exactly the amount they were short.”
“Well, hell,” Davis said, “you had him dead to rights.”
Longarm nodded. “Yeah,” he said with a trace of bitterness. “You’d think so, wouldn’t you? But I got some news for you, young Mister Davis, dealing with folks like that ain’t like catching bank robbers or road agents.”
“How so?”
Longarm looked weary, thinking back over the incident. “First of all, they got their ways that we don’t know nothing about. He was a bank examiner. What the hell do I know about that? Maybe he was taking that money out of the bank just to test their safeguards. That’s what he claimed. Second, they work for a bureau of the government, and if there’s anything that protects their own it’s bureaucracy. They pack up worse than wolves. I think they operate on the theory that if one gets caught they might all get caught.”
“But you caught him with the damn money!”
Longarm shook his head. “Don’t mean a damn thing. I had to be able to get at least two more federal bank examiners to swear that what the crook done wasn’t proper and part of procedure, and that took some little doing. Billy Vail said that at best I could be out of a job and at worst might go to prison for drawing a gun on a high government official. I tell you, it was nip and tuck there for a while.”
“How’d you finally get him?” Austin Davis was looking puzzled and worried.
Longarm shrugged. “Well, it took a little bit of luck. A bunch of bankers who’d lost money every time the examiner paid them a visit come forward and helped out. But the biggest help was the man’s wife. She got spiteful because she was pretty sure he was running around on her, and she come forward and told us where we could find an account he had hidden that had better than a hundred thousand dollars in it.” Longarm gave Davis a look. “Bank examiners don’t make that kind of money.”
Davis said, “Yeah, but wait a minute. Hell, we are a branch of the government. Why the hell should a bank examiner carry more clout than a deputy marshal?”
Longarm explained. “Because we’re on the rough side of the bench. We carry guns. Some folks ain’t sure we’re the law or outlaws. We are supposed to be willing to risk our lives for poor pay and no credit and be damn grateful and damn quiet about it.”
Davis was riled. “Why, that is a hell of a note.”
“Ain’t it? Listen, to have any whack in the government you need a desk and a couple of clerks to write outraged letters for you. I tell you, before that deal was over with the bank examiner had the Federal Reserve system down on us and the Treasury department and I don’t know who all. All Billy Vail done for about a month was answer letters and telegrams that would burn your hand you picked one up. Didn’t make me any too popular with him.”
“But he knowed you done right, didn’t he?”
Longarm sighed and shook his head. “Austin, that part don’t make a damn. I put my boss to considerable trouble. Right or wrong, he didn’t care for it. He told me—and I ain’t too sure he was kidding—that next time he’d appreciate it if I’d just shoot the sonofabitch and not bring him in.”
Davis suddenly cocked his head and stared at Longarm. “Would you be telling me this story for a reason?” he asked.
“I might.”
“Would this have anything to do with the customs people?”
Longarm shrugged. “I don’t know. I would reckon, at a guess, that they are a close-knit bunch. I reckon they wouldn’t want it getting around that any of them are crooked, if you take my meaning.”
Davis looked angry. “Are you telling me that if we catch that sonofabitch Caster, and any other fish we can get in the net, we are going to have political pressure put on us? Are you telling me that because they belong to a big outfit like Customs, we are going to get some grief?”
Longarm held his hands out, palm upwards. “They is a bunch of them. They got a strong union. They collect a lot of tariffs. Bring in a lot of money. What do you want me to say?”
Davis was outraged. “I think it’s a damn sin, is what I think!” He leaned forward, jabbing his forefinger. “Listen, Longarm, I got two months in, working on this job. I put in some piss-poor days scouting the back country of Mexico and, believe me, that ain’t no church social. I put in enough time hanging around cattlemen’s saloons to be a drunk. I’ve took more than my fair share of chances. That sonofabitch is guilty. And so is his boss in Brownsville! And I can prove it. And now you come along and tell me we might not can make it stick? Hell!”
Longarm lifted his hands. “Wasn’t it you that said we jerk on the rope down here when we arrest Caster, they’ll feel the tug in Washington? I ain’t got no friends in Washington, D.C. Do you?”
“Hell!” Davis said again. He sat back in his seat and folded his arms. “This makes me mad as hell.” Then he glanced at Longarm, a glint of suspicion in his eye. “You ain’t playing me for the greenhorn, are you? This ain’t another one of your tall tales just to tie a can to my tail?”
Longarm, looking at Davis out of hooded eyes, said evenly, “Some things I don’t joke about, sonny boy. Before this is over, you may wish you’d shot Mister Customs Inspector Caster and told Billy Vail he died of a bad cold.”
Davis stared back. “You ain’t kidding,” he said slowly. “I got Jay Caster dead to rights and I mean to have him. I got his boss in damn near as tight a bag on information I’ve picked up about his doings in Brownsville. I intend to have him also.”
“What’s his name?”
“James Mull. He’s the head honcho for the whole southwest border district in Texas. Jay Caster couldn’t move one illegal cow without his say-so.”
Longarm stretched out his legs and looked out at the unchanging landscape. “The further up the tree you reach, the further you got to fall. All I’m telling you is what might happen.”
“You’re not saying we should back off, are you?”
