The Sixteen Dollar Shooter (A Rockabye County Western Book 1)

by Edson, J. T.

  Reissuing classic fiction from Yesterday and Today!

  Bradford Counter stood six feet three and weighed two hundred and twenty pounds. He was a graduate of the University of Southern Texas’s Police Science and Administration Class and had passed the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s training course for police officers with honors. His black belts in judo and karate were backed by a thorough knowledge of roughhouse brawling and dirty fighting. By virtue of his expertise with firearms, he was a member of the F.B.I.’s exclusive ‘Possible Club’ and his scores on the Police Combat Shooting Course of the Rockabye County Sheriff’s Office earned him an extra sixteen dollars a week.

  With such qualifications Brad knew plenty about the theory of modern law enforcement. But before he had held his badge for thirty-six hours, he found himself up against a pair of professional killers who never hesitated to use their guns. Under those conditions experience counted, and theory was of little use. Because in a real gunfight, there was only one second prize awarded … death!

  ROCKABYE COUNTY 1: THE SIXTEEN-DOLLAR SHOOTER

  By J. T. Edson

  First Published by Transworld Publishers in 1974

  Copyright © 1974, 2016 by J. T. Edson

  First Kindle Edition: June 2016

  Names, characters and incidents in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information or storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the author, except where permitted by law.

  This is a Piccadilly Publishing Book

  Cover image © 2016 by Tony Masero

  Check out Tony’s work here

  Series Editor: Ben Bridges

  Text © Piccadilly Publishing

  Published by Arrangement with the Author’s Agent.

  Despite her criticizing of my choice of ties, making derogatory comments about my dictation and never remembering to plug the microphone back into the tape-recorder, this book is dedicated to my secretary, Joan Coulter.

  Author’s note:

  The events in this book precede those told in THE PROFESSIONAL KILLERS

  Table of Contents

  Part One – The Sixteen-Dollar Shooter

  Part Two – Cop Killer

  Part Three – Cat-Catching Cop

  Part Four – The Lessons Learned from Combat Shooting

  Part One – The Sixteen-Dollar Shooter

  Leaving the elevator at the third of the Department of Public Safety Building’s six floors, Tom Cord turned to his right without the need for conscious thoughts. Just as automatically, he went through the double doors which bore the painted inscription, ‘ROCKABYE COUNTY SHERIFFS OFFICE. DEPUTIES’ SQUAD ROOM’. Apparently he was the first member of the Day Watch to arrive. None of the twin rows of desks—each with two chairs, a typewriter, telephone and wire document baskets —were occupied and nobody was making use of the filing cabinets which lined two of the walls.

  If the room did not look like the popular conception of a Texas sheriff’s office, Tom bore little resemblance to a traditional Western peace officer. Five foot nine in height, with a stocky and hard-fleshed build, he carried his forty-eight years well. Under the low-crowned, wide brimmed J. B. Stetson hat, his auburn hair had touches of gray at the temples. There were grin quirks at the corners of his mouth which belied the professional hardness of his face. He wore a none-too-expensive gray lightweight suit, light blue shirt, barred dark and light blue tie and brown shoes. Only the slightest bulge under the jacket told of the Smith & Wesson Model 27 .357 Magnum revolver, with a three and a half inch barrel, in the Myers 814 Tom Threepersons Style holster on the right side of his one and a half inch wide waist belt. A reserve supply of six bullets rode the loops of the cartridge slide on the left of the belt and attached to its rear was a case holding his handcuffs.

  Glancing at the wall clock as he reached the table on the left side of the doors, Tom signed his name and ‘0745’ in the appropriate columns of the Office’s log book. Then he removed the plate reading ‘OFF WATCH’ from alongside his name on the Duty Roster Board. With that done, his day’s work was officially started.

  ‘Morning, Tom,’ greeted First Deputy McCall, from the open door of the Watch Commander’s Office. ‘Come in, will you?’

  A tall, craggy and dour-looking man of about Tom’s age, McCall spoke with a Texas accent overlaid by a faint Scottish burr. He wore the official khaki uniform of the Sheriff’s Office and had his hat on. Tom saw nothing unusual in the latter point. No matter how he was dressed, indoors or outside, the First Deputy rarely removed his headdress. Like the other members of the Watch, Tom regarded McCall’s habit as nothing more than the harmless idiosyncrasy of a capable and hard-pressed administrator.

  Following the First Deputy into the Watch Commander’s Office, Tom did not expect to be asked to sit down. McCall never encouraged anybody to linger by offering them a seat.

  ‘You’re getting a new partner,’ the First Deputy announced, without further delay or time-consuming small talk.

  The news did not come as a great surprise to Tom. Since his previous partner had retired a week back, he had been expecting to hear it. However, he wondered who Harry Bidlow’s replacement would be. There were a number of detectives and even a few patrolmen in the Gusher City Police Department who were qualified for the promotion. [i] Tom knew some of them personally and had heard about most of the others. On the other hand, it was possible that a deputy had requested to be transferred in from one of the Sheriff’s Sub-Offices which were established in the smaller towns around the County.

  Naturally, Tom was very interested in learning the identity of his new partner. They would be working together as a team and have to spend many hours in each other’s company. So it was important that they could get along without friction.

  However, Tom knew that the matter went even deeper than just having an amicable association. By the very nature of their duties, there would probably be occasions when they would have to rely upon each other implicitly if they wanted to stay alive. Having Countywide jurisdiction, the deputies of the Sheriff’s Office acted as a homicide detail in Gusher City. As well as investigating murders, suicides and all cases of unattended death, they had responsibility for dealing with twenty-two legal infractions—such as kidnapping, train wrecking, rape, wife-beating, bigamy or unlawful assembly—which could end in homicide. Handling cases of that nature in jet-age Texas, there were still times when a peace officer needed as much—or even more—gun skill as had been possessed by his Old West predecessors.

  When such a situation arose, a man needed to have complete and absolute faith in his partner.

  ‘Would he be anybody I know?’ Tom inquired, in a lazy drawl which displayed nothing of his interest. He went on hopefully, ‘Dave Bulphin, down to Hogarth’s about due for promotion.’

  ‘It’s not him,’ McCall replied. ‘You’ll be teaming up with Bradford Counter.’

  ‘Never heard of him,’ Tom declared. ‘Which house’s he working out of?’

  ‘None,’ the First Deputy answered, looking and sounding like he was waiting for an explosion.

  ‘None?’ Tom repeated, for he knew there was no deputy sheriff called Bradford Counter.

  ‘None,’ McCall confirmed.

  There was silence for a moment, while Tom was digesting the information. Then a disconcerting thought came to him.

&nbs
p; ‘Lordy lord!’ the deputy ejaculated, raising his eyes to gaze at the ceiling as if in search of celestial strength and guidance. ‘So I’m getting him, huh?’

  ‘You’re getting him,’ McCall confirmed.

  ‘Some days,’ Tom said soberly, ‘it just doesn’t pay to get out of bed.’

  There had been a rumor going around the Squad room that Sheriff Jack Tragg was contemplating a new system of appointing deputies. Previously they had been selected from the ranks of the Gusher City Police Department, or had served as members of some outside law enforcement agency. If the story was correct, Jack would be taking young men fresh from college, sending them to Quantico for the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s twelve weeks training course for police officers, then bringing them straight into the Office as deputies. It was not a notion which met with the approval of the old hands. They maintained that, like themselves, every new man should have had a thorough grounding in the Patrol Bureau’s duties— if not necessarily in plain clothes work—before gaining admittance into the Office.

  However, Tom had heard some talk that the first of the ‘seven day wonders’—as some of his companions were referring to the prospective candidates—was already going through the training process. Apparently the man had just completed his time at Quantico and, from what Tom had just been told, he was going to be landed with him. After six years with Harry Bidlow—an experienced officer of the old school—as a partner, that would be one hell of an adjustment for a man to have to make.

  ‘I could name you a dozen men, fuzz [ii] and even harness-bulls, [iii] who you could bring in,’ Tom went on, when the First Deputy did not respond to his comment. ‘Men with practical experience and who know the score.’

  ‘And who show what they are,’ McCall countered. ‘You know as well as I do that by the time a man’s been through the Patrol Bureau, he thinks, looks and acts like a cop. Jack reckons a feller fresh out of college won’t look that way.’

  ‘He won’t have the experience either,’ Tom objected, although he was willing to concede that the sheriff was correct about the behavior patterns of policemen.

  Walking a beat, or riding in a radio patrol car tended to ingrain habits into an officer which could never be completely eradicated. He developed a peace officer’s way of always studying people’s faces and cultivated a useful trick of appearing to be looking one way when in reality his attention was directed elsewhere. Such behavior remained even after he had progressed to plain clothes duties. They were noticeable to other law enforcement officers—and to experienced criminals.

  ‘I’m not gainsaying it,’ McCall declared soothingly, causing Tom to glance at him in a manner redolent of suspicion. ‘Which’s why you’ve been picked from all the other volunteers. You can teach him the ropes and help him to get that experience.’

  ‘I’ve only another eighteen months before I retire ,’ Tom began dryly.

  ‘By that time, you’ll have taught him plenty,’ McCall praised, then went on in a guileless manner, ‘And, anyways, you’re usually all in favor of progressive experiments in law enforcement.’

  Realizing what the First Deputy was getting at, Tom made a wry face. Another recent innovation by the sheriff had been the cause of considerable controversy in the Squad room. While there had always been a number of women deputies, their duties were restricted to clerical work, handling communications in the various Sub-Offices, or the care of female prisoners who were being held in custody. Now one of them had been assigned to each watch, working full time in the Squad room and carrying out the same duties as the men.

  Few members of either watch [iv] had been in favor of the arrangement. While they were willing to concede that female officers could be useful in certain aspects of their work, the general consensus of opinion had been that the investigation of homicide in particular was not a suitable task for a woman. Tom had been Jack Tragg’s chief supporter on the issue and the fact that the nominee for his watch was his niece, Alice Fayde, had had nothing to do with his decision.

  Despite the various gloomy predictions, Alice and Woman Deputy Joan Hilton had proved to be assets to the Office. So, after the stand Tom had adopted on the issue, he could hardly object to taking part in a similar experiment. He could, of course, have pointed out that both of them were trained peace officers. They had worked their respective ways as members of the Bureau of Women Officers through uniformed patrol duties to service in such specialized squads as Juvenile, Traffic or Narcotics. However, he refrained from doing so. Jack Tragg would not have accepted Bradford Counter unless confident that he would be competent to carry out his duties. On top of that knowledge, Tom decided taking him in hand and turning him into an experienced practical—as opposed to a theoretical—peace officer would be a worth-while challenge.

  ‘All right,’ Tom sighed, with an attitude of reluctance which did not fool the First Deputy. ‘I’ll give it a whirl. What’s he like, anyway?’

  ‘This ought to be him now,’ McCall replied as there was a knock on the main door of the office. He raised his voice, ‘Come in.’

  The door opened, giving Tom his first view of his prospective partner.

  Studying Bradford Counter with the eye of a trained observer, Tom’s first impression was of his exceptional size. He would be at least six foot three, which was tall even in Texas, and had a tremendous spread to his shoulders. From them, he tapered down to the waist in a way that suggested his two hundred and twenty pound frame was all hard flesh, sinew and muscles. With his curly golden blond hair and tanned, almost classically handsome features, he might have been the muscle-man hero of an Italian escapist-entertainment pseudo-epic movie. It was a strong face, Tom noticed and the blue eyes looked squarely at him. The yellowish-green sports jacket, gray shirt, yellow silk cravat, gray flannel slacks and suede chukka boots looked expensive. If their excellent fit was anything to go by, the jacket and slacks had been tailored specially for him.

  Although Tom searched with practiced gaze, he failed to detect any hint of the big blond being armed. That was, Tom conceded, a point in his favor. On first going into plain-clothes work, many young officers liked to emphasize that they were still wearing a gun, even though it was now concealed. Of course, he might not be armed. Usually a man with Tom’s training and experience could detect a hidden piece no matter where it might be placed.

  Guessing who Tom must be, Brad Counter was subjecting him to an equally thorough examination. The stocky deputy would, the big blond assumed, be at least double his own twenty-one years. In all probability, he had been a peace officer before Brad was born; yet he did not appear to be old. There was an air of rugged dependability and capability about him that was most reassuring to a young man who was just starting out in the highly complex and demanding field of law enforcement. Brad liked what he saw and felt sure that, as long as he did his best, he would have a loyal and helpful friend to guide him.

  ‘Tom,’ McCall said, after allowing the two men a few seconds to make their visual and mental appraisals. ‘This’s Bradford Counter. Brad, I’d like you to meet Deputy Tom Cord. You’ll be teamed up together.’

  ‘Howdy, Tom,’ Brad greeted, extending a big right hand as he advanced and speaking with a pleasant, well educated Texas drawl.

  ‘Pleased to meet you, Brad,’ Tom replied, noticing how—for all his size—the blond moved fast and light on his feet. He would be anything but slow, clumsy or awkward from all appearances. His handshake was firm, suggesting that he was exceptionally strong without deliberately trying to prove it by crushing. Liking what he had seen and deduced, Tom went on with a grin, ‘Where’s your briefcase?’

  ‘Briefcase?’ Brad repeated. ‘I don’t follow you.’

  ‘I thought that they gave all you G-men one at graduation,’ Tom explained.

  ‘I see you’re one of the old school,’ Brad drawled, also smiling. ‘They warned us at Quantico that we’d run across some of you.’

  ‘Old school?’

  ‘Why sure. Still thinki
ng they’re living back in the old days when Great-Grandpappy Mark rode on posses with Dusty Fog.’

  ‘So you’re one of those Counters, huh?’ Tom asked and immediately wished that he had phrased the comment in a different manner.

  ‘They’re the best kind to be,’ Brad answered, showing no sign of being offended. ‘But I’ll try not to let it put me down.’

  While Mark’s great-grandfather had been a noted gunfighter, cowhand and peace officer during the two decades following the end of the War Between the States, the discovery of oil on a ranch which he had owned in his later years had helped to make the Counter family one of the richest in Texas. [v]

  ‘What’re you figuring on doing today, Tom?’ McCall put in, before the deputy could think of a tactful way in which to ask Brad why he had decided to become a peace officer instead of going into one of his family’s various business enterprises.

  ‘I reckon I’d best show Brad around,’ Tom replied, taking the hint that they had spent enough time in the Watch Commander’s Office. ‘If there’s nothing more you’re wanting us for, we’ll go and make a start at it.’

  ‘Go to it,’ the First Deputy authorized. ‘Good luck, Brad. Tom’ll see you right on anything you want to know.’

  Going through the connecting door after Tom, Brad was conscious of the curious glances being directed at him from various parts of the Squad room. The other members of the Day Watch had arrived and were probably wondering who he might be. Or, if they guessed, were most likely trying to form an assessment of him.

  Clad in a variety of civilian clothing styles, except for two who were in uniform, the male deputies to whom Tom introduced his new partner formed a racial cross-section of Gusher City’s population. They were an Irishman, a Chinese, a full-blooded Kiowa Indian, a Mexican, a Swede and a Negro. All six of them acted in an amiable and friendly fashion, but Brad sensed a hint of reserve in their greetings. He could understand their feelings and knew that he would have to prove himself worthy before they would afford him complete acceptance within their ranks.