Longarm and the Nevada Slasher by Tabor Evans

Author:Tabor Evans
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group

Chapter 10

When Dudley awoke late the next morning, he felt as if his poor head would explode. And then, when he reached for his clothes and discovered that not only was Marlene missing, but so was his thousand dollars, he wished his head had exploded.

He dressed quickly and as he passed the cracked mirror in the little upstairs room, he saw his reflection. “Oh my gawd!” he cried. “I hardly recognize my own self!”

He rushed out into the hallway and then down the stairs to the bar where a new bartender and a few rough-looking customers were standing and talking.

“Marlene!” he panted. “Where did she go?”

“Isn’t she upstairs?” the bartender, a fat man wearing a flannel shirt and black suspenders asked.

“No! I was upstairs in her room.”

“Then I have no idea where she could have gone.”

The bartender returned to his earlier conversation and appeared quite annoyed when Dudley hissed, “Look. She stole a lot of money from me last night. Where can I find her?”

“Who knows. Marlene don’t work here. She comes and goes as she pleases. She rents that upstairs room once in a while. The boss don’t ask her what she does when she takes men up there, but that ain’t too hard to figure out.”

A couple of the men chuckled and one, a tall, thin man with a drooping mustache and a bobbing Adam’s apple said, “She never would take me up there. Would she take you, Luke?”

“Nope. And I begged her just like most of the fellas, but she wouldn’t ever do it.”

“But I have to get that money back!”

“Mister, I can’t help you.”

“Who can?”

“The boss lives over on Second Street. Little redbrick house with a railroad man’s lantern hanging on the front porch. You can’t miss it.”

Dudley dashed outside, his head splitting with pain. He raced down to Second Street, and when he found the house, he beat furiously on its door until a nondescript woman in a housedress answered.

“What do you want?”

“I need to speak to the owner of the Waterhole.”

“What about?”

“I was robbed by one of his girls. A woman named Marlene. She took me upstairs and—”

“I don’t want to hear about it,” the woman snapped. “Whatever happened to you up there is none of my business, and it also damn sure better not be any of my husband’s business. So get along. William is asleep and doesn’t like to be awakened until mid-afternoon.”

“Please. Can you just tell me where I can find Marlene?”

“I don’t even know who she is!” The woman glared. “But I say that, whatever she did to you, you had coming. Now get lost!”

An instant later, Dudley was staring at a closed door. Even more than that, he was wondering what Longarm would do or—

“Oh no! He’s probably gone!”

Dudley turned and raced back up the street and he was badly winded and feeling as if he were going to faint by the time he reached the Dollar Livery. He skidded to a halt, caught his breath, then went looking for Salty Bates.

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