Longarm nodded. “Yep, I’ll probably be out of here around nine.”
“Tomorrow, I’ll be Mrs. Thompson, the landlady of the boardinghouse, so I’ll only bid you good-bye like that. But I’d still like to give you a real good-bye tonight.” She reached out her arms and drew his head slowly toward her lips. He went willingly.
Longarm was less than two hours out of Denver and thoroughly tired of train travel, but he felt a great sense of satisfaction with the job he had just done. It had been an unusual job, much different than his ordinary line of work. He had left two criminals in place, but he had made the judgment, and he still felt it was the right one. If they went wrong on him, then he was going to come down on them like a ton of bricks. He thought he had taken the law and applied it to the best interests of the most people.
He stretched and yawned and took a nip out of the bottle of whiskey he had on the seat beside him. It was going to be good to get home, even if Billy Vail was going to be there and would be trying to get him out of town as soon as possible. His mind turned for a moment to Mrs. Thompson, but then he turned it away. Women like Mrs. Thompson weren’t for him. Her kind didn’t come along very often. She was best left as a wonderful memory.
Longarm yawned again and wondered if the young lady named Betty Shaw would still be in town when he got home. If she was, maybe she’d help him wash the trail dust off himself. But if not her, then maybe the dressmaker lady. All in all, it had been a good job, and he felt content.