Oakley’s eyes widened with surprise. “Now, how did you guess that it was four thousand?”
“That’s how much money you and your gang took at that last bank job, isn’t it? The one where one of your men died of lead poisoning trying to escape.”
“That was a shame, but he was a little old for our line of work,” Oakley admitted, trying to keep from laughing but not quite succeeding. “His main problem was that his horse was even slower than he was!”
Longarm let the man enjoy his own sick sense of humor. But then Oakley grew serious again and said, “What do you say? Two thousand each. No questions asked. No strings attached. That’s what … two years’wages?”
“About.”
“Two years to sit in a rocking chair and do nothing but play with your woman. Not bad, huh?”
“Not interested.”
Oakley’s face darkened with anger. “You’re just dumb as a post, know that, Marshal?”
“I know that I’ll be alive to watch fall turn the colors gold and red, and to smell the flowers next spring. But you won’t be around to enjoy any of those things. And I know that I’ll probably have a few more women … but you never will.”
Ford gulped. “All right,” he said quietly. “How about you take three thousand, I’ll take only one. I need that much just to get me started over again someplace where I won’t have to worry about someone shooting me in the back.”
“Someone like the cutthroats in your gang that you are trying to cheat out of a share of that money?”
“Yeah,” Oakley said, “someone like that.”
“Not interested.”
“Shit!” Oakley swore. “All right. You can have all of it except the hundred bucks I already spent and another hundred that I’ll need for a one-way train ticket goin’ whichever way you ain’t.”
“Where’d you hide the bank’s four thousand?” Longarm asked quietly.
“Wouldn’t you like to know!”
“Yeah, I would,” Longarm said. “If you tell me, maybe we could make things easier for you.”
Oakley barked a distainful laugh. “How? Would you ask the hangman to use a silk rope around my neck?”
Even Longarm had to smile at that one.
“No,” he said, “but I might see that you get cigars and a shade better food while you’re waiting to face your Maker.”
Ford opened his mouth, then clamped it shut. His brow furrowed the way it did when he was thinking hard. “Tell you what, I would like to enjoy my last few days in style. Maybe, if I took you to that hidden bank money, you could see that the prison guards snuck a few women into my cell so that old Ford could have a few more good times.”
“Not a chance.”
“Come on!” Ford wailed. “They’d like it. I’d like it. Who’s hurt?”
Longarm sighed. “You’re just way too dangerous a man to allow visitors under any circumstances. But what I could do is see that you get those better meals the last few days, good cigars, and-“
“I’d want a lot better cigars than those black turds that you chew and smoke,” Oakley snapped.
“Fair enough,” Longarm said, not the least bit offended by the remark, “and maybe some whiskey.”
“Whiskey would be good,” Oakley said. “In cases, not bottles.”
Longarm figured the taxpayers would consider a few cases of whiskey and a few extra steaks and pies a fair swap for the recovery of four thousand dollars of stolen money. “All right, where is the money?”
“I’ll take you there.”
“Nope. Just tell me.”
“Nope,” Oakley said. “I got to take you there because it’s impossible to describe.”
“Why?”
“Because,” Oakley said, “it’s hidden just east of here beside the Humboldt River.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“It ain’t much out of the way,” Oakley said. “After the robbery, we followed that Humboldt River and, when the boys were sleeping, I buried the money. They didn’t find out about it until the next day, and by that time we’d ridden another twenty miles.”
“I bet that they weren’t too happy.”
“We did almost shed some blood over that,” Oakley admitted.
“So,” Longarm said. “Exactly how far is the money from the river?”
“Not more’n fifty feet,” Oakley said. “We’re almost going to ride over the top of it.”
Longarm did not see what could be lost by making this deal, as long as they were riding that way anyhow.
“All right,” he said, “we’ll play it out. Understand that I don’t trust you any farther than I can throw you and that, if this is all a ruse, you’re just wasting our time.”
“I’m in no hurry to catch that train,” Oakley said, shaking his head. “The gospel truth is, Marshal, that I’m beginning to think that I’m not going to get to kill you after all. I thought some of the boys would be trying to overtake us … but I guess that they’ve just forgotten old Ford.”
“You’re breaking my heart.”
“And so,” Oakley said, ignoring Longarm’s caustic remark, “I might as well trade that four thousand dollars for whatever small comforts I can get before I swing.”
“Glad to see that you’re finally thinking smart,” Longarm told his prisoner, not believing a single word of it.
“Well,” Ford said with a deep sigh, “I have to admit that I do deserve to hang for killing and raping and stealing. I’ve been a real ornery sonofabitch since I was about twelve years old and I cut the guts out of my old man.”
“You knifed your father?”
“Yep. It was from him that I got my mean streak. He always got drunk and beat my mother and me. Finally, one night I’d had enough as he was beatin’ hell out of poor old Mama, sittin’astraddle of her and really working her over with his fists. I grabbed a butcher knife and, quicker than you can say ‘nope,’ I opened him up like a ripe melon.”
“What happened then?”
“I lit out and never looked back at Oklahoma. I was used hard by everyone I met while growing up and trying to find honest labor. I never got a break or a kind word and so, by the time I was twenty, I’d shot or stabbed more’n a few of ‘em to death and took what they’d lorded over me. Raped their cryin’ damned widows too if they’d struck my fancy. I knew that I was doin’wrong, but I didn’t much care.”
“How much farther to this place where you hid the bank money?” Longarm asked, glancing up at the sun, which was just starting to dive into a low rise of barren hills to the west. Already, the skyline was turning crimson and gold.
“Not far. About … oh, five miles, I’d guess.”
“That means we won’t get there until after dark.”
“Be time to camp and cook some grub anyway,” Oakley remarked. “Been a long, hard ride, wouldn’t you say, Marshal?”
“I’ve been on some a lot longer and harder.”
“But I’ll bet you never brought a man in tougher or meaner than me, right?”
Longarm just refused to give the killer any satisfaction. “Sure I have,” he said. “You’ve been damned easy compared to a few others I’ve had to escort to the gallows.”
“The Hell you say!” Oakley was visibly offended. “I could have killed any one of them! I’m the toughest, smartest, and most dangerous man you ever had to bring in and you don’t even know it yet!”
Longarm glanced at the outlaw leader. “Yet?” he repeated. “That sounds like you’re still of a mind to get your head cracked open again.”
The outlaw’s jaw muscles corded and he stayed silent until the sun dove into the mountains and the stars begin to appear. They finally came to the Humboldt River and allowed the horses a good long drink.
“How much farther to the money?” Longarm asked.
“About two miles, maybe less,” Oakley said, looking intently into the deepening night. “Now that we’re down in this low part of the riverbed and it’s dark, I have to get my bearings.”
“I’ll bet that you’ve only ridden along here about a thousand times in the last few years.”