“You sonofabitch,” Davis said with cold heat. “Who the hell cares about credit or recognition? Maybe that’s the way your mind runs, but mine don’t.” He leaned forward. “I want to catch the sonofabitches and I want to see their eyes when I do. I want to put the iron on them. And you ain’t going to stop me, short of getting word here from Billy Vail. Or are you pulling rank on me right here and now?”
“I ain’t pulling any rank, Austin. All I got on you is a little more time behind the badge. And I ain’t trying to shove you aside. I’m just saying the way I see it.”
Davis’s face had colored slightly. With an edge in his voice he said, “Well, it ain’t the way I see it, and this is a proposition that I’ve got a little more time on than you. And, mister, you ain’t shooting the birds I’ve flushed. You take all the credit you want. Write the damn report anyway you want. You be the hero or whatever. I don’t care nothing about that, but I took some guff off of Caster and I want it to be known to him who it is putting him behind a wall.”
Longarm felt the short hairs on his neck bristle at Davis’s hard words. With an effort he controlled his temper. He said, as evenly as he could, “Well, you know, you kind of flushed your birds a little quick. That is, if you were intending on doing any shooting. Caster told me that the man who was gathering my stock come at him with a proposition about rising the price of the bribe and splitting the money. He told me I had better keep an eye on you.”
Davis flushed. The anger went out of his face and he looked down at his half empty glass of whiskey. “Damn!” he said. “I never thought that would come back to haunt me.”
Longarm leaned back in his chair and fiddled with his glass. “You reckon how it would look if I had you along after what you proposed to Caster? I’d look like a rare jackass. Talk about smelling fish. Caster is jumpy as it is. I get the impression that he and Mull are fixing to wind the business up. I think that’s the reason he’s raising his prices. I can’t back it up, but that’s the feeling I get.”
Davis looked away. “Well,” he said with a sigh, “I reckon I ain’t got no kick coming. I had my reason for doing what I done. I made that proposition to Caster early on in the game in hopes of getting his confidence. I figured that if I appeared to be crooked, he’d be that much more willing to trust me. Birds of a feather.”
Longarm nodded. “Yeah,” he said, “I can see that. And if you’d been playing a lone hand or had known what your man was up to, it might have worked. But you can see how it is now.”
Davis nodded slowly and sighed. “Yeah, I reckon I can.” He looked away. “Damn, Longarm, I can’t just walk away from this business now. I got too much in it. Hell, got to be something I can do.”
“It appears to me you’ve done a pretty good piece of work already. Hell, all I’m doing is sweeping up your shavings. You done the whittling.”
“Yeah, but you’re going to need somebody to watch your back. I know you’ve run across this Raoul San Diego and his brother too. But that is a couple of bad hombres. You say you got to hand the money over to Raoul. Or Caster said you do. Ain’t a damn thing to keep him from popping you off once he’s got his hands on the cash.”
Longarm smiled slowly. “I think it won’t take no cash to get Mister San Diego hot at me. I got a real good idea he already is.”
“What are you talking about?”
As briefly as he could, Longarm told Davis about how Dulcima had approached him on the plaza. As he talked, Davis’s eyes got wider and his mouth dropped open. “The hell you say!” he exclaimed.
Longarm nodded. “Right out there in front of the mayor and his horse and anybody who happened to come by. And she went on for about five minutes, with me backing up inch by inch and begging for her to leave me the hell alone.”
“Dulcima! Hot damn. Ain’t that about the most mouth-watering piece you ever run across? I’d like to have been in your shoes.”
“Yeah? And what would you have done?”
“I’d of had her in this hotel room and out of that dress before the dust could settle on the tracks we’d of left behind.”
“And what about Raoul San Diego? What would you have done about him?”
“I wouldn’t have shot holes in him if he hadn’t bothered us.”
“I don’t think he’d of left you alone. I think you’d of had to turn him into Swiss cheese.”
“Well, that could have been arranged. Man don’t get many chances at a woman like her.”
“Uh-huh. And how you reckon you would have stood in with Mister Caster after you’d killed his number one man and main gunhand? How you reckon he’d of taken that part of the business?”
Davis looked at the glowing end of the cigarillo he was smoking. “Probably not right kindly,” he said. “In fact he might not have wanted to do no more business with me.” He shook his head slowly from side to side. “Guess you were thinking ahead of me on that one, Longarm.”
“Listen, I holed up in this hotel for two days to keep from running into the sonofabitch and having trouble. You reckon I liked that?”
“No, but I don’t see how you could have known for sure he’d been told.”
“I couldn’t. But I couldn’t take the chance of getting in a fight with San Diego. I knew half the town had seen us talking, and if I know anything about a puffed-up Mexican, I know they will kill you over a woman, or honor, or any combination of the two faster than they will holler if you steal their horse. And if word had got back to him about the little social me and his senorita was having, he’d have to do something.”
“He ain’t but half Mex.”
“Well, I hear he’s right-handed and the Mex half is on that side, same as his pistols. Whatever he is, I didn’t figure to take the chance. Not after all the work you done put in.”
The junior deputy lifted his head and gave Longarm a mocking smile. “All the work I put in? Somebody is shoveling bullshit around here and it ain’t me. All my work, and you’re sending me to the barn. Come on, Longarm, that thought never crossed your mind.”
