Edge 56 by George G. Gilman

Author:George G. Gilman [Gliman, George G.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: American westerns, Best western ebook, Edge, Piccadilly cowboys, Spaghetti westerns, Steele, Terry Harknett
Publisher: Piccadilly
Published: 2022-12-01T00:00:00+00:00

Nine

EMMA GLASER LOOKED like she filled her lungs and worked on an expression that signaled her intention to hurl a stream of invective at Edge. But as her pale face began to form into the vitriolic scowl, her husband whirled towards her, launched what would have been a vicious right cross at her jaw.

Then the moment of madness was gone for both of them. Emma looked suddenly exhausted, Waldo slowed the pace of his arcing arm, opened the fist, clamped his cupped hand across her mouth before she uttered a sound.

Edge turned away from the doorway, as he moved along the hallway heard the rasping whispers of a domestic dispute that the Glasers succeeded in keeping secret.

When he was half-way down the stairs, Dolly Cory accused bitterly: ‘I seen you left your mark in the kitchen and in the dining-room, mister.’ She was at the far end of the bar, a half-full bottle of whiskey in one hand, an empty glass in the other, both rested on the counter top. There was a look on her emaciated face that signaled either she had just tossed down a shot of rye at one swallow and was suffering the effect, or she harbored a caustic hatred for the half-breed. ‘Up there on the wall, too. Heard you break down the doors just now.’ She shuddered and sighed. ‘Guess for a man like you, though, I oughta be grateful if you leave it at that?’

‘Helped myself to some coffee earlier, ma’am,’ Edge told her as he headed toward the batwings. ‘Figure there’ll be no charge? Since I didn’t get the full night in the room I paid for?’

‘I didn’t stay married to Nate Cory for as long as I planned to,’ she answered, stared at the bottle. And now her slightly slurred voice suggested she had taken more than just one shot out of it.

‘That’s life, lady,’ he said, paused at the entrance. ‘And death. It’s people screwing gives us life. Sometimes it can be people screwing themselves up ends it.’

‘Go to hell, mister!’ she snarled, clumsily poured herself another drink, slopping as much over the rim as into the glass.

He nodded. ‘It’s where I’ve been bound for near as long as I can remember, Mrs. Cory. But there has to be a better place to go from than Holderville.’

‘You’re leavin’, uh?’

‘Just as soon as I’ve been to the grocery store.’

‘Ain’t no point in doin’ that, mister! With Al dead and hardly cold some place out toward Comanche Canyon, Gertrude Brewster ain’t about to open up the store for business.’

Edge nodded. ‘Obliged for the information, Mrs. Cory.’

She flung after him as he stepped out of the saloon: ‘But I bet someone like you’ll just go to the store and bust down the door?’

‘Won’t be the first time I’ve lived off the land,’ he murmured against the creaking of the batwings as they flapped closed behind him.

Outside, the morning sun was warmer, its light brighter. The street was just as deserted as when he last saw it.

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