Longarm on the Border by Tabor Evans

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

Chapter 22

“His name,” Torres said, “was Jonathon Marcus. Not a good man.”

“No,” Longarm agreed, “I reckon not.”

Torres shook his head. He was a thick-bodied man, beginning to gray at the temples. “This Marcus, he was a man of the alleys. You know what I mean, senor? Like a ... ” he paused to search for the word he wanted; “... a vermin. Hide in the shadows. Empty the pocket of someone who drink too much. Steal something here. Sell it there. Steal it back and sell it again. You know this kind of man, I think.”

“Yes, I surely do. I take it you knew him then?”

“Oh yes. Here in this small place, many people come to eat. We hear things. We don’t tell them so much. But we hear. We know.”

Longarm nodded. “Did Marcus work for anybody in particular?”

“No, senor. No one in El Paso, no one in Del Norte would trust him to hire. Pay him for an unpleasantness perhaps. Like to shoot Senor Mitchell from behind. Marcus, he would do a thing like that for money.”

“Big money?”

“Not so big, I think,” Torres said. “A man of small importance, a man of small payment. He had gold in his pocket when he die. Fifty dollars in gold. A little more of silver.”

“Fifty in hand. I reckon that would be part of what he was promised to do the shooting. An’ prob’ly another payment when the job was done. A hundred dollars total for the murder, I’d judge.”

Torres shrugged. “This I would not know.”

“No, sir, an’ I’m just guessing. D’you happen to know if Marcus was a friend of police Sergeant Ronny Worrell? You do know Worrell, do you?”

“Oh yes. I know this man too.” He sniffed. “Not much better a man than Marcus. But I have never seen these two together. I have not heard of them being compadres.”

“Marcus run with anybody in particular then?”

The cafe owner shrugged again. “He has friends. Evil like him. Mexican, gringo, the bad ones find each other and group together. Marcus, mostly he stay on the Del Norte side since, oh, three, four month ago. He had some trouble in El Paso.”

“With the police?” Longarm was still thinking there might be a connection between Marcus and Worrell if only he could find it.

“No, senor. The police they are no problem. A pay-off here, a bluff there, a few days in the jail. Not so much big trouble from the police. Small things only. Marcus had trouble with the Senor Kaufman. I do not know what this trouble was, only that Marcus was frighten after it. I do not think he has been on this side of the river again since that time.”

“I don’t know Kaufman,” Longarm said.

“Senor Kaufman, he is El Jefe in El Paso. The thieves, the putas, the street comer cheats and monte players, they all pay Senor Kaufman. Not so much. A little only. Like a tax, you would say. They pay or they have the broken arm, the broken leg.

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