Billy threw his hands up in disgust. “All right, all right,” he said. “You’ve got to have a certain amount of time to whore around town and gulp down whiskey. I guess you’ve got it coming, though I’ll be damned if I know of anything else you do. When do you ever work?”
Longarm fixed him with a hard eye. “Don’t you come that way on me. You take a calendar and you mark off how many days I had off last year. I’ve got so damned much leave time coming, if I put it all together, I could retire right now.”
“You don’t have to get huffy about it, Custis. All right, I’ll send Ross down there to see if we can’t get a line on this.”
Longarm stood up. “I still think it’s a joke,” he said. “I still can’t believe that anybody in their right mind would be inviting this kind of trouble. If they can be found to collect a reward, they can be found to be arrested. It doesn’t make any sense, Billy. If you wanted me dead or captured or hidden off somewhere, would you go to advertising it and cause me to be on my guard? Hell, no. You’d slip up on my blind side, take me unaware.”
Billy Vail tilted back in his chair. “I hate to say it, Longarm, but it’s a well known fact that you ain’t got a blind side and you’re pretty hard to slip up on. That’s the only reason I can think of that you’re still alive. No, if this is not a trick, and I don’t think it is, it’s smart. It’s too damned smart to be a joke. There’s just enough people crazy enough to have a try at you—from ambush, naturally. I don’t think they’re very interested in bringing you in alive, but I do think they are interested in putting a hole through you. Now as to the rest of it, I’ve got no idea.”
Longarm put on his hat. “Well,” he said. “I’m going over to the Elite Cafe and have myself a good lunch, and I’m going back to the hotel and get some sleep, and then I’m going carousing tonight. I don’t know when I’m coming in.”
Billy Vail gave him a disgusted look. “Play, play, play. That’s all you know how to do. I just hope this poster doesn’t put an end to your playing.”
Longarm shook his head and walked to the door, saying, “Billy, you’re getting so old, you’re starting to get dotty. I’m telling you, your brain is disengaging itself from your mouth. You’d better get them working together again.”
After lunch, he went to the barbershop and had a long luxurious bath and a shave, and then had his hair trimmed. After that, he went back to his boardinghouse and gratefully climbed between the clean sheets. He intended to sleep until about eight o’clock, and then he was going to call upon Pauline, a lady friend of his who had a dressmaking shop. She was a very well-proportioned thirty-year-old widow who was just as ladylike as a china doll until you got the clothes off her and got her into a bed. Then she turned into a wildcat. Longarm was pretty sure he’d ridden some broncs that hadn’t bucked as hard as she did. He could swear that after some nights with her, he had black and blue marks all over him. She was a very nice lady, very independent, who wanted what he wanted without any ties or connections or commitments. It was a good arrangement. She liked being single and she liked sex, and he felt the same way.
He slept solidly and peacefully, but unfortunately, too long. When he opened his eyes and looked at his watch, he was shocked to see that it was ten o’clock. He had missed his visit with Pauline, or at least the first part of it. He was still of a mind to try to make the important part of it happen. He dressed as quickly as he could, just the thought of her making his mouth salivate and getting him aroused. When he was dressed and groomed, he hurried out of his boardinghouse and walked the several blocks to her small house behind Denver’s business district.
As he neared, he could see that her house was dark. Pauline had obviously gone to bed. He considered going up and knocking on the door, but he didn’t think that was quite the right approach with Pauline. Someone meeting her in her shop would think what a nice little lady she was, very proper, very prim. But he knew better.
He walked quietly around the side of the house to the bedroom where he knew she slept. There was no screen on the window, and he was able to get his pocket knife in under the sill and raise the window slightly. After that, he worked his fingers in and lifted the window open quietly and easily. It wasn’t a particularly big window and it wasn’t too high up, so he was able to boost himself onto its sill and then quietly let himself down to the floor. His eyes had adjusted to the dark and he could see the bed. He could see a solitary small figure sleeping with her back to him. Making no noise, he slipped off his boots and unbuckled his gunbelt, being careful not to let the derringer he carried in the big concave buckle slip out and fall to the floor. He put the gunbelt down and then shucked off his shirt and his jeans, not bothering with his socks. He didn’t wear any underwear, so he was ready as soon as he had his pants off.
Moving easily and gracefully, and seeming almost not to disturb the bed, he slipped in under the top sheet and eased across the mattress until he could feel her. He had expected that she would be wearing a gown, but he was surprised as he very carefully put out one finger to find a bare back. For a second, it scared him. It frightened him to think he might have come into the wrong bedroom and had the wrong woman.
But then, a distinct and clear voice said, “Where have you been, Marshal Long?”
It startled him so bad, he jumped a foot. “Pauline, damn it! You nearly scared me to death!”
She turned to him. She said, “Who do you think you’re trying to fool, Marshal? You’re not as smart as you think you are. I saw you coming up the street. I knew you’d show up tonight. You’ve probably got some foolish excuse for being late, but I knew you’d show up.”
He was about to make some lame excuse, but she fastened her mouth to his and flung her arms around his neck and pulled him to her, leaching onto him as if she could get inside his skin.
For a time, they kissed and caressed, but then she took one of his big thighs in between hers and began to slide up and down on it. It was a stimulation that was peculiar to her. He’d never had any other woman to do it. As she slid up and down, her breath quickened and she began to pull at his hair and kiss him even more savagely.
He knew she was getting very nearly ready when she began to bite his shoulders. He flipped her over on her back and spread her legs, using his hands just under her knees, forcing her vagina to point almost straight toward the ceiling. From this position, he plunged himself into her. The penetration brought a near scream into his ear, and she wrapped her legs tightly around him and her arms around his neck and began pulsating in rhythm with his rocking motion. They met each time with a wet smacking sound, the sound of passion turned loose. The sound of two bodies trying to drain all the pleasure from each other. It lasted longer than it should have, until they simultaneously exploded. The climax was such that they were both tossed about on the bed like small boats in the middle of a tempest.
And then, finally, it came to an end. Longarm disengaged himself and lay beside her. He stared at the ceiling for a moment, then said, “Whoa, Nellie. Pauline, you’re nearly more than my two hands can hold. I may have to bring some help next time.”
She snuggled up next to him. “When are you going to tell me why you were late? I had a very nice dinner fixed.”
“Well, let’s get up and eat it. The truth of the matter is that I took a nap this afternoon because I’ve been plumb worn out from two weeks on the trail, and I just flat overslept. Nothing more, nothing less.”
She gave him a light slap. “I would imagine that you’ve been trying to make up for lost time. I know how many girlfriends you’ve got in Denver. I’d bet I’m about third on the list for the day.”