toward the general direction of the front office. He said, “You got a wanted poster on a United States deputy marshal right out there in your office that is supposed to be from the Nelsons. Ain’t that a fact?”
The sheriff nodded slowly, but winced as he did so. He put his hand to his throat. “Yeah, I know it. Hell, I thought maybe that deputy was that one on the poster.”
Longarm cocked his head. He said, “Why, you dirty sonofabitch. You’re supposed to be a lawman and you sent another lawman to where he might get killed? What the hell kind of low-down no-good snake are you?”
The sheriff looked up defiantly. “Listen, this is my damned county and I’ll run it to suit myself.”
Longarm shook his head. He reached over, took hold of the badge that was on the sheriff’s shirt, and ripped it loose. He said, “No, you ain’t the sheriff no more.”
The sheriff looked startled. “What gives you the right to be doing that?”
Longarm reached up and unbuttoned the pocket of his shirt, taking out his badge. He said, “This does. I’m also a United States deputy marshal and I’m holding you for malfeasance in office, you sonofabitch. You’re in this cell and you’re going to stay in this cell. Anybody who lets you out is going to join you in this cell or they are going to get dead, just as you are going to get dead if you come out of here. Do you understand that, you bastard?”
The sheriff made as if to half rise. He said, “You can’t do this.”
Longarm raised his boot and kicked the sheriff square in the chest. Another whoosh of air came out of his lungs.
Longarm said, “Now you get the straight, Nevins. You’re through. You are dead through.”
The sheriff tried to croak. In a small voice, almost a whisper, he said, “The people of this county elected me sheriff. You can’t take my badge.”
“You can’t be sheriff and be in jail at the same time. I’ve arrested you for malfeasance while in office. Here you sit. Now, how long ago did you send young Henderson out to the Nelsons?”
The sheriff shook his head weakly. “I don’t know, you’ve got my head ringing. A couple of days ago. I can’t hardly think. Maybe it was the first day he was here or maybe it was the second day he was here. I don’t remember which.”
“Did you warn him about that poster?”
“I don’t know what that poster means.”
“You sonofabitch. You’re lying.”
“No, I ain’t,” the sheriff said. He looked completely whipped and down. “Listen, mister. I’ve done told you all I know. The Nelsons are rich folks who get their way. If they tell me to do something, I do it.”
“Are they serious with that poster?”
The sheriff said, his words halting, “Damned if I know. They don’t tell me nothing.”
“Well, you better remember this. I’m the one on that poster they want. They’re fixing to get another deputy, and if anything has happened to him, I’m going to come back here and beat you to death. Understand?”
The sheriff looked up at him with a swollen face. “I’m just small potatoes in this. I don’t even know what’s going on.”
Longarm backed out of the cell and then slammed the door and turned the key. He said, “You better not come out of that cell. You’re under arrest. I’ll kill you if you come out. And if your deputy is part of this, he’s going to join you.”
With that, Longarm turned and walked down the corridor, pausing only long enough to open the cell of the sleeping Mexican. After that, he unlocked the connecting door to the outer office and walked through it.
Just as he came into the sunlight of the office, the front door opened and Lee Gray came in, hurrying and looking alert. He said, “Longarm, you’d better get ready. That deputy is about a half a block from here. Him and the mayor are walking together and it looks like they’re coming in here. What’s been happening?”
Longarm made a noise like laughter. He said, “What the hell hasn’t been happening.”
Chapter 5
He never gave the deputy or the mayor a chance to ask a question. Instead, he backed them up against a wall and explained to them who he was and what he was there for and what had happened to the sheriff. He said, “Now, I have every reason to believe that both of you had a hand in sending that young marshal into a trap. By rights, I ought to put both of your asses back there in the cell with the sheriff, but I’m not going to do it.” He looked at the deputy, who was a man in his early thirties, not particularly impressive. He looked at the mayor, who was a little older and a little fatter. He said, “Now this man over here”—he jerked his head over toward Lee Gray—“is a sworn deputy marshal in the United States Marshal Service. He outranks everybody in this town except me. If you let that sheriff out or do anything to get word to the Nelsons, both of your asses are going to wish that you had never been born. I’ll personally see to that. This thing has done got personal with me. I’m mean by nature. Just plain mean to begin with, and when somebody goes and puts wanted posters out on me, I get worse than a rattlesnake. Then to make matters worse, you lie to a young man and maybe even send him to his death. Ain’t nobody in the world can get any meaner than I am right now. So don’t fuck with me, don’t fuck with me at all, or I’ll tear your asses off and feed them to you. Understand?”
He had walked up close to the two and was pushing his face into the face of first one and then the other. They glanced sideways at one another and swallowed.
Longarm said, “Do I make myself clear?”
The mayor nodded. “Yes, Marshal Long. We don’t know anything about this poster business. We didn’t have anything to do with that. I admit that the young marshal did come to see me, and I didn’t cooperate with him as I might have because the Nelsons are a powerful family around here and I didn’t want any trouble with them. I didn’t tell him anything. But I had nothing to do with sending him out there.”
