She said, “Tomorrow night is Wednesday night. We close on Wednesdays. Would you come have dinner with me here?”
He said, “Well, I’d be right honored, Miss Mabelle.”
“Then take this money and cut out the Miss Mabelle la-ti-da. You and I are a lot alike, Custis. We may wear the clothes but underneath, we are a couple of rounders. Now take the money.”
He reluctantly accepted the fifty dollars from her and said, “What time shall I come for dinner?”
“About seven. Do you want another drink?”
He stood up slowly. “No, it’s late. I thank you very much, though. I am looking forward to tomorrow night. I’m gonna get up early in the morning and do some scouting around and look over some property. I guess I’d best get on back to my hotel … actually, I am in my hotel, so I guess I’ll get on back to the first floor and get some sleep.”
She came around the table and offered him her hand. He took it and gave it a light kiss. Before he could realize what was happening, she was in his arms and their lips were meeting. It was a brief kiss but it sent tingles all through Longarm. He backed toward the door.
He said, “I’ll be looking forward to tomorrow night.”
She said, “Yes, good night, Custis.”
He left Mabelle Russell and went down to his room a great deal more enlightened and a good deal more mystified than when he’d gone up. Now the finger seemed to point directly at the Castles. What had previously been thought to be a widespread interest in having the army garrison removed now came down to the interest of just one family. Though for the life of him, he couldn’t see how the army would be any threat to the Castles, even if they were bringing in Mexican cattle, stolen or otherwise. For many years it had been a dodge in that barren country to bring in Mexican cattle, especially if you were fairly close to the border, to supplement your herd.
What a big cattleman did was to bring in a buyer from one of the large cattle-buying outfits in St. Louis or Kansas City or Abilene and show them his regular stock. The buyer would pay sixty-five or seventy or maybe even eighty dollars a head for a thousand head or five hundred head, and then he would go on back to the city to await delivery. Then the cattleman would mix in a couple hundred of the Mexican steers, which were worth about twenty or twenty-five dollars apiece, and make an extra profit on the business without ever having done much more than obtaining the cattle and taking them on the short drive to his ranch. Of course, there was the matter of the branding. But since they didn’t brand cattle in Mexico, his brand would be the only one on the cow.
It was enlightening to know that it was the Castles who were putting the pressure on the garrison to move, but as Mabelle Russell had said, she didn’t see where the Castles would be dumb enough to think that murdering a few soldiers was going to get the army to move the fort. He didn’t think so either. In fact, it would have exactly the opposite effect.
What had him mystified was the sudden way she had taken to him. He hadn’t done much more than say hello before she’d started putting out ripples like a stone dropped in a still lake. He had felt her, he had smelled her, he had seen her, and she had given him back his money. Mabelle Russell didn’t seem the type to give back anyone’s money for any reason. And now he was invited to dinner.
He got undressed, put his revolver ready to hand on the nightstand, and got into bed full of questions, but as was his habit, he put them out of his mind. They couldn’t be answered that night and all they could do would be to interfere with his sleep. He had one last drink, then turned down the bedside lamp until it flickered and the room grew dark. His last thought as he went to sleep was the amazing contrast between the delicate, dainty, and exquisite Mrs. Shirley Dunn and the robust, hardy, sexual excitement of Mabelle Russell.
Chapter 6
He awoke the next morning to the news that there had been another murder. He heard it from his waitress in the hotel dining room while he was having breakfast. She said it offhandedly as if she expected that he already knew. He had been about to put a biscuit in his mouth when he dropped it to the table and stared at her. He said, “What?”
She said, “Aw, yeah. They killed another one of those soldier boys last night. Somebody found him this morning coming into town. I figured that you already knew. It’s the talk of the town.”
He said, “Where was he found?”
She shrugged. “Oh, I don’t know. I think it was on that road out of town that leads to Fort Concho. It might have been someplace else. I really didn’t pay much attention to it.”
He hurried through his breakfast as fast as he could, and then went back to his room to deliberate. He needed information and he needed it badly while the murder was still fresh. He doubted the wisdom of going to the sheriff, who would most certainly know but would be most certainly interested in Longarm’s curiosity. He could pick up information from the men on the street or in the saloons, but that would be unreliable and perhaps distorted. In the end, he decided that it was worth a visit to the fort to get as many fresh details as he could, even if some people began to wonder why he found it so necessary to visit the garrison commander so often.
Just as he was finishing his deliberations, Todd came in to give him the news. When Longarm assured him that he had already heard, the boy said, “Kind of a shame, ain’t it, Mr. Long?”
Longarm said, “Oh, I don’t know. They ain’t doin’ much good around here. Who was it that got killed anyhow?”
“I heard that it was one of them officers, you know, one of them high-ranking kinds. Not like the ones that they’ve been killing before but one of them … you know, the ones that gives the orders?”
Longarm nodded. If that was the case, then indeed the case had turned serious. Killing some farm boy from Iowa who had enlisted to get off the farm was one thing, but killing an officer who most likely was from some influential family was another. Whoever was doing the killings had now upped the ante. He had also shown some knowledge of the military.
Longarm told Todd to saddle his bay mare and bring it around to the front of the hotel, saying that he would be along shortly. The young man nodded, hesitated a second, and then finally started toward the door. He stopped and turned and said, “Mr. Long, can I ask you something?”
Longarm nodded. “Well, if it don’t cost money or scare the horses. What?”
Todd fidgeted for a moment. “Well, this is a kind of delicate proposition, you understand, Mr. Long. What I was wondering, if a man was to find an army horse just running loose out on the prairie when that man was comin’ in to work early in the morning … well, if’n he found that horse, that horse wouldn’t be his, would it, Mr. Long?”
“He found the horse of the officer that was shot?”
Todd said hastily, “No, sir! I ain’t saying that. I’m just saying that I found a saddled and bridled army horse that was running loose. In case that you ain’t knowed about it, that’s the first one of the horses of the men that have been shot that’s ever been found and I’m the one that found it. You understand what I am saying, Mr. Long?”
Longarm nodded slowly. It was a fact that he had overlooked. He said, “Are you telling me that of the soldiers that were shot, none of their horses were never recovered?”
Todd nodded. “Yes, sir. That’s what I’m a-saying. Of course, I ain’t talking about that one that was stabbed in the back alley. He was just walking. He wasn’t a-horseback.”
“Where have you got this horse?”
Todd looked down at the floor. “Am I gonna get in trouble about this?”
“Not if you tell the truth.”
“I taken him to my cousin’s barn on the outside of town. I unsaddled him, unbridled him, and gave him a bait of oats and gave him some water. He was spooked, sure as hell.”