Edge: Slaughter Road (Edge series Book 22)
Page 14
The conductor could no longer pretend that he was detached from what was happening. He stared in amazement at the aroused woman.
‘What the hell, Edge?’ Spade demanded.
‘We were riding herd on a decoy, feller,’ the half-breed answered, and began to move the freight around.
‘Hey, mister!’ the conductor yelled, starting to rise.
‘Stay down and quiet,’ Edge warned, and continued moving crates and cartons as the conductor obeyed him. ‘Should have figured it in Oakland. The way Grover wasn’t concerned the way the picture got screwed up and shoved down some guy’s pants.’
‘When did you figure it?’ Spade gasped.
The half-breed located a wooden crate that was the right dimensions to contain the da Vinci painting, still in its frame.
‘That’s it!’ Grover cried, curtailing his laughter and sobering up with an anxious frown replacing the former glee. ‘Take care.’
‘When I saw him and his bitch of a wife in here instead of up front with the rest of the well-heeled passengers.’
‘He insulted me, Drew!’ Madeline shrieked.
‘Figure they don’t know you and the picture are aboard?’ Edge snarled at Grover, who was waving aside his wife’s distress. ‘Or they wouldn’t be. Some of them might even have taken the train we were on.’
‘It was a copy?’ Spade explained, his confusion suddenly swept aside.
‘Toss me that gun, feller.’
There was a Remington on the conductor’s desk. The rail man hesitated as he started to quake.
‘Do like he says, damn it!’ Spade snarled, and made to move towards the desk.
The conductor snatched up the gun and hurled it towards the half-breed, who caught it one handed.
‘What are you going to do?’ Grover barked.
‘Take a close up look at it, feller. Call it curiosity.’
First with the gun’s foresight, then the barrel, he began to prise open the crate.
Grover’s fear-filled eyes swept from Edge to Spade and back again. ‘It was a fine plan! What happened proved it was a fine plan! A legitimate one and a necessary one! If I hadn’t used it, Yancy would have the genuine da Vinci now! The moment I knew it was up for sale I had a copy made! I knew I was going to buy it and I knew a lot of people would resent me having it! Goddamnit, I had every right to protect my property! And you’re being well paid!’ He tried to grin, but it was lop-sided and sick looking. ‘And you’ll get what I promised. Because the genuine da Vinci hasn’t been stolen!’
Edge had pulled off the front of the crate so that the painting, still in the gilt frame, could be seen.
‘He called me a bitch, Drew!’ Madeline shrieked.
‘I got a lot worse names for your kind, lady,’ Edge rasped at her. ‘The kind that has her husband set up fellers to be killed so she can get a thrill out of watching them die.’
‘Pearce and Fisk were part of the job, Edge,’ Grover snapped. ‘I’ve got concrete proof Yancy paid them to try to find out my plan.’
‘You bastard, Grover!’ Spade snarled. ‘Why the hell didn’t you tell us? Why let us go—’
‘Because I chose not to, Goddamnit!’ Spittle ran down his jaw as his rage moved towards its high point. ‘And what’s the Goddamn difference? I already told you you’ll get paid the full—’
‘What about Marlow and Archer?’ Spade cut in, his anger hotter than the other man’s. ‘What about Hammer and Shayne? What about a couple of kids who lost parents who had nothin’ to do with the lousy picture?’ He pointed a shaking hand at Edge. ‘If we’d known the truth we’d have handled things different. All those people would still have been alive. Christ, Edge. If I had that gun in my hand right now, I’d blast the bastard to hell.’
‘Here,’ Edge said softly into the brief vocal silence that filled the car after the detective’s outburst.
He tossed the revolver and Spade caught it instinctively. Then, as the Grovers cowered back in their chairs, he stared down at the Remington in horror.
The half-breed nodded. ‘Cold blood ain’t your scene, feller.’
Spade swallowed hard, and his voice was suddenly as soft as Edge’s. ‘But you’re not that squeamish?’ Scorn showed in his eyes, but his tone did not change. ‘Or are you gonna let all those useless killin’s go by the board?’
‘That kid out on the other train called me a gunslinger.’ He was looking at the da Vinci painting as he spoke. ‘I ain’t that, because I don’t hire out my gun to kill people. Like the balance of my thousand bucks now, Mr. Grover.’
‘It’s a long way to New Orleans,’ the millionaire countered.
‘Give it to him, Drew,’ his wife urged. ‘Look at his eyes. He’ll kill you if you don’t.’
Grover stared into the impassive face of the half-breed. The only parts of the eyes to be seen were pencil-thin lines of bright, glinting blue. But Grover read in these the same message his wife had got. He delved into his hip pocket, pulled out a fat billfold and tossed it to Edge. The half-breed caught it and began to slide bills out of it.
‘Obliged,’ he said, transferring nine hundred dollars to his shirt pocket before tossing the billfold back. It landed in Grover’s lap and the man did not touch it. ‘Killings out at the train go by the board. Could’ve been more or less. Who’s to say?’
‘Only way to look at it,’ Grover acknowledged, beginning to show signs of relief.
Spade made a sound of disgust.
‘Money’ll be a consolation if I lose any sleep over them, maybe.’ His brief, sardonic grin held something that could have been self-contempt. Then his expression was utterly cold again. ‘But Pearce and Fisk. They were gunslinger kills, Grover.’
‘Drew!’ Madeline cried.
Spade became avidly interested again.
‘You set them up, Grover,’ Edge continued, and Spade became visibly excited as he saw the razor drawn from the pouch. But the half-breed did not move away from the painting in the open crate. ‘Usually, I’d kill a man who tricked me into something like that.’
‘Usually?’ Grover asked hoarsely.
‘Make an exception in your case, feller. Even better for the way I feel. Even worse for you, maybe. On account you’ll suffer longer.’
‘He’s gonna kill me, Drew!’ Madeline shrieked.
‘You’d be no loss, lady,’ Edge told her evenly. Then slashed at the painting.
‘No!’ Grover roared.
‘You’re crazy!’ Spade snarled.
‘Oh, my God!’ the conductor gasped.
Madeline merely sighed.
Edge kept on slashing, a stroke of finely honed steel through beautifully painted canvas for every word that was spoken by three men too shocked by the vandalism to move. When he finally stopped, the painting was in unrepairable ribbons.
‘It’s a loss to the whole world,’ the conductor croaked.
‘The whole world didn’t know they had it, feller,’ Edge answered, sliding the razor back into the pouch.
‘But it was a beautiful work of art, Edge,’ Spade rasped, following the half-breed with shocked eyes.
Madeline had her eyes tightly closed, still enjoying the sweet relief of being alive. Her husband stared at the destroyed painting in a shock-induced trance.
Edge went to the side door of the baggage car and eased it open a crack, relishing the draught of cold air on his face. He dug a hand into his shirt pocket and pulled out the sheaf of bills, holding them above his shoulder for the conductor and Spade to see.
‘It was currency,’ he said. ‘The same as this. But this is better. Easier to spend when a man’s hungry or thirsty.’
‘You’re a friggin’ philistine, Edge!’ Spade accused vehemently. ‘Puttin’ a higher value on mere money than on great art.’
Edge directed a cold grin towards the barren landscape flashing past the cracked open door. ‘Like most people in my line of work?’
‘Who’d expect anythin’ else?’ Spade countered sourly. ‘From a gun for
hire if the terms are right!’
‘I’m that sometimes,’ Edge allowed, glancing over his shoulder at the slashed painting. ‘It’s only a rough cut … but right now you could say I was in the moving picture business.’
Other titles in the EDGE series from Lobo Publications
#1 The Loner
#2 Ten Grand
#3 Apache Death
#4 Killer’s Breed
#5 Blood On Silver
#6 The Blue, The Grey And The Red
#7 California Kill
#8 Seven Out Of Hell
#9 Bloody Summer
#10 Vengeance Is Black
#11 Sioux Uprising
#12 The Biggest Bounty
#13 A Town Called Hate
#14 Blood Run
#15 The Big Gold
#16 The Final Shot
#17 The Final Shot
#18 Ten Tombstones To Texas
#19 Ashes and Dust
#20 Sullivan’s Law
#21 Rhapsody in Red
#22 Slaughter Road
#23 Echoes of War
And More to Come…