Bullets Don't Die by J. A. Johnstone Read Free Book Online Page A

He’s supposed to be in Wichita, living with his daughter Bertha.”
    Tate brightened a little at the mention of that name. “Bertha. That’s my little girl, Kid.” His memory of who The Kid was had come back to him. “I’ll introduce you to her. Cute as a button, she is. Just turned seven.”
    There was nothing The Kid could do but nod. “That’s fine, Marshal. I’m looking forward to it.”
    Cumberland sighed. “You see what I mean. Now, I reckon I’d better get this mess cleaned up. It’s a fine thing for a man to get back to town and find something like this waiting for him.”
    The Kid had already figured out Cumberland was the one who’d come galloping up just before the fight with Jed Ahern broke out. “Are you going to lock up Ahern until you find out what happened?”
    “I can’t lock up a man just on your say-so, mister,” Cumberland replied. “And since you already told me you didn’t see him do anything wrong—”
    “I did,” a new voice said. A woman’s voice. She pushed the bat wings aside and stepped out of the saloon. “I saw Ahern shoot and kill Ed Phillips, and I’m willing to testify to it in a court of law.”

Chapter 8
    Marshal Riley Cumberland looked pained. “Damn it, Constance, you know that’s not a very smart thing to do.”
    “What’s not smart?” the woman demanded. “Telling the truth? Or expecting you to do your job, even if it means stirring up Harlan Levesy?”
    “You got no call to talk that way,” Cumberland snapped.
    Tate looked up at the tall young lawman beside him and asked, “Why would you be worried about upsetting Harlan Levesy? He’s a little boy.”
    Cumberland ignored him. “I always do my job, but there’s nothing wrong with making sure what happened and not jumping to any conclusions.”
    “Oh, no,” Constance said, her voice edge with bitter sarcasm. “You wouldn’t want to jump to the conclusion that the Broken Spoke crew is nothing but a bunch of no-good hardcases now.”
    She was a big, middle-aged woman, seemingly almost as broad as she was tall, with red hair and a pugnacious expression on her round face. She wore a high-necked, long-sleeved gown of dark green silk and, due to the powerful nature of her personality, cut an impressive figure.
    She wasn’t the sort of woman he would want to cross, The Kid decided. She looked like she could break most hombres in two.
    The Kid picked up his hat, knocked some of the dust off of it, and settled it on his head. “You go right ahead and find out what happened, Marshal. Sounds like you’ve got an eyewitness right here.”
    Cumberland glared at him for a second, then holstered his revolver and said to Constance, “All right, go ahead and tell me about it.”
    “Ed Phillips was in my place having a drink when Ahern came in. He was proddy as ever—”
    “Phillips, you mean?” Cumberland interrupted.
    She gave him a scathing look. “Did you ever know Ed Phillips to be proddy in your life?” she demanded. “The man wouldn’t hardly step on a scorpion! No, I’m talking about Ahern. He was looking to pick a fight, the same way he is about half the time when he comes into town, and his eyes happened to light on Ed this time.”
    While Constance was talking, Tate edged away from Cumberland and came over to The Kid. “None of this makes any sense, Kid,” he said quietly. “There’s some sort of trickery going on. Cy Levesy would never hire a man like Ahern, and his boy Harlan couldn’t. Shoot, Harlan’s only ten or twelve years old!”
    Tate was lost in the past again, The Kid thought. He wasn’t sure the old lawman was ever fully in the present anymore. “We’ll see what they have to say, Marshal.”
    “Be careful. Folks will try to put one over on you.”
    “Well, I’ve got you to steer me right,” The Kid said.
    Tate smiled and nodded. “You sure do.”
    Constance was saying, “Ed knew what sort of varmint Ahern is, so he tried to put up with the man picking at him. Ed