After that, Longarm ambled down the street looking for the sheriff’s office. He found it right across from the Cutler House. At the same time, he discovered that the sheriff’s name was T.J. Smith. His office had a plate-glass window and his name was printed across it in large letters, showing the man was either proud of being sheriff or proud of his name, or had an overly ambitious sign painter on his payroll.
Longarm opened the front door and stepped into the fair-sized office. The sheriff was behind the biggest of three desks. He was set up right in front of the door that obviously led back to the cells. There were two other smaller desks that were set against the wall to Longarm’s left. At one of them, a young deputy was sitting with his feet up, drinking a cup of coffee. The sheriff had his hat off and was working on some papers. Longarm could see that he was going bald, and noticed the gray in the man’s drooping mustache. He figured the sheriff to be pushing fifty, but he was still a solid-built man with a lined face and hard eyes. He seemed capable of enforcing his authority without too much trouble.
He looked up as Longarm walked up to his desk. For a second his eyes blinked, and then he recognized Longarm. He said, “What the hell do you want?”
Longarm glanced over at the deputy, who was watching him. He said to the sheriff, “I’d like to know where the hell you got off rousting me around last night after them two ruffians jumped on me. One was gonna squash me like a bug and the other was gonna take a shotgun to me.”
The sheriff skittered his chair back away from his desk so he could look up and have a better slant at Longarm. “I don’t know who the hell you are, mister, or who the hell you think you are, but those two are part of the best family in this county, so they count for a hell of a lot more than somebody that is just in here for some unknown reason. By the way, what is your business in my town?”
“The last time I looked, this was a free country. Unless a man done something wrong, he Didn’t have to explain anything to the law. But just for your information, I deal in stock and the government owes me for some horses I sold them. I have reason to believe that some of them, the ones that I didn’t get paid for, are out here at this so-called fort you got. Now, you let one man cheat you and another will try it. I don’t want it on my record that I let some damned quartermaster pocket my money, doctor his records, and make it look like I never sold the government some horses. I know my brands, and I’ll either wind up getting my money or my horses back. That good enough for you?”
Before the sheriff could answer, the deputy dropped his boots to the floor with a thump and said, “Sheriff, don’t tell me that this is that fella that took on Billy Bob last night?” He laughed and looked at Longarm. “Mister, was I you, I wouldn’t be studying about no damned horses if I had Billy Bob Castle on my ass. I’d be figuring out the fastest way that I could get out of here and put the most territory I could between me and him. He’ll be in town tonight and guess what? He’ll be looking for you.”
Longarm looked back at the sheriff and said, “Then it will be your job, Sheriff Smith, to keep him off my ass. I am a taxpaying citizen. I mind my own business.”
The sheriff looked at him sardonically and said, “Well, if minding your own business includes pistol-whipping Big Billy Castle, then you’d better take up another business.”
Longarm said, “Just who the hell are the Castles?”
The deputy answered first. “You ain’t ever heard of the Castles? Boy, you must be from a long ways off.”
Longarm’s head whipped around toward him. “Son, when you get to be half my age, then you can start calling me boy, but until then, it ain’t a real good idea.”
The deputy laughed. “Feisty old sonofabitch, ain’t ya?”
Longarm said evenly, “Feisty, yes. Sonofabitch, sometimes. Old, not yet. Watch your mouth, sonny.”
The sheriff said, “You’re causing nothing but commotion around here. You’re not really welcome in this town.”
Longarm said, “Well, welcome or not, I have business in this town and I intend on staying here until I get it tended to. Now I am a logical and a reasonable man. Do you mind telling me why I am supposed to treat these Castle folks so politely? How come they deserve the buttered side of the bread?”
The deputy said, “Because they keep this area going. They have two of the biggest cattle outfits around here. They are by far the wealthiest people around. They hire more men, they spend more money. They keep this outfit going. Ya need any better answer than that? Ain’t money at the bottom of most everything?”
Longarm said, “Well just who are they? Is it just one family?”
This time the sheriff answered. “The real head is old Vernon Castle. He was the first one out here. He’s got three boys. You’ve met two of them, Billy Bob and Glenn. Then there is a younger one, Virgil. He’s not much into the business end of things. Then there is Vernon’s younger brother, James. He’s got a pretty good-size spread. He’s got two young sons and two daughters. And, yes, they own just about everything that you see, including that hotel that you are staying in. So unless you want to get thrown out of there, you’d better mind your p’s and q’s.”
“So they run the town, do they? Do they run the law also?”
The sheriff’s head snapped up. “You know, I’m getting a little tired of your smart mouth, mister. How’d you like to spend a little time back there in one of those cells?”
Longarm said, “When I have done something that deserves it. You try to put me in there before that, you’ll see more lawyers than you’ve ever seen in your life coming at you. I’m not a man without means myself. I cut a little mustard back in my own country.”
“And where would that be, if it’s any of my business?”
“Well, it don’t happen to be any of your business, but it’s Tennessee and parts of Louisiana and parts of Arkansas. Us Longs, we tend to get around. There’s quite a few of us and we tend to get some people voted into office ourselves, so I understand how that works. You just make sure that the three-hundred-pound baby bull stays the hell away from me, or next time I won’t use the barrel on him. I’ll use it in him.”
Before the sheriff could answer, Longarm pushed away from his desk, gave the deputy a curt nod, and walked out of the office, well pleased with himself.
Later in the afternoon, Longarm saddled up the chestnut gelding with the intention of making a reconnaissance in order to get a lay of the land. He’d gotten some rough directions from one of the stable hands as to where the two Castle ranches were located. But the country was so big that all he’d really be able to do would be to place their headquarters. They owned parcels of land in a great circle all around the town.
He also had a map that the garrison commander had drawn him showing where the five soldiers had been killed. He eliminated the one that was stabbed in the alley, considering him as not part of the pattern since the others had obviously been bushwhacked by rifle fire.
He rode out of the town toward the south, taking a road that led toward Eden, some forty miles away. He thought to name any place Eden in such country showed a remarkable sense of humor on the part of the residents. He had, of course, no intention of going some forty miles away. His main interest was the location of Castle property in relation to where the four troopers had died.