Fortunately, he's also an honest man. Hell, if he weren't, he would
have handed the man over to a lynching mob by now.'
'You think they've had trouble? ' 'Yes, I do.' Cole thought about
that for a moment, and then asked, 'What's in the other telegrams? '
'They're all from Rafferty. He must have been standing inside the
telegraph office and was in a talkative mood. He wanted to know if we
had any leads, and I wired him back that there was a remote possibility
of a witness.
He jumped right on that. I told him there might have been a woman
hiding in the bank, that we think it's one of three, but none of them
will admit it . . . ' 'What did he say about that? ' 'He wants us to
bring all three of them to Blackwater. He says he can get the truth
out of them.'
'Does he have the authority to make us bring them? ' Daniel leaned
back against the wall. 'Yes and no, ' he answered.
'We're on special assignment, so we don't have to follow his
instructions.'
'But? ' 'Rafferty's got some powerful friends in Washington. He might
be able to exert enough pressure to force us to do what he wants. I
don't want to get him riled up, so I'm letting him think we'll
cooperate. I promised him that we would know for certain today if we
had a witness or not.'
'And will we know today? ' 'Hell, yes, we'll know.'
'Grace might not be up to talking today. We might have to wait.'
'We'll talk to her this afternoon, then. By the end of the day, we'll
know whether or not we have a witness.' Cole muttered an expletive.
He'd just spotted Rebecca on the boardwalk across the street. She was
wearing a pink dress and carrying a pink-and-white-striped parasol.
She was so lovely, she was literally stopping traffic as men paused to
gawk at her. Her guard, Carver, trailed close behind, glancing in all
directions.
'Here comes Rebecca, ' Cole said. 'Ah, hell, she just stopped to talk
to the reporter.' Ryan looked outside. 'He was hanging around the
telegraph office while I was inside, and when I came out, he went
running in. He probably knows everything now, and from the look on
Rebecca's face, I'm guessing he just told her they caught one of the
gang.'