“Can you think of a loose end you might could get hold of and we could pull and unravel the whole thing?”
Longarm shook his head. “Right now I ain’t got an idea. But you wasn’t the only one had a little excitement this morning.” He shoved his hand in his pocket and came out with the money and the checks he’d taken off Gus Home. He piled it all on top of the table with what Davis had brought.
Davis’s mouth dropped open. “Where in hell did you get that?”
“Just about the same place you did.” In a few words he described what had happened on his way to Hannah’s. He finished and said, “I guess we know who two members of that gang were. Too bad they are dead and can’t tell us who else was with them.”
Davis whistled slowly. “I’d say we come off on the lucky end. If your man don’t tie his horse so close that your horse shies, then odds are he don’t hit your saddlehorn, but a big piece of you. And if ol’ Amos hadn’t felt the need to tell me why he was fixing to blow me to smithereens, I would have been blown to smithereens. Hell, Longarm, I think we are in the kingdom of the bushwhackers.”
Longarm said, “I believe that was my advice to you before you set out to court Rebeccah.” He picked at the money and checks. “Must be nearly a thousand dollars here.”
“What are you going to do with it?”
“Take it out to the auction barn and give it to Ownsby. It’s his money.
By the way, how did you get on with Rebeccah?”
Austin Davis slumped back in his chair and looked up at the ceiling.
“That was something I meant to mention. Marshal, we was going great guns there at first. She was giving me every signal a woman can give a man. And say, she ain’t bad-looking at all. I damn shore wouldn’t throw rocks at her.”
“You get a hand on her?”
“Near about. We was both sitting on the same divan and she had a leg up so I could see some thigh. But then…” Austin Davis slapped his thigh.
“Then I taken it into my head, heavens knows why, to bring up Vince Diver. I said I’d known him down along the border and in other places and the name was unusual, and I wondered if they might be kin.”
“What happened?”
Davis slapped the top of the table with the flat of his hand. “Nothing happened, that’s what. I might as well have shoved a chunk of ice up her glory hole. The minute I mentioned that name the fun was over. She done everything but ask me to leave.”
Longarm mulled it over a moment. “You must have struck a nerve. But you are still going to have to go back out there and work your way back in.”
“How?”
Longarm got up. “I don’t know right now. But time is a-wasting and I want you to get a look at this Gus Home I shot. See if you’ve ever come across him in your travels.”
As they walked from the hotel to the undertaker’s, Longarm said, “Austin, you can’t tell anybody that you killed Amos Goustwhite.”
Davis looked at him. “Why not?”
“Because he is part of the town. He’s got kin here. Like you said, this may be the kingdom of the bushwhackers. These people are pretty close-knit. No, that’s one you can’t claim.”
“But what if there is paper out on him?”
Longarm gave him a disgusted look. “Hell, he’s a town rowdy. Ain’t no paper out on him. He’s a homegrown outlaw. You figure Bodenheimer has put out wanted notices on him? Hell, besides, you’re making three dollars a day. What do you want?”
“Then who is supposed to have killed him?”
“I reckon me.”
Davis stopped. They were in front of a dry goods store. “And I suppose you can’t be bushwhacked.”
“Folks think a minute or two more about back-shooting a federal marshal than they do a tinhorn gambler.”
“Tinhorn—hey, wait just a damn minute.”
But Longarm was walking on. By the time Austin Davis had caught up they were turning into the undertaking parlor. Hatcher, the undertaker, came bustling forward to meet them. He was a short, balding man in a shabby suit who looked glad for the business. He said, “Yessir, Marshal. Can I he’p you?”
“We need to have another look at that body. Gus Home.”
“Yessir, yessir. If you’ll just step right this way. By the way, Marshal, the photographer has been in and the picture was taken just as you asked.”
Davis said, “For your scrapbook, Marshal?”
Longarm gave him a sour look. “I can’t believe somebody ain’t killed you before now, Davis. Now take a look at Gus Home here and see if you know him.”
Chapter 6
Austin Davis looked down at the dead face. He said, “Hell, this here is Gus White.”
“You sure?” The name matched the initials G.W.
“Hell, yes. I’ve knowed him in different places down along the border for the last three or four years. Say he was calling himself Home, Gus Home?”
“Yeah.”
Davis shrugged. “That might have been his right name, but I knew him as Gus White. Course some of them fellers changed their names ‘bout as often as they changed their shirts. Last I heard of him he was doing a little time in the state prison in Huntsville.”
Longarm stared at the face, calculating. “What did he get up to?”
Davis said, “You understand I never knowed him all that well except to see around the saloon or run up against in a poker game. But he got up to what Most Of them did. Robbery, cattle rustling, dealing in stolen cattle, smuggling a little gold. Might have been in a shooting scrape or two, I couldn’t say. I wonder what in hell brought him here.”
Longarm said, “Yeah, me too.” He turned to the undertaker. “Well, much obliged, Mister Hatcher. You can plant him anytime you’re of a mind.”
He took Austin Davis by the shoulder and steered him to the door and out onto the street. Davis said, “What the hell’s the hurry?”
“I didn’t want you saying anything about Goustwhite. I don’t think we’ll be bringing him in.”
Austin Davis looked at him. “What is going on now?”
Longarm frowned. “Say you was going into a business and you didn’t know much about how to run it. What would you do?”
Davis thought a moment. “Well, I reckon I’d fetch me in somebody who did. Bring in some outside help. Why?”
Longarm said slowly, “That’s what I been kind of thinking. I reckon somebody here decided to start a new business, but didn’t figure he had the know-how for it. So he sent for outside help. Like Gus Home. Or White, or whatever his name was. There’s been several others killed. Near as I can find out, they ain’t boys from this town or this county.”
He stopped and stared across the street at the courthouse. “Austin, we may have just run across the damnedest operation I ever had a hand in.”
Then he turned abruptly to Davis. “Listen, I don’t want the home folks to know Goustwhite has been killed. Hell, I don’t know how deep this thing goes. Might be everybody in town is part of it. You ride back out there and hide that body. Roll it into a ravine or something. Stuff it up in a thicket, but get it well hid. Ground up there is too hard to dig a hole.”
“What about his horse?”
“Take the bridle and saddle off and turn him loose. You might see which way he heads if he takes it into his head to home.”
“And Rebeccah?”
“Go on back there. Get in on some excuse. Tell her you lost your wallet. And don’t mention Vince Diver again. Hell, you claim to be a hand with the ladies. Well, prove it. And for heaven’s sake, don’t let nobody know you killed Goustwhite. That could be fatal.”
“Where you going?”
Longarm sighed. “I’m going out to visit Miss Hannah. And you can believe it or not, but I ain’t looking forward to it. And she is as pretty a piece of quail as I’ve laid my eyes on in some time.”
“What about that money and them checks?”