Crossfire by Matt Braun

Author:Matt Braun
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group
Published: 1984-12-16T16:00:00+00:00

For the next four hours, Tallman walked the streets in search of the distinctive paint. His efforts were fruitless. Discouraged by the sour luck, he went back to the Buena Suerte and waited for Vivian. When she emerged from the casino, he followed her to her hotel. With the exception of a few stumbling drunks, the moonlit street was quiet.

“Who is it?” Vivian asked after hearing the light knocking sound at her door.

“Ash.”

“Come on in,” she said quietly after she opened the door.

“You look good, Viv,” Tallman said as he threw his hat on the bed. “A sight for sore eyes.”

“What did you find out?” Vivian asked eagerly. She was obviously engrossed in the case.

“Enough. But we need more to nail the coffin shut on the higher-ups. Even pulled a job the day before yesterday. I damn near closed the case right then and there.” He paused and gave her a serious look. “Watch your step. We’re dealing with a bad bunch.”

“I know,” she sighed. “It’s all over town about that Wells Fargo guard! Who the hell shot his balls off?”

“The leader of the bunch. A snake named Pearl Bowen.”

“A woman?”

“Meaner than a cornered wildcat.”

“You can’t get much meaner than what she did. They say the man has better than a fifty-fifty chance. At least that’s what I heard.”

Tallman winced, thinking of the cold-blooded way Pearl gutshot the guard and then blasted his crotch.

“Like I said,” Tallman went on with raised eyebrows. “Be careful!”

“That bitch ought to be drawn and quartered,” Vivian said through clenched teeth.

“That would be too good for her,” Tallman said. “Even the Indians couldn’t make her pay her dues. But for now let’s forget Pearl Bowen and her gang of mama’s boys. What have you been able to get?”

“I found out who Jarrott reports to. A man named Floyd Traber. I have nothing to tie him to the Wells Fargo jobs, but he is the number-one crook in Tucson. So I doubt he misses much. Travels with a dog-faced bodyguard who’s built like a tree stump. Also, Jarrott has me stroking the mayor of Tucson. I’m on orders to keep him up by sixty or seventy dollars a week. Might be a slick sort of payoff. But, to be honest, I don’t think the mayor has the sense to know whether or not he’s winning or losing.”

Tallman listened and began to roll a cigarette. “Be glad when I can go back to factory-made smokes,” he said. “So you got anything more on Traber?”

“Nothing more than I’ve just told you. I figure that my next step is to get next to Traber. He was bug-eyed the other night when I showed him a little of this,” she said as she squeezed her arms and caused a blossom of cleavage. “So it won’t be long.”

“A man would have to be queer to resist.”

Vivian ducked her chin and raised her eyebrows as she walked to the bed. Though she was able to ignore all convention and use the mysteries

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