Last Stage to El Paso by William W. Johnstone

Author:William W. Johnstone
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pinnacle Books
Published: 2021-10-20T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

As Red Ryan and Buttons Muldoon sought their bunks, Luke Powell had already booked into the Monarch Hotel, a shabby-genteel building constructed to look like a New Orleans manor house. It had wrought-iron balconies, tin ceilings, and boasted that there were “spring mattresses in every room.”

Powell had no interest in any of that. His only concern was that Leoluca Vitale was in Room 21 and he was in Room 22, close enough for what had to be done.

Powell, Gus Finley, and Ross Glenn stood by the curtained window and shared a bottle of whiskey as they plotted their strategy.

“We decide here and now how we play this and when,” Powell said. “It’s got to be quiet. No guns. Seems like someone hears a shot and then the law and the whole city come running to find out who fired a gun.”

Finley and Glenn exchanged glances and then Finley, older and wiser, spoke up. “Boss, are you talking about a blade?” he said. “I’ve never stuck a man.”

“Me, neither,” Glenn said. “But I’m willing to give it a try.”

“I’ll do it. You boys hold Vitale down and I’ll skewer him,” Powell said. “Hell, it ain’t that difficult to shove a knife into a man.”

“Unless that man has time to draw iron,” Finley said.

“He’s a soldier. He’ll have a gun in his hand, depend on it,” Powell said. “It’s as though they never had a gunfight in Houston before—the whole damn town is talking about what happened to Whitey Quinn and Bill Cline. I wish they were with me tonight, instead of the dregs I’m left with.”

“We’ve got to stop Vitale skinning his iron,” Finley said. “That’s what we’re talking about, not dregs, because I ain’t a dreg.”

“I know you’re not, Gus,” Powell said, backing down. “I’m on edge, is all.”

“How good is this Vitale, boss? Do you know?” Glenn said.

“He’s a soldier. He’ll be good.”

“So we’re not gonna have much time.”

“A second or two, maybe less. Vitale will be mighty sudden.”

Finley said, “He’s got to come out of his room sometime. We can wait in the hallway and grab him as he walks out the door.”

“A good way to get us all full of lead,” Powell said. “Come on, think. I need better ideas. I want this done tonight.”

“We have to get him to open his door,” Finley said.

“How?” Powell said.

“A message!” Glenn exclaimed. Powell and Finley stared at him. “I knock on his door, but he won’t open it until I tell him I’ve got an urgent message from Vincenzu Grotte, and then he’ll open wide. And I’ll be right on top of him. How big is he?”

“I don’t know,” Powell said.

“It don’t matter none, I can take him,” Glenn said.

“He’ll still be armed,” Powell said. “He could get off a shot and ruin everything.”

Finley smiled. “Ruin everything and put a bullet in you, Ross.”

Powell thought for a while and then said, “A woman at his door could do it, put him off his guard.”

“Luke, you’re right, a woman!” Glenn said.

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