Longarm and the Yuma Prison by Tabor Evans

Author:Tabor Evans
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2014-03-24T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

On Monday morning Longarm knocked on Kent Hamilton’s door and fidgeted impatiently while he waited. Hamilton lived in a nice stone house with a small porch. In Denver, the house would have been considered extremely modest in size and appearance, but in Yuma it was one of the better homes.

The door opened and there stood the man that Jessica had married. Kent Hamilton was of average size and build, with a long sweep of brown hair brushed across his high forehead. He had good features and a wide smile with even teeth. He was clean shaven and dressed in a suit, white shirt, and tie as befitted a man of his profession.

“Good morning, Marshal Long.”

The temperature was already in the low eighties and Longarm figured it would rise into the mid-nineties before the day was over. Longarm had not bothered to shave or have his clothes cleaned; he was irritable and aware that he cut a rather poor figure in comparison to the attorney.

“We need to have a talk,” Longarm told the man. “Inside or out here on the porch, whichever you prefer.”

“Come on inside where it’s cooler. And I’m sure that Jessica would be hurt if she thought you were avoiding her.”

“I’m not avoiding anyone,” Longarm said too abruptly. “It’s just that I don’t like this town much and I’d never have come had it not been to help her and her father.”

“And now that she has married me, has that all changed?”

“No,” Longarm said with conviction because he had already given the anticipated question a great deal of thought. “I came to see if I could free a once very much respected federal marshal from prison . . . providing he was set up and killed those two gamblers in self-defense.”

“Please come in where we can talk privately,” Hamilton said, opening the door and stepping aside.

Longarm entered the small front parlor and smelled fresh coffee. Hamilton gestured toward a seat and then settled in close at hand. He called, “Jessica, Custis has come to visit.”

Jessica appeared and damned if she didn’t look happy and even radiant. Longarm swallowed hard and rose to his feet. “I guess my congratulations are in order.”

“Thank you. Kent and I were together before and if everything hadn’t gone bad so suddenly, we’d have married some time ago.”

“I understand.”

She moved close. “I do hope so, Custis. I wasn’t using you.”

“Yeah, you were,” he said, trying to keep an edge of bitterness out of his voice. “But I came here because my boss knew and thought a great deal of your father. So now that our past is in the past, Jessica, sit down beside your new husband and let’s talk about what I can or cannot do here.”

“There is a great deal you can do,” Kent Hamilton assured him. “Starting with keeping me alive while I go through the evidence and petition a federal judge to come to Yuma and preside over a new trial with fresh evidence.”

“Fresh evidence?”

“Yes. I have convinced a few witnesses to the shooting to testify where before they were too afraid to do so.

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