“Are you kidding!” the governor exclaimed. “It will cost the citizens of Colorado at least five hundred dollars to put your deputy on a private train and rush him to Cheyenne.”
“You never worried about the expense during your last campaign,” Commissioner Hall snapped.
“That’s uncalled for!” Ganzel erupted.
“Gentlemen!” Billy Vail cried. “This is not the time or the place for wrangling.”
“Mr. Vail is right,” Longarm said, “and I’ll carry out the investigation my way, or you can find another man.”
Malcomb Hall’s cheeks blazed. He was Billy Vail’s boss and could have raised a stink, but instead, he clamped his jaws shut and let Longarm hurry away to find Diana Frank.
Chapter 2
Diana Frank’s apartment wasn’t exactly in a seedy part of town, but it certainly didn’t qualify as being upscale either. The brownstone was showing signs of early decay, and Longarm saw that there were several vacancies in the building. Her apartment was numbered fourteen, although Longarm doubted that there were anywhere near that many units.
Longarm hurried inside and down a long, dim hallway. The apartments all had big white letters on their doors but when Longarm knocked at number fourteen, there was no answer.
“Damn!”
He knocked louder, and a small dog began to bark in the adjoining apartment, number nine. Longarm knew that he had to have some answers, so he banged on that door as well until he heard the rattle of a chain and the door opened a crack. The muzzle of a little dog burst through the opening at ankle level. It tried to bite Longarm, who would have kicked the little bugger if a heavyset woman hadn’t pressed her cheeks to the crack and stared out at him.
“What do you want?” she asked, her eyes taking Longarm in from his boots to the flat crown of his snuff-brown Stetson. “My, my, you’re a big one, aren’t you?”
Longarm removed his Stetson and tried hard to ignore the yapping, snapping little mongrel who was actually foaming at the mouth, so intense was its desire to bite. The woman was middle-aged with dyed blond hair and dressed in worn pink pajamas. Longarm could smell whiskey fumes strong enough to anesthetize flying insects.
“My name,” he said, fishing into his brown tweed suitcoat and then vest, “is Deputy Marshal Custis Long. I’ve got a badge in here somewhere, if I can just find the damned thing.”
“Don’t worry about it,” the woman said. “My name is Rose. Would you like to come in?”
“I don’t have time,” Longarm said. “I’m looking for Miss Frank. Can you tell me where she has gone?”
“Moved out this morning.”
“No.”
“Yes, and I’m glad. You should have seen all the men she had trooping in and out of this building!” Rose winked. “And I’ll tell you something else, Marshal, they didn’t come to talk about the weather.”
“No,” he said, “I don’t suppose they did. I didn’t realize that Miss Frank was that kind of woman.”
“Well,” Rose said, dropping her voice to a whisper, although they were alone in the hallway, “let’s just say that Miss Diana Frank was not a pillar of virtue and that she didn’t audition for the church choir. I, on the other hand, have very high moral values … on most issues. Are you married, Marshal?”
“Ah … yes,” Longarm lied.
Rose had little porcine lips and now they formed a pout. “Too, too bad,” she said, her smile dying. “Otherwise I might just be interested in getting better acquainted.”
“I must find Miss Frank.”
“Why? Was she that good?”
“Actually, I … I have a package for her.”
Rose’s blue eyes lowered to his sides. “I don’t see one.”
Longarm was getting annoyed. “I really do need to find her quickly, Rose. Can you help me?”
“Oh, all right. If Diana isn’t visiting her best friend, you might try the saloon in the hotel just down the street. It’s called Hannigan’s. That was Diana’s favorite hangout when she wasn’t visiting with her best friend.”
“I know the place.”
“I used to go there too,” Rose said, making a face. “But the people just got too high-toned. And the bartenders, they all wanted tips and tried to push all that expensive stuff on you so that the joint could increase its profits. You know how those places are.”
“Yes, but…”
“They like to think that they cater to the upper crust, but they don’t. Not really. They just overcharge the regular people, the ones that kept them in business.”
“Did you ever see this man come here,” Longarm said, slipping Nathan Cox’s picture through the crack in the doorway.
Rose giggled. “Oh, sure! Nathan was just as snooty as Diana. Wouldn’t hardly give me the time of day. A real ass, but awful handsome. Like you, Marshal. Sure you wouldn’t like to come in and join me in a drink or two?”
“Unh-unh,” Longarm said. “I’m married, remember?”
“Oh, yeah. Well, there are marriages and then there are marriages.”
“Where does Miss Frank’s best friend live?”
Rose returned the picture. “How bad do you want to know, big boy?”
The woman’s eyes and tone of voice left no doubt as to the fact that she was no choir girl either. “Not that bad,” Longarm said, starting to leave.
“Oh, all right!” Rose called over the yapping of her dog. “Diana’s best friend Beverley lives in apartment six, just down the hall.”
“Thanks!”
“Don’t mention it,” Rose said, kicking her little mutt away from the door and then slamming it hard.
Longarm banged on Beverley’s door until it was opened. After introducing himself, he said, “It’s very important that I find Diana Frank as soon as possible. I understand that she moved out but that you were her close friend.”
“That’s right,” Beverley said, leaning up against the doorjamb smoking a thin black cigarette. “Diana went to borrow some money so that she could buy a ticket on the next train to Cheyenne. In the meantime, she’s staying with me. What do you want to see her about, Marshal?”
“About a man named Nathan Cox.”
Beverley made a face that did nothing to improve her looks. “That sonofabitch was as crooked as a snake. He used Diana. Promised her the world. Said that he was going to come into some big money and that they’d get married and he’d take her back east.”
“But he didn’t.”
Beverley dropped her cigarette on the hallway rug and stomped the life out of it with her heel. “Hell no! Cox ran out on Diana with a pocketful of her money. That’s why she’s leaving Denver. It’s been painful and she’s bitter. Besides that, I kind of think she wants to find and then kill the smooth-talking sonofabitch.”
“What for?”
“Castration.”
Longarm blinked and started to laugh, until he saw that Beverley was serious. “Well,” he said, “before she tries that, I need to find him first.”
“Is he in trouble?”
“Yes.”
“Big trouble?”
Longarm knew that the woman wanted him to say yes, but he wasn’t about to say too much and certainly not spell out the charges. “Well, ma’am, let’s just say that Nathan Cox might be spending time wearing stripes.”
Beverley clapped her hands together, obviously pleased. She was wearing a baggy housedress and Longarm could see that she was the kind that could fix herself up to look pretty nice if she cared to.
“So, Cox really did something important, huh?”
“Yep.”
“He worked for you guys at the mint. Right?”
“Correct.”
“What did he do, steal a wagonload of new cash?”
“I can’t say,” Longarm told her. “It’s all under investigation.”
“Well, good luck on finding him,” Beverley said. “He’s as slippery as an eel, and he could probably sweet-talk his way through the pearly gates into heaven. But he’s no damn good, and beneath all that sugary pap he’s got a vicious streak as big around as your leg. I’ve seen him when he gets mad and he can be dangerous.”