“You kill him?” I said.
“Yes,” Virgil said.
“He draw on you?”
“Gave him the chance,” Virgil said. “He said he wouldn’t. Tole him draw or not draw, I was going to shoot him where he stood. He wouldn’t draw.”
“So you shot him.”
“I did,” Virgil said.
“How ’bout Allie?”
“I went back to Little Springs, but they tole me she lit out, soon as I went after the tinhorn.”
“You go looking for her?” I said.
“No.”
“What was the tinhorn’s name?” I said, just to be saying something.
“Never did know,” Virgil said.
I didn’t say anything. I knew what was bothering Virgil. I wondered if he did. Virgil drank the rest of his coffee and went back into the hotel to get some more. I looked at the rain while he was gone. Virgil came out with a full coffee-pot. He poured some in my cup.
“Already got sugar in it,” he said.
“Thanks.”
“There ranches down there on the plain?” Virgil said.
“Yep.”
“Hard to see them through the rain,” Virgil said.
“It is,” I said.
“I know why you killed Randall Bragg in Appaloosa,” Virgil said.
“No reason not to,” I said.
“Allie was fucking him, too,” Virgil said. “And you knew if I found out I’d have to kill him.”
“Something like that.”
“You knew he hadn’t broken no law,” Virgil said.
“Not right then he hadn’t.”
“But you knew I’d kill him anyway,” Virgil said.
“Yes.”
“So you done it for me,” Virgil said. “So I wouldn’t have to.”
“I guess.”
Virgil took the bone-handled six-shooter out of his holster and looked at it.
“I’m good with this,” he said.
“Yes,” I said.
“Always been good with it. Made my living most of my life being good with it,” Virgil said.
“I know,” I said.
“Because most people ain’t as good as I am with it,” he said.
“So far, none,” I said.
He nodded.
“Don’t give me the right to go round shooting people,” he said. “Just ’cause I can.”
“It’s good to have a reason,” I said.
“I been a lawman,” Virgil said. “Never shot nobody ’cept according to the law.”
“You always had rules, Virgil.”
“Why you shot Bragg for me,” Virgil said.
“So you wouldn’t have to break your rules,” I said. “I didn’t mind.”
“I appreciate it,” Virgil said.
We were quiet. I knew we weren’t done with it yet. He was still chewing on it.
“’Cept now I done it,” Virgil said. “I shot that tinhorn for fucking Allie.”
“And leaving her,” I said. “In a whorehouse.”
Virgil nodded. “None of that is against the law.”
“Might be against some sort of law,” I said.
“None I ever seen written down,” Virgil said.
“They ain’t all written down,” I said.
“They are for me,” Virgil said.
I had no answer for that. Virgil turned his hand over and looked at the six-gun some more.
“What are you gonna do?” I said after a while.
“I ain’t a lawman no more,” Virgil said.
“For the moment,” I said.
“Nope. Lawman obeys the rules. I broke ’em.”
“So what are you gonna do?”
“Hang around here, I guess,” he said. “Talk with you.”
He moved the gun back and forth in front of him.
“This is all I really know how to do,” he said. “Guess I’m a gunman now.”
“Wolfson offered you a job,” I said.
“Don’t know ’bout that yet.”
“Either way,” I said. “I’ll enjoy the company.”
“Always helps when I talk with you, Everett,” Virgil said.
I grinned at him.
“Virgil,” I said. “Ain’t you ever noticed that mostly you talk? And mostly I listen?”
He nodded, and looked at me for the first time since we’d sat on the porch.
“Damn,” he said. “No wonder I like it so much.”
17.
Bob Redmond came into the Blackfoot and walked to my end of the bar. He held both hands palms out in front of him as if he were stopping something.
“I don’t want no trouble, Hitch,” he said.
“Okay.”
“I need to talk with you.”
“Okay.”
“Private,” Redmond said.
“You want a drink?” I said.
“I would, in fact,” Redmond said.
I gestured to Patrick and he brought a bottle and two glasses. I picked them up and we went to a table. I poured a drink into one glass and pushed it to Redmond. He picked it up and drank it and put the empty glass back down on the table. I poured him another one.
“How ’bout you?” he said.
“Maybe later,” I said.
Redmond drank a small amount of his second drink and put it down and leaned forward across the table toward me.
“I got a proposition for you,” he said.
I nodded.
“We want to hire you.”
“We?” I said.
“The Ranchers Association.”
“What do you want to hire me to do?” I said.
