“As for the wanted posters on Brian Foxx, they will be amended to read’Brent Foxx,’ who will continue to be wanted for the heinous crimes that he has committed.”
Decker had told the judge—and testified—that Brent Foxx had escaped while he and Brian were rescuing the girls from the comancheros.
It just seemed simpler that way.
Now that the trial was over, Decker was having dinner with Brian Foxx, Rebecca, and Felicia. He was saying good-bye to all three.
“It doesn’t seem fair to you,” Felicia said to him.
“What doesn’t?”
“Well, you brought in Brian Foxx, but you didn’t get the bounty.”
“They decided that I brought in the wrong man and wasn’t entitled to the bounty.” He looked at Brian and said, “They were right.”
“Will you go looking for Brent now?” Brian asked.
“Right now I’ve got another poster in my pocket that I don’t think will be as difficult to cash in on. As far as I know, the guy doesn’t have any brothers.”
“Giving up on Brent, then?” Rebecca asked.
He looked at Rebecca who, since the incident with the comancheros, seemed to have lost some of her lustrous beauty. Oh, she was still lovely, but the spark was gone, and he thought that a shame. Maybe it would come back someday. He hoped it would.
“No, not giving up,” he said, “but I’ve got to live and I need money. I’ll get back to Brent eventually. Besides, there’s no telling where he’s gone.”
Decker looked at Brian, who looked away. The brothers had been headed somewhere, and Decker thought that Brian had a hunch where his brother was, but he wasn’t saying.
That was his right.
“What about you, Brian?” Decker asked. “Now that you’re clear, you going to start all over again?”
“No, I guess I’ll just start riding and keep riding until something occurs Tome.”
It had been Decker’s experience that anyone who has ever gotten something for nothing tends to be spoiled for any kind of real job. He hated to think it, but after a few months—or weeks—of real work, he figured banks would start looking good to Brian Foxx again.
“Rebecca?”
Rebecca just shrugged and said, “I don’t know. I can’t seem to think straight.”
“It’ll take time.”
“I’ve got a lot of that.”
They finished dinner, and then Brian Foxx offered to walk Rebecca to her hotel.
“Those two make an odd pair.”
“I think they make a nice couple,” Felicia said.
“They make an odd couple. A few months back she was ready to kill him on sight.”
“Not him, Brent.”
“Yeah,” he said thoughtfully, “Brent.”
“Are you going to leave tomorrow, Decker?”
“Yes.”
“I guess I haven’t grown up enough for you to take me with you.”
He studied her, all cleaned up and wearing a dress and looking pretty as a newborn fawn. He also remembered a night when she killed a man.
“You’ve grown up a lot, Felicia, but your grand-father needs you.”
“I know. He lost weight while I was gone.”
“I’ll be back through here eventually.”
“Sure you will, Decker.” She stood up and said, “Thanks for dinner. I’ll say good-bye now, though, instead of in the morning.”
“I’ll be leaving pretty early.”
She nodded, leaned over, and kissed his cheek. She started for the door, then stopped and came back. The hotel dining room was crowded, but she didn’t care. She put her arms around Decker’s neck and squeezed him tight.
“You better come back, Decker,” she said into his ear forcefully. “You better!”
She released him and ran from the room.
Decker could still feel the pressure of her arms around his neck, and decided that she was right.
He’d better.
The next morning Decker checked out of his hotel and went over to the livery to claim John Henry. On the way he saw Brian and Rebecca walking down the street, arm in arm. It was not especially early, but he assumed that they were going to breakfast.
Together.
An odd couple, he thought. Nobody could convince him otherwise.
Chapter XXXX
New Orleans was different from most of the towns Decker had ever been in. He’d been to some big ones, too. San Francisco, Denver; he even went to Chicago once. None of them seemed to have the same…feel as New Orleans. There were large, opulent hotels, casinos, and plenty of pretty, refined women. The food, too, was different. Decker’s taste buds were not accustomed to the spicy Cajun dishes that he encountered, and he took to drinking lots of cold beer with his meals.
He was in New Orleans because of a message that had finally caught up to him in Texas—which, of course, made it easy for him to respond quickly.
The message said:
DECKER,
NEED YOU IN NEW ORLEANS. WE HAVE FOUND BRENT FOXX. PLEASE HURRY. STAYING AT THE CRAWFORD HOTEL.
It was signed: Rebecca.
That surprised him. Apparently Rebecca had finally straightened out her thinking and she’d decided to keep looking for Brent.
And there was something about her message that didn’t click with him. She said “we” had found Brent.
Who, he wondered, was we?
Decker arrived in New Orleans a full week after reading the message. It had been sent almost two weeks before that, and it had been two months since he had last seen Rebecca Kendrick in Heart-less.
He had been so uncomfortable upon his initial arrival in New Orleans that he went looking for and found a particular hotel, though he’d never been to Louisiana before.
He knew there had to be a New Orleans House. Just being in a hotel that called itself the “something House” made him feel a little better. It showed that in some ways, New Orleans was like any other town.
After checking in, he left John Henry at the hotel livery and hired a cab to take him to the Crawford Hotel. When he arrived, he found a much more expensive hotel than he was staying in.
How was Rebecca affording this?
He went up to the front desk, where a prissy, tight-faced clerk gave him the twice-over—twice!— and found nothing to approve of.
The feeling was mutual.
