Marshal Jeremy Six #1 by Brian Garfield

Author:Brian Garfield
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: death wish, colt 45, piccadilly publishing, 1880s wild west, brian garfield, brian wynne, jeremy sixgun westerns, us frontier historical
Publisher: Piccadilly

Chapter Eight

At midnight Jeremy Six left the office to make his last rounds of the night. Gutierrez sat dozing on the porch. Still stiff and raw in places from his fistfight with Drake Ivy, Six moved slowly to protect his battered limbs.

It was a quiet night in Spanish Flat. Only a small subdued group rattled around in the Drover’s Rest. Hal Craycroft, tending bar, nodded to him when he looked in. Six went back along the street, checking doors to see that they were properly locked up; presently he turned into the back streets along his route to Cat Town. He never used precisely the same route two nights in a row; if he were to establish that kind of schedule, it would only make it easier for an enemy to set up an ambush. Tonight his first stop in Cat Town was the Longshot Dance Hall. All was quiet. He went on, looking in on the Tres Candelas, where he had arrested Ivy, and then turning off into an alley to check the peace in that row of independent cribs. A few red lamps gleamed; two or three girls sat listlessly on porch rails, dangling bare legs. He went back to the street and walked up to Clarissa’s place, the Glad Hand. The orchestra wasn’t playing—there were not enough customers to merit its effort—and the only sound was Buchler’s strange, melancholy chording on the piano. Buchler looked up and gave him a dim smile, coughed, and returned his attention to the keyboard. Six looked around the place and was turning to go out when he noticed the back office door open. Clarissa came into the doorway and beckoned to him; he went back.

She closed the door behind him. She was a very pretty sight, he thought, in brown crinoline.

She said, “Avoiding me tonight, Jeremy?”

“Maybe I was,” he confessed, seeing no benefit in lying to her.

Her smile was more tender than usual. “You don’t have to hide from me.”

“I thought I might be able to think better.”

“If I wasn’t around,” she finished for him. “Why? What is it you need to think about?”

He considered it. “When a man reaches my age he doesn’t go jumping into things unless he’s got a pretty good idea of where he’s headed.”

“And you don’t have a good idea of where you’re headed,” she said. “Perhaps that’s my fault. I haven’t given you much help, have I?” When he made no answer, she said, “I wish I could, Jeremy. But I don’t even know where my own heart is. How can I tell you where to put yours?”

“Yeah,” he said. All the while they had been standing close together, Clarissa looking up into his face. He reached out and put his hand on the door latch. He said, “I’ve been thinking of moving on. This isn’t the only town that needs a policeman.”

“Running away won’t solve anything.”

“At least it might take me away from temptation.”

She laughed. “You make me sound like Lucifer.”

His answering smile was a little wry.

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