Longarm said dryly, “Naturally you saw the sense in going along with that.”
Bodenheimer said, a whine in his voice, “I couldn’t fight all of ‘em, could I?”
Longarm gave a disgusted snort, but Austin Davis patted Bodenheimer on the back and said, “Marshal, let him get it out. Be good for him. This man has had a hard row to hoe. Go light on him.”
Longarm looked up at the sky and shook his head, but didn’t speak other than to tell Bodenheimer to get on with it.
Davis said, “Now when was this, Otis?”
Bodenheimer shrugged. “Little over two year ago. The mayor said the way it was going to work was they’d bring in some pretty tough boys to do the actual work, but they’d get some Mason County boys as part of it so the home folks would feel like they was a part of the doings and wouldn’t kick up no sand.”
Longarm said, “Who was going to bring in the professionals?”
“That would have been Mister Diver’s doin’ on account he knowed some.”
“Who is Vince Diver?”
The sheriff hesitated for a second, and then looked down at the ground and shook his head. “I don’t know. Never heered the name.”
“Then what were the names of some of the toughs they brought in?”
Again the sheriff shook his head and studied the ground. “I don’t know. They thought it best if I wasn’t on to the name of nobody.”
Longarm made a disgusted sound. “Oh, bullshit! How was you supposed to know who to leave alone if you didn’t know who they were?”
Bodenheimer looked up. “They just said to leave everybody alone. Just go on like I had been.”
“Which hadn’t been much to begin with.” Longarm stared at the man a moment more. Finally he said, “What about the Mason County boys? Who are they?”
The sheriff shrugged. “Nobody much. Just ne’er-do-wells that mostly hung around town and played cards and drank whiskey. The Goustwhite brothers, Amos and Emit. Then there was Ernie Abshier and Lester Gaskamp, though it be hard to say if Lester was a Mason boy or not. His folks had moved away a long time ago. Then there was Bolton Surges and Tom Wilton. Wilton got kilt. And I think Surges didn’t care for the business. But none of them amounted to a hill of beans. They was all in the back and never took no hand in the planning of matters.”
“What about Wayne Shaker? He is supposed to be a Mason boy as well as the leader of the bunch.”
The sheriff shook his head. “I’ve heered the name, but I’ve never clapped eyes on the man.”
“What’s the banker’s name?”
“That would be Mister Crouch, Mister Ernest Crouch. He’s the president of the bank, the Mason State Bank.”
“What in the hell is a banker doing mixed up in this?”
Bodenheimer looked up surprised. “Why, how else would we spread the money around so it would do ever’body some good? Folks go to the bank an’ Mister Crouch, he loans ‘em money against hard times, like we been havin’ lately. Or he loans some to the city and the mayor sees it gets spread around. You see how it works? Makes it good for ever’body. That’s plain as paint.”
Longarm said, “How about the folks in the other towns where the robberies took place? Does it make it good for them?”
Bodenheimer frowned. “Well, that would be their lookout, wouldn’t it.”
“Yeah. And mine. What did you get out of this, Otis? I’m about to figure out who the big winners were, but what about you?”
Bodenheimer shrugged. “They let me keep my job. An’ the mayor let me put two of my kinfolk to work.”
“That all?”
Bodenheimer looked uneasy. “Well, they did gimme a twenty-five-dollar-a-month rise in my salary. An’ they started furnishin’ me an’ my two deputies with horses.”
Austin Davis laughed. “I bet that wasn’t no hardship—the horses, I mean. Probably had more stolen stock than they knew what to do with.”
Longarm said to Bodenheimer, “One thing I ain’t exactly clear on. The money went to the bank, to Mister Ernest Crouch. But I don’t believe that he talked a bunch of hard men into giving him the proceeds from their robberies. Most robbers are stupid, but I can’t believe anybody is that stupid.”
Bodenheimer looked startled. “Oh, no, Marshal. Them robbers taken their cut. Land-a-mercy, naturally they did. What the mayor and the banker done was to charge them for hidin’ out in Mason County. Sort of a fee or a rent. Don’t you see?”
“How much was it?”
Bodenheimer shook his head. “Now that I don’t be knowing.”
Austin Davis said, “Otis, one thing as has puzzled me is where the Diver girls come into this business. They kept marrying into the gang, but the marriages never come to nothing. What was that all about?”
Bodenheimer shook his head again. “I couldn’t tell you that, Marshal Smith. That was ol’ Dalton Diver’s work. Didn’t have nothin’ to do with our arrangement. I’d reckon that was just his way of making a little something on the side. We all thought it was pretty fine because it took more of the money out of the actual robbers’ hands and kept it here.”
“What do you know about a Mister Summers drowning?” Longarm asked. “About two or three months ago? That was handy as hell for Dalton Diver and his daughter Hannah.”
The sheriff was defensive. “Now I don’t know nothin’ ‘bout that and I don’t want to know. I tol’ my deputies to steer clear of the business and that is a fact. What they wanted to do amongst themselves was no affair of our’n.”
Longarm thought for a moment, and then he glanced at Austin Davis.
Davis just made a shrugging motion as if that was all as far as he was concerned. Longarm said, “All right, Bodenheimer, get off your horse.”
Chapter 8
The sheriff stood there uncertainly, looking as if he were waiting for further instructions. None came. Austin Davis rode over, gathered up the reins of Bodenheimer’s horse, and turned back toward town. Longarm wheeled his mount and started off in company with Austin Davis. The sheriff watched them dumbly for a few seconds, and then he said loudly, “Wait a minute! Wait a minute! What are you doing?”
Longarm was about ten yards away. He turned in his saddle and looked back at the fat man wearing manacles. He said, “Why, what you asked, Otis. I’m seeing you safe out of Mason. You’re out of Mason and you’re safe. What else you want?”
Bodenheimer had a stricken look on his face. “But you can’t leave me afoot out here like this! Somebody will come along and kill me. I can’t walk in these boots, and you still got me chained!”
Austin Davis said, “There is just no pleasing some people. Hell, Marshal, it doesn’t appear that Otis is grateful to you for his freedom.”
Bodenheimer said, “You can’t leave me afoot!”
Longarm said, “Bodenheimer, you the same as told me the horse you are riding is stolen. As a law officer I can’t let you ride off on a stolen horse.”
“But you promised you’d see me safe. Didn’t he, Marshal Smith?”
Longarm turned and looked at Austin Davis. “Did I promise that, Marshal Smith?”
Austin Davis did not even have the good grace to look ashamed. He said, “Well, maybe in a way you did. But he looks pretty safe right now. And he is free and he is out of Mason.”
Bodenheimer’s voice rose in a kind of wail. “I meant see me safe someplace else than Mason County. Hell, I ain’t even out of the county! I meant see me safe someplace I can stay! I can’t stay on this road.”
Longarm turned his horse around so he was facing the sheriff. “Listen, Bodenheimer, what am I supposed to do with you? I ain’t got time to carry you to a place where you can be safe. I don’t know what safe is for you. I told you earlier that you might want to go to prison, might ask to go to Kansas. Is that what you want? Because that is about the only safety I can offer you.”