‘But it was a clumsy job, Angel,’ the attorney general said. ‘Badly planned, clumsily executed. He hadn’t a chance of getting away with it from the moment you reached Santa Fe. Once we knew your suspicions, it would only have been a matter of time before we took him.’
‘It was always only a matter of time,’ Angel said. ‘It didn’t matter to Wells if we knew – in fact, I think he almost wanted us to know – as long as he got to Trinidad before me and picked up the suitcase. He was very cool, you know. He anticipated everything I’d do right up to the end. Knew I’d telegraph through and put a watch on the suitcase: left it sitting there for two clear days until he thought I was dead. If I had been dead, there wouldn’t have been a damned thing they could have done to stop him picking it up. He’d have shown them department identification and overruled any local law. Picked up the money and run.’
‘We would still have caught him – eventually,’ the attorney general maintained stoutly.
‘I wonder,’ Angel said. ‘I’m not so sure.’
‘Well,’ the attorney general said, his voice tired. ‘I’ve got more work to do. Reports to write. We don’t often have someone in this department go bad.’
Angel said nothing. There wasn’t anything to say. He knew the old man and Wells had been friends. He had thought of Angus as a friend himself. He thought of that insane fight in the shadowed railway cutting. Friend?
The attorney general pressed the bell on his desk that summoned his personal private secretary, Amabel Rowe. Angel got up from his chair, nodding hello. She smiled back, and he thought he saw something secret behind the smile.
‘Well, off you go, my boy,’ the attorney general said. ‘When do they take out the stitches?’
‘Tomorrow, sir,’ Angel replied.
‘Good. You’ll be taking a short rest, a day or two, before you report back?’
‘If that’s in order, sir.’
‘Certainly, certainly. Got anything in mind?’
Frank Angel made absolutely certain he couldn’t see Amabel Rowe’s face, nor she his, as he replied.
‘Yes, sir, I have. Aim to take a beautiful woman to dinner, buy her champagne, take her for a carriage ride in the moonlight.’
‘Capital, capital,’ chortled the attorney general. ‘Enjoy yourself, my boy. You’ve earned it.’
Amabel Rowe opened the door, and Frank Angel went out into the anteroom.
‘Real champagne?’ she whispered.
‘Is there any other kind?’ he replied.
She closed the door, smiling.
About the Author
Frederick Nolan, a.k.a. 'Frederick H. Christian', was born in Liverpool, England and was educated there and at Aberaeron in Wales. He decided early in life to become a writer, but it was some thirty years before he got around to achieving his ambition. His first book was The Life and Death of John Henry Tunstall, and it established him as an authority on the history of the American frontier. Later he founded The English Westerners' Society. In addition to the much-loved Angel westerns, Fred also wrote five entries in the popular Sudden series.
Among his numerous non-western novels is the best-selling The Oshawa Project (published as The Algonquin Project in the US) which was later filmed by MGM as Brass Target. A leading authority on the outlaws and gunfighters of the Old West, Fred has scripted and appeared in many television programs both in England and in the United States, and authored numerous articles in historical and other academic publications.
Visit the author’s website at
http://piccadillypublishing.org/christian.html
Titles by Frederick H Christian
The Angel Series
FIND ANGEL
SEND ANGEL
TRAP ANGEL
HANG ANGEL
HUNT ANGEL
KILL ANGEL
The Sudden Series
SUDDEN STRIKES BACK
SUDDEN AT BAY
SUDDEN - APACHE FIGHTER
SUDDEN – DEAD OR ALIVE
PICCADILLY PUBLISHING
Piccadilly Publishing is the brainchild of long time Western fans and Amazon Kindle Number One bestselling Western writers Mike Stotter and David Whitehead (a.k.a. Ben Bridges). The company intends to bring back into 'e-print' some of the most popular and best-loved Western and action-adventure series fiction of the last forty years.
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Frame Angel! (A Frank Angel Western) #7 Page 12