Driggs moved to look out the front window for other lawmen. He figured they had to be right there, ready to pounce on him. He did not see anyone. He rummaged through Chastain’s pockets and found the keys to the cuffs. He unlocked the shackles, then dumped Chastain’s body into the same opening where he discarded Uncle Dave.
He looked out the broken glass of the back door but saw no one. He stepped out the door and just stood there for a moment, then moved down the steps into the alley.
The rain was still coming down hard and the alley had a good-sized creek running down the middle of it. Driggs moved to the opposite side of the alley and stood under the building’s overhang. He looked left and right to make sure nobody saw him and he saw nobody. Then he slogged off down the alley the way he came.
Driggs thought that Chastain coming on his own was abnormal procedure for a city lawman. Driggs stopped and moved under an overhang out of the rain. He wondered if he was going to be confronted at any moment by other Appaloosa lawmen, but the only thing that came and continued to come was rain.
He fished a cigarette and match from his vest pocket. He lit the cigarette and just stood there for a moment letting his fast-moving blood slow down some. Driggs was never really riled and he was not riled now but he was intent on taking care of business. He knew himself well enough to know that this sort of stimulation was like opening valves and gates made for destruction.
He moved between two buildings and made his way back to the street. He crossed the street, passed through the alley behind the drugstore, then emerged out onto a street a block closer to the Boston House.
When he started up the boardwalk he walked right under the Room for Rent sign where Margie boarded. He stopped, then took a step back and looked inside. There was no one in the small lobby. Then he walked to the side of the building and looked up to the window where he previously saw Margie when he’d followed her.
“What the hell, now is as good a time as any.” He knew she was away so he entered the boardinghouse. He stood still for a moment just inside the front door, thinking someone might come through a door that was just off the small lobby, but no one came. He walked up the steps to the second floor. Margie’s door was locked. There were two other rooms on the floor. Just to be safe, he knocked on both of the doors to see if anyone was in, but no one came to either door.
He pulled his knife, working it between the door and jamb, and made his way easily into Margie’s room. Inside Margie’s room, he began to search. What exactly he was searching for he did not know, but for something that would hopefully tell him who Margie really was.
He suspected just who she might be, but he had to find out for certain. He could not just speculate. He’d read about women like her, but he needed to know for sure. He needed to know just why she lied about Lincoln, Nebraska, and what she was doing there in Appaloosa. That lie she told meant only one thing to Driggs: she was hiding something, and Driggs was determined to find out just what that was.
What a gloriously strange day, Driggs thought, as he looked through Margie’s personal items. Everything had changed, and it would be only a matter of time before Driggs could get to the bottom of his business.
And there was nothing short of death that would keep him from doling out his vengeance. “If thine enemy hunger,” Driggs thought, “feed him. If he’s thirsty, give him drink, for in so doing thou shall heap coals of fire on his head. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves but rather give place for God’s wrath. For it is written, vengeance is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord.”
Driggs’s excitement grew as he looked through Margie’s personal belongings. Then Driggs found something that made him realize he was indeed keen, perceptive, and all-knowing. What he discovered in the bottom drawer under Margie’s underclothes made his loins grow perfectly rigid.