In nearby Gardner, California, Tito Calhoun and Dave Coffin were sitting in a saloon, catching up on old times and planning what to do with the money from this new score.
“When are Kent and those other boys gettin’ here?” Coffin asked. “Jesus, we could go in there tonight an’—”
It was the liquor talking and Calhoun had to rein Coffin in.
“The other players won’t be there tonight,” he explained, “and neither will the banker.”
“Banker?”
“According to my source,” Calhoun said, “they have a banker from Sacramento holding all the money, and he will also be there for the game—to give each player his stake.”
“If we knew when that banker was coming,” Coffin said, “and by what route, we could hit him before he got there.”
“Yeah, but we don’t,” Calhoun said. “Kent and the others should be here tomorrow night, so we go day after tomorrow.”
“So meanwhile we just sit here and wait?”
“No,” Calhoun said, “we’re gonna take a ride out there tomorrow and check on security, see how tight it is. We can either slip through or bust through. We’ll have to decide which.”
“I’d just as soon smash through ’em,” Coffin said, his voice slurred.
“I know that,” Calhoun said. “Why don’t we turn in for the night?”
“Huh? The night’s young. And you been in prison. Let’s find some women.”
“Well, then, how about you stop drinkin’?”
Coffin narrowed his eyes and stared across the table at his partner.
“You sayin’ I can’t hold my liquor?”
Calhoun leaned forward and said, “I’m sayin’ you can’t hold your liquor.”
Coffin stared for a few moments, then burst out laughing so hard it drew the attention of the others in the saloon.
“By God, Tito, you’re the only man who could say that to me and live.”
“So you’ll stop drinkin’?”
“No,” Coffin said, still laughing, “but we can go and get somethin’ to eat before we find some women.”
Calhoun decided to take what he could get.
Camped somewhere between Carson City and Gardner, Tom Kent sat at the fire, drinking coffee while the other men slept. Two of them seemed to be competing to see who could snore the loudest, while the others occasionally leaned over and nudged them into silence.
Kent didn’t like being separated from Tito Calhoun. For all he knew, Calhoun and his partner had already hit the game and were riding off with the money. He didn’t know what had made him trust a man who had just gotten out of prison. Sure they’d known each other years ago, but they were not friends, not by any means.
He touched his pocket, where his badge still resided. He hadn’t yet tossed it away. He took it out and held it in his hand, let the light from the fire reflect off it. He remembered how proud he’d been to wear his first sheriff’s badge, after all the years of wearing a deputy’s star. Now he was preparing to just chuck it away, for a woman and for some money.
Some money?
Six hundred thousand dollars was more than some money!
There could be no second thoughts when it came to that much cash.
He held the badge out over the fire, then let it drop from his hand into the flames.