Denver Draw by Robert J. Randisi Read Free Book Online Page A

and it usually showed in their faces and demeanor. It was almost as if Butler had some of the same qualities that he did. There may not have been a disease ravaging his insides, causing him to spit up blood and little bits of his lungs, but there was something going on insidethe man.
    Tyrone Butler was interesting to Doc. The only other man he’d ever found remotely interesting was his only friend, Wyatt Earp.
     
    Bat and Wyatt sat with huge platters of steak and potatoes in front of them. It was still a little early in the day for Bat to have a meal that big, but Wyatt had been on the trail eating beans and drinking trail coffee for so long he wanted to treat him to something special. They were in a restaurant called D’Amico’s, run by an Italian immigrant who had somehow found his way to Trinidad.
    Wyatt didn’t want to talk about what had happened in Tombstone after Bat left. He also didn’t want to talk about the aftermath, the hunting down of as many of the cowboys as he and Doc could find. The death of Johnny Ringo, found lying against the base of a tree, was still a mystery to most. Bat had read about it in the newspapers. It was unknown if Ringo had been gunned by Wyatt, Doc, or perhaps someone else he had fallen out with.
    He did want to talk about Doc Holliday, though.
    “Doc is gonna be in trouble if they manage to extradite him back to Arizona,” Wyatt said. “And all because he sided with me.”
    “So keep him out of Arizona.”
    “That’ll be hard if they come after him with warrants,” Wyatt said.
    “What about you and Virgil?” Bat asked. “Any warrants out for you?”
    “There might be, but I ain’t worried about that. We were wearin’ badges when everything happened. Doc was not even a deputy, he just stood with us. He’s got enough problems of his own without taking on mine,but he did it.”
    “Sounds like a good friend,” Bat said. Personally, he saw nothing loyal or good about Doc Holliday, but he didn’t have to. He was friends with Wyatt, and if Wyatt saw it, it must have been there…somewhere.
    “What are you gonna do?” he asked.
    “Well…I was hopin’ there was somethin’ you could do,” Wyatt said, shifting uncomfortably in his seat.
    “Like what?”
    “Well, I don’t like to ask…”
    “Wyatt, we’re friends. Go ahead and ask.”
    “Well, you’re the one wearin’ the badge now,” Wyatt said. “If you swore out a warrant on Doc, a Colorado warrant, it would—what’s the word?— supersede an Arizona warrant, wouldn’t it?”
    “I suppose so, since Doc is here in Colorado.”
    “And then, if you simply never executed that warrant…”
    “I see what you’re sayin’,” Bat replied.
    “You’d need to get a judge to swear out the warrant, a judge who didn’t much care whether you executed it or not.”
    “I’m sure I could come up with somebody like that,” Bat said, rubbing his jaw.
    “Then you’d do it?”
    “Not only would I do it,” Bat said, “but I will. Just let me give it some thought, figure out how to go about it. You and Doc and Virg can stay here a while.”
    “Doc’s been talkin’ about goin’ to Denver.”
    “That probably wouldn’t be a problem, since he’d still be in Colorado.”
    “Bat, I know you and Doc don’t see eye to eye,” Wyatt said. “This is really decent of you—”
    “I’m doin’ it for you, Wyatt, not Doc,” Bat said. “Thatshouldn’t matter to you, though, as long as it gets done.”
    “No, you’re right,” Wyatt said. “Still, I’m grateful.”
    “Now that we got that cleared up, maybe we can give all of our attention to these steaks?”
    Wyatt smiled and said, “Exactly what I was thinkin’.”

CHAPTER 16
    “I’m out,” the third player at the table said. He got up and trudged out of the Bonanza saloon. That left only Butler and Doc Holliday at the table. Between them they had most of the money taken from the other players who had come in and out of the game.
    “Head-to-head?”