Edge 59 by George G. Gilman

Author:George G. Gilman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: louis lamour, terry harknett, spaghetti westerns, forrest carter, westerns ebooks, piccadilly publishing westerns, edge the loner, westerns by george g gilman
Publisher: Piccadilly

Chapter Ten

WINTON REMAINED A locked-up town, minding its own business as its lawman set about doing what it was necessary to do in the wake of the latest deadly violence to shatter the peace of the community.

Plainly the gunfire must have been heard all over town, but nobody was going to be the first to come out on to the streets to discover the cause of the gunbattle on River Road, to find who had participated in the exchange of fire, and its outcome.

So it was like every citizen had suddenly decided to adopt Stan Craig’s philosophy: persuaded to this view by fear of the consequences of interference rather than any unselfish desire not to get involved in bad business that was none of their concern.

Those who were the participants welcomed being ignored in a situation which normally would have made them the center of morbid attention.

This was particularly so for Kenyon, who had the lawman’s innate aversion to people who hampered him in his peacekeeping duties by indulging their ghoulish curiosity after a tragedy: and his initial impulse to anger at the death of yet another Winton citizen was quickly controlled when he realized there was to be no gathering of bloodthirsty rubbernecks.

He even requested, rather than ordered, the three survivors of the gunfight to go to the law office and wait for him. While he arranged for Frank Behan to have his men take care of the new corpse: carry it back inside the funeral parlor where Jack O’Hara had unwittingly waited in such an appropriate place for his untimely end.

Alvin Ridler was granted speedy permission to make a detour by his house to change into clean, sweet-smelling clothing.

Fletcher Grady and Edge were allowed to keep their weapons, maybe because Kenyon realized he would be given an unwinnable argument by the half-breed if he made an issue of demanding their surrender.

Heading for the law office, Grady walked beside Roxanne Graham, the two of them huddled close together, talking in rasping whispers. And Edge followed several paces behind, rolled and smoked a cigarette, as the rangy man attempted to taunt the bulky woman into a quarrel. While she tried to placate his ruffled feelings with defensive explanations he refused to listen to.

It was no hardship for the half-breed to ignore them as he relished the intriguing lack of interest shown in him as he moved through the night-time streets of a small town after a fatal gunbattle in which he had taken a hand. Usually in such a circumstance, eyes would have tracked his progress, blatantly accusing him of being responsible for the violence: or he would have sensed surreptitious watchers peering at him with hostile contempt from the darkness behind moving curtains or cracked-open doors.

But the only ill feeling discernible in the terrified town tonight was between Fletcher Grady and Roxanne Graham, as the man continued to scorn the woman’s efforts to convince him there was no reason to be mad at her.

Although he did not try to

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