Virgil came back and sat, on the aisle, with his right hand free, where he could look at the door at the front of the car. I sat opposite, with the eight-gauge beside me, where I could look at the back door, same as we always did. We didn’t speak of it, we did it automatically, the way we always spread apart approaching a fight or entering a strange place. We’d been doing what we did for so long that sometimes we seemed to me like two parts of the same apparatus.
As the train came in close to the river, I could feel it begin to slow, and about a half-mile into the straightaway, it braked and came to a sort of muttering halt the way trains do. We stood and got off the train. Pony was there, with four saddle horses. The horses were grazing comfortably on tether. We walked to the horses, and the train started up and moved south with slowly increasing speed.
We got the women mounted without saying anything.
“You know how you’re going to get them into Frisco’s room,” Virgil said.
Pony nodded.
“Know all parts of Pike’s Palace,” Pony said.
“Including the whores’ quarters,” Virgil said.
“Them ’specially, jefe,” he said.
“You got the gun I gave you,” Virgil said to Allie.
“In my bag,” she said.
“And bullets,” Virgil said.
Allie nodded and patted the carpetbag that hung on her saddle horn.
“And you’ll stay in there and be quiet no matter what,” Virgil said.
“Yes.”
Pony pulled his horse up next to Laurel. He took a .45 derringer out of his coat pocket, broke it open. Took out the two bullets, closed it again.
“Chiquita,” Pony said.
He held the gun out and cocked it.
“Click,” Pony said.
He pulled the trigger.
“Bang,” he said.
He cocked it again and pulled the trigger again.
“Click,” he said. “Bang.”
Laurel nodded.
“Do that?” Pony said, and handed her the gun.
She cocked it.
Pony nodded and said, “Click.”
She pulled the trigger.
Pony said, “Bang.”
She nodded and dry-fired it again. Then she gave the gun back to Pony. He loaded it.
“Now,” Pony said. “Click-bang only when you mean it.”
He pointed to the middle of his body.
“Shoot here,” he said.
Laurel nodded.
“Shoot only to protect yourself,” I said.
She nodded and put the gun in her coat pocket.
Virgil said, “You get them settled, Pony.”
“Sí.”
“Nobody sees them.”
“Sí.”
“We’ll be along in the afternoon. We see you in the saloon, we know it’s all gone right.”
Pony nodded and turned his horse and rode a little way toward town, and paused and waited for the women.
Allie paused and looked at Virgil.
“I love you,” she said.
Virgil nodded.
Laurel pulled her horse close to him and bent down from the saddle and whispered to him.
He nodded.
“Me ’n Everett been doing this most of our lives,” Virgil said. “We know how.”
We all sat silently for a moment.
“You come back to us,” Allie said.
“We will,” Virgil said.
Then he pointed toward Pony and gave Allie’s horse a slap on the flank. The horse moved forward and Laurel’s followed, and they rode away from us, toward town.
67
VIRGIL AND I SAT ON the riverbank and waited for Pony to do what he needed to.
“I don’t know if we’re really smart or really dumb,” I said, “hiding the women upstairs at Pike’s.”
“Nobody goes up there but whores and customers,” Virgil said. “Pony told me employees ain’t allowed.”
“Pike sure as hell wouldn’t look for them there.”
“No,” Virgil said.
A fish splashed in the river and left a series of concentric ripples. Bass probably, snapping up a dragonfly.
“Why is it exactly that we’re going to kill him?” I said.
“That what we going to do?” Virgil said.
“ ’Course it is,” I said. “ ’ Less he kills us.”
“Just want to talk with Pike,” Virgil said.
“Horseshit,” I said. “You took his money and double-crossed him, and now you’re gonna go and shove it in his face. You know he is gonna have to pull on you.”
Virgil smiled.
“I do,” Virgil said.
“Maybe what we doing ain’t quite exactly law-officer business anyway,” I said.
“Must be,” Virgil said. “We’re law officers.”
“Some folks might say we should have stepped in between Percival and Pike,” I said.
“You miss Percival?”
“Nope.”
“He was a fraud,” Virgil said. “He was in cahoots with Pike to drive out all of Pike’s competition. He messed with Laurel. He messed with Allie. He give Allie to Pike.”
“At least that’s how she saw it,” I said.
Virgil looked at me for a time.
“Allie is Allie,” he said. “You gonna miss Pike?”
“Might have saved a lot of trouble if he’d told us all he knew ’bout Buffalo Calf,” I said.
“Might have,” Virgil said.
“So, is it tactics?” I said. “Let the vermin fight to the death and then pick off the winner?”
“Sure,” Virgil said.
“Or is it personal?” I said. “ ’Cause of Laurel and Allie . . . maybe Mary Beth?”
“Sure,” Virgil said.
“So you’re feeling all right ’bout this business,” I said.
“We not gonna back-shoot anybody,” Virgil said. “We risk our lives to do what we think, the right thing to do. Somebody told me once that was pretty much all you could ask for.”
“Who was that?” I said.
“A smart fella,” Virgil said, and sipped some coffee. “Went to West Point.”
“Oh,” I said. “Him.”
The resident bass, or whatever it was, jumped for another dragonfly, or whatever it was, and left the circles of his jump on the surface of the water. We both watched the ripples as they widened slowly out until they disappeared against the riverbank.
“When we’re finished with Pike,” I said, “what you gonna do with Allie?”
“Gonna keep her,” Virgil said.
“You think she’s changed?” I said.
“I think she has,” Virgil said.
I didn’t say anything.
“You think she has?” Virgil said.
“Don’t know,” I said.
“It’s the girl,” Virgil said. “I see her with the girl and I see a different Allie.”
“Maybe,” I said.
“People change,” Virgil said.
“Not a lot of them,” I said.
Virgil was silent for a moment.
Then he said, “No, not a lot of them.
“Somebody got to take care of Laurel,” Virgil said.
“That would be Allie,” I said.
“That would be Allie,” Virgil said.
“Guess the question’s settled for the moment,” I said.
“I guess,” Virgil said.
68
VIRGIL AND I WALKED UP Arrow Street toward Pike’s Palace in the early afternoon. The day was bright. There was a pleasant breeze off the river. Virgil was wearing his Colt and carrying a Winchester in his left hand. I had my Colt and the eight-gauge.
“You got a plan?” I said.
“I do,” Virgil said. “I figure we’ll walk into Pike’s and see what happens.”
“That’s a plan?” I said.
“Sure,” Virgil said.
“Walk in cold against twenty-five men?” I said.
“We get Pike early, there won’t be twenty-five. They’ll fade like a spring blossom. Probably won’t be that many in there this hour of the day, anyway.”
I paused in front of a sign nailed to one of the overhang supports on the boardwalk in front of a hardware shop.
“No guns to be carried in Brimstone without permission,” the sign read. It was signed “Chauncey Brown, Town Marshal.”
“Chauncey Brown?” I said.
“That’d be Choctaw,” Virgil said.
“So quick,” I said.
“Pike’s like me,” Virgil said. “Needs to be done, may as well get to it.”
We arrived in front of Pike’s Palace. There was another one of Choctaw’s signs outside the door. We stood for a minute. I cocked the eight-gauge.
Then I said, “Here we go.”
Virgil winked at me, and we went in. I went to the corner to the right of the door where I could see the whole room. Virgil went past me and walked around the bar so he was away from me.
“Afternoon,” Virgil said to the bartender. “Could you tell Pike that Virgil Cole would like to see him.”
The bartender jerked his head up when Virgil spoke, and stared at him.
Then he said, “Yes sir,” and walked fast toward the back of the room. Across the room I could see Pony Flores having a meal alone at a table. When he saw us he stood and leaned against the wall. No one paid any attention. Nothing happened for a while. Then Abner came out of the back of the saloon carrying his lookout sawed-off. Some of Pike’s other gun hands appeared and began to spread out around the room. I stayed where I was. Pony stood against the far wall, and Virgil seemed comfortable and at peace, standing by the bar.
It was maybe twenty more minutes before Pike appeared, walking easily from the back, wearing a Colt.
“Virgil Cole,” he said pleasantly, “you cocksucker, why are you here?”
“Val Verde County deputy sheriffs,” Virgil said.
“For what?”
“Being a really bad asshole,” Virgil said.
“You think those badges mean you can take my money and double-cross me?” Pike said. “I bought them badges, and you. And you took the money and double-crossed me.”
“We left town like we promised,” Virgil said. “We didn’t say nothing about not coming back.”
“Virgil,” Pike said, as if he was tired, “don’t fuck with me. You know and I know that I’m gonna have to kill the both of you.”
“Sorry you feel that way, Pike,” Virgil said.
I wondered where Choctaw was. He’d been hired for this kind of moment. But I couldn’t look for him. If the ball went up, I needed to be focused. I had to kill Abner with one barrel, and maybe clean out a couple more with the other barrel. If the dance started, Choctaw would announce himself.
Virgil was silent, waiting. In the saloon, people began to scramble for cover. It was helpful in sorting out who were shooters and who were not. Pike continued to look at Virgil. They were maybe six feet apart. I didn’t know if Pike was cranking up his courage or savoring his moment. Virgil was simply waiting. The saloon wasn’t crowded this time of day. The spectators’ scrambling stopped as all of them got out of the way. The room was quiet. The tension in the room was like a physical pressure.
Then Pike said very clearly, “I believe I can beat you,” and moved a step away from Virgil.
Upstairs somebody fired some shots, maybe three, and the tension exploded. Abner half turned at the sound and I shot him with one barrel, and the two gunmen to his right with the other barrel. Pony shot two men from the far side of the room. Something tumbled from the upstairs balcony. And Pike found he couldn’t beat Virgil.
Pike was good. He had his gun in his hand. He’d cleared leather. But the gun was pointing at the floor and Pike was taking a step backward, then another. Then he suddenly went down and lay on his back on the floor with his mouth open and blood soaking into his shirt front.
When Pike went down, everything stopped.
Virgil stood still by the bar with his Colt in his hand. I was flattened against the wall with my Colt out, and Pony stood across in a crouch, with his weapon out and another Colt stuck in his waistband. The room buzzed with silence.
“We got you from three corners,” Virgil said. “And we can shoot. You want to stay with this, we’ll kill you. And with Pike gone, what is there to die for?”
The remainder of Pike’s crew stood uncertainly. They had their hands near their guns, but none of them had drawn.
“You leave them weapons in the holsters,” Virgil said. “And get out of here and keep going, you gonna live. I see you again and I’ll kill you.”
One of the men said, “I’m leaving,” and with his gun holstered walked out of the room. In a moment three others went after him. Virgil watched them go, then walked slowly around the room.
“Since Marshal Choctaw said nobody can wear guns, the only ones who’d be wearing one now,” Virgil said, “would be Pike’s people.”
He moved from person to person. Pony and I held position.
“So I figure you got a gun, you’re with Pike, and you want to use it,” Virgil said.
Two men sitting in the back stood suddenly. Virgil turned easily toward them. One of the men put his hands up.
“We was with Pike,” he said. “But we don’t want no trouble.”
Virgil nodded and pointed toward the door. Both men walked out. There were no other guns in the room. When he got through looking, Virgil went and glanced at what had fallen from the balcony. It was a Winchester. He looked up and Choctaw was there, head down, half over the balcony railing. Virgil studied him for a moment.
Then he said, “Allie?”
There was a sudden tumble of footsteps from the balcony, and Allie came running down the stairs with Laurel behind her. Allie was carrying the short Colt that Virgil had given her. She kept on coming when she reached the saloon and lunged against Virgil, with Laurel right behind her.
Very gracefully, Virgil took the gun from her hand as she embraced him. He handed the gun to me, as Laurel embraced him, too. Virgil, looking a little embarrassed, put an arm around each of them. I looked up at the balcony. Frisco was standing there, looking down. She smiled and nodded. I nodded back.
Pony reloaded and holstered his weapon. I reloaded the eight-gauge and the short Colt that Allie had used. Despite an arm around each woman, Virgil was putting a fresh shell into his Colt, working carefully behind their heads. I smiled to myself.
Pony walked over to me.
“Just ’cause you can shoot,” I said, “don’t mean I want to hug you.”
“No hug?” he said.
“No,” I said.
Pony grinned.
“Good,” he said.
69
THE SIGN OUTSIDE OUR OFFICE read CHAUNCEY BROWN, TOWN MARSHAL. We went in, Virgil, the women, Pony, and me. I got a hammer and knocked the marshal sign off, and went back in.
Virgil looked at Allie and smiled.
“So that’s where Choctaw was,” he said.
“He was fixin’ to shoot you,” Allie said.
Virgil nodded.
“They was all fixin’ to shoot us,” Virgil said. “Tell me about Choctaw.”
Laurel was sitting beside Allie on the couch. She was looking at Allie and at Virgil, and sometimes at Pony and at me. She sat perfectly still. She was still silent, but it was, somehow, a lively silence, as if she wanted to jump around.
“Well . . .” Allie said.
Allie’s stories were often long. If you asked her what was for supper, she’d start with when she went for groceries yesterday. But Virgil didn’t push her.
“Pony brought us into town, and we snuck up the back outside stairs and no one paid us no mind. Anybody saw us probably figured we was just some whores coming to work.”
She looked at Pony and smiled.
“With a customer,” she said.
Virgil nodded.
“And Frisco let us in, and said she’d
go down the hall and stay with another whore and we could have the room to ourselves. It was a nice room for a whore. I mean, some of the rooms I’ve . . .”
She stopped.
“Anyway, Pony left us and said he’d be downstairs in the saloon, and he went and we locked the door and I took out the gun you gave me, and we both went and watched out the window till we seen you ride into town. Then, a’course, we both run to the door to listen, see what was going to happen.”
As she talked, I stood in the doorway and kept an eye on the street. I saw the undertaker’s wagon go by, headed for Pike’s Palace. Otherwise, everything was quiet.
“And all of a sudden we hear men talking right outside the door. And one of them, I think it was Mr. Pike, one of them says, ‘You can’t find the women?’ And the other one says, ‘They ain’t at the house.’ And the first one, I’m sure it’s Mr. Pike, says, ‘He took them or he hid them. We’ll find them after we get through with Cole.’ ”
Virgil sat in his chair, perfectly still, listening. Pony stood and got a dipper of water and drank.
“Well,” Allie said, “you can imagine how we felt. But we’re listening and listening. And Choctaw says to Pike, ‘How many are they,’ and Mr. Pike says, ‘Two.’ And Choctaw says, ‘Cole and Hitch?’ And Mr. Pike says, ‘Yes.’ And Choctaw says, ‘They that good?’ And Pike says, ‘Don’t matter how good they are, ’cause you’re gonna be up here with a Winchester.’ ”
Allie was having a good time. She paused now, and looked at all of us.
“And Choctaw says, ‘How you want it to go?’ And Mr. Pike says, ‘You get him in your sights and when I say I believe I can beat you, I’ll step aside and you kill him.’ Well, let me tell you,” Allie said, “my blood ’bout froze when he said that. And Choctaw says, ‘Kill Cole first?’ and Pike says, ‘Yes, then Hitch.’ And Choctaw says, ‘Everybody else in place?’ And Mr. Pike says, ‘Yes, got eight guns in the room, including Abner.’ And then they’re quiet, and I hear them moving around outside my door, and then Mr. Pike says, ‘See him?’ And Choctaw says, ‘Got him.’ Then Mr. Pike says, ‘Okay.’ And I hear him walk away.”
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