by Evans, Tabor
“Come now,” she said when he was dressed. She held her hand out to him, smiling. “We will join whoever is in the parlor, and we shall have a drink together, you and me.”
Longarm took her hand and let the tall beauty lead him back into the world.
Chapter 40
Longarm was pleased but not particularly surprised to see E. Thomas Bligh in the parlor. The tall, very nearly bald banker had a drink in one hand and a diminutive Chinese girl in the other.
“Marshal Long,” he said enthusiastically when Longarm entered the room. Bligh waved his drink and said, “Join me.”
“Do,” Terry whispered from behind. “I have work to do.”
Longarm turned his head. “Any idea where Noogie might be?”
She laughed. “I know exactly where Marshal DiNunzio is right now. He won’t be out for a little longer.”
That sounded like Noogie, all right. Longarm accepted another of those excellent rye whiskies from a raven-haired girl and sat in an overstuffed armchair to Bligh’s right. The same girl fetched an ottoman for him, even lifted his feet and placed them on the ottoman. Now this, he thought, was service. Finally she settled down on the floor by his legs, one hand on his calf. “If there is anything more…” she said.
“I’ll let you know.” He found it hard to believe when he was just leaving Terry’s bed, but this black-haired girl aroused him. She had tits like pillows and an impossibly small waist. He suspected she was one of those southern girls who had surgery to remove their lower ribs so their waists could be smaller. That, of course, made it difficult for them to breathe at times and led to fainting. Or worse. It was damned good to look at, though.
“About those robberies,” Bligh said. “How will you go about catching them?”
“Damned if I know,” Longarm said, taking a swallow of the rye. The whiskey warmed his belly through and through. “I have no ideas at all right now.”
The truth was that he did have an idea or two, but he was loathe to discuss them in public. Not exactly public, of course, but the whores had big ears. There was no telling what they might overhear. And then tell. Or to whom.
Bligh might be comfortable discussing such things where others could hear, but Longarm was not.
“Can I get you anything?” the dark-haired girl asked, rubbing his leg and smiling. She battered her eyelashes. “And I do mean anything.”
“Oh, I’d like that just fine,” Longarm said, stroking her hair. “But not right now.”
“A snack then? Peanuts or popcorn?”
“A bowl o’ peanuts would be nice,” he said. He didn’t so much want the peanuts as he wanted to give the girl something to do.
She leaped up and hustled off, presumably to the kitchen, to get his peanuts.
Longarm leaned back in the very comfortable armchair and helped himself to another swallow of the rye. A man could get used to living in such comfort, he thought.
Chapter 41
Noogie DiNunzio had not yet returned from his romp when Longarm decided to head back to his hotel room for some overdue sleep. He collected his key from the desk clerk and gave the man a friendly “good night,” then went up to his room.
Once there he poured a little cold water into the basin, dipped a washcloth in, and wiped himself off before crawling into the lumpy—but very welcome—bed. He felt good—hell, better than good—after his evening with Theresa Bullea. He was thinking of her when he dropped off to sleep.
In the morning he dressed quickly and went downstairs. “Where can I find a good breakfast?” he asked of the person, different from the night clerk, who was on duty behind the desk.
Armed with a little local knowledge, Longarm found a tiny café that catered to the common man. He sat at the counter and surrounded enough eggs, ham, and hotcakes to feed two lumberjacks and their bulldog.
“That,” he told the grease-stained fellow behind the counter, “was about the best meal I’ve had in a while.” It was the truth.
He returned to the street and walked over to the town marshal’s office. Noogie was already behind his desk, looking as bright and chipper as always.
“Where’d you go last night?” Noogie asked. “I was just getting started, but they told me you’d already left. Didn’t you have a good time?”
“Had ’bout as good a time as a man could have without he keeled over from a heart attack an’ died dead away.” Longarm winked and said, “I didn’t see a cull in that whole herd.”
“Terry keeps only the best for herself. Any that don’t work out for her she sends over to the casino. Some of the girls work their trade on the floor there. A few, the ones with really good hands, become dealers or croupiers.”
“Her casino?” Longarm asked.
Noogie nodded. “Hers and a friend of hers. Say, why don’t I take you there tonight? The girls are almost as hot and the tables are dead square. They’re the most honest outfit I ever did see. I’m thinking you’ll like the place.”
“Tonight then,” Longarm said.
“Have you had breakfast yet?”
“Just came from there. Now I’m thinking to hunt up a barber and get a shave.” He fingered his chin and grinned. “I wouldn’t want t’ scratch up those sweet young things too bad tonight.”
“I tell you what then,” Noogie said. “I’ll go get my breakfast and meet you at the Bastrop office. I haven’t looked into the robberies too close because they’ve always occurred outside my jurisdiction, but I know the lay of the land so if you don’t mind, I’ll go with you. We’ll interview everyone involved. If I remember correct, the Bastrop driver who was on this end of the run the last time they were hit, he should be pulling in some time this afternoon.”
“Do you always keep such close tabs on your town, Noogie?”
“I try to. After all, that’s what they pay me for.”
“Thinking of which, how the hell can you afford t’ do business with Terry’s girls? And who paid for my fun last night?”
Noogie waved the question away. “The town don’t pay much in the way of salary, but free pussy is one of the benefits. Terry never charges me. Didn’t charge for you last night, neither.”
Longarm nodded. He had heard of such arrangements in other towns. That sort of perquisite was strictly under the table—or behind the closed door—but it was not unheard of. He was not sure of the ethics involved there, but what was done was done. It could not be taken back.
And considering how good a lay Terry Bullea was he would not want to take it back anyway.
“I’ll meet you back here at”—he took his Ingersoll out and looked at the time—“at ten o’clock, say.” Since he happened to have the watch out anyway he went ahead and wound the spring, something that had to be done every day.
“Sounds fine,” Noogie agreed, getting up and reaching for his hat.
Chapter 42
“To tell you the truth, Marshal, there’s not all that much truth to tell,” Bastrop jehu Clovis Sensabaugh told them when his coach pulled into Deadwood and a helper was leading the team away. “Do you mind coming with me for a few minutes?”
Longarm raised an eyebrow, but Noogie seemed to know what was going on. “That’s fine, Clo,” DiNunzio said. “You go ahead. We’ll be right behind you.”
Longarm took his cue from Noogie and tagged along with the driver to No. 10, the same saloon where James Butler Hickok had been murdered. “A double, Jimmy, and a chaser,” Sensabaugh ordered, slapping a half dollar onto the bar.
The jehu downed his whiskey in one gulp and followed it with half of the beer. The bartender immediately filled the whiskey glass again and Sensabaugh tossed that one back, too.
“It’s dry work out there,” the driver said by way of explanation, “and damned frightening what with those robberies. I don’t mind telling you, they scare me plenty. You never know when the bastards might cut loose with one of those double barrels. You ever see what a shotgun up close can do to a man? I have, and I don’t want to see it again. More tha
n that, I don’t want to be on the receiving end of one of those blasts. They can damn near cut a man in two.” He shuddered and picked up the whiskey glass. Finding it empty he called, “Again, Jimmy. One more time.”
While he was waiting for the whiskey to be reloaded he downed the rest of his beer.
“Something to help my nerves,” he said. “It always worries me when I pass that spot.”
“That spot,” Longarm repeated. “D’you mean you were held up at the same spot both times?”
“Yes, sir. Within a couple hundred feet of the same place anyway,” Sensabaugh said.
“I wonder,” Longarm mused, “if the Fremont coaches were robbed at the same place each time they were hit.” He turned to Noogie and asked, “How many times were they robbed?”
“Fremont? Four times. I don’t know if all four took place at the same spot or if they were robbed where the Bastrop runs were, but I know how we can find out. Clo here was the Bastrop driver. John Halley was driving for Fremont two of those times that I can recall. Who else was on top for Fremont when they were robbed, Clo?”
The man motioned for his beer mug to be refilled. Apparently he had all the whiskey his nerves needed so he would switch to just the beer now. While Jimmy was drawing another beer, and Sensabaugh was digging in his pocket for another coin, Sensabaugh said, “One time that would be Stanley Applegate. The other time, um, let me think. That was the first holdup. The driver would have been John Dyal. But he’s gone now. Said it got too cold up here. He headed back down Arizona way. Or so he said. It might could have been the sight of those twin shotgun barrels. I have nightmares about them, too, so I wouldn’t blame the man if that was why he drew his time and moved on.”
“Are either Halley or Applegate in town now?” Longarm asked.
“I’m pretty sure Halley is,” Noogie said.
“Let’s go find out. If he is, I’d like to hire a buggy and all of us drive out along the road to the places where you fellows were held up. It’s too late to do that today, but we could start out first thing tomorrow morning.”
“What good would that do, Marshal?” Sensabaugh asked.
“I’m not sure it would do any good, Clo, but it’s worth a try just on the off chance that we could learn something. Besides,” he said with a wink, “if the robbers are in town here an’ see what we’re doing, it might make them nervous. An’ nervous criminals are apt t’ fuck up. Can we do that, Noogie?”
“I’m game. You know that.”
“Clo?”
“I’m with you, Marshal. There isn’t a man anywhere that wants these sons of bitches caught any worse than I do.”
Longarm nodded. “Seven o’clock tomorrow morning then? At the livery. We’ll hire a rig and go see what we can see.”
“Done,” Noogie said.
“It’s good with me. Tomorrow is my layover day anyhow.” Sensabaugh laughed. “There’s nothing I’d rather do on my off day than crawl into an outfit and take a drive.”
Longarm laid a coin on the bar and said to Jimmy, “Give my friend here another shot and a beer. Noogie, you said something about us having a night on the town so I tell you what, I’ll go back to the hotel an’ wash up a bit. Then I think it’s my turn to buy us a supper. I’ll meet you at your office and we can go make an evening of it. An’ Clovis, I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”
“Yes, sir. I’m happy to cooperate any way that I can. I think Halley will be, too.”
“If he doesn’t want to help,” Noogie said, “Fremont will make him want to. They want these robberies to stop.”
“I’ll stop by the Fremont office an’ tell them what we want,” Longarm said. He nodded to Sensabaugh and Noogie and left No. 10 and its bloody memories of Hickok.
Chapter 43
Longarm took Noogie to a good-quality café for their supper. The place was neither as fancy nor as expensive as the restaurant where they had eaten the night before, but the food was good and the price was right. When they finished their meal Longarm retrieved his Stetson from the rack beside the front door and said, “All right. Where’s this casino you were talking about earlier?”
“It’s close enough we can walk to it,” DiNunzio said.
“Lead the way then. I’ll be right beside you,” Longarm told the town marshal.
Anne Carter and Terry Bullea’s saloon, the Golden Pick, was not as large as Longarm had expected, but it was handsomely furnished in scarlet and gold, almost like a whorehouse.
The tables were busy offering roulette, faro, a wheel of fortune, and seven tables of either draw or stud poker. Each of the poker tables, Longarm noticed, had a house dealer who did nothing but shuffle the cards and deal them out.
Noogie saw Longarm looking at the poker tables. He nudged his friend with an elbow and said, “The way those operate, the players each ante up a quarter. That money belongs to the house, but it’s the house’s only interest in the game. Annie don’t take a cut from the winnings like most places do. And I can tell you, these games are stone-cold honest. There’s no bottom dealing or anything like that. The house has no interest in who wins or how much. They take that ante and nothing else.”
“Different,” Longarm mused, reaching for a cheroot. Almost before he could get the twist bitten off and the cigar properly seated between his teeth there was a girl there offering a lighted match.
He puffed his cheroot alight and nodded his thanks to the girl, who was wearing a short skirt and a tight top, both red trimmed in gold.
The girls—there were at least eight of them working the floor—were all dressed in that uniform. They were attractive but nothing like the beauties at Terry Bullea’s whorehouse.
“That one over there,” Noogie said, pointing, “her name is Edith. She gives great head but she’s a so-so fuck. If you want a wild ride, take Lily. She’s the one standing near the piano there. She doesn’t have the face but there’s nothing wrong with her body. And Lordy, can she ever use it. She’ll practically twist a man’s dick off, she works those hips so fast. Lily is really something, I tell you. You’ll be giving yourself a treat if you try her.”
“I thought we came here to gamble,” Longarm said.
Noogie grinned at him and winked. “Yeah, we can do some of that, too, if you like.”
“Good, ’cause I’m heading for that table over there,” Longarm told him.
“Listen, if you’re not going to take Lily…”
Longarm clapped him on the shoulder and said, “No, not tonight. You go ahead. Have fun.”
Noogie practically raised a dust he took off so fast headed toward Lily. Longarm, for his part, ambled over to a poker table where there was room for a fifth player across the table from a redheaded female dealer.
Longarm liked the arrangement at the Golden Pick. The house got its piece of the play but had no incentive to cheat since the dealer was not a participant and none of the players belonged to the house.
Longarm reached into his britches for some pocket change and contributed his ante.
The dealer nodded a welcome, shuffled, and offered Longarm the deck to cut before she began to very expertly distribute the pasteboards to each of the players in turn.
The same girl who had lighted his cheroot appeared at his side again. “Would you like a glass of rye, Marshal?”
“I would, thank you.” It occurred to him that it was just a damned good thing he was not trying to hide his identity. It seemed like everyone in Deadwood already knew who he was, even knew what he liked to drink.
His drink arrived almost immediately. The rye was the same superior product that he had been served at Theresa’s place. Longarm sat back, took a second taste, and picked up his cards.
Now this, Longarm thought, was a pleasant way to pass an evening.
Chapter 44
The following morning Noogie DiNunzio came into the café where Longarm was finishing his breakfast. He slid onto the stool beside Longarm’s and waved to the cook, miming taking a drink of coffee, then turned to Lon
garm and said, “How’d you do last night?”
“Tolerable,” Longarm told him. “I only lost two dollars and a half, but the liquor was good and the company pleasant enough. Where’d you disappear to for the whole evening?”
Noogie grinned at him. “You know damn good and well where I went.”
“Lily?”
“Uh-huh.” He shook his head, smiling. “I tell you, that girl is a wild one for sure.”
“I guess we both of us had our fun then,” Longarm said.
“I got a borrowed phaeton out front,” Noogie said. “Clo and John Halley will meet you in front of the Fremont office. I told them seven o’clock sharp.” He checked his watch. “It’s not quite six thirty now so you have plenty of time to finish your breakfast.”
“Me? As in singular? As in just the one o’ us?” Longarm asked. “What are you gonna be doing? I thought you said you wanted t’ go along.”
“I do want to, but it turns out that I can’t. Last night Annie told me they’ll be taking a box of cash money over to the bank to deposit. She has her own guards, of course, but I always go with them. It’s part of my job, Longarm. I hope you understand.”
“I understand a man’s duty, Noogie. These robberies took place outside your jurisdiction anyway, and a man has t’ tend to business. I’ll pick up Clovis an’ Halley and we’ll go see if we can learn anything. There’s no real need for you t’ be there.”
“Thanks, hoss.” Noogie stood, leaving his coffee untasted, touched the brim of his hat in salute and left.
Longarm went back to his pork chop and eggs.
“Right up there,” Clo Sensabaugh said, pointing to a sandy wash about thirty yards ahead of the phaeton.
“Say, that’s the same place I was robbed,” John Halley put in. “I remember I just drove down into that wash. Next thing I knew they stepped out from that brush on the right.”
“Same thing when I was robbed,” Sensabaugh said. “I never saw ’em coming. Then they was right in front of my team, pointing those bloody awful double barrels right at my face.”
