Chapter 5

“We’ve looked everywhere,” Longarm told Gloria that evening at the Belmont Restaurant. “I even checked the freighting companies, along with the railroad and stagecoach lines. No one has seen Bodie or Homer.”

“If they had, they’d have remembered,” Gloria said. “So where do you think that they’re hiding?”

“I have no idea.” Longarm was both baffled and discouraged. Even worse, true to his word, Sheriff Miller had visited his boss at the Federal Building and raised hell about Longarm’s role in the triple shooting. He’d demanded that Longarm be stripped of his badge, but of course Billy Vail had flatly refused. Still, it was a problem both for Billy and the department, so Longarm desperately needed Bodie to come forward and tell his version of the shooting.

“What happens now?” Gloria asked as she used her fork to idly play with her salad.

“We keep looking,” Longarm told her. “If Bodie hasn’t left Denver, then sooner or later he’ll be spotted. I’ve told everyone to get in touch with me the minute they see the boy and his dog. Someone will be getting in touch with me sooner rather than later.”

“What a mess!” Gloria exclaimed. “And what a turnaround regarding Ida and Rose and their feelings for Bodie.”

“Yes,” Longarm agreed. “I think they realize that Bodie never had much of a chance to succeed in life given the erratic and irresponsible behavior of his mother all the time the boy was growing up.”

“Do you think Bodie is salvageable?”

“I’m certain that he is,” Longarm replied. “I was pretty wild myself when I was Bodie’s age.”

“But surely you must have had a far superior upbringing.”

“I did,” Longarm admitted. “I actually had very fine and respected parents back in West Virginia. Back when I was growing up things were pretty stable, until the War Between the States. But where Bodie was raised in the wild boom towns of Nevada and California, there would have been no stability. Probably very few schools or churches. The kid would have been hard-pressed in those places to find a good man to pattern his life after.”

“I sure hope that the boy is all right.” Gloria fretted. “I feel kind of responsible for his welfare and I’ve never even laid eyes on the boy or his dog.”

“They’re quite the pair,” Longarm mused aloud. “Bodie and Homer are both thin as rails and ragged.”

“It’s storming out tonight,” Gloria worried, obviously too distracted to enjoy her meal. “Do you think that they’re huddling under some wagon or boardwalk trying to keep warm and dry?”

“No,” Longarm answered, wanting to reassure her. “Bodie strikes me as being a survivor. He’s going to know that his dog is weak from loss of blood, and he did steal those thirty dollars from Dr. Winslow. So if Bodie needed to rent a room tonight and buy something to eat for himself and for Homer, he’d have enough money to do so.”

“Too bad he turned out to be a thief.”

“Yeah,” Longarm said, “but if you’d heard his story as I did, you’d understand that Bodie is a kid that will do whatever he has to do to take care of himself and that wolf dog.”

“I wish that I could help you look for him, but I’ve got the shop to see after.”

“I know and that’s fine. I’m very sure that within a few days, if Bodie and Homer don’t decide to leave town in the dead of night, we’ll get a sighting. And when we do, I’ll make sure that Bodie doesn’t get away from me again.”

“Sounds like Ida and Rose might like to take him into their beautiful home.”

“Maybe,” Longarm said, not too sure if the pair of women really understood the enormity of taking in a boy and his dog that were so independent, undisciplined, and headstrong.

Longarm and Gloria went back to his place and made love, but their deep concern about Bodie’s welfare and whereabouts meant that their lovemaking was more restrained. Gloria was still highly aroused, as was Longarm, but neither of them seemed up to a bout of wild and frequent lovemaking like the one they’d experienced the night before.

* * * 

In the morning, Longarm headed for work, and when he entered Marshal Billy Vail’s office, he was told to close the door behind him so that they could speak in private. Billy came right to the point. “Custis, I’m getting a lot of grief and pressure from Sheriff Miller, who swears that you’ve been derelict in your duty. He says that you haven’t even come by his office to file a formal report on the shootings.”

“He’s right,” Longarm confessed. “I’ve been so busy hunting for Bodie that I just haven’t taken the time.”

“Well, do it as soon as you leave this office,” Billy suggested. “We’re feds, and we have enough trouble dealing with the local authorities without you rubbing the sheriff the wrong way.”

“He’s worthless and isn’t going to get reelected. In a couple of months Clyde Miller will be just a bad and fading memory.”

“That is probably true,” Billy agreed, “but even so I’d like to be able to say that we kept our end of the bargain when it came to being cooperative.”

“I’ll go see him right away,” Longarm promised.

“So where do you think this kid has gone?”

“I don’t know. Bodie could have left Denver, but I don’t think so.”

“Why not?”

Longarm shrugged his broad shoulders. “Just a hunch. I believe that Bodie really wanted to see his grandmother and aunt. And I think he’ll do that before he leaves town.”

“Are they aware that the kid might pay them a sudden and unexpected visit?”

“They are.”

Billy frowned. “I’ve heard rumors that the grandmother, Mrs. Ida Clark, is in very poor health. A boy with blood on his hands might be enough of a shock to put her in the ground.”

“I know.” Longarm came to his feet. “Billy, I’ve been everywhere and I’ve told everyone that they need to let me know the minute they spot the boy and his dog. Trust me . . . they both stand out and will show up in a day or two at the most.”

“I do trust you, Custis. And you need to file a report in my office regarding your role in the shootings. Have you done that yet?”

“No.”

“Then please do so before you go to visit Sheriff Miller.”

“Okay,” Longarm said, hating any kind of paperwork.

Billy Vail suddenly relaxed. “Custis, it may cheer you up a bit to know that I’ve learned that the pair of men involved in the shootings were hardened criminals. They’d been in and out of Nevada, Arizona, and Colorado prisons for years. I don’t know a thing about the late John Stock, but I suspect he was simply a random victim and that the kid and the dog were caught up in the gunfire. However, I still find it hard to understand how a boy that young could shove a derringer into someone’s chest and pull the trigger. I’ll try to reserve my judgment until after I’ve read your report and talked to the boy.”

“I was there, and after watching what happened to John Stock, it isn’t so hard to understand. If you’d also seen it, you would have done exactly what Bodie did . . . kill the son of a bitch.”

“All right,” Billy said quietly. “Write your report and then go and do whatever you have to do to smooth Sheriff Miller’s feathers.”

“I absolutely can’t abide that man.”

“Neither can I,” Billy replied, “but as you said, he isn’t going to be reelected, so just do what I’m asking.”

“Okay.”

Longarm left the office and went to his desk. There were three other deputies in their small offices, and all of them nodded in greeting but were wise enough not to pester him with questions about the shootings. Longarm sat down at his desk, picked up his pen, and began to write out the official office report. Finished, he read over his words, decided that they were adequate, left the report with a secretary and then headed for Sheriff Miller’s office.

* * * 

“So,” the sheriff said when Longarm walked in, “you’ve finally decided to pay me a visit. What a big fucking honor!”

“Cut the bullshit.”

Longarm didn’t wait to be invited to sit and pulled up a chair, while noting that the other two deputies in the office were now all ears. “What do you need to know from me?”

Miller’s contemptuous smile faded. “I want to know everything. And after I’ve heard your version of the shootings, I’ll decide if I’m going to arrest you or not.”

“Arrest me?” Longarm asked with genuine amazement.

“Yeah.”

Longarm laughed, and it wasn’t a nice sound. “Sheriff, if you’re really dumb enough to try to arrest me, you will either wind up in the hospital or the morgue. Do I make myself clear?”

Miller’s beefy face turned scarlet red and he nearly choked with anger. Finally, he gained control of himself and managed to say, “Just give me all the damned facts.”

Longarm spent the next ten minutes telling the sheriff and his two nosy deputies exactly what had happened out on Colfax. He omitted nothing but did not go into any great detail. When he was finished, he didn’t wait to answer questions but came to his feet and headed for the door.

“I’m not through with you!” Sheriff Miller yelled.

“Yes you are,” Longarm called back over his shoulder.

“I want that boy in my custody!”

“Can’t find him right now,” Longarm said, turning back with a cold smile.

“Custis, if you’re hiding him for some gawdamn reason, I’ll have your balls sliced off and fed to the hogs.”

“If you don’t stop threatening me and my job, I’m going to kick your fat ass up between your shoulder blades right here in front of your two worthless deputies.”

Miller’s jaw dropped, and his deputies, probably feeling they had to make some kind of show of loyalty, came out of their chairs and moved toward Longarm as if they were going to give him a fight.

“Don’t even think about it,” Longarm warned, his words bringing the pair to a standstill.

Longarm turned and headed out into the street. He’d looked everywhere he could think of for Bodie yesterday, and now he had to think of some new places that the kid and his dog might be hiding. For the sake of Bodie’s welfare and immediate future, he needed to find the kid before Sheriff Miller, or else the boy would be caught up in a legal and jurisdictional situation from which he might never recover.