“When do you expect Miss Frank to return?”
“At any time, if she didn’t stop at Hannigan’s.”
“I think I’ll go there and then come back if she’s still missing.”
“Don’t let Diana get drunk and spend whatever money she managed to borrow. She’s in a bad frame of mind right now, thanks to lover-boy Cox. But she’ll survive and, if she finds that snake, he’ll be damn good and sorry he ever broke her heart and took all her savings.”
“Thanks for your help,” Longarm said, turning to leave.
“Are you married?” Beverley called.
“Uh … yes.”
“Too bad. You’re just the kind of man that could make Diana forget about Nathan.”
Longarm didn’t know what to say about that, so he just tipped his hat and hurried outside.
He found Diana Frank at the hotel saloon. She was seated at a back booth with two young men, and they were all laughing and having a little party. But when Longarm came to a halt beside their table, the two men glared up at him.
The bigger man growled, “This is a private party, mister. Butt out.”
“Miss Frank,” Longarm said, ignoring the remark, “I’m sorry to interrupt, but I’m Deputy Marshal Custis Long and I need to talk with you privately.”
Diana was a tall, willowy beauty with lustrous brown hair and almond-shaped green eyes that absorbed Longarm like a bar rag. She smiled loosely and said in a slurred voice, “Draw up a chair and join us for a drink, Marshal. I like to be surrounded by handsome men.”
“I have to talk with you in private.”
The big man said,“Why don’t you come back some other time, Marshal. The lady has all the company she needs right now.”
“That’s right,” the other man, shorter but squat and powerful with a pitted face, said. “So why don’t you just look her up tomorrow.”
“I have to talk to her now,” Longarm said. “So both of you get out of here and leave us alone.”
“Now, wait just a damn minute!” the bigger man exploded, bouncing to his feet. “We’ve done nothing wrong and you can’t just march into this place and start ordering people around like you’re some kind of gawddamn king.”
Longarm tried to curb his anger. “Mister, I’m here on official business, and I’ve asked you in the nicest way I can to leave. I won’t ask you again.”
“Better leave, Joe,” Diana said, her loose smile fading. “You too, Tom.”
“I never did like lawmen,” Tom spat out. “Bunch of bossy bastards who-“
Longarm’s fist traveled a mere four inches before it stabbed into Tom’s gut. The short, stocky man’s eyes bugged and his lower jaw sagged as he gasped for air. The big man started to swing, but Longarm grabbed him by the shirtfront and slammed him up against the wall so hard, the saloon shook and the back-bar glasses rattled.
“Joe, don’t say a word. Just grab your little friend and get out of here before I lose my temper,” Longarm warned.
Joe was dazed, but he had enough sense to grab his friend and propelled him toward the saloon’s exit. Everyone in Hannigan’s stared, but Longarm ignored them as he slid into the booth beside Diana Frank.
“I’m sorry to have ruined your party,” he said.
Diana swept back a strand of her lovely hair and smiled. “It was going to be their party, not mine.”
“Do you really need traveling money that bad?”
“Yes,” she said, emptying her glass. “Buy me another?”
Longarm wanted the woman to be clear-headed, but he knew that he dared not decline her a drink. “Sure,” he said, signaling to the bartender.
“How did you know that I needed ‘traveling’ money?” she asked after the bartender brought them both whiskeys.
“I talked to your friends at the apartment. Beverley told me that you were planning to leave Denver.”
“Did she tell you why?”
“She did,” Longarm said. “We’re both looking for Nathan Cox. That’s why I came to find you. I thought maybe we could help each other.”
Diana smiled and then she wagged her finger in his face. “Just how could we do that, Marshal?”
“I need to find him in a hurry. You want to find him too. Maybe we can pool our information and find him together.”
“He took every dollar I could beg, borrow, save, or steal and ran away with it,” Diana said, bitterness creeping into her voice. “It was my fault. I should have known better than to trust a man like Nathan.”
“Everyone makes mistakes.”
“I make a career out of misjudging men,” Diana said morosely. “I never seem to learn how to pick them.”
She took a drink and looked into Longarm’s eyes. “Why do you want to find Nathan?”
Longarm just had a feeling that he could not fool this woman and any attempt to do so would badly backfire. “We think he also took some of the taxpayers’ money, Miss Frank.”
“He took a whole lot more of yours than mine, didn’t he,” she said with a smug little smile.
Longarm leaned across the table. “What makes you think so?”
She leaned back. “Got a cigarette?”
“No.”
“Cigar, then?”
“Yeah, but they’re not exactly the kind a lady would enjoy and-“
“I’m certainly no lady,” Diana said, her anger flaring. “So, Marshal, let’s just cut the damn flattery! I heard enough sweet-talking bullshit from Nathan Cox to last me a lifetime.”
“All right.” Longarm kept a couple of nickel cheroots in his coat pocket, more for chewing than smoking. But now he brought out two and slid one across the table to Diana.
They both bit off the tips and Longarm struck a match with his thumbnail. “If you’re ready to talk, Miss Frank, I’m ready to listen.”
“It’s a sad, sad tale of betrayal,” she said. “I loved the man. I really did. He’d worked for the Treasury Department for a lot of years, had nice friends and seemed to be a solid citizen. I thought that he was … well, a big, big cut above the pair that you just threw out of here.”
“He fooled the government too,” Longarm said. “If that’s any consolation.”
“Not much. How much did he take the mint for?”
“We don’t even know yet,” Longarm said. “But it could be a … fortune.”
“Jeezus!” Diana cussed, slamming her fist down on the table so hard, whiskey spilled from their glasses. “I was afraid of that. So,” Diana asked, leaning back in her chair and studying him with slightly unfocused eyes. “Exactly what would you like me to tell you?”
“It’s real simple, I want to know where I can find Nathan Cox.”
Diana stared for a moment, then she shook her head. “And if I did help you, what would I get out of it for my trouble?”
“Revenge.”
“Not enough,” she said. “Not nearly enough. I can get revenge without the government’s help. In fact, the kind of revenge I’m looking for would be illegal.”
“He’s going to prison for a long, long time,” Longarm said. “I don’t think that you want to do the same. You’re still a young and beautiful woman.”
“Not so young and not so beautiful. Anyway, don’t flatter me, remember?”
“Sorry.” Longarm exhaled a cloud of blue smoke up toward the ceiling. “What do you want from us in addition to the apprehension and long-term imprisonment of Nathan Cox.”
“Torture him?”
“No can do.”
“All right,” she said, “I want my money back. All of it! And I want a lot of interest besides.”
“How much did he steal from you and how much interest?”
“He took me for three thousand dollars. I want ten from you, Deputy Marshal Long.”
“That’s pretty steep interest on your money.”
“I got a feeling that it’s chicken feed compared to what Nathan has taken the government for. Am I right?”
Longarm wondered how Commissioner Malcomb Hall and Governor Ganzel would take to this blackmail. And then he remembered the anxiety in their voices, their offer for a private railroad car, and their dire, if overstated, predictions of bankrupting the state and possibly even the federal government if Nathan were allowed to churn out bogus hundred-dollar bills.