“So you think he’s still in town?”
“I’m pretty damned sure about that,” I said.
“He had been staying at the Widder Rogers’s place,” said Happy, “but we found him out there.”
“Oh, hell, Happy,” I said. “You just reminded me that we locked up the widder. Get some breakfast from ole Aubrey and take it on down to her. We can’t have no one saying that we starves women in our jailhouse.”
“Yes, sir, Barjack,” Happy said. “Right away.” And he jumped up and headed for the bar.
“Well, he has to be someplace,” Sly said.
“If you got any idees about that,” I said, “I’m a-listening. We searched the whole damn town. Twice.”
“Did you miss any place?” he ast me.
“Just only the place where he was a-hiding,” I said. “No. Hell. We went through ever’ house and ever’ place a’ business in town.”
“That’s strange,” he said.
“We come on him in the stable once,” I said, “but he got out and disappeared. Then he went upstairs right here with one a’ Bonnie’s gals, and we just missed his ass by a minute. He went and disappeared again.”
“Perhaps he’s changing his appearance,” Sly said.
“He looked the same each time we got us a glimpse of him,” I said, “but I s’pose that’s a possibility. He could shave his face and change his clothes, and we’d never know him. Ain’t none of us never got a good long look at him.”
“I have,” said Polly.
“Me too,” said Miller. “I’d know him anywhere in any clothes.”
“Did the two of you help in the search yesterday?” ast Sly.
“We damn sure did,” said Miller.
“And you never saw him?”
“I saw him all right,” Miller said, “but then he disappeared.”
He sounded almost embarrassed when he said that last word.
“That’s right,” Polly added.
“There’s got to be a way to locate him,” Sly said.
“You’d damn well think so,” I agreed.
“Do you have any plans for today?”
“Not yet,” I said. “Only just posting ole Butcher up on a rooftop is all, and I done done that already.”
“Well, let’s go,” Sly said, pushing back his chair and standing up.
“Again?” I said. “Right now?”
“Do you know a better time?”
“I reckon not,” I said, and I got up too. Then ever’one else done the same thing. We all walked out the front door together and stood there on the sidewalk a-looking up and down the street. There weren’t no sign a’ Cody nowhere.
“Did you search my—my wife’s place yesterday?” Sly ast me.
“I never,” I said, and I looked around at the other ones.
“It was on our path,” said Miller, looking at Polly, “but we figured that Mr. Sly here was your friend, and we didn’t need to—”
“Goddamn it, I said to search the whole damn town, didn’t I?”
“Yes, sir, but—”
“Never mind that now,” said Sly. “I’ll take care of it.” He started right across the street headed for the goddamned White Pigeon’s Ass or whatever it was Miss Lillian called the prissy damn place. I told the rest where to go searching, and then I said to Bonnie, “Let’s go back in and search our own damn place.”
“All right,” she said.
We turned around and walked back inside. The first thing we done was we walked real slow through the big main room and looked hard at ever’one in there. I kept a-thinking about what Sly had said about ole Cody changing the way he looked. But we knowed ever’one in the place. He weren’t there. Bonnie headed for the stairway, but I stopped her. I walked behind the bar and went through the door what Aubrey went through to fetch breakfasts. It was a combination storeroom and kitchen, and me and Bonnie poked through it all, looking behind ever’ stack a’ boxes and into ever’ corner. There weren’t no one hiding in there.
We went back out and on over to the stairway. We started up the stairs kinder slow. About halfway up, I pulled out my Merwin and Hulbert, and I seed that Bonnie done the same thing. Whenever we got to the top a’ the stairs, I walked over to the nearest door, what was the door to our own private room. Bonnie give me a kinder curious look, but I shooshed her, and I opened the door and stepped inside real quicklike and looked the room over real good. There wasn’t no one in there. I stepped back out and pulled the door shut. Then I went on to the next door. I jerked that one open, and this time Bonnie crowded in first. I stepped in behint her. We both looked over the room. It were empty. We went out and went on to the next one. The same thing.
We went about halfway down the hallway thattaway, and I opened another door. A whore set up in bed and squealed. She had a cowboy in bed with her, from the night before, I reckoned. I told her to hush up and went back out in the hall. Me and ole Bonnie kept on a-going down the hallway. We found some more gals sleeping late on account a’ their late-night work schedules. A couple of them never even woked up whenever we went into their rooms. But whenever we got to the last room, we still hadn’t seed no sign a’ no Cody. I opened up the outside door and stepped out onto the landing there and looked out onto the alley. There wasn’t no one in the alley, and I couldn’t see much a’ the main street from where I was at. I did see a shiny democrat wagon pass by. I remember wondering who might be a-driving it, on account a’ I couldn’t recollect seeing the damn thing before.
“Come on,” I said to Bonnie, and I started down the stairs. Bonnie come waddling after me. I holstered my Merwin and Hulbert, and I guess Bonnie done the same thing. Then I headed for the street. First thing I done whenever I got to the street was to look after that damn democrat. I seed it parked down a ways about in front a’ the gun shop, but I knowed, a’ course, the gun shop was closed up. I started walking toward it.
“Barjack,” said Bonnie, “ain’t we going to check out these buildings?”
“Go on ahead if you want to,” I said. “I’m checking something else first.”
She stood there a minute kinder undecided-like, but then she come a-running after me. In another few minutes we had come to the democrat. It had one horse hitched to it, and it was just a-standing there. The door to the gun shop was still open from whenever we had kicked it open the day before, so I just pushed it and walked on in, pulling out my shooter on the way. It was kinder dark inside the place. It was still early morning. The sun weren’t up very high yet. And a’ course, there weren’t no lamp lit. I squinnied my eyeballs and looked around. I didn’t see no one. I walked back behint the counter and looked there, but I still didn’t see no one. Bonnie come on in behint me, and then we checked the back room. It were empty.
“Damn it,” I said.
I walked back out into the street with Bonnie hustling up right back a’ me. I looked up and down the street. Then I looked right back in front a’ me, and the damn thing was gone. “Where’d it go?” I said.
“What?” said Bonnie.
“The damn democrat wagon,” I said. “It was right here whenever we went into the gun shop.”
“Why, sure it was,” she said. Then she went to looking up and down the street, almost kinder desperate. “I don’t see it nowhere, Barjack.”
I run out into the middle a’ the street and hollered out as loud as I could for ole Butcher.
“Butcher, goddamn it. Butcher.”
“Right here, Marshal.”
I looked up and seed him standing on top of a roof right across the street.
“Butcher,” I said, “did you see that goddamned democrat wagon come a-driving down the street?”
“That little one-horse job?” he said. “Painted black?”
“Yeah. That’s the one.”
“I seen it.”
“Well, where the hell did it go?”
“It turned the corner right down yonder and disappeared,” he said.
I think he just meant that
he couldn’t see it no more whenever it went around the corner, but I sure didn’t like the word he chose to use in the saying of it. I run down there and around the corner. I didn’t see no sign of it. I kept a-running till I come to the next corner, and then I looked up and down, and still I didn’t see no sign of it. I thunk, how the hell could a man make a goddamned democrat wagon disappear just like that? I was breathing hard from that short run I made, and I turned around and walked a-huffing and puffing back to the main street. Bonnie come a-running to meet me.
“The son of a bitch is gone,” I said. “It had to be Cody a-driving it. He’s the only one I know who can make things disappear like that.”
We walked back down to the gun shop, and then I seed Happy strolling along the street. I yelled at him, and he come over.
“Happy,” I said, “I want you to go up on that roof over yonder and take Butcher’s place. Tell him to come over here and see me.”
“Yes, sir,” he said, and he run off. In another few minutes Butcher come walking over to me.
“What is it, Barjack?” he said.
“Did you get a good look at whoever it was a-driving that democrat?” I ast him.
“I guess I got a fairly good look, but I didn’t rec ognize him none.”
“What’d he look like?”
“Well, I’d guess he was about Happy’s size. I can’t be sure. I was looking down on him, and he was sitting down driving the wagon. He was wearing a black suit and a black derby hat.”
“Could you see his face atall?”
“Not real good, but I think it was smooth.”
“No beard? No mustache?”
“I don’t think so,” Butcher said.
“Well, damn it all to hell,” said Bonnie. “Sly was right.”
Yeah, I thunk, Sly was right again. Cody was changing his appearance all right. I wondered what the son of a bitch would look like next time we seen him.
Chapter Seventeen
Well, I tuck me a stroll down to the stable and went on inside, and there was that goddamn democrat wagon just a-standing there in the middle a’ the place. There wasn’t no horse hitched to it no more. I seed the ole man what run the place, and I jumped him right off. “Where’d that damned thing come from just now?” I ast him.
“Feller rented it off a’ me just returned it,” he said.
“Just now?”
“Just a few minutes ago.”
“Well, where’d he go?”
“How the hell would I know? He paid me my money, and he left. That’s all.”
“What did the son of a bitch look like?”
“He was wearing a black suit, and he had shaved off his mustache.”
“Did he give you a name?”
“Jones is the name he give whenever rented the rig.”
“Well, goddamn it, if you ever see him again, shoot the son of a bitch.”
“Just shoot him?”
“You heared me. Shoot him dead. Then come over to my office or to the Hooch House and tell me about it.”
“Yes, sir, Marshal,” he said, and I walked outta there and went on back to the Hooch House. Just as I was about to go inside, Butcher come up to me.
“What do you want me to do, Barjack?” he ast me.
“Keep a-looking,” I said, and I went on inside and over to my table and set down. Aubrey brung me a tumbler full a’ good whiskey.
“There’s a man over at the bar looking for you,” he tole me in a low voice. “He’s looking for trouble, I think.”
“Which one?” I ast.
“Fellow standing on this end,” he said. “Wearing a brown vest.”
I looked, and I seed the feller, but I didn’t know his ass. “Tell him I’m here,” I said.
“Yes, sir,” said Aubrey, and he went back behind the bar. I watched outta the corner a’ my eyeball, and I seed Aubrey lean across the bar and say something. The feller turned his head and looked at me. Then he picked up his drink and turned it down. I slipped my Merwin and Hulber self-extracting revolver outta the holster and helt it betwixt my legs underneath the table. Then I picked up my tumbler in my left hand. The stranger come a-walking toward me. Whenever he got close, he said, “Barjack?”
“That’s right,” I said. “Who’s asking?”
“That ain’t important,” he said. “What’s important is that a feller name a’ Cody paid me to kill you.”
His right hand mighta twitched, but then again, it might notta. I didn’t wait for nothing after he said what he done. I raised up the barrel a’ my shooter and pulled the trigger, and my slug tore through the tabletop and ripped into his belly kindly low. I felt some bad about that. A low belly wound is right painful and not immediate deadly. He give a gasp and staggered back a couple a’ steps. His right hand made like it was going for his gun, but it didn’t seem to have no strength in it. I decided that he needed to be kilt right away on account a’ he wasn’t going to do nothing but suffer till he died nohow, so I brung my shooter up on top a’ the table and fired again. This time I hit him in the heart, and he fell over back’ards deader’n hell.
Aubrey come out from behind the bar and walked over to stand by the carcass. “You kilt him, Barjack,” he said.
“That was my intention,” I said. “Search his pockets.”
Aubrey dropped down on one knee and commenced to going through the dead guy’s pockets. He come out with a watch and a jackknife and some pocket change. Then he said, “Well, looky here,” and he went and tossed a wad a’ bills up onto the table. I picked them up and counted five hundred dollars out. I wondered if that was how much he had been paid to kill me. “Hell,” I said, “it damn sure weren’t enough.”
“What?” Aubrey said.
“The son of a bitch said he’d been paid to kill me,” I tole him.
“Cody?” Aubrey said.
“Yup.”
I picked up my drink and polished it off. Then I helt the empty tumbler out toward Aubrey. He tuck it. “Fill this up for me,” I said, “and then go out and find Butcher, and tell him to get his ass in here.”
“But the bar won’t be tended, Barjack,” Aubrey said.
“Go on,” I said. “I’ll watch it.”
So Aubrey brung my glass back all filled up, and then he tuck off. A cowhand got up from a table and staggered over to the bar. He banged his fist on the bar and hollered out. “Hey,” he yelled. “I need a drink here. Right now.”
“Hey you,” I called out to him. “You at the bar.”
He turned to look in my direction. “You talking to me?”
“Yeah. You.”
“Well, what is it?”
“Cut out that goddamn caterwauling. Ole Aubrey will be back directly.”
“But I want another drink.”
“You can wait till Aubrey gets back.”
“I said—”
Just then another cowpoke stepped up beside a’ him and put a hand on his shoulder. He spoke to him kinder lowlike into the side a’ his head, but I could hear what he was a-saying. “Take it easy, pard,” he said. “That there’s Barjack. You don’t want to rile him.”
“Barjack?” the first cowhand said.
“Yeah. Now come on back and set down and wait for Aubrey to get back. All right?”
“Yeah. Sure. I ain’t in no hurry.”
I seed the two a’ them go back to the table and set down, and just about then Aubrey come back in. He fetched that poor cowboy his drink. Butcher come a-running in just then too, and he hurried on over to my table where I was a-setting.
“You want me, Barjack?” he ast, and then he seed that stiff a-laying there a-bleeding all over my floor with his eyes wide-open and looking up at the ceiling. “What’s that?” he ast me.
“That’s the reason I sent for you,” I said. “I want you to get rid a’ that. That damned Cody paid him to kill me. Leastwise, that’s what he said before I blasted his ass.”
“Cody paid him?” said Butcher.
“Yeah,” I said, �
�and that likely means that he’s paid some others as well, so we got to watch all the strangers what rides into town.”
“Yes, sir,” said Butcher. “You want me to haul this down to—”
“The boneyard,” I said, finishing up his sentence for him.
Butcher leaned over the stiff and hauled him up and over his shoulder, and then he wobbled outta the place with his load on his back like a old packhorse. There was still a pool a’ blood on the floor, but ole Aubrey had tuck note a’ that, and he was out with a bucket a’ water and a mop right quick after Butcher left, and he swabbed it up right quick and then went back behind the bar to tend to his duties.
Bonnie and Polly come in and set down with me. Bonnie waved at Aubrey, and he brung them each a drink. “Barjack,” Bonnie said, “my ass is plumb wore out. We searched this whole damn town. Twice.”
“And there ain’t no sign of that goddamned Cody,” Polly added.
“Well, the son of a bitch has been to the stable,” I said. “He turned in that damned democrat wagon.”
“You mean, since we seen it?” Bonnie said.
“Since we seed it,” I said. “I went down to the stable, and there it set.”
“Well, goddamn,” Bonnie said, and she set up straight and looked around the room as if she might just spot him right in there in the Hooch House. Course she never.
“There’s something else,” I said.
“What?” Bonnie said.
“He’s tuck to hiring men to kill me. I just kilt one of them right here a few minutes ago.”
“And Cody hired him?” said Polly.
“That’s what the man said just afore I shot him in the gut, and he had five hundred dollars on his ass.”
“Where’d he get that kinda money?” said Polly.
“I’m damned if I know,” I said, “but here it is,” and I tossed it back out onto the table.
“What’re you going to do with that?” Bonnie ast me.
“Stuff it down betwixt your sweet tits,” I said. “It’ll pay for the mess the bastard made in here. Hell, Aubrey had to mop up a whole damn pool a’ blood off a’ the floor. Right there.”
Barjack and the Unwelcome Ghost Page 13