Tanglefoot by Paul Lederer

Author:Paul Lederer
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781480488151
Publisher: Open Road Media

SEVEN

It wasn’t easy to find the small clapboard house, and it was still early in the day, an unlikely time for an unwelcome visit, but Chad had left Starr snoring on his office cot and ridden to Ben Cody’s house. It was time they spoke. The old lawman likely knew more of what was going on around Las Palmas than anyone.

Chad felt that there was much more he had to learn. He was lost, adrift in things he did not understand. If Cody would deign to speak with him, perhaps much could be cleared up. He owed it to the town, to himself, to Candida who had urged him to dig deeper into matters in Las Palmas. Hell, he owed it to the citizenry he was now sworn to protect.

There was a cottonwood tree standing in front of Ben Cody’s modest house, and a buggy with its traces dropped near a hitch rail. The buggy did not surprise Chad. What would have been more surprising would be the sight of the corpulent former marshal sitting a saddle horse. After tying his horse to the hitching rail with a loose slip knot, Chad stepped uneasily up onto the shadowy porch of the small cottage. If Cody had reason to dislike anyone in town, Chad’s name was certainly at the top of the list. He rapped twice on the door and waited, expecting anything.

The door was swung wide suddenly and Ben Cody stood there, wearing an apron, a wooden spoon in his hand. The former marshal smiled.

‘Come in, young man! I was just making breakfast. If I have to say it myself, I’ve gotten to be a fair cook since my wife passed away three years ago. Can I offer you anything?’

Chad was taken aback by the former marshal’s joviality. ‘No,’ he stammered, ‘though if that’s fresh coffee I smell.…’

‘It is. I just ground the beans this morning. It’ll be ready before you can sit and make yourself comfortable – Dempster? That’s right, isn’t it?’

‘That’s right.’ Chad said, holding his hat in his hand, looking around the small comfortable-appearing room.

‘I’ve scrambled some eggs,’ Cody said. ‘Eight of them, though I usually only eat six. You’ve never had them the way I fix them – a little cream, a few diced onions, a tomato and just a tablespoon of brown sugar. I wish I could talk you into trying some.’

‘Well, maybe I will,’ Chad said, since he had been on the road before the aunts were up and about.

Cody stirred the eggs cooking in the black skillet on the stove, then poured them each a cup of coffee. ‘Cook them slow,’ Ben Cody said, ‘that’s the trick to it. Now then,’ he asked, putting his heavy forearms on the table and looking across at Chad, ‘what brings you out here so early in the morning?’

On this day, the old man with the round face and the small nose seemed almost cherubic, far from Chad’s first impression of him. He rose again to check his eggs.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.