“I won’t hear nothing from you,” the guard said as he leaned a bit to one side so he could peer in at Caleb.
“What the hell?” Holliday croaked.
After finding the key he’d been looking for, the guard fit it into the cell door’s lock and turned it. “Get on out of there. Ben says you can go.”
Caleb only had to tilt his head to one side and press his ear to the wall for him to hear the dentist struggling to get up in the cell next to him. Holliday’s movements sounded as if they were coming from one of the oafs who passed out nightly at the Busted Flush. There was a lot of scraping of limbs against the cot’s edges, followed by the drop of heavy feet against the floor.
“That was the best sleep Ah’ve had in weeks,” Holliday said in a voice that barely seemed human. His words were still thick with his southern drawl but now were rougher than tree bark and punctuated with a rasping cough that hurt just to hear it.
The guard winced at the sound of Holliday’s desperate hacking. That expression changed considerably after the dentist spat a juicy wad onto the floor. “Jesus Christ, are you all right?”
“Ah’m fine and dandy,” Holliday replied in a drawl that was thicker than ever. “Now what time is it?”
“Just past ten in the morning.”
“And you’re here to tuhn me loose?”
The guard nodded. “Yes, sir.”
“And why is that?”
“Ben talked to some folks at that saloon who said you were defending yourself when that other fellow tried to shoot you.”
“You mean Virgil?”
Shrugging, the guard replied, “I don’t recall the name, but he was a known card cheat, and there were witnesses who said you were justified in that shooting. Since Dr. Seegar spoke up for you as well, Ben said there was no harm in letting you out. Just be sure to stay around so’s we can find you if we need to ask anything else about the shooting.”
Holliday’s feet shuffled against the floor, and he pulled in a few tired breaths. “What about my friend in the next cell?” he asked. “When is he to be released?”
His eyes nervously twitching in Caleb’s direction, the guard shrugged his shoulders. “Can’t say. That’s Ben’s call.”
Caleb felt a groan work its way up into the back of his throat, but he was too tired to push it any farther than that. His eyes had come open a bit more, which allowed him to get a good look at Holliday the moment the dentist stepped into view.
Wiping at his mouth with the back of his hand, Holliday looked into Caleb’s cell just long enough to meet the other man’s wary stare. No matter how badly Caleb had been feeling before, he felt better when he got a look at Holliday’s waxy, blood-smeared face.
The dentist’s blond hair was a tussled mess, and there were dark circles under his eyes, which were still an odd mix of gray and blue. Of course, that could have simply been the sunlight reflecting from his pale skin. Looking away from Caleb, Holliday pulled himself upright and choked back another series of coughs that threatened to overtake him.
Turning to face the guard once more, Holliday leaned against the bars of Caleb’s cell for support. In that instant, from his spot behind the dentist, Caleb thought he was going to see the dentist keel over completely. Despite the pain in his own body, Caleb jumped to his feet and reached out to slip an arm through the bars and hold Doc upright before he crumpled to the floor.
To Caleb’s surprise, Holliday wasn’t about to let himself drop. He also wasn’t about to accept any help from anyone else. Twisting away from the support Caleb offered, Holliday took a few steps down the hall. Unfortunately, that allowed the guard a real good look at Caleb reaching out from his cell.
“Get away from there!” the guard shouted as he swung at Caleb’s arm. “I said you’re not to be released, and I meant it!”
The guard’s club slammed against the bars, crushing Caleb’s elbow in the process. Even as Caleb pulled his arm back in, the guard was reaching for the gun holstered at his hip. In the same instant the young man’s hand found the pistol’s grip, he realized that he couldn’t move his arm enough to get that weapon out of its leather resting place.
Even though Caleb had been right there the whole time, he hadn’t spotted Holliday’s movement as the gaunt dentist had reached out and slapped his hand down on top of the guard’s to trap the lawman’s gun before it could clear leather.
Confused and rattled, the guard looked at Caleb and his own holster a few times before realizing that it was Holliday who prevented him from drawing.
“Keep this up, Doc, and I might reconsider letting you go,” said a man from the other end of the hall.
Caleb tried to get a look at who’d spoken, but couldn’t see much of anything besides the two men standing directly in front of his cell. Pressing his face against the bars allowed him to spot the Texas Ranger making his way to the scuffle between Holliday and the young guard.
Ben Mays was a handsome fellow with light brown hair and a glimmer in his eyes that seemed to welcome whatever trouble he saw. Plain, battered clothes hung over his muscular frame, and a well-worn hat rested a ways back on his head. As he stepped up to Holliday, he kept his hand on the grip of his gun without drawing it. Even so, the threat was easy enough to read in his face.
“You’re an upstanding member of this community, which is why I don’t mind cutting you a little slack,” Mays said. “But if you don’t step away from that boy, I’ll have to toss you back into your cell.”
Holliday sucked in a breath and took a step back. Holding both hands up, he leaned against the wall opposite Caleb’s cell and nodded.
Mays nodded as well as he reached out to pat the guard on the shoulder. After a few good-natured slaps, he practically shoved the kid back down the hall to where the rest of the lawmen conducted their business. “Go on and collect Doc’s things,” Mays said. “That is, unless he intends to stay for a while longer?”
“I believe I shall be excusing myself,” Holliday said in a voice that was much more familiar to Caleb. “I was hoping my associate here could join me as well.”
Without looking at Caleb, the Texas Ranger shook his bead. “Not right now, he won’t.”
“And why is that?”
“Because he killed Mike Abel.”
“You mean Loco Mike Abel?” Holliday asked. At first, the sound he made was a cough. That cough shifted into a laugh. “Surely the man’s name speaks for itself. If I was defending myself in there, then surely my friend in the next cell was doing the same.”
“I’ll be needing to check on that.”
“And he’s supposed to sit in there and wait?”
“That’s how it works, Doc. You should know that by now. I hear you’ve had to sleep off a hard night’s drinking in every one of these cells at one time or another.”
“Hardly,” the dentist replied, sounding more like a southern gentleman now that he’d had a chance to collect himself.
Glancing over at Caleb, Mays took in the sight of the other man as if he was looking at a dog standing up on its bind legs. “Witnesses say this one here gunned down Mike after the fight was over. That’s murder in anyone’s book.”
“He was going for a gun,” Caleb said in a voice that was even rougher than Holliday’s. After clearing his throat and straightening up, Caleb added, “Mike was stirring up shit since the first time he walked into my place. He lost at cards and then started shooting. He’s not the first asshole to get himself killed like that.”
“No,” Mays said as he squared his shoulders with Caleb and stepped up to the bars, “but he’s the first asshole that you gunned down in front of a dozen witnesses. Doc here gets to leave because he’s an upstanding fellow with even more upstanding fellows to vouch for him.”
“And what does that make me?” Caleb asked.
“It makes you the fellow sitting in that cell waiting for me to do my job.”
“And if I don’t have enough upstanding folks to vouch for me?”
