Crooked Games: A Balum Series Western #9 by Orrin Russell

Author:Orrin Russell [Russell, Orrin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-05-21T06:00:00+00:00

22

The Cumberland Sheriff crossed one leg over the other and reclined in his chair. In his hand he held a rolled-up newspaper. He tapped it against his leg while his eyes ran Balum over head-to-toe.

Balum stood silent. It wouldn’t pay to say any more; he’d said his peace as soon as the deputy had brought him in, and it hadn’t gone well. The sheriff was quite taken with the festivities taking place in his town. Just the day before he had won his wife a riding crop at the carnival— spotting the Queen in a game of Three Card Monte— and his opinion of Samuel Kingston was riding high.

Instead Balum looked around. Two deputies lounged beside the doorway. There were three cells in back, each one crammed tight, and the noise created by so many men locked together in such close quarters was an abomination.

The sheriff quit tapping his paper. “Would you all shut up?” He waved the paper at the cells as if swatting at a fly. Then he turned back to Balum. “Hosting a carnival and a poker tournament in the same week brings in good business, but it brings in plenty of trouble, too.”

“I don’t disagree,” said Balum.

“Don’t get smart with me. I know who you are. You came through here a couple months back along with an Indian and a black man.”

“That’s true.”

“That Indian friend of yours cut a man to ribbons in the middle of the street.” The sheriff pointed the newspaper at Balum, but Balum offered no change of expression. “I’ll admit the man he killed had it coming. Still, I don’t need that kind of trouble. Not with all this riff-raff I got to deal with,” he waved the paper at the three cells.

“I’ll keep quiet. You won’t hear a thing from me.”

“That’s right I won’t, because you’ll be gone. I want you to ride out. Now.”

There were times to argue and times to fight, and there were other times when it paid to keep your mouth shut and bob your head, and that’s what Balum did.

“Don’t let me catch you hanging around,” said the sheriff as Balum reached the door.

Balum turned. He held the door handle in one hand. He took a good look at the sheriff and at the two deputies, faces he would need to remember, then he set his fingers to the brim of his hat and left the three of them with their jail cells full of trouble.

Meredith met him outside.

“What did he say?”

“Says he wants me gone.”

“Gone?” She hurried up the street after him. “Well that won’t do. That won’t do at all. What about Andy Fletcher, and Bucky, and— ”

“Would you quit yammering? I’m not going anywhere until I get the gun I want, and your gunsmith is the only one I’ll find from here to Denver. Until then I just need a place to hole up.”

“That’s easy; you’ve already got a place.”

Balum gave her a sideways glance.

“What?” she said.

“Your two cabaret friends?”

“Like I said, they’re quite taken with you.

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