Longarm and the Arizona Assassin by Tabor Evans

Author:Tabor Evans
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group

Chapter 10

For the next few days, Longarm made it his mission to get acquainted with everyone of importance in Flagstaff, including all the city council members and the new postmaster. He told everyone that he was in town to catch a killer and he would not be leaving until he’d accomplished that goal.

A few people noted that Griz had bought himself a fresh change of clothes and was seen a little more out and about. The population of Flagstaff was less than a thousand, mostly loggers, railroaders, or cowboys, and also mostly young and rowdy. Every night the saloons were bursting with activity, and fights among the drunken men were commonplace, with stabbings and shootings taking place at least a couple times each week.

Whenever Longarm happened to be in a saloon and Griz appeared, the two did not acknowledge each other’s presence. They pretended to be strangers, but Longarm was always shooting glances at Griz, knowing that the man would give him a sign if he had come up with any fresh leads on the murders.

The woman who owned the two-story brick Fremont Hotel, Miss Annie Blake, had taken an immediate shine to Longarm and given him her best room, which just happened to be next to her own on the second floor.

“I probably should have put you down at the end of the hallway, Marshal,” she told him with a seductive smile.

“And why is that?”

“Well, my interior walls are pretty thin, if I do say so myself. And if you bring a woman up to your room, you might make so much noise that I won’t be able to sleep.”

“The opposite might be true,” he said.

Annie laughed. “I’m pretty choosy about who I let into my room,” she said. “They have to be real gentlemen and very special.”

“I’m pretty choosy too.”

“Are you enjoying your stay here at my hotel and the meals in my restaurant downstairs?”

“I am. Good food. Good bed. Nice view out my upstairs window of the San Francisco peaks.”

“Glad to hear that, Marshal Long,” Annie said, looking genuinely pleased. “Sounds like you’re happy all the way around.”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Longarm told her. “I’ve been here four days and I still haven’t got a clue as to who shot the postmaster and the two sheriffs that briefly wore badges.”

“That is the question everyone wants to answer,” Annie said. “Have you talked to the new postmaster, Mr. Norman Kerr?”

“I did.”

“He was the assistant postmaster when the robbery occurred, and it’s being said that his actions at the post office that day were heroic.”

“So I hear,” Longarm said. “Apparently he shielded one of his tellers with his own body and ordered the killer to just take what he wanted and leave the post office.”

“That’s the story,” Annie said. “However, it’s kind of hard for me to believe.”

“Why is that?”

“Well,” Annie said. “Norman isn’t exactly the hero type.”

Longarm remembered that Norman Kerr was a tall, bespectacled man in his late thirties who seemed nervous and high-strung. “No, he isn’t,” Longarm agreed.

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