Halliday 5 by Adam Brady

Author:Adam Brady
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: cattle rustlers, gunmen, piccadilly publishing, pulp westerns, ebook westerns, westerns ebook, westerns 1800s, colt and winchester, adam brady westerns
Publisher: Piccadilly

Cole Turner stood with his hands gripping the bars of his cell, watching the sheriff rummage through his desk in search of a pencil and a sheet of paper.

Finally, the lawman grunted in satisfaction and sat down.

“All right, Halliday,” he said, “tell me who else was ridin’ with you. I’ll send a wire to Mose Mooney so he can get their statements.”

“You’re wastin’ your time, McCallum,” Turner said from his cell. “I can’t imagine why Halliday’s lyin’, but he sure is makin’ a fool of you. I’m innocent. If you’ve got the brains and the decency to listen, I can prove it to you.”

McCallum lifted his head slowly and gave Turner a piercing look.

“I’m listenin’,” he said.

Turner pulled at the lapel of his coat to straighten it. One wing of his shirt collar was torn, and he seemed more concerned with this damage than his other problems. Finally, he said;

“I’ve been down on the border chasin’ up some business for Ed. Have a look in my room behind the freight office. There’s a notebook, probably on the night stand. It has the names of the men I talked to. As for bein’ anywhere near Wild River and the Hillary place, Ed doesn’t have any business down there and doesn’t want any. I haven’t been anywhere near the place, and it’s more than a year since I last saw Tom.”

“He passed through here four months ago,” McCallum pointed out.

Turner seemed surprised.

“If he did, I didn’t see him. All I’m interested in is doin’ my work and gettin’ ahead so I can give Beth the kind of life she deserves. Why the hell would I get involved in trouble that could ruin me? You know Beth. You must know what a wonderful girl she is. I wouldn’t risk losin’ her for anything ...”

McCallum dropped his pencil and searched the desktop until he located his pipe and tobacco pouch. He took his time filling the bowl.

“Keep talkin’,” he said.

Turner shot a murderous look in Halliday’s direction.

“This feller’s spinnin’ some story about shootin’ me in the shoulder in a gunfight,” he said to the sheriff. “Of course, you fell for it hook, line and sinker instead of talkin’ to me. So, if you ask around Glory Creek, you’ll hear that I caught a stray bullet there when a bunch of Texas trail drivers got drunk. Maybe that fracas got a mention in the newssheet.”

“I read somethin’ about it,” McCallum recalled.

Turner felt his shoulder.

“Well, that was how I got this bullet. You ask me, you should’ve known this ranny was lyin’ to you as soon as he said Tom ran away. Tom never runs. You oughtta know that.”

“Right now,” McCallum said, “it’s just his word against yours. I’ll check up on what happened at Wild River—and Glory Creek, too. Gotta tell you though, I’d be hard pressed to think of somebody reliable in Glory Creek.”

Turner’s knuckles went white on the bars of his cell.

“But you know me, McCallum,” he insisted, “and you only just met

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