“It’s amazing,” Janice said, “the way you were able to piece all this together, Custis.”
Longarm shrugged modestly. “I’ve tracked down more than a few no-good scalawags. They always slip up somewhere and give themselves away.”
Julie said, “It certainly sounds like you have a solid case against the senator. I guess we’ll have to believe what you’ve told us about him, whether we really want to or not.” She smiled sadly. “He was a bit crude sometimes, but I hate to think he was actually a cold-blooded killer.”
“Oh, he never got his own hands dirty, but he sure paid for those killings. He had me bushwhacked in Tucson too, and it’s no fault of his that I’m still here drawing breath.”
“What about the printing plates?” Janice asked. “Have you found them yet?”
Longarm’s jaw clenched. “Not yet. I spent an hour talking to Padgett after I locked him up, and he never said one word about where they were hidden. I reckon they’ll turn up sooner or later, though. The important thing now is that Padgett’s behind bars where he belongs.” The big lawman leaned forward and pushed himself to his feet. “And I’m mighty hungry. Will you two ladies join me for supper?”
“The dining room is liable to be a madhouse,” warned Julie.
Longarm reached for his hat. “Maybe so, but my stomach thinks my throat’s been cut. I need to get on the outside of a surrounding.”
Both young women laughed. “Of course we’ll go with you, Custis,” Janice said. “We’d never turn down your company.”
As he went out arm in arm with them, Longarm said, “I’m mighty sorry about ruining your little celebration in the winner’s circle this afternoon. I wanted to take Padgett by surprise, so that he wouldn’t put up much of a fight. That seemed to be a good time and place.”
“You took him by surprise, all right. You took all of us by surprise.”
“At least Matador won. Another couple of days like this, and you two can afford to do just about anything you want with that ranch of yours.”
“That’s right,” Janice said with a smile. “If this keeps up, we’re going to be rich.”
The hotel dining room was indeed crowded, and Longarm was the recipient of at least a hundred curious stares. He ignored all of them and concentrated on enjoying his dinner with the Cassidy sisters.
They were having coffee after the meal when Janice looked up and suddenly gasped in alarm, “Custis!”
Longarm saw that she was gazing past his shoulder, and twisted his head so that he could see what was coming at him. Leon Mercer was stalking through the dining room with the awkward, determined, overly cautious gait of a man unaccustomed to drinking who has just put away a considerable amount of whiskey. His coat was rumpled, his tie was askew, and he wasn’t wearing a hat. Several strands of the dark hair that was normally combed across his balding head stood up in the air at odd angles. Mercer blinked rapidly as his bleary eyes tried to focus on Longarm. He said in a loud, angry voice, “Ah, ha! So there you are, you traitor!”
Carefully, Longarm placed his napkin beside his plate and stood up, turning as he did so to face Mercer. “Hello, Leon,” he said. “What can I do for you?”
“You can march right over to the jail and release the finest politician who ever drew breath!” Mercer said thickly. “You had no right to lock up Senator Padgett!”
The dining room had fallen silent, and every eye in the place was fixed on this confrontation. Longarm said, “The senator broke the law, Leon. I didn’t have any choice but to arrest him.”
“That’s insane! It’s not … not possible! Miles Padgett is an honorable man-“
“I’m not going to stand here and argue with you,” Longarm cut in. “What’s done is done.” His tone was gentler as he went on. “Looks to me like you’ve had a few too many jolts of Who-Hit-John, Leon. Maybe you’d better go back up to your room and try to get some sleep. That’d be the best thing in the world for you.”
“Sleep?” Mercer repeated in a high-pitched, incensed voice. “Sleep? How can I sleep when an innocent man has been thrown behind bars by a brutal minion of the law? What have you done to him? If you’ve hurt the senator, I … I’ll kill you!”
With that, he reached under his coat and jerked out a small pocket pistol.
Longarm grimaced. The gun in Mercer’s hand wasn’t much more than a toy, but somebody could still get hurt if he started waving it around and it went off. One long, quick stride brought Longarm close to Mercer, and his fingers closed around the wrist of the smaller man. His other hand caught hold of the pistol’s cylinder so that it couldn’t turn. A sharp twist was all it took. Mercer yelped and let go of the gun.
Longarm stuck the pistol in his coat pocket. Mercer put his hands over his face and began to sob. “Come on now, Leon,” Longarm said as he put an arm around Mercer’s shoulders. “I ain’t going to hold this against you, because I know how upset you are. Here, let me help you upstairs.”
Mercer pulled away from him with a burst of unexpected strength. “No! Stay away from me! I won’t let you arrest me too!”
“I got no reason to arrest you, Leon. I don’t reckon you knew a thing about what Padgett was up to. He fooled you just like he fooled everybody else.”
That seemed to make Mercer feel even worse. He dropped into an empty chair and started crying harder. Longarm looked around for help.
Janice stood up and came over to him. “Perhaps I can talk to him,” she said. In a whisper, she added, “We both know Mr. Mercer is rather fond of me.”
Longarm recalled how Mercer had grabbed Janice on the train and kissed her. Mercer wasn’t in any shape now for such shenanigans. “All right,” he said. “Maybe you can talk some sense into him.”
While Longarm and Julie watched, Janice talked to Mercer in a low-pitched voice, and after a few minutes, she looked up at Longarm to say, “I’ll see that he gets back to his room. I think he’ll be all right.”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea, Janice?” asked Julie.
Janice continued patting Mercer on the back as she rolled her eyes at her sister. “I’ll be fine,” she said. She took hold of Mercer’s arm and helped him to his feet, and then the two of them made their way out of the dining room.
“Janice has a good heart,” Julie said. “She’ll straighten out Mr. Mercer.”
“Maybe so,” said Longarm as he sat down again. Julie reached across the table and rested her hand on his. “I suppose you’ll be leaving the racing circuit now.”
“No reason for me to keep traveling with it,” he said.
“Then we’ll have to make your farewell special. We haven’t really finished celebrating Matador’s victory, you know.” Longarm had to grin. He was all for celebrating.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough time for a proper celebration tonight. When they reached the Cassidy sisters’ room, Longarm had to content himself with a long, hot kiss from Julie, who wrapped her arms around his neck and clung tightly to him. Her breasts flattened against his chest and he felt himself responding, especially when her tongue slipped into his mouth and began exploring wetly. Not wanting either of them to get too worked up to stop, Longarm gently disengaged himself from her embrace.
“What’s wrong?” Julie asked with a frown. “I thought we were going to have a good time.”
“Well, Janice isn’t here,” Longarm said.
“She won’t mind if we start without her,” Julie said with a wicked smile.
The prospect was appealing to Longarm. Although sharing a bed with both of the twins at the same time had been mighty pleasurable, there was a part of him that still found it odd and a mite uncomfortable. Deep down, he preferred the arrangement of one man and one woman, doing their damnedest to love each other to death. He was just an old stickin-the-mud, he told himself.