runs right along the bank. Pony’s there with an extra horse. I get the train to stop. Me and Everett get off. Pony gets on. We ride back into town, sorta light-footed. Pony goes on to Del Rio. I’ll write you a letter to give to Dave Morrissey down there, help you get settled. Then me and Everett will take care of business and come on down to join you.”
“No,” Allie said.
Virgil looked startled, which was an amazing thing to see, because Virgil never looked startled.
“No?” he said.
“Absolutely not,” Allie said. “I won’t leave you, and neither will Laurel.”
Virgil looked at Laurel.
Laurel shook her head.
“Why not?” Virgil said.
“I won’t,” Allie said.
“Why not?” Virgil said.
“I’m a mess,” Allie said. “I been a mess long as you’ve known me. But I got this child to think ’bout now, and I can’t keep being a mess.”
Virgil looked at her and didn’t answer. Virgil never looked puzzled, any more than he ever looked startled, but if he had he would have looked puzzled now.
“What kind of woman would leave her man at a time like this, to go hide, while he risked his life?”
Virgil shrugged and looked at me. I shrugged.
“That’s right,” she said, as if we had answered. “And I will not be that kind of woman anymore, not ever, anymore. I cannot be that kind of woman and be with this child… or you.”
Virgil looked at me again.
“Sounds right to me,” I said.
Virgil nodded.
“And I don’t want Pony taking care of us,” Allie said. “I want Pony to be with you.”
“Who looks out for you and Laurel?” Virgil said.
“Me,” Allie said.
“You?”
“I have a gun; I know how to shoot,” Allie said. “You taught me.”
Laurel stepped to Virgil’s chair and whispered to him. He listened. He nodded.
“Okay,” he said. “We don’t go to Del Rio.”
“We can pretend to,” I said.
“And where do Allie and Laurel go?” Virgil said. “Ain’t good tactics to leave them out for Pike.”
“No,” I said. “We need to hide them.”
“Where?” Virgil said.
No one spoke for a moment, and then I said, “Lemme go talk to my friend Frisco.”
“The whore?”
“Yes,” I said.
“In Pike’s Palace?” Virgil said.
“Where would he be less likely to look?” I said.
“I’ll be back in an hour or so,” I said.
“Take you that long?” Virgil said.
“No,” I said. “But I might have to wait my turn.”
Allie smiled at me.
“Not if I was Frisco,” she said.
I said, “Thank you, Allie.”
And I stood and walked back up toward Pike’s Palace.
65
FRISCO’S ROOM AND PLACE of employment was on the second floor at Pike’s. But I went boldly in. I had till morning to leave town.
“Come for a good-bye poke,” Frisco said when she let me in.
“Good-bye?” I said.
Frisco closed the door and locked it. We sat on her bed together.
“Heard you was leaving town tomorrow,” she said.
“Word gets around,” I said.
“Pike’s telling everybody he run you and Virgil Cole out of town,” she said.
“Proud of himself,” I said.
“Yes,” Frisco said.
She was wearing a short, thin nightgown and not much else.
“Before we get into farewells,” I said, “I need a favor.”
“You know me, Everett,” Frisco said. “I only do the regular things. I don’t do no specialties.”
“None needed,” I said. “I need to hide two women here, in this room, for a few hours tomorrow.”
“Two women?”
“Yep.”
“The ones with you and Virgil?” she said. “Allie and the kid, the one the Indian took?”
“Yes,” I said.
I had no problem lying to her, but who else would it be?
“Her mother, what was her name?”
“Mary Beth,” I said. “Mary Beth Ostermueller.”
“Yeah, her,” Frisco said. “Killed herself two rooms down from here. Drunk, put a forty-five in her mouth and blew the top of her head off.”
“I know,” I said.
“Awful mess,” Frisco said. “Pike was furious, but she was already dead, you know, so he couldn’t kill her. Took a couple days to get that room cleaned up.”
“Forty-five can make a big exit hole,” I said.
“I guess,” Frisco said. “Why’d she do that, anyway?”
“Life was too hard, I guess.”
“That hard?”
“She and her daughter had a bad time of it, ’fore we got them back.”
“Daughter didn’t kill herself.”
“No,” I said. “I think having her daughter watch what happened to her, and her having to watch while it happened to her daughter, right in front of her…”
Frisco nodded.
“Woman needed to be tougher,” Frisco said.
“She did,” I said. “And she wasn’t.”
“I take these two women in here,” Frisco said, “and Pike finds out, what happens?”
“He’ll kill them,” I said. “And you.”
“So why should I take the chance?” Frisco said.
“ ’Cause we plan to kill him,” I said. “ ’Fore he finds out.”
Frisco nodded.
“They can stay here; I’ll move down with Big Red,” she said. “You don’t kill him, I’ll claim I don’t know how they got in here, but I come back and found the door locked and figured one of the other girls was using the room for business.”
“Might work,” I said.
“When they coming?”
