Longarm and the Dime Novelist Read online

  “Where the hell do you think you’re taking her?”

  “She’s sick. I’m taking her to see a doctor in town.”

  Grant looked to the house, clearly not sure what he should do next. “Did Mr. Pennington say that was all right?”

  “He’s not feeling well, either.”

  “Then I can’t let you take her.”

  Longarm started toward the man, whose face drained of blood. Grant started backpedaling, but Longarm was moving too fast. When he got closer, he brought the butt of the shotgun up and slammed it hard into Grant’s pointed, whiskered jaw. The gunman dropped and Longarm kicked him in the ribs, almost certainly cracking a few.

  “You cowboys don’t want any part of this trouble,” he said. “This girl is near death and I’m getting her to a doctor. Try and stop me and I’ll blow your guts across that barn wall.”

  The cowboys shook their heads and making it clear they were not about to provoke a fight and face the devastating blast of two shotgun barrels.

  Longarm climbed into the buggy and grabbed up the whip. He laid it down hard on the sorrel’s bony back and the buggy lurched forward, slewing around in the dirt and then heading back toward Fallon.

  “Holy gawd!” Delia swore, hugging Emily tightly. “How did we do that!”

  “We did what we had to do.” He glanced sideways at Emily. “Do you think she’s going to make it to town?”

  “I don’t know,” Delia choked, brushing strands of Emily’s dirty hair from her face. “I’m not a religious person, but right now I’m praying like a preacher.”

  “Can’t hurt,” Longarm said, realizing he still had a Cuban cigar clenched between his back teeth. He spit it out and the old sorrel gelding, now heading for its barn, showed surprising vigor.

  Chapter 23

  “He’s coming,” Longarm confidently predicted as they stood outside the doctor’s office. “Maxwell is consumed by his passions and his greed.”

  “But you punched him really hard!”

  “That’s right,” Longarm admitted. “The man wasn’t going to allow Emily out of his sight so I had no choice. I’ve seen his type before . . . not often, but often enough to be able to predict that he can’t leave me alone until he either settles the score or he is in on what he thinks must be a great invention and opportunity to make money.”

  “Will Pennington come alone?”

  “Not a chance,” Longarm told her. “He’ll be bringing that gunfighter that poses as a ramrod and everyone else he pays. They’ll be heavily armed.”

  “We need help. What about Sheriff Hopper?”

  “I’m going to see him right now. How is Emily doing this morning?”

  “She’s better and starting to make some sense.” Delia shook her head in sadness. “She’s been terribly abused.”

  “Sexually?”

  “Yes, sexually and emotionally. I can’t even imagine what horrors that monster inflicted.”

  “Has she said anything about what happened when she and her parents were ambushed?”

  “Emily said that a rider wearing a mask rode down and robbed the bodies of her parents after ambushing them from behind a rock. She tried to fight him but he hit her in the face and she passed out. When she came too, Maxwell was kneeling at her side. He told her that he’d chased off the murderer and thief and that he was going to take care of her at his ranch here in Fallon.”

  “And she believed him?”

  “Maxwell had cuts and said he’d had to fight the killer off. He said he’d shot the man as he was riding away and believed the shot was mortal. And he had all her parent’s money in the same satchel they’d been carrying to Carson City. It amounted to six thousand dollars.”

  “He never intended to return her parent’s money. And as for the ambusher that he said he shot, nobody in the search parties reported anyone had been shot and killed that day other than Marshal Pierce and his wife.”

  “Emily doesn’t know that. She said that she believed Maxwell was a hero. He took her to the ranch and they drank to the loss of her beloved father and mother.”

  Longarm nodded with understanding. “And he gave her opium and some powerful drugs and she never really came to her senses. He made her his sex slave.”

  “Emily says it is all a nightmare and she keeps crying. She is so thin and weak, but you can tell she was very pretty before Maxwell got control and abused her at the ranch.”

  “What does the doctor say?”

  “That she’s in terrible shape. Malnutrition. She’s been raped and sodomized and . . .”

  Delia began to sob, unable to finish.

  Longarm took her in his arms and held her tightly. “My guess is that you’re not going to put this part of what we’re doing into any dime novel.”

  “Never!”

  He kissed the top of her head. “Delia, I like you more and more. You’ve surprised me in a real good way.”

  “I’m glad, but what if all those men ride into town tomorrow and gun us down?”

  He thought about that for a moment. “Out at the Pennington ranch, we were on their ground and they held all the face cards. Here in town, it’s a whole different story. Maxwell Pennington may think he’s got the upper hand with all his men but I could tell him that those cowboys aren’t going to risk dying for him.”

  “So now you’re going to see Sheriff Hopper?”

  “Might as well, although I’m not expecting much.”

  “He’s a coward?”

  “No,” Longarm said, “but he’s not the kind of man to put it all on the line unless he has no other choice.”

  “He’s a disgrace if he won’t help us.”

  “True.” Longarm gently pushed Delia away. “Does Emily have anyone in Reno or Carson City to help her recover once this is over in Fallon?”

  “Her parents were the only family she knew.”

  “Then maybe when this trouble passes we ought to take her to Denver. There are specialists there who deal with people who have greatly suffered mentally as well as physically.”

  “She could come and live with me for awhile,” Delia offered, scrubbing away tears. “I have lots of room. It . . . it would be good for me, too.”

  “I was hoping you might make the offer.”

  • • •

  Fifteen minutes later Longarm towered over Sheriff Hopper, who sat slumped behind his desk and said, “I’ve stated it plainly. You either stand with me, or you get your fat ass out of town never to come back. What’s it going to be?”

  Hopper was shaking and almost in tears. “Listen, I didn’t start any of this and . . .”

  “Shut up!” Longarm bellowed. “You’re the sheriff and at the doctor’s office there’s a girl that’s been raped, drugged, robbed, and worse. You’re either going to stand with me when I make the arrest or you’re gone. Which is it to be?”

  Hopper scrubbed his sagging chins and then slowly came to his feet. “All right, I’ll stand with you. If I leave this town with my tail between my legs, I have nothing and my life is as good as over.”

  “Get ready for a fight if it comes that.”

  “Grant Wheeler and Mr. Pennington are both fast with their guns and they hit what they aim for. I’m not all that good with a gun, Marshal Long. I might as well tell you right now that I’m not good at all.”

  “Then use a shotgun,” Longarm ordered. “I’ll make the play, but you had damn well better back me if it comes to a showdown.”

  “I don’t have any choice.”

  “Grab a shotgun and follow me. We’re going to go to the hotel and wait for them and that shouldn’t be for long.”

  Hopper grabbed a shotgun, checked to see if it was loaded, then followed Longarm outside. “Oh, gawd, here they come already!”

  “Might as well get this over and the sooner the better,” Longarm growle
d. “Just stay back a little and off to one side. If Pennington or his ramrod go for their guns, open fire, but for gawd’s sake don’t hit me in the back!”

  Hopper nodded and licked his lips nervously. He was as white as a ghost and Longarm couldn’t miss the tremor in his fingers.

  Maxwell Pennington was sitting in a buckboard beside his ramrod and when they spied Longarm and the sheriff they directed the wagon straight up to them.

  “Well, well,” Maxwell said, eyes bouncing from Longarm to Hopper and back again. “What’s going on here?”

  “You’re under arrest for the murders of Marshal John Pierce, his wife, Agnes, and your own father. You’re going to Reno with me and you’ll face a judge and jury, and then you’ll sure as hell hang.”

  Maxwell barked a cold laugh. He looked to his cowboys and then to Grant. “I think that we need to settle this issue promptly, don’t you?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Both men stood up in the buckboard and started to climb down into the street but they didn’t quite make it. Sheriff Hopper, scared shitless but seeing no future for himself if he ran, threw the shotgun to his shoulder and screamed, “Gawdamn you, Max! I heard about the little girl over at doc’s office! How could you do that to her and her parents?”

  “Shut the fuck up,” Grant hissed.

  “You shut the fuck up!” Hopper cried an instant before he pulled the trigger.

  The gunfighter didn’t have a chance. Grant Wheeler’s long, thin body was hurled backward by the blast. Maxwell hesitated for a mere split second, then swore and went for his gun. Longarm’s gun was already coming out of his holster. Maxwell was faster on the draw, but he’d gotten a late start and Longarm shot him right through the heart twice just for good measure and pure satisfaction.

  Two of the Pennington ranch cowboys threw themselves off their ponies and went racing down the street on foot, yelling bloody murder. The others spurred their horses into a hard run out of town. The fine Pennington buggy horse danced in fear, nostrils flaring at the scent and sight of so much blood.

  Longarm turned to Sheriff Hopper, who was shaking badly. “You kind of jumped the gun, didn’t you?”

  “I . . . I guess.”

  “Well,” Longarm said, staring at the two dead men, “I suppose this pretty much guarantees you’ll get reelected.”

  Hopper’s head bobbed up and down and the shotgun slipped unnoticed from his chubby hands. He couldn’t tear his eyes off what he’d done to the gunfighter. “I guess they will reelect me,” he finally managed to say.

  Longarm clapped the fat lawman on the shoulder. “You probably ought to go into the nearest saloon and get a bottle.”

  “Yeah. Good idea.” Hopper finally managed to look at Longarm. “What about you?”

  “I’m going to the bank here and drawing six thousand out of Pennington’s account . . . the money that he stole from her parents. After that we’re leaving with Emily and won’t ever be back.”

  “Thank gawd.”

  Longarm smiled and holstered his gun. He saw Delia burst out of the hotel and come running toward him, arms spread wide.

  “Everything is going to be just fine,” he said to Hopper and himself as he went to meet his beautiful dime novelist.

  Watch for

  LONGARM AND THE GREAT DIVIDE

  the 424th novel in the exciting LONGARM series from Jove

  Coming in March!