“I won’t,” she said. “Mr. Farmer heard I plan to open several, um, business establishments in Glory and Silver Creek. He has an advertising scheme worked out and wants me to contract with him for it. Discreet newspaper ads, contract printing for handbills, things like that. I don’t know the details yet, of course. We hadn’t gone that far. He seems to think he can offer me bargain rates in exchange for a long-term contract commitment. Naturally I need to see some details before I can even consider his proposals.”
She looked up from her menu card and frowned slightly. “Odd how he left like that, isn’t it? And he had seemed so anxious to talk to me. Oh, well.”
“Why would you think about advertising here or passing circulars out in Snowshoe anyway?”
“Why, I wouldn’t. Naturally not. There would be no point in it,” Leah said.
“I’m confused.”
“Mr. Farmer is going to be operating the newspapers in all the towns served by the Silver Creek, Tipson, and Glory Rail Road. Some sort of monopoly arrangement he worked out with Edgar Monroe.”
“Pardon? I mean, who is Edgar Monroe and what does he have t’ do with anything?”
“I’m sure you remember Mr. Monroe, Longarm. You got into a fistfight with him in defense of my honor.” She winked. “That was back when you still thought I might have some honor, if you recall.”
Monroe, then, would be the railroad boss who had ridden from Silver Creek to Glory with them a few days earlier. Yeah, Longarm remembered the man, all right. “You say the newspaperman from here worked out an arrangement with Monroe about running papers down in those other towns too?”
“Not in addition to the Snowshoe newspaper, I shouldn’t think,” Leah corrected. “After all, both those gentlemen assured me that Snowshoe is on the decline. They expect it to disappear altogether within the year.”
“They do?”
“Oh, yes. Didn’t I tell you all of this before?”
“Yeah, I guess you did. Farmer, though ...”
“Is something wrong, Longarm? You look so serious.” He shook his head and tried to force a smile. He suspected it turned out to be a pretty weak one, but he gave it his best shot. “Just thinking. That’s all.”
Leah shrugged again, obviously not much giving a damn who did business or where it was done just so long as she could manage her own affairs in peace.
A waiter came and they ordered breakfast—Longarm was able to resist Leah’s suggestion about the fish eggs— and idly chatted about the changes taking place in Denver while they waited for the meal. It turned out that they had several acquaintances in common both there and in Kansas. Leah was a woman of wide travels and great conviviality. She was very careful, though. No one she mentioned by name could possibly have been hurt by the acquaintance. Longarm suspected there were many others who enjoyed the lady’s friendship but whose names would remain in confidence with her.
The talk diminished while they ate, then resumed once the plates had been exchanged for final cups of fresh coffee. Longarm leaned back and lighted a cheroot. This wasn’t a bad way to start one’s day, he figured.
“Miss Leah?”
Longarm turned his head to see a wildly grinning Parson George rush into the dining room.
“Miss Leah, is it really you?”
Leah jumped up and gave Parson a hug as the big, ugly night stalker reached her. She looked to be just as happy as Parson was about this meeting, and from what Longarm could gather from their conversation, they were friends of very long standing.
“Haven’t seen you since ... but did you hear about... someone told me that she . .. five years, but he’ll be out in two ... no, but I was told that she ...”
Longarm smiled and crossed his legs. He leaned back and drank some coffee. Parson and Leah would get around to remembering him eventually.
The explanations came when they did. Parson and Leah went as far back as Leah’s first shyly hesitant, frightened forays into “the life,” as they called it. It was the woman called Sally who’d “turned out” Leah. Parson had been working for Sally even then. He had befriended the beautiful but scared young girl, and was her protector as well as her friend for as long as Leah remained with Sally. Now Leah was especially
pleased to discover that Parson and Longarm were already friends too.
“But, darling, I can’t wait to see her again. You will take me, won’t you, dear? At once?”
“Quick as I do what she sent me here for,” Parson agreed.
“Then hurry up with it, whatever it is. I can’t wait to see Sal again, darling. You will excuse us, won’t you, Longarm?”
“Of course I will, Leah. I got work t’ do.”
“More of it than you might think today, Longarm,” Parson put in. ‘That’s what Miz Sally sent me here about. T’ find you, Longarm.”
“Oh?”
He grinned. “One of the boys guarding your Indians couldn’t stand it no more. He got homy and snuck into town last night. Miz Sally says I should tell you that the Indians are being held at the old Crane mine. Wherever that is. She had some miner fella draw up a map for you.” Parson produced a crudely sketched map and gave it to Longarm. “Is there anything else you need from me, Longarm?”
“Just to see you and Leah enjoy this chance meeting. And thanks, Parson. Please tell the lady that I appreciate all she’s done to help.”
“I’ll do that, Longarm.” He said it over his shoulder. He and Leah were already on their way out.
Longarm stubbed his cheroot out in an empty butter dish and reached for his hat. Now that he knew where the Utes were he could get this business finished.
“Sir?” a voice called from behind him before he had gotten three steps in the direction of the door.
‘The bill for the breakfasts, sir?”
Longarm chuckled. A little while ago Leah had made a big point of saying how well she was doing and that he was to eat hearty because this was gonna be her treat. Steak, caviar, roe, champagne cocktails with breakfast, anything he wanted. It seemed the distraction of seeing Parson and
finding out that Sally was in town had taken that right out of mind. Not that he was complaining.
“Put it on my hotel bill,” Longarm told the waiter. Hell, let the government pay for it. The cost was worth it if it helped him find those Utes. Making that claim was only stretching things a little way. “And add something for yourself too.”
“Thank you, sir.”
Longarm’s stride lengthened once he reached the door. He was debating with himself over whether he should tell Lawyer Able about this or wait so he could go to the mine alone and not have to argue about that. He didn’t want to drag Aggie into a gun fight. Better, he decided, to wait. He turned toward the livery stable instead of heading for the house where Aggie was staying.
As armed camps go, this one was kinda pathetic.
Longarm sat on the hillside behind a scrub oak and smoked a cheroot while he looked the situation over.
There were supposed to be four guards at the mine. He could see two. One of those had taken a chair and folding table over to the gate and was playing a card game with an Indian. The other guard looked more asleep than not, although he did have a carbine laid across his lap. That obviously qualified him as a guard.