the peace. You wouldn’t want them on the prowl during daylight hours when the majority of decent citizens were out and about. Childish grins split their faces when they saw Lenihan. These two liked to gossip as much as anybody. Making sure everybody knew how important they were. And for sure within half an hour at least half the population of Cawthorne would know about Ned Lenihan being here.
“You boys get going now,” Cain said, glancing at Lenihan and Fargo, trying to pretend that he wasn’t especially interested in either of them. “It’s dark and the fun’ll start soon.”
The two deputies kept grinning but they didn’t say anything. They just walked to the door, took a final glance and went out.
Cain had been sitting on the edge of his desk. Now he went behind it and sat down. He indicated the bench on the right side of the door. This was where jail visitors sat waiting to go back to see their kin.
Fargo saw that Lenihan was shaking. And taking deep gulps of air. In the glow of the lanterns around the office his face glistened with sweat. The anger and resentment he’d expressed in the stage line office had disappeared once he’d confronted the reality of jail. Now there was just fear. This was real.
“Evening, Ned.”
Lenihan gulped. “I didn’t do anything, Cain, and you know it.” But his voice shook as he spoke. Fargo was surprised Lenihan had been able to get out even these words.
“Remains to be seen, Ned. Remains to be seen.” The pleasure he was taking with the smaller man irritated Fargo.
“You wanted him brought in. And here he is. You have some questions you want to ask him?”
“I was going to suggest you might need a lawyer, Ned,” Cain said in that smirky drawl of his. “But if I didn’t know better, I’d say you’re already represented—by Fargo here.”
“He says he had no idea that the bank bag was buried in his barn. He also admitted that as Rex Connor said he did see the three boys down at the creek right before they started dying. He told them he knew they’d robbed that stage and that they needed to confess. He did it because he wanted people to know that he didn’t have anything to do with the robbery. The only way that could happen was if they told the truth. They threatened to tell you that he’d been part of it if he told anybody about them. He knew that you’d believe their story—or choose to believe it—if he went against them.” He glanced down at Lenihan. “Is that about right, Lenihan?”
“I didn’t do it, Cain. And you know it.” Rallying a bit now, the anger coming back. “I don’t know who planted that bag in my barn but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was you.”
“Well, counselor,” Cain said ironically, “you got anything to say to that?”
“Nothing more than I’ve already said. That I’m not sure you’re not behind all this.”
“I’m afraid you’re going to lose this case, counselor. Lenihan here is in financial straits; you’ve got a witness who saw him talking to those boys; and you found the bank bag on his property. And what kind of proof have you got that I had anything to do with it?”
“None—right now. But I’m going to keep looking around.”
“And meantime I’ll keep asking our friend here some questions of my own.”
Lenihan’s eyes showed his fear. “He could kill me and get away with it, Fargo. If you leave me alone with him—”
“I don’t think you have anything to worry about, Lenihan.” Fargo’s slitted lake blue gaze bored into Cain’s face. “Because Cain here knows that if anything happens to you while you’re in his custody I’ll come looking for him.”
“That a threat?” Cain said.
“You damn right it is.”
“A man could get downright jealous, you know that?” Cain said. “Here I thought Fargo and I were friends. But I guess he prefers you.” He winked at Lenihan. “You be careful of him, though. He’s got a way with the ladies. Amy might go for him.”
“Shut up,” Lenihan said. “I don’t even like to hear you say her name.”
Cain eased himself out of his chair. His face had hardened. And so had his voice. “I’ve had about enough of this, Fargo. You know damned well Lenihan here was part of the robbery and that he killed those three boys to keep them quiet. You’ve got all the evidence you need to impanel a jury and get a conviction. I don’t know why you’re so all hellfire hot to defend him like this but I’m telling you right now that it doesn’t make any difference to me. I’m going to ask him some questions and then I’m going to lock him into a cell back there and then I’m going to send a runner to get Judge Mooney down here and tell him that I want to start proceedings right away. Now do we understand each other?”
Lenihan looked like a ten-year-old who’d just been deserted by his parents. He slumped forward and put his face in his hands.
“You take good care of him, Cain,” Fargo said. “Or you’ll be damned sorry.”
Five steps out the front door of Cain’s office a slender woman in a dark cotton dress and a yellow shawl, her head down and her body moving forward like a bullet, ran into Fargo and bounced off his chest. He grabbed her before she fell. In the spill light from the sheriff’s window he saw the finely etched face of Amy Peters. Even with her years, even with the panic in her eyes, she was a beauty. In the darkening day, her shawl fell from her shoulders and she gaped up into the eyes of Fargo as if he were her direst enemy.
She ripped herself from his grasp. “You’re the one! You’re the one who arrested him! Those deputies came right to my house and told me!”
Stirring up trouble. And damned fast, too. Those two hadn’t left more than ten, twelve minutes ago. They’d be traveling saloon to saloon now, making things as dramatic as possible. They were a perfect match for Cain.
“You need to calm down, lady.”
“Calm down. Do you know what’s going to happen to Ned in Tom Cain’s jail?”
“Nothing’s going to happen. I’ve warned Cain that if he doesn’t keep Lenihan safe he’ll answer to me.”
Her angry laugh rang in the darkness. “And you’re taking Tom Cain’s word? If you had doubts why did you arrest him in the first place?”
“Because right now there are some things that point to him. Maybe he’s innocent and maybe he’s not. But there was enough evidence to bring him in.”
“Of course he’s innocent.”
The door opened and Cain himself, silhouetted in the doorway, said, “Well, I have to say you’re looking awfully pretty tonight, Amy.”
She flew at the lawman before Fargo had time to react. She knocked him against the door frame and then clawed at him with her hands. In the light Fargo could see that she’d drawn two streaks of blood down one of Cain’s cheeks.
Fargo started to grab her by the thin shoulders but before he could pull her back far enough Cain brought a fist up from nowhere and smashed her in the face. She fell backward into Fargo’s arms and began sobbing. Fargo got her on her feet and then went after Cain, backhanding the man hard enough to evoke a real cry. Then he grabbed Cain by his fussy hair and slammed him back against the door frame twice. Then he hurled him into his office. Cain stumbled, sprawled across his desk. Lenihan was nowhere to be seen. Cain hadn’t wasted any time putting Lenihan in a cell.
Fargo stomped into the office and jerked Cain to his feet. Then he threw him onto the bench where Fargo had sat with Lenihan. “You hit women now, do you, Tom? Probably felt real good, didn’t it? The woman you wanted all these years and you finally got to show her what happens to women when they cross the great Tom Cain—or whatever the hell you’re calling yourself these days. Now you’re going to let her get Lenihan a good meal over to the cafe and let her sit in the cell with him while he eats it. And if I hear otherwise, you’re going to be damned sorry because I’m going to this town council you talk about and tell them how you blackmailed a banker in one of the towns you cleaned up and left town with about a fourth of all the money in the bank. Maybe you’ve got a few things like that going here. In fact I’d bet on it.”
As Lenihan had just a while ago, Cain looked shaken. But his trembling wasn’t from fear but from rage. To be humiliated in front of the woman who had humiliated him—
Fargo drew Amy into the light. From what he could see, Cain’s punch hadn’t landed square. She touched her chin delicately but said, “I’m all right.” Then to Cain, “If you hurt Ned in any way, you won’t have to worry about Fargo. You’ll have to worry about me. I’ll kill you myself. And you know me well enough to know that’s not an empty
