59
CALLICO SENT one of his many policemen to invite us to come to his office in Reclamation Hall. With its ornate furniture and its dim light, the office had a solemn quality. Callico had lit no lamps, and the rain streaking the big windows filtered what light had made its way through the dark overhead. He sat behind a big desk in the arched bay that looked out over the length of Main Street. At the other end of the long office, two on either side of the door, sat four policemen.
“How many law officers you got now, Amos?” Virgil said.
“We have grown to twenty-five,” Callico said. “Including my personal team.”
“Palace guard,” I said.
Callico shook his head with a smile.
“You don’t see the chief of police in Chicago or New York strolling about without escort,” Callico said.
Virgil nodded slowly.
“What was it you wanted to see us about?” he said.
“Seen you at the saloon today,” Callico said.
“Yep.”
“Virgil,” Callico said. “Everett. You boys know this town never elected a mayor before.”
“Yep.”
“I’m not sure it’s ready.”
Virgil and I said nothing.
“You seen what it was today. I’m trying to tell the truth and my opponent is talking ’bout shooting me.”
“Or you him,” I said.
“It’s barbaric,” Callico said. “We cannot have an election when one candidate threatens the life of the other.”
“So, what do you do?” I said.
“I may have to cancel the election.”
“And who’d run the town?” Virgil said.
“I would,” Callico said.
Virgil looked at me and smiled.
“I’ll be damned,” he said.
“Where’d you get all that information on the general being a coward and a baby killer?” I said.
“Very reliable person,” he said.
“That being?” I said.
Callico paused, thinking about it.
“I can’t tell you,” he said.
“Figured you couldn’t,” Virgil said. “What was it you wanted from us?”
“Looked to me this morning, when the balloon was sort of getting ready to go up, that you boys was getting ready to side with Laird.”
“We was going to side with anybody, be Teagarden,” Virgil said. “He helped us out with your Indians.”
Callico stared at Virgil.
“For crissake, Virgil,” he said. “He’s here to kill you.”
“I know,” Virgil said.
Callico stared at Virgil some more. He didn’t get it. I did. We owed Chauncey for the Indians. And he wasn’t here to kill Virgil yet. But I’d been with Virgil a long time. Like so many others before him. Callico had never met anybody like Virgil Cole. No one said anything.
“I think this is going to get pretty bad,” Callico said finally.
“Sounds like it to me,” Virgil said.
“Meanwhile,” he said, “I’m prepared to make you boys special deputies reporting only to me. I’ll give the same deal to your friend Teagarden.”
“Everett?” Virgil said.
“Don’t want to be a special deputy,” I said.
“Me, either,” Virgil said. “Can’t speak for Chauncey, but it don’t seem probable.”
“Will you side with Laird?” Callico said.
“Don’t know,” Virgil said. “You know, Everett?”
“I don’t,” I said.
“He’ll lose,” Callico said. “I got twenty-five men. I’ll close Appaloosa down and run it like conquered territory until the town is mine and knows it.”
“Then what?” Virgil said.
“Then we move on.”
“What happens to Appaloosa?”
“Don’t know,” Callico said. “Won’t care. I won’t be moving on to something worse.”
Callico looked at both of us and shook his head slowly for a while.
“It’s sad, really,” he said finally. “You boys had a chance to get on board something important here, and you’re too dumb to see it.”
“Maybe it ain’t dumb,” Virgil said.
Callico gave a humorless laugh.
“What else could it be.”
“Aw, hell, I dunno,” Virgil said. “Probably dumb.”
He stood. I stood, and we walked down the long office past the palace guard and out the front door.