could tell the man was still fighting anxiety but he was trying to carry on as normally as possible. Lenihan finished the receipt and tore it off the pad and handed it to Jimmy.
“I hope your brother saves some beef for you.”
“My ma said she’d watch my plate real careful. She wouldn’t have sent me but my aunt’s ailing and my ma wanted to send her this sweater. And besides, that carpetbag belongs to my aunt anyway.”
“Well, you hurry on home, Jimmy. And say hello to your folks.”
“Thanks, Mr. Lenihan.”
When the door closed Lenihan said, “I shouldn’t have snapped at him. He’s a good boy. He comes from one of the nicest families in Cawthorne. They don’t have any money but they’re good folks.”
Fargo wondered if Lenihan was putting on a show for him. The good, humble man who ran the stage line. But somehow he doubted it. Not that that meant anything. In his experience Fargo had seen many decent men succumb to evil. Evil seemed to be in everybody. Containing it was the trick.
“Where’d you get this bag?” Lenihan asked.
“In your barn.”
“That’s a lie.”
“Afraid it isn’t.”
“Somebody planted it there.”
Fargo pushed the bag toward Lenihan. “There’s a man who says he saw you talking to the three boys right before they started getting killed.”
“I knew the boys from when they were little. Why wouldn’t I be talking to them?”
“One night down by the creek. Sounded like a secret meeting.”
Lenihan’s face crimsoned. His eyes averted Fargo’s. “So what if I did?”
“I’d like to know what you talked about.”
Lenihan pretended to adjust the string on the carpetbag. “I told them what people were saying. That maybe they were the robbers.”
“What did they say to that?”
Lenihan met Fargo’s gaze, held it for a moment. Then he sighed. “They lied to me.”
“How’d you figure that out?”
“Like I said, I knew them since they were little kids. I asked them if they’d held up the stage and they said they hadn’t but I knew better.”
“And what did you do?”
“I told them that people thought I’d set it up for them. Told them about the money. I asked them to tell the truth. But then Clete—he was always the weakest one—he said if he told the truth they’d hang him. The driver and that Englishman died.”
“What did the others do?”
“They told him to shut up. They told me he was lying. They told me to leave or they’d make trouble for me. They said if I told anybody what I knew they’d swear I was part of it and I’d hang, too.”
“You should’ve gone to Cain.”
From a stone ashtray on the counter Lenihan took a pipe. The bowl was comfortably blackened from years of smoking. He didn’t light it. He just started turning it over and over in his hand. It was like a substitute for a rosary. Something to give him strength. “Think about it, Fargo. If I’d gone to Cain and he’d rounded up the boys they would have lied and told him I was part of it. He’d have made sure that I hung first. There was no way I could go to him.”
“Not even when the boys started dying?”
“By then it was out of hand. The whole town thought I was in the middle of it. People who’d been my friends for years started acting suspicious around me, like I was a criminal they couldn’t trust. The stage line even sent two men out here to interview me a week ago. There’s a chance I’ll be fired. I thought of asking Amy to leave town with me but if I left that would convince everybody I was guilty. And they’d follow me. No matter where I went, somebody from Cawthorne would keep track of me. And maybe someday they’d turn up some piece of fake evidence—” He stopped. He pointed to the bank bag with his pipe. “Like this.”
“I’ve already shown this to Cain.”
“So you think I’m guilty, too?”
“I think it looks bad for you. But I’ve got some doubts. I told Cain about them. You two hate each other so much there’s no chance either one of you would listen to reason.” Fargo dug into his pocket and pulled out the badge. “I even had him deputize me so I could bring you in myself.”
“You’re bringing me in?”
“That’s my job.”
“Once Cain gets his hands on me—”
“Pete Rule doesn’t think you had anything to do with it.”
“Pete’s one of the few people who’ve stood by me.”
“And I have my doubts. So I don’t see how Cain can make any sudden moves. I was going to leave town myself but now I’m going to stay to see this through. You may be guilty but I haven’t proved that to my own satisfaction yet. The bank bag looks sort of coincidental to me.”
“Coincidental how?”
“The way it was buried. The fact that you kept it at all. You explained your meeting with the boys that night at the creek. I don’t know if it’s true but for now it sounds reasonable enough.”
“What happens if Cain decides to shoot me when you or Pete aren’t there? Tries to say I made a break for it or something?”
“Then I’ll take care of Cain. And I’ll tell him that when I bring you in.”
“You talk like that to Tom Cain?”
Fargo shrugged. “We go back a ways. I know him pretty well. He’s tough but not that tough and he wouldn’t want to go up against me.”
“He could be behind it, you know.”
“You’ve said that and I’ve thought that. But right now I don’t have any evidence of that. I want to talk to the Raines brothers. They’re not very smart but you wouldn’t have to be smart to set this up.”
Lenihan shook his head. Stared down at the counter. “I thought everything was going to work out. Amy and I would get married and move in together. And then this robbery came up. It’ll never be the same for us again, no matter how it turns out.”
“Come on, close the place up. I’ll take you down the alley so nobody’ll see us.”
“In handcuffs?”
“You think I’ll need handcuffs?”
“I don’t have a gun. Or a knife.”
“Then I don’t see any reason for them.”
“I thought everything was going to work out,” Lenihan said again.
Fargo watched as the stage line closed up for the night.
On the blackboard no coaches were scheduled to arrive until the next morning. Lenihan had a sheepskin coat. He shrugged into it after everything was set to order. Then he glumly blew out the lantern and they went outside and along the side of the building to the alley.
Fargo was glad that he didn’t have to use handcuffs.
12
Pete Rule opened the back door of the sheriff’s office.
The lantern in his hand poured light into the darkening alley, showing the worried face of Ned Lenihan. Fargo nudged the man inside with his Colt. Once inside, Rule bolted the door. He followed the other two up front to where Cain was talking to two of his night deputies.
Fargo had never seen them before. There was no doubt about what they were. Gunfighters. One middle-aged and worn, the other young and exuding cockiness and malice. They were both the type you used at night to keep
