earlier in the day.
You had to notice things like that if you were going to survive as long as he had.
When he heard the creak, he sat up straight on the bed and palmed Mal’s borrowed gun. He had spent some time earlier cleaning it, and dry-firing it to make sure it would function properly. He had supreme confidence in it as he waited for the door to open.
He was not, however, unmindful of the fact that someone might come through the window. He had perched the room’s pitcher and basin there as an alarm system, and was prepared for a double attack from both directions.
The door slammed open with a loud, splintering sound. A man with a gun was framed in the doorway and Lancaster fired once. He would have preferred a nonfatal wound, but didn’t have the luxury of being that precise. He simply fired dead center and hoped for the best.
However, there was a second man behind the first, partially blocked from view, and suffering the same disadvantage.
Lancaster decided to get off the bed so as to present an off-center target.
Kent was shocked by the sound of the shot and the flash of the gun from inside the room, but not as shocked as Tyler, who took a bullet in the chest. He staggered back against Kent with a grunt, his gun falling from his hand.
Kent took a step back to let Tyler fall to the floor, and when he got a clear view of the room, he was looking at a man down on one knee, pointing a gun at him.
“Just twitch and you’re dead,” Lancaster said. “Be smart and drop it.”
Kent had his gun in his hand and was tempted, but at that moment a memory clicked into place.
“Oh, damn,” he said, “Lancaster,” and dropped his gun.
Thirty-two
“Inside,” Lancaster said.
Kent moved into the room with his hands up.
“Close the door.”
“Lancaster,” Kent said, closing the door on his dead partner. “Now I remember. You used to ride with Beck.”
“Long time ago,” Lancaster said.
“I thought you were dead,” Kent said. “I think even Beck thought you were dead, and now you’re huntin’ him?”
“That’s right,” Lancaster said. “And you’re gonna tell me where he is.”
“That’s gonna be pretty hard,” Kent said, “since I don’t know where he is.”
“Then he paid you in advance?”
“That’s right.”
“And you and your partner are just so honorable you did the job anyway, huh?”
“Don’t kid yerself,” Kent said. “If I thought I could’ve got away with it, I woulda left town the day after he did.”
“So you’re afraid of him?”
“Damn right.”
“Are you afraid of me?”
“Hell, no.”
Lancaster cocked the hammer on his gun and said, “You should be.”
“You were somethin’ once, Lancaster,” Kent said, “and you killed my partner, but you’ll just kill me. What Beck will do to me…” He let it trail off.
Once Lancaster and Beck were alike. It seemed, over the years, that they had become very, very different. What was Beck like now that a man like this would rather die than face him?
“I tell you what,” Lancaster said.
“You got an offer for me?”
“I do.”
“Let’s hear it.”
“Let’s you and me go lookin’ for Beck.”
“You crazy?” Kent asked. “After I screw up killin’ ya, I’m gonna go with ya to find him? You know what he’d do to me?”
“No, but you keep asking me if I do, so I think I’d like to see.”
“You’re crazy,” Kent said. “The law here won’t let you take me.”
“The law here’s pretty lazy, or haven’t you noticed?” Lancaster asked. “What’s your name?”
“Kent.”
“Okay, Kent,” Lancaster said. “Even if he is lazy, the sheriff should be here soon. Make up your mind. Tell me what you know about Beck, or come with me to find him.”
“I told ya, I don’t know nothin’—”
“You may not know, but you’ve got some idea where he went,” Lancaster said. “Or where he’ll be.”
“You want me to guess?”
“If you give me your best guess, I’ll leave you here when I go lookin’ for him.”
“You serious?”
“I am.”
“And you’ll believe me?”
“It ain’t so much that I’ll believe you,” Lancaster said, “as it is I’ll know if you’re lying.”
Kent looked as if he was giving the proposal some thought.
“I’d think in a hurry if I was you,” Lancaster said. “You got until the sheriff gets here to make up your mind.”
Kent looked at Lancaster and then said, “Okay, you got a deal.”
Thirty-three
When the sheriff showed up, Lancaster turned Kent over to him. The lawman collected some men and had the body of the dead Tyler carried out of the hotel.
“Looks like you’ll need a new room,” he said to Lancaster after the two men had been removed.
“Looks like.”
“I wouldn’t sleep too sound if I was you, though.”
“Why? You know something I don’t? Anybody else planning to kill me?”
“Not that I know of, but…”
“Don’t worry, Sheriff,” Lancaster said. “I’ll try not to kill anyone else tonight.”
“Yeah, well…I’d be much obliged. You leavin’ tomorrow?”
“Yeah, but not too early. I got some of what I needed, but I hope to get the rest of it tomorrow.”
“Let me know when you’re ridin’ out,” Sheriff Carver said. “Then I can let out the breath that I’ll be holdin’.”
“I’ll do that. I better go down and get another room from the clerk.”
“Just grab any key,” the sheriff said. “They killed the clerk.”
“Sorry to hear it.”
They walked down to the lobby together.
Lancaster woke in his new room the next morning. There was a pitcher and basin balanced on the windowsill, and a wooden chair wedged beneath the doorknob. No one else had tried to break in and kill him during the
