Texas Two-Timing by Guy Brewer

Author:Guy Brewer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2010-03-01T00:00:00+00:00

27

It was past nine o’clock in the evening before James returned to the hotel room. Dex greeted him eagerly and was quick to spill the things he’d learned that afternoon from Henry Adams.

“Did you find out anything more?” Dex asked when he was done with his own spiel.

“Plenty,” James said. “The same things you did about the sister, of course, and that fellow Mullen, who pretty much has to be the man Barnabus was talking about when I thought he was saying Melon. All of that fits together tidy as a picture puzzle.

“The person I was talking to didn’t say anything about your friend Reggoner being good with a gun. I don’t think she’s the sort to know or care very much about guns anyway.”

“She?” Dex teased with a grin.

“Don’t get jealous. This wasn’t the girl I expected to be with. In fact, I never got around to seeing her today. Instead I talked with a couple men who work around town, and one of them told me about this woman I should see. So I went over and called on her, and I’m glad I did.

“Her name is Emma. She’s in her forties, I think, but she looks older. She’s had a rough time of things. Has a couple woods-colt boys who give her grief. She spent a lot of time talking about them. Not that I wanted to hear it, mind, but I think she doesn’t get to talk very much. Or maybe it’s that she doesn’t want to air her own family’s dirty linen with folks she knows, but she felt a little freer about speaking with a stranger who’s just passing through. Anyway, when she did get off the subject of her boys and talked about Reggoner she had a lot to say. None of it was good, I can tell you that.

“Emma used to work for Reggoner’s family. Belonged to them when she was younger, then stayed on and worked for them.” James grinned. “Kind of like somebody else I can think of in this room right now.”

“You’re just damn lucky it’s against the law nowadays or I’d have you strung up and whipped now and then, just to hold your attention,” Dex blustered.

“Your daddy did do that a couple times that I can remember, you know,” James said softly. “Not to me, of course, but I saw it done, Dex. Twice, I think. I don’t expect I’ll ever forget the sound that snake made when it hit flesh.”

Dex felt his cheeks begin to burn. “I’m sorry, James. I didn’t mean ...”

“I know you didn’t. You were joking around. It’s just ... not a joking subject for me. You know what I mean?”

“Yes. I’ll try and not say shit like that again.”

“Yeah, well, what I was saying, this Emma belonged to the Reggoner family. Then she worked for them a while until some time after Charles and Amanda’s mother died. I gather that the father was a son of a bitch, too. She didn’t exactly say so, but he might’ve been the father of her boys.

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