Longarm knew that he could not tell this man that there were allegations that he had gone bad. That he was perhaps extorting money from the town merchants and that he had thrown out the law books and become the law of Bodie. That there were men who weren’t misfits and outlaws who wanted him either dead, or simply removed from Bodie. That the town was afraid of their marshal and had lost trust in Ivan Kane.
No, Longarm wasn’t about to tell his old friend, the legendary Ivan Kane, that people thought that he was corrupt and ruthless.
“The complaint, Ivan, is that you’re running a little roughshod over the people and that you’re shooting first and asking questions later.”
“Jeezus!” Ivan shouted, again banging his fist down on his desk. “Do you know what this town was like when I arrived? Do you have any idea what a hellhole Bodie was before the city fathers begged me to clean it up?”
“I know it was wild and woolly.”
“It was a slaughterhouse!” Kane bellowed. “Every day men were being gunned down right here on the streets. The city fathers, those chicken-shit sons of bitches, they were so scared of the bad elements that they were paying them off! That’s right, bribing them not to hurt them or their families. And so what happened? The ones with money were safe and everyone else was game for shooting.”
Kane took a deep breath. “And do you have any idea how many men tried to tame Bodie before I arrived?”
“No.”
“I’ll tell you! Better yet, I’ll take you up to Boot Hill and I’ll show you their graves.” Kane smiled wickedly. “You see, they laid them out side by side. “Nine marshals shot between 1870 and 1880—almost one a year. In fact there’d have been a lot more than that, but most of the time they didn’t even have a marshal because no one would take the job at any price!”
“Why?”
Kane blinked. “What do you mean, why?”
“Why was Bodie so much worse than any other boom town with all its wild elements?”
Kane took a deep breath. “Bodie, from the beginning, was founded by corrupt men. They got here first and they set up things exactly as they wanted. They made the law and then they eliminated anyone who tried to change their rules.”
“So who hired the lawmen who were gunned down?”
Kane opened a desk drawer and drew out a silver flask. He waved it in Longarm’s direction, but the offer was declined so Kane continued speaking. “After a few years, some honest merchants came into Bodie. There was a newspaper editor, a fella named Joe Bames. He wrote editorials inciting the good citizens to band together and form vigilante committees, if necessary, to reclaim Bodie.”
“And did they?”
“They tried a few times, but their leaders, including Joe Bames, were always shot down. Sometimes from ambush and sometimes right out in front of everyone in the street, sort of as a lesson.”
“And this just went on and on?”
“That’s right.” Kane’s eyes squinted. “The year before I came, two federal officers like you came through Bodie nosin’ around, and they both vanished.”
“Vanished?” Longarm hadn’t heard of this.
“That’s right,” Kane said, “vanished. Their bodies were later discovered at the bottom of a couple of mine shafts. No bullet wounds. They were sent over from the district office in San Francisco.”
“I see,” Longarm said, knowing that this was a plausible explanation and that it was commonplace for one district office not to have any idea what another was or was not doing.
“Anyway,” Kane said, “I walked into this hornet’s nest knowing its bloody history. I brought along two deputies from the last town where I’d been working. Both were ambushed and are buried in Boot Hill. Neither one lasted more than three months. So I started getting just as tough as the men that were trying to plant me up there with the others.”
“What did you do?”
“I got a judge to come through every month and I … I convinced him that he needed to be the hanging judge of Nevada. He started meting out justice rope-style.”
“You mean he began to rubber-stamp executions.”
“No, dammit! He started to get some backbone and was doing real well.”
“Until?”
“He was gunned down too.” Kane took another drink. “So what was I to do then? I couldn’t get another judge to even consider coming through Bodie. It was akin to setting their own death sentence.”
“So you became the judge.”
“That’s right!” Kane exclaimed, waving his flask in the air. “I just said to myself that I had only two choices, either arrest those that would come peaceably and then sentence them, or else gun them down and be done with them just like a man would do when he finds a rattlesnake in his backyard.”
“How many rattlesnakes have you killed so far?” Longarm asked quietly.
“Huh?”
“You heard me. How many?”
Kane stood up, eyes shining with pride. “I guess I’ve had to exterminate about twenty men so far—but that’s over the years, you understand.”
“And how many rattlesnakes do you suppose are still out there waiting to creep into your yard?”
Kane chuckled. “You’re trying to box me into something here, aren’t you, Custis. You’re trying to get me to stick my head through a noose.”
“No, I’m not,” Longarm said. “But I need to know what the future is going to hold. And then we need to decide what we ought to do next.”
“You don’t need to do anything except to get out of my town.”
“It’s not your town,” Longarm said tightly. “Nobody owns a town, they just own some property. That’s all.”
“There are men here who think differently and are will ing to kill to prove it,” Kane said. “I have to deal with them before they deal with me and
…”
Whatever else Kane was about to say was forgotten as Megan Riley stepped into his office.
She smiled, then turned to address Longarm. “Everything all right, Custis?”
“Yeah,” he replied, studying Kane’s face. “This is just a friendly meeting among old friends, right, Ivan?”
“That’s right,” Ivan said, slipping his flask back into his desk drawer. “And who is this beautiful girl, Custis? Here we were jawin’ about this and that, and you’ve been keeping her all to yourself.”
“Miss Megan Riley, I want you to meet Marshal Ivan Kane.”
“I’ve heard so much about you from my father,” Megan said, coming across the room with her hand extended. “It’s an honor, Marshal Kane.”
Kane beamed. “So, you’re Old Wild Billy Riley’s pride and joy!”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” Megan said. “But I am his only child and his best friend.”
“How is he?”
“His eyes and his health aren’t what they used to be,” Megan said bluntly. “But he still gets around and can be pretty cantankerous. In fact, he’s still awful randy.”
Kane barked a laugh and the pair shook hands. “You’re just as frank as your father, but a whole lot prettier. Where are you staying, Miss Riley?”
“The U.S. Hotel.”
“I’d like to escort you to dinner one of these nights, if you’re going to be staying in my town.”
Megan glanced over at Longarm. “I haven’t heard yet. Custis, are we staying in Bodie?”
Custis looked to Kane. “Yeah, unless the marshal has some objection?”
“Hell, stay as long as you want!” Kane exclaimed. “But you need to be careful, Miss Riley. I’ll probably have to escort you about. I do my damnedest, but there’s still some bad men in this town and a pretty young woman like you can’t be too well protected.”
Megan, however, went over to Longarm and slipped her arm through his. “Custis is my protection, Marshal Kane. But I wouldn’t mind a little extra help, and I’m sure that Custis wouldn’t mind it either. Would you, darling?”
Longarm blushed. The little schemer was sewing him and Kane up together tighter than two weasels in a feed bag. “No,” he said tightly. “I wouldn’t mind at all.”