Finally he threw it on the desk and said, “Hell, Custis. That may be the shortest damn report ever filed in the history of this office. There is a world of story behind a few of those statements you made in there.”
Longarm said, “Such as what?”
Billy picked the paper up again. “Well, just for openers, right here you start this thing out by saying that due to the greed of one individual, Vernon Castle, six troopers of the United States Cavalry stationed at Fort Concho, San Angelo, Texas, were mistakenly killed by a misguided ex-Confederate soldier and a simpleminded young man who had been convinced that he was an Indian. What greed? What greed, Custis, are you talking about?”
Longarm shifted uncomfortably in his chair. He said, “I didn’t really want to put it in an official report, Billy, because it sounds so damn silly. I mean, you take the consequences that came about because of what Vernon Castle had in his mind and what he was trying to do, well, it’s a damn shame. I hated to put it down.”
“Well, you can just damn well tell me and let me be the judge of whether you put it down or not.”
Longarm said “Well, Vernon Castle thought that there was a spring that was very near the surface right under Fort Concho. He’d got hold of a dowser—you know, a water witch.”
Billy Vail said, “You mean one of them kind that goes around with a willow stick and when the water pulls at it, it pulls toward the ground?”
Longarm nodded. “Exactly.”
Billy Vail said, “Well, you know, I’ve heard of that working.”
Longarm said, “And I’ve heard of it not working also. But the point of it is that this dowser, the water witch that Vernon Castle had brought in to try to find some water near the surface in that dry-as-a-bone part of the country, had got onto what he claimed was an underground stream. He followed it straight through Fort Concho. He said it came to no more than five or six feet below the surface there, and said that it could be dug up in one afternoon except that the soldiers had a camp there. They had a fort there. It was government land, and that was what caused Vernon Castle to set into doing what he did.”
“You mean, trying to get that garrison moved?”
“That’s right. So you see how silly that would have looked in an official report. A rancher tries to get an army garrison moved because he believes there is water under the fort. I’m not going to write that. Somebody is liable to find it ten years from now and wonder if maybe there wasn’t another crazy person involved in the case.”
Billy rubbed his face. “Why didn’t they just go to the commander of that fort, Captain—uh, what’s his name, Captain Montrose—and ask him if they could dig for water?”
Longarm sat back in his chair. “Hell, greed, Billy. Pure and simple greed. They didn’t want to share that water with anybody. If it had been found on government land, U.S. public land, then it would have belonged to everybody. The Castles wanted it for their cattle, their livestock.”
Billy Vail studied the report a moment more before pitching it back on his desk. “You don’t reckon the rest of the Castles were involved with the murder of those soldiers at the fort?”
Longarm shook his head. “No, I think that it was the damnedest unlucky coincidence that could have happened. I think that simpleminded Virgil, who halfway thought he was an Indian, had heard his daddy talking about the soldiers—and, of course, I’ll never know the truth in this—and he either worked it out in his own head or had some help from Clell Martin, and decided that the soldiers were the enemy and that the way to eliminate them was to kill them. He had access to all those rifles, and I’ve got it out of the rest of the family that he was indeed a very good shot.”
“You feel all right about letting Old Man Castle and those two boys go? I mean, you did have those charges filed against them for illegal cattle importation.”
Longarm smiled slightly. “Well, I was kind of on thin ice about that.”
Billy Vail gave a whoop. “Thin ice? Boy, that’s an understatement. Thin ice? Hell, it was ninety-five degrees. There wasn’t no ice at all. What do you mean firing off a telegram to a fellow officer, getting him to get a bench warrant from a federal judge sent down to San Angelo? Hell, you could have gotten all our asses in a crack. What were you thinking about?”
Longarm said, “I was thinking about five dead soldiers, six after a while. That’s what I was thinking about. I was thinking about how to unravel a knot when I couldn’t find a way. The only thing that I could think of to do was to put some pressure on the Castles and see what came out of the jar. That’s all I could figure out, Billy. I know, I probably exceeded my authority-“
“Exceeded your authority? Boy, you sure have a quaint way of putting things, Mr. Custis Long.”
Longarm sighed ruefully. It had taken a couple of days to clean the mess up. In the end, he had let Vernon Castle and his two sons go. They had gone willingly and they had certainly not been grateful. Even though Virgil had been simpleminded, he had been well loved by his family. Longarm could tell that Vernon Castle felt the loss keenly. The sheriff had been no friend of his at the end either. In fact, he had let Longarm know in no uncertain terms that he deeply resented the federal lawman and wished for any excuse to jail or to shoot him.
Only Captain Montrose and the soldiers had seemed grateful.
Billy Vail asked, “Was there a spring under the fort?”
Longarm shook his head. “I’ll be damned if I know, Billy. They hadn’t started digging by the time I left and I really don’t care. All I know is that I wanted the hell out of San Angelo, Texas.”
Billy Vail leaned back in his chair and cocked his head to one side. “Am I to understand that you found no diversion down there whatsoever? No female companionship to make the long hours and days pass faster?”
Longarm said nonchalantly, “Wherever would you have gotten an idea like that, Marshal Vail? I was on the job twenty-four hours a day. You sent me down there to do a job and that’s all I did.”
“Bullshit.”
Longarm stood up. “I can’t add a thing to it. The best I can figure, Clell Martin thought that it was still Reconstruction, and one day he took it into his head, either him or that simpleminded kid. They teamed up and decided to start killing soldiers. Clell convinced Virgil that he was an Indian and that his name was Running Wolf, or it might have been vice versa, it’s hard to tell about crazy people. They both truly believed in what they were doing.”
“How’s your arm?”
Longarm shrugged. “It will work fine for whatever light duty I am going to get around here for a while.”
Billy Vail gave him a big grin. He said, “Well … we’ll just have to see what comes up.”
Longarm pointed a finger at him. “Billy, you better not be sending me off any time soon. I’ve got business to do around here. I just put in two of the hardest weeks of my life, and I’ve got some easy time coming and I’ve got plans to make good use of it.”
Billy Vail cackled. “By the way, the widow Shirley Dunn has come around a few times asking about you.”
Longarm brightened. “She has?”
“Yeah, she has. But I’m gonna give you a piece of advice, Mr. Fast and Loose. That lady ain’t gonna give you no milk unless you buy the cow. If I ever saw a marrying woman, that is one.”
Longarm walked over to the door, took his hat off, and carefully brushed the brim before he set it back on his head.
He said in an offhanded voice, “Billy, have you ever spent a few nights in a whorehouse having drinks and dinner and, well … let’s just call it dessert, and it didn’t cost you a dime?”
“No, and you haven’t either.”
Longarm nodded and put his hand on the doorknob. He said, “Billy, there are some things in Heaven and Hell that you don’t know about yet.”