“Suspected,” she said with a nod.
Skinny Jack looked up at me a little, then lowered his eyes.
“And I personally abide by that impression as to why he was here for such a short while,” she said with a smile. “I would hate to think I was the reason for him moving on in haste... I would say it concerns me that he is on the run, but frankly nothing truly concerns me anymore. I will also say, since he was in Appaloosa, so near, I was hopeful that he might come back over here someday and perhaps stay awhile. Or take me away, save me, and help me to forget. But that is, or was, wishful thinking, and now there is every reason to believe he will die. Just like my husband. He will be killed.”
“When the time comes he will have a choice,” Virgil said.
“Providing he makes the right choice?” she said.
“Where is he?” Virgil said.
She looked down to her hands resting on the table. She smiled a little and then looked back up at Virgil’s eyes.
“I’ve told you,” she said. “Gone, just gone.”
“And the other two,” I said. “What about them?”
She shook her head.
“I do not know about them. Gone, too, I assume,” she said. “I saw them for a brief time. Bill told them to leave here and he would collect them when he was ready to leave. They went over to the girls across the way and thankfully stayed there... I assume.”
“When did Bill leave?” I said.
“Early this morning. I awoke and he was gone.”
Virgil nodded and flatly stared at her for a long moment, then shifted in his chair and placed his elbow on the table and leveled his eyes at her.
“He didn’t mention the Denver woman’s name to you?”
“No.”
“What else can you tell us?” Virgil said.
She shook her head.
“Nothing,” she said.
“I don’t suppose you’d be too inclined to share where he might be headed?”
“Inclination aside,” she said, “I have no idea, Marshal.”
Virgil looked at her, steady.
She looked back at him, a little steadier.
“What, and why did he mention anything to you about a woman in Denver at all?” he said.
She shrugged.
“I don’t know.”
“Why do you think?” I said.
“I don’t think and I don’t know.”
“You have to have some kind of idea?” I said.
“No,” she said, “I don’t... He is an anomaly. In actuality, he functions pretty much like a hole card.”
“How so?” Virgil said.
She shrugged a little.
“He keeps himself facedown, never obliged to reveal what he’s about until it is time for the showdown.”
Virgil looked at her for an extended moment, then looked to me.
“Do you think he killed her?” I said.
“Perhaps his reasoning for bringing up this business of murdering the woman in Denver was an attempt to simply madden me, to put me in my place. Then again, perhaps it was his celestial epitaph of finality. Regardless, as I told you, this is a place of reckoning. And Boston Bill Black was... is no fool, but he is also no exception.”
15
When we left Mike in her saloon it was good and dark out. The night air was pleasant and the wind had died down to a gentle breeze.
“Tangled goddamn web,” I said.
“Is,” Virgil said.
“I’ll say,” Skinny Jack said. “She’s... well, I don’t know, strange, I guess.”
We got our horses and rode off down the street to pay the whores a visit. We wanted to see if they might be able to offer up any news regarding the intended whereabouts of Truitt Shirley, his buddy, and Boston Bill.
The working girls were sitting on the porch in two weathered armchairs when we rode up. A lamp hung from a rope draped over the porch’s eave beam made it possible to see them clearly. One of the women lifted out of her chair when we came to a stop.
“Good evening, gentlemen,” she said. “Welcome. I am Irena.”
“I am Ursula,” the seated woman said.
They were fairly young, and it was obvious by their accents that they were Polish.
Irena leaned on the porch post and showed us the flesh of her thigh.
“You like?” she said.
She smiled a wide smile.
“Tell me if you like?”
“Very nice,” I said. “But...”
“Me love good,” Ursula said as she, too, got to her feet.
Though I’m sure they were good at their trade, their English was limited. Irena was slightly older than Ursula and seemed able to manage words a little better.
“Tonight,” Irena said, “we can make you feel really so very good, you will see.”
She turned around and showed us her backside.
“You will feel better,” Irena said, looking back over her shoulder.
“No,” Virgil said. “Just want to talk.”
She remained looking at us over her shoulder for a moment, then slowly turned to face us.
“Talk about what?” Irena said.
“The men you were with last night,” I said.
Irena put a hand to her hip.
“What men?”
“The blond fella, long hair, and the other man, young, dark hair, beard. They were with another man, an older tall fella.”
Irena looked to Ursula. Ursula shook her head and Irena looked to me, shaking her head.
I moved close to the porch, pulled a dollar from my vest, leaned out, and handed it to Irena. She looked at the dollar in the palm of her hand, then back at me.
“What about them?” Irena said.
“Do you know where they are?”
Irena looked to Ursula, then to me, and shook her head.
“No.”
“When did they leave?” Virgil said.
“Last night,” Irena said. “Very late. They left in the middle of the night.”
“You sure?” I said.
“Yes,” Irena said. “The big man came in here and told the other two they had to leave. They left.”
“Any idea which way they rode away?”
“No,” she said.
Virgil looked to me, nodded a bit, then backed his horse up.
“Appreciate it,” I said.
Ursula said something in Polish that made Irena laugh.
“What’s that?” I said
“The one man,” Irena said, “the young man. He could not do fun with Ursula, he was very sick with tooth.”
“Yes,” Ursula said, then rattled off something in Polish and pointed to her temple.
Irena nodded.
“Yes, his tooth was very bad, he was in much pain,” she said as she pointed two fingers to her eyes. “He was crazy.”
Ursula nodded.
“Blood...” Irena said. “He was spitting much blood like he was the devil.”
Ursula nodded her head in agreement and said something in Polish again.
“Yes, he drank a lot of whiskey,” Irena said, “to, you know, to help with pain, but it did little good. And he was mad at the other man.”
“Mad?” I said. “Why?”
Irena shook her head.
“I do not know, they just complain about each other, like little boys fighting over candy.”
Virgil looked to me, then looked back to the women and nodded.
“All right, then,” he said.
Virgil tipped his hat and reined his horse away from the women a little.
“Special,” Ursula said as she moved to the door.
She held back the tarp that covered the door and pointed to Skinny Jack and then pointed in the room.
“For you,” she said. “Special.”
Skinny Jack looked to me, then to Virgil, and pointed to himself.
“Me?”
“Yes. Special,” she said, nodding. “Ursula show you and I will make very good for you.”
“Um, gosh, thank you,” Skinny Jack said, “but no, thank you, ma’am.”
“No, you come,” she said.