She said, “Don’t bet me.”
When Longarm had finished eating, she gave him a piece of chocolate cake and allowed him to drink another glass of whiskey before they went back to the bedroom. The second time was even more spectacular than the first because of the slow, progressively intense nature of their lovemaking. As it built, wrung by wrung, sometimes Longarm could barely control himself, waiting for her, holding up for her, bringing her all the way to the top of the ladder.
When it was finally over, they were both spent. She went into the kitchen with him while he smoked a cheroot and had a drink. Then she began yawning. “Honey,” she said, “I’ve got to go to bed. You are going to sleep here tonight, aren’t you?”
Longarm said, “Yeah, I reckon, but you go on to bed. I want to sit here and think a spell.”
She stood up, kissed him softly on the mouth, and said, “If I get up before you do, I’ll try not to wake you. I’ll leave the coffee on.”
He bade her good night, and then poured himself out some more whiskey and lit another cheroot. His mind turned back to the problem down in New Mexico. He wasn’t frightened by the situation, but mainly perplexed. He was also not so certain that it was smart to send a young deputy such as Ross Henderson down into what might well turn out to be a very complicated situation. It could be that Henderson would muddy the waters and make the final resolution more difficult. It could be that he would give up more information than he got.
As Longarm sat there smoking and drinking, he came halfway to the conclusion that it wasn’t such a good idea. He thought that he would take himself over to Billy Vail’s office the next day and have a discussion with his boss about the matter.
After a while, he put out his cheroot, drank the last of his whiskey, and then slipped into bed beside the warm, soft smooth body of Miss Pauline.
Chapter 2
Longarm got to Billy Vail’s office shortly after lunch the next day. He had not rushed because he felt there was no need for hurry. Knowing Billy, Longarm had expected him to act with all due deliberation before he sent young Ross Henderson to New Mexico, but he was greatly surprised to find that the chief marshal had sent the young deputy on his way the night before. Vail said, “Yeah, I had him on that eight o’clock southbound train yesterday evening. I barely gave him time to pack.”
Longarm sat down with a pained look on his face. He said, “What the hell was the hurry, Billy? Couldn’t it have waited?”
Vail said, “What the hell was there to wait for? You said you needed some time to rest.”
Longarm frowned. “Well, I suppose it’s all right. I don’t know. I just don’t much like the idea of sending a man as inexperienced as Henderson is into an unknown situation like that.”
“That sure as hell ain’t the way you were talking yesterday.”
“Yesterday, Billy, I was just back from a two-week hunt. I was give out, give in, and damned near ready to give up. Now I’ve had some whiskey and some pussy and some food and some sleep.”
Billy Vail said, “Which do you count as food?”
Longarm gave him a sour look. “I don’t need any of your smart mouth this morning. What were your instructions to Henderson?”
The chief marshal shrugged. “Just to look around, ask a few questions, mainly find out who the Nelsons are and what their interest is in you and if they have all that money to pay for your sorry head. Just kind of get a line on it, if it’s real or not real, and find out why I haven’t had any returns on my telegrams to the sheriff and the town marshal and such.”
Longarm said, “Why didn’t you just tell him to go down there and hang a sign on his back that says, “Shoot Me?’ Hell, Billy, they’re going to connect the one to the other. If those people you wired didn’t wire you back, there’s a damned good reason why they didn’t wire you back, and that’s because they’re in with the Nelsons. You should have told him to go down there and hang around and keep his ears open in the saloons.”
“Well, if you’re so damned smart, how come you didn’t give him his orders?”
“Because you’re the chief marshal, damn it. Have you forgotten everything you ever learned in the field?”
Billy Vail’s face flushed slightly. “No, I haven’t forgotten everything I ever learned in the field, but I might could arrange for you to learn a whole lot about being behind a desk. How would you like that?”
Longarm said with a little heat in his voice, “You’re always threatening me with that, Billy. Just go ahead and threaten. The day you get me behind a desk is the day I’ll be dead. I’ll quit first and you know it.”
Billy Vail waved a pacifying hand at him. “All right. I understand how you feel. I’m a little worried about Henderson myself. You got any ideas?”
Longarm sat back in his chair. “I did some studying about it late last night and then some more this morning. I’ve got a friend in Tucumcari, a man by the name of Lee Gray. He’s kind of a part-time gunslinger, part-time cattle rancher, part-time gambler, and part-time whatever he needs to be. He’s in my debt.”
“What did you do? Help him cross a herd of stolen cattle over the Rio Grande?”
Longarm said, “Yeah, for you—your cattle. No, I kept him from having a little more air inside of him than a man needs to have. Anyway, what I was thinking was that if he’s in Tucumcari, I could get him to take a quick train up to Santa Rosa and kind of keep an eye on Ross. He’s an old experienced hand, a man about forty. He knows how to listen and keep his mouth shut. I’m going to get a wire off to him and see if we can’t sort of back this thing up a little bit. He can watch Ross’s back. If Lee wasn’t such a damned disreputable character, he’d have made a damned good lawman.”
“What are you doing sitting here talking to me about it?”
“Well, you are the chief marshal and it was my understanding that I was supposed to get your permission before I up and acted on my own.”
Billy Vail threw up his hand and said, “Hah! That’s a new one! That’s a first! If I could tote up the times you’ve asked my permission to do something and hold them in one hand, and then tote up the times you’ve gone ahead on
