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 step off, and watched as the wagon rattled down
the street.
He looked down at the hand holding the key, real-
ized he still wore two pistols in his waistband. All you
need now is a badge and you ll be just what Roy Bean
wanted you to be, he told himself: a lawman. It was a
damn foolish thought.
He went to the Rosebud and found Roy Bean there
drinking beer with a dog.
They acknowledged each other. Jake stepped to
the bar and said,  Any food left over from the buf-
fet?
Peg Leg Watts shook his head.
Dakota Lawman: Last Stand at Sweet Sorrow 215
 It was all ate up, like usual. These local big
spenders come in, pay a dime for a beer, and eat three
dollars worth of luncheon meats, pickles, boiled
eggs, and every damn thing else that don t jump off
the plate. If you re hungry, try down to the Fat Duck,
Zimmerman might have something left over.
 I ve got two men in the jail, Jake said.  One s a
kid who we think shot Dex Sunflower dead. The
other s your preacher.
Roy Bean looked up.
 What he do? The preacher?
 Nothing that I know of outside of beating hell out
of Otis Dollar.
 Preacher?
Jake nodded.
 Me and Peg Leg seen him running out of town
last evening, naked as a skinned rat, Roy Bean said.
 That s how we found him, Jake said, explaining
the rest of it, about the fight, finding the Kunckle girl,
Dex Sunflower s body.
 Devil has put a curse on this place, Roy Bean
said, his eyes as troubled as the dog s.
 I don t know anything about that. I need to get
those men something to eat and the preacher a blan-
ket, then I need to find Doc Willis.
Roy Bean said,  I ll go get them some grub, then
I ll find Gus or Brewster to watch over them until we
can decide what needs be done with them.
 What happened to the one-handed man, Rivers? I
didn t see him in the jail.
216 Bill Brooks
 Dead. Found him dead yesterday. This town and
the folks in it are keeping the undertaker busy, sure
enough.
Jake started for the doors.
 Hold up, Roy Bean said, joining him outside the
Rosebud.
 What is it?
 I know where you can find Doc. I just didn t want
to say anything in front of Peg Leg is all.
Jake figured Roy had his reasons for the secrecy.
 He s down the alley with Birdy Pride in her crib. I
seen them go there earlier. Might be a bad time to dis-
turb him if you ve ever been in a similar deal.
 I guess I can find him in the morning just as eas-
ily, Jake said.
  Less you want me to go disturb him for you?
Roy Bean said, thinking that if he did go on Jake s
behalf, he might still stand a chance to win back
Birdy s loyalty.
 No. It ll wait until tomorrow.
Jake went down the street to the hotel where he d
rented a room. He opened a window hoping somehow
the night would draw the coolness from wherever it
was hiding these days. He poured water from a
pitcher into a pan and brought handfuls of it to his
face, neck, and chest. Christ, he hadn t felt so dragged
out since the war, when there was never any real sleep
to be had.
He sat on the side of the bed and pulled off his
boots, then stripped out of his trousers and lay back
hoping for the merest whisper of a breeze to float in
Dakota Lawman: Last Stand at Sweet Sorrow 217
through the window. He could hear noise coming
from the saloons one at either end of town. He
closed his eyes, tried to sleep. But sleep wasn t any
easier to come by than cooler weather.
Then there came a knock at the door. A soft
knock. His muscles knotted thinking it was someone
who d come for him a lawman or a private detec-
tive, maybe several. He reached for the Schofields
he d placed on the chair next to his bed. One in each
hand, he thumbed back the hammers, stepped to the
door and listened.
The knock came again.
 Who is it?
 Just me. Fannie. From the café. Do you remem-
ber?
He took a deep breath, then opened the door an
inch and saw through the narrow opening the face of
the woman. He waited for her to say what she was
doing at his door at night.
 I just got off from my job, she said.  I wondered
if you wanted some company.
 Why would you wonder that? he said.
Her face showed she was a little confused by the
question, perhaps a little disappointed.
She shrugged, said,  I just thought since you were
kind of new in town, maybe you didn t know anyone.
You seemed like a nice man the way you helped out
Mr. Rivers . . .
He stepped aside, realizing how rude it must seem
to her to keep her standing in the hallway. Then when
she stepped inside, he realized he was standing before
218 Bill Brooks
her wearing only a pair of short cotton drawers. He
started to cover up, to turn and reach for his shirt and
pants that were lying in a heap on the floor, but then
realized that it was way too late for such modesty.
She didn t look away either.
 I caught you in bed already, she said.
 Maybe I should put something on, he said.
 If that s what you want. It s not like I ve never
seen a man naked before.
He pushed the door closed behind her. The room
grew instantly dark again. Just enough night light
that they could make the other one out their shad-
ows. She stepped in close to him.
 I just thought if you didn t mind some company, I
didn t mind, either.
 No, he said.  I don t mind.
 I ain t no whore, she said.
 I know you re not, Fannie.
 It s just I sometimes get lonely. But most of the
men around here are married, or types you wouldn t
let lay down with your dog. Decent men come
through rare and when they do, they don t stay
long . . .
He put his fingers to her lips.
 You don t have to say anything, he said.
And when she touched him, her hands felt cool and
healing and suddenly nothing mattered, not the past,
not the present, not the future.
Later, when he rose from the bed and went to the
window, the night was quiet, cloaked in darkness,
Dakota Lawman: Last Stand at Sweet Sorrow 219
slumbering, for even the land seemed exhausted from
the on-going heat. A few wispy clouds drifted across
the moon that shone silver, then drifted away again.
He stood there for a long time simply feeling alone in
a world where nothing moved, where no life seemed
to exist but his own and that of the sleeping woman.
He turned at last and slipped in the bed next to her
and closed his eyes.
That night Prince Puckett shared a bed with the Chi-
naman at the way station along the trail from Bis-
marck to Sweet Sorrow. It was either share the bed
with the Chinaman or sleep on the floor. The China-
man smelled strange. Through the curtains he could
hear the woman and her children snoring. Prince
Puckett couldn t sleep. He was all keyed up. He rose
and pulled on his boots then went outside in just his
drawers and hat.
Seemed awful hot and dry for being so far north.
He thought about Denver, the coolness of the
mountains, the feel of the first snow upon his face
when it came. He d gone to Alaska once looking for
gold, but by the time he d gotten there, all the gold
had been taken. Later he d gone to Arizona, where he
heard they had silver mines, but the mines all got
flooded and to get the silver you needed lots of equip-
ment and manpower, neither of which he favored
very much. Then he d gone to the killing fields of
Kansas to hunt buffalo because he heard a man could
make some real money with good gun. And he killed
plenty of buffalo but the money wasn t all that good
220 Bill Brooks
and it was nasty hard work. And soon enough all the
buffalo got shot out and that was the end of another
dream and so he moved on. Became a policeman in El
Paso, but didn t care for the work and the low pay.
Finally he went to Denver and began hiring himself
out as a private detective with thoughts he could turn
his business to that the size and scope of Allan Pinker-
ton s.
But the plain truth was, he wasn t much for keep-
ing books and organization and dealing with employ- [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]