Billy the Kid by Theodore Taylor Read Free Book Online Page A

everybody in his car turn over guns and valuables. Even got a banker to help him. Doesn't that sound like Billy? In that serge coat he even looked like a young deputy."
    It did, Willie agreed, but he didn't indicate it. He examined Lapham's parchment face again, hoping for doubts. "Are you sure?"
    "Sure as the sun came up this morning! I saw his face; saw him sitting that horse like they were part of the same flesh. Then I talked to the banker who helped him. He described Billy right down to the devil's lights in his eyes. Said he had a tongue like melted honey."
    Willie sighed deeply and nodded.
Yep, Billy Bonney!
He turned back to Pook Pine. "Take Almanac round to the stable, will you? I'll need him soon."
    The boy was pleased to serve.
    Then Willie moved up the steps, dejectedly heading for his office. Pine and Lapham tagged along. Over his shoulder Willie said, "Whoever they are, they're likely headed for Mexico, just like the last bunch."
    Pine responded, "I thought that right off."
    Lapham came to a halt just inside the door as Willie went on over to his desk.
    Lapham said, "Make an enemy of Pete Wilson, you've got one for life."
    Willie glanced around. "That's the understatement of this rotten year."
    Lapham laughed drily. "Politics, Willis! That's something you'll have to learn about this job. You will! It's just not chasin' outlaws."
    "Not me. Anyone wants it can have it. Exceptin' Earl Cole."
    Lapham came to rest by Sam's desk as the deputy sat down and began gathering the witness statements.
    Lapham said, "I've known you a long time, Willis. I knew your father. And I've known Billy since he was knee-high. He was always a handful. Now he's turned outlaw." He shook his head.
    Willie glanced up at the photos on the wall behind his desk. There was one of the swearing-in; one of himself and Kate; one of Billy and himself, arms affectionately draped over each other's shoulders after he'd bought the Double W; one of Billy grinning and holding a gunfighter pose, a souvenir of a turkey shoot at Placerita.
    Lapham went on apologetically, "I'm very sad about this, Willis. Sad that I had to be the one to identify Billy."
    "So am I" said Willie, mettle in his voice.
    Lapham said, "I'll go now. Good luck. If you find him, try not to say it was me."
    Willie swung his gaze back toward Lapham. "Maybe it was somebody that looked very much like Billy," he said hollowly.
    The lawyer half nodded and exited.
    Watching him go but thinking only of Billy, Willie muttered, "Dumb sonuvabitch." Kate hadn't stopped his cussing, though he never did it in front of her.
    Smart and canny, but dumb, too, Billy was at least two people in one skin. He was laughing, charming, talkative; then he was tricky as a wild horse, capable of exploding with raw violence. Billy had never made up his mind which person he wanted to be, Willie often thought.
But now—robbing trains?
    Willie moved to the gun locker to lift out a Winchester, then back to his desk to lay the .70 across it. He heard Pine asking, "You want me to go after him? We can't wait for Barnes."
    Willie turned to stare at his deputy. "
Him?
You told me there were four of them." He paused, still unable to accept it. "If it is Billy, I..."
    Sam said softly, "I made the offer."
    His shake of head was slight. "No, Sam, I don't want you to go after him. You might come back in a wagon bed."
    "He's that good?" Sam asked. Sam had been brought up from Phoenix three years before to be Metcalf's deputy, just before Metcalf was bushwhacked. He'd never met Billy.
    Willie laughed feebly and broke the Winchester down to load it. In his memory was one afternoon on the outskirts of Greeley when Billy shot three times at a poster nailed to a tree. The shots had come so fast, they made a continuous sound. Willie had thought the bullets went wild until Billy said, with a curious smile, "Look at the nail." It had been driven in. A tap of the poster, and it drifted to the ground.
    Willie murmured, "He's good, Sam.