‘You had a reason for doing that, feller?’ Edge asked, his tone hard and his eyes ice cold.
‘The law wouldn’t have shot him. He’s paid too much to too many of them. They’d have arrested him and he’d have been out of goal by morning. Same as that bunch across the street will be. There won’t be a firearm in sight when the police go in there. The dead will get the blame. Lawyers will claim the rest of them were just innocent clients of the whores.’ Lincoln’s expression and voice were mournful. ‘Black’s lawyers can’t help him now. I had to make sure of that’
‘He was mine,’ the half-breed rasped, exploring with fingertips the dried blood on the cut across his cheek. ‘Even up what I did to Marlon. A lousy deal for both of them, but you made it the only one I could make.’
‘Did it for you, too,’ Lincoln said as he started to inch gingerly back along the girder toward the top of the nearest ladder. ‘You didn’t know about Marlon not carrying a gun. I told you about Black. Way things turned out, you’d have had to shoot an unarmed man in the back. That’s not the western way, is it?’
‘East or west, don’t make any difference to me, feller,’ Edge replied as he started down the ladder in the wake of the government man. ‘You have to kill somebody, you do it. Men who live by that code crap only wind up dying by it.’
There was no more talk until they had reached ground level.
‘What does it matter who killed him?’ Lincoln asked. ‘So long as he’s dead. Orlando got smart for once so him and his Italians get to have the city for themselves. Like I said before, not the way decent people would wish but we’re stuck with the situation.’
‘Decent people like us?’ Edge growled.
Lincoln signed wearily. ‘So I put it badly. To hell with it. Just don’t murder anyone else in Kansas and you won’t die by the rope there. Better deal than the one I made you make with Marlon and Black. And the money’s still in the alley across the street if you want it.’
‘Obliged for the amnesty. Government can keep the blood money.’
‘Suit yourself.’
‘Usually do.’ He had been rolling a cigarette. Now he lit it. ‘Ain’t always possible though.’
‘One thing, Mr. Edge.’
‘Yeah?’ the half-breed asked as he made to move from one empty shell of a room through the doorless gap into another.
‘Best you don’t come back to New York. Orlando will be gunning for you for shooting his godfather. And Gilpatrick
‘Guess I’d better have them haul him out of there,’ the Government man muttered as he backed out through the doorway and the half-breed followed him.
‘Can understand why you’ll have no regrets.’
‘Just two.’
‘Two?’
‘Named Rico and Mario. If they’re still alive after the shoot out. Twice they pointed guns at me after I warned them not to. Never did kill them for that.’
Lincoln followed him through the gap and bumped into him as he halted, became aware that, like the half-breed, he was sinking to his ankles in the rain softened, freshly laid floor. It was in the centre of this room that Boss Black had died, his obese form slumped face down and half submerged in the government man muttered as he backed out through the doorway and the half-breed followed him.
‘Why not leave him there, feller?’ Edge answered, rasping the back of a hand over his bristled jaw under the cigarette that drooped from a corner of his thin-lipped mouth. ‘Few hours after the rain lets up, decent people of this city’ll be able to see an example of the kind of bastard the law allows to stink up their streets.’
Lincoln blinked his confusion. ‘You lost me, Mr. Edge.’
The half-breed shot a baleful glance at the deceptively innocuous looking Lincoln then gestured with a careless wave of his brown-skinned hand toward the corpse sprawled in the soft, wet cement. ‘A hardened criminal.’
Other books by this author available from Lobo Publications
EDGE 1: THE LONER
EDGE 2: TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS AMERICAN
EDGE 3: APACHE DEATH
EDGE 4: KILLER’S BREED
EDGE 5: BLOOD ON SILVER
EDGE 6: THE BLUE, THE GREY AND THE RED
EDGE 7: CALIFORNIA KILLING
EDGE 8: SEVEN OUT OF HELL
EDGE 9: BLOODY SUMMER
EDGE 10: VENGEANCE IS BLACK
EDGE 11: SIOUX UPRISING
EDGE 12: THE BIGGEST BOUNTY
EDGE 13: A TOWN CALLED HATE
EDGE 14: THE BIG GOLD
EDGE 15: BLOOD RUN
EDGE 16: THE FINAL SHOT
EDGE 17: VENGEANCE VALLEY
EDGE 18: TEN TOMBSTONES TO TEXAS
EDGE 19: ASHES AND DUST
EDGE 20: SULLIVAN’S LAW
EDGE 21: RHAPSODY IN RED
EDGE 22: SLAUGHTER ROAD
EDGE 23: ECHOES OF WAR
EDGE 24: THE DAY DEMOCRACY DIED
EDGE 25: VIOLENCE TRAIL
EDGE 26: SAVAGE DAWN
EDGE 27: DEATH DRIVE
EDGE 28: EVE OF EVIL
EDGE 29: THE LIVING, THE DYING AND THE DEAD
EDGE 30: WAITING FOR A TRAIN
ADAM STEELE 1: THE VIOLENT PEACE
ADAM STEELE 2: BOUNTY HUNTER
ADAM STEELE 3: HELL’S JUNCTION
ADAM STEELE 4: VALLEY OF BLOOD
ADAM STEELE 5: GUN RUN
ADAM STEELE 6: THE KILLING ART
EDGE: WAITING FOR A TRAIN (Edge series Book 30) Page 14