The Transgressors by Jim Thompson

Author:Jim Thompson [Thompson, Jim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery
ISBN: 9780316196086
Publisher: Vintage
Published: 1961-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

13

Bradley had brought a deputy with him; gangling, moose-jawed Buck Harris. Lord awaited them in his father’s old office, boots propped up on the desk, hands clasped behind his head.

Bradley was scowling importantly. Buck grinned at Lord uneasily, wishing that he was anywhere but here. Why, ol’ Tom wouldn’t do what that crazy gal claimed he had! It just wasn’t in ol’ Tom to kill a man in cold blood.

“Sure been missin’ you down to the office, Tom,” he said, just as the sheriff started to speak. “Don’t seem like the same place no more without you around.”

“Don’t it?” Lord gave him a flat-eyed look. “Is that a fact, now?”

Buck said that, no, sir, it sure didn’t seem the same—again speaking before the sheriff could. “You remember that hawg thief I nailed out t’ the commission pens. Well, now he’s claimin’ he ain’t guilty.”

“He prob’ly ain’t,” Lord said. “I figure you stole them hawgs yourself.”

“Aw, now…” the big deputy grinned uncertainly. “That ain’t very funny, Tom. Why for would I be stealin’ hogs?”

“Prob’ly because you ain’t got two dimes to rub together; ol’ Dave here grabs everything for himself. An’ you prob’ly wanted to get them big ugly teeth of yours fixed.”

Buck was very sensitive about his teeth; he usually talked with a hand held to his mouth. The hand went there now, his face white with hurt, slow anger building in his eyes. And Tom Lord was hurt for him, winced with him. But this was the way it had to be played. He had cut loose, or rather been cut loose, from something. It was best for all concerned that the cut be clean.

“Don’t pay the ornery cuss no mind, Buck,” said Bradley angrily; and then, “Tom Lord, I’m arrestin’ you for the murder of Aaron McBride.”

“Yeah?” Lord drawled. “Who says I murdered him?”

Bradley told him, and the ex–chief deputy shook his head. “She’s been threatenin’ to do that. Got peeved with me, and this is her way of hittin’ back. I figure she ain’t much of a witness, Dave.”

“What you figure don’t count! Now, you want to come peaceable or you want it t’other way?”

“We-el…” Lord pursed his lips judiciously. “Why don’t we make it the other way? Might be real interestin’.”

Bradley blinked, his mouth gaping open. He looked uncertainly at Buck Harris, and the deputy drew his forty-five. “Might be interestin’ at that,” he said. “You better get movin’, Tom.”

“Huh-uh,” said Lord. “What you fellas better do is call Miss Lakewood again. I figure she’ll probably change her story.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. Unless you want to chomp up that pistol with them big teeth o’ yours. Because I’ll sure as hell make you eat it.”

It was too much for Buck Harris, well aware as he was of Tom’s handiness at “scufflin’.” It was more than he could or would take, even with the sheriff ordering him to lay off.

He came around the desk, the gun drawn back for a whipping blow to the skull. The gun came down in

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