Tarnished Badge by Paul Lederer

Author:Paul Lederer
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781480488168
Publisher: Open Road Media

SEVEN

The young waitress’s name was Nan Singleton. Billy found this out when they returned to the hotel restaurant at noon. Uncertainly, shyly, he had asked the older blonde woman who served them about her when he did not see her working.

‘Ah, honey,’ the waitress said, placing coffee cups down between Billy and Laredo. ‘You mean little Nan. Nan Singleton. She works what we call a split-shift: breakfast and supper, that is. She’s off during the middle of the day, but she doesn’t seem to mind, says she has more time to get her chores done. Me, it would drive crazy….’

The waitress went on to express more of her personal preferences and tell them some of her own problems, but neither man was listening. Laredo, who had removed his hat and combed back his copper-colored hair with his fingers, sat smiling vacantly at her, nodding at intervals until the waitress was summoned to another table.

‘Well,’ Laredo said, folding his hands together on the table, ‘you’ve got her name now.’

‘Yes. I don’t know what good it does me. Everybody else who comes in here probably knows her name anyway.’

‘Probably.’

‘I wish I knew where she lived, Laredo.’

‘Ask the waitress when she comes back,’ Laredo prompted. ‘If she doesn’t want to tell you, it should be easy to find out. Nan Singleton lives in this town, works in this restaurant. People know her. We can ask around. I guarantee she’ll be easier to find than Jake Worthy.’

That brought Billy back to the real world. Men maybe out looking for a chance to gun them down, Goodnight on a rampage, the marshal gone, Bonnie Sue frittering the day away in a shop, Worthy keeping his head down in some nearby hide-out….

‘We sure walked ourselves into something, didn’t we?’ Billy muttered, refilling his coffee cup.

‘I’m kind-of used to it,’ Laredo answered. ‘It goes with the territory, as they say.’ After a thoughtful pause, Laredo told the blond kid, ‘You know, Billy, you’ve got no sort of obligation to stay around here if you want to leave.’

‘Thanks, Laredo. I know that, but I sure want to be around to see how it plays out.’

Laredo smiled, nodded and studied Billy Dewitt’s face. He wanted to see how matters evolved, sure. Also, Laredo thought, he wasn’t ready to just ride away and leave Nan Singleton behind yet.

Well, let the kid have his dreams. Laredo himself was looking over the men in the restaurant, looking for a man sitting alone, a left-handed man with black eyes who formerly wore a black mustache, for Laredo was certain that by now Jake Worthy would have gotten himself shaved clean as a sort of disguise. He would have to remind Billy that Worthy’s gun would be slung on his left hip – unless Worthy was also willing to wear it on his unaccustomed right side to throw people off. That seemed unlikely; Jake Worthy figured to need that gun before he left Ellis, and he would need it quickly if he happened to run into Jesse Goodnight.

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