“Good morning,” Big Al said, putting an envelope on the table across from him.
Clint pulled out a chair and sat down in front of the envelope.
“I thought cash would be appropriate,” Big Al said.
“Cash is fine.”
A waiter came and poured some coffee for Clint.
“Thank you.”
“Will you be ordering, sir?”
“Sure,” Clint said. “Steak and eggs.”
“Comin’ up, sir.”
“I have to thank you, Mr. Adams,” Big Al said. “That boy, Andy? He exonerated my boy, implicated the woman and man you killed . . . and Daniel Thayer.”
“That’s good.”
“The sheriff dropped the charges against my boy.”
“How does the judge feel about that?” Clint asked.
“Not good,” Henry said. “In fact, he’s livid. But at least he wasn’t caught prosecuting an innocent man.”
“He can send me his thanks to General Delivery, Labyrinth, Texas.”
“I’ll tell him,” Henry said. “When are you leaving town?”
“Right after breakfast.”
“Say good-bye to everybody you had to say good-bye to?”
“No,” he said. He still hadn’t seen Letty. He suspected she had come to his room while he was with Mary, and heard them. Maybe she even knocked, and he hadn’t heard. At least she hadn’t seemed to tell her uncle what had transpired between them.
As for Mary Choate, she was very grateful that he had not killed her son. But then, he had also put Andy in jail, so there was no good-bye there.
“Are you interested in what happened with Beth Collins?” Henry asked.
“Huh? What happened?”
“I bought her father’s store,” he said. “Gave her a good price.”
“That’s nice.”
“I’m going to let Jason run it.”
“Is that wise?”
“I’ll also have somebody experienced in there with him, to show him the ropes,” Big Al said. “He’ll be fine.”
“I hope so.”
“Where do you go from here?”
“I don’t know, actually,” Clint said. “I’m just going to ride. Try to stay out of trouble.”
“I imagine that’s hard for you.”
Clint looked up at the waiter as he set his breakfast down in front of him and said, “You have no idea.”
Watch for
SHOWDOWN IN DESPERATION
391st novel in the exciting GUNSMITH series from Jove
Coming in July!
Copper Canyon Killers Page 14