I was keeping company with a clean, dark-haired young whore named Katie Goode, who was a quarter Kiowa, a quarter Mex, and half some sort of travelin’ Yankee. She and two other girls had a small house at the north end of town where they lived and conducted business. Katie had just finished conducting it with me, and we were lying in her bed in the back room.
“I heard the marshal almost killed Tub Gillis yesterday,” Katie said.
“Hit him a lot,” I said.
“I heard he done it for no reason,” Katie said.
“He had his reasons,” I said.
“I heard Tub wasn’t doin’ nothin’ but drinking some beer with Bertie Frye.”
“Virgil was annoyed,” I said.
“At Tub?”
“Mrs. French was raggin’ him a little,” I said.
“Her,” Katie said.
“Her?”
“You heard me. You think she’s such a sweet thing,” Katie said. “All you men. Girls know better. She should move up to the north end with the rest of us.”
“You think she’s a whore?”
“She’s wiggling her sweet ass for money just like the rest of us.”
“Except you,” I said. “With me.”
“Of course, Everett.”
“How do you know about Mrs. French?”
“I go in there. She sees me, she looks like she’s looking at a bug. But I see the way she is. She’s looking to get those hooks of hers into some man. Might be Marshal Cole.”
“He’s taken with her,” I said.
“How about you, Everett? Are you taken with her?”
“I don’t think that would be a good idea,” I said.
“Not a good idea what?”
“To be taken with her,” I said.
“ ’Cause of Marshal Cole?”
“Nope.”
“So you don’t think she’s such a prize cow, either, do you,” Katie said.
“I don’t know about her,” I said. “But I wish Virgil weren’t quite so taken up with her. “
“She have a husband?”
“She says so. Says he died.”
“Probably fucked him to death, be my guess,” Katie said.
“Not a bad way to go,” I said.
“You like the way she plays the piano?”
“No.”
“Me neither.”
“I don’t want you sayin’ nothing to Virgil about this,” I said.
“I don’t talk to him. I’m scared of him.”
“Yes,” I said. “Virgil can be a touch intimidatin’. And I don’t think he’s had as much experience with women as I have. But he’s got the right to fall for any woman he wants.”
“You got a lot of experience with women, Everett?”
“From Fort Worth to Cheyenne,” I said. “I got more notches on my pecker than a handsaw.”
“Well, you learned one thing good,” Katie said.
“I hope so.”
“You can do it again, for free,” Katie said, “if you want to.”
“I believe I do,” I said.
“Then go right ahead, Everett.”
“I believe I will.”