Everybody Had A Gun by Richard Prather Read Free Book Online Page A

little glassful of whisky, water, and mud, pulled at it, then looked back up at me.
    I'd also noticed that on the table was a pile of artillery.
    There were three guns on the table, one of them the biggest revolver I've ever seen. I guess it was a revolver. It looked like one of those cannons used to start boat races, or maybe more like part of a printing press with a hole in the end and a trigger underneath. There's no gun like that made in the States, so it was either a foreign gun or a job from a custom gunsmith, and the bore looked an inch wide. The other two were an ordinary .45 automatic and a .32 revolver. Cartridges for all the guns were on the table, including some for the little chrome-and-pearl .22 revolver she was still holding in her right hand.
    She said, "Where you find him? He tol' me he was going to the club, but he's prob'ly chippying around. He's one louse." She hiccuped. "Who'd you say you were?"
    "Name's Scott, Mrs. Sader. When did Marty leave?"
    "I dunno. Early, likely. He slept here last night. I think."
    "Well, thanks," I said. "I'd better be going."
    "Want a drink?" She smiled.
    "No. No, thanks."
    I figured it was safe to take my eyes off her, and turned my head to see what she'd been blazing away at. Piled up against the house, two on top and two on the bottom, were, of all things, four bales of dry hay probably destined for the horses I supposed were back in the barn. Or maybe she ate it herself.
    They were right underneath the second-story window from which I'd been peeking down at her. There were two bales next to the house and two this side of it, so there was no chance the bullets would go through, but I wondered what the hell was going to happen to the horses when they finally bit into the stuff. She'd potted away at the top bale till she'd clipped one of the wires holding it together, and the place was getting to be a mess. But on the bottom front bale was a big picture of Truman, well punctured with holes. There were a couple of holes in the new paint job of the house.
    I said, "Lots of fun, huh?"
    She gave me a blank look and said belligerently, "Not so much."
    She made me a little uncomfortable, so, just to make conversation, I said pleasantly, "You sure fixed Truman, ha-ha. Why him?"
    "I'm a Republican."
    That was as good an answer as any, so I let it go. She'd loaded the little gun, and now she pointed it at Truman and slammed a bullet into the ground two feet underneath him.
    This was where I came in. I said good-by to her and started off as she gave me a smile. A blade of grass clung to her upper lip. It didn't help her appearance any, but it didn't hurt it either; it was almost the same color as her complexion. I frowned and glanced up at the spot in the sky she'd been staring at, wondering if she really had seen something up there, and then I walked back to the Cad, wincing a little each time a shot cracked out behind me.

Chapter Five

    I PARKED my Cad around the corner on Olive Street, walked down Seventh to the middle of the block, then took a left. I walked between the shoe store on my left and the cafeteria on my right, into the alley about twenty feet, and stopped right in front of the elevator door. The elevator was there on my right; all I had to do was climb inside and be merrily on my way.
    And maybe not so merrily. It occurred to me that even though I was twenty feet or so from Marty Sader's Pit, I was a long, long way from getting inside. I remembered that the elevator took a long time to get down, and there'd be plenty of opportunity for anybody inside to get ready for me if he had any such desire. I dredged up my memory of what the spot below was like. You didn't even have to turn around in the elevator, just stepped in, rode on down, then stepped straight out into the club, and you were in the main room. There were tables scattered around, a bar along the right wall—probably in front of the locked doors Mia had mentioned—and booths along the near wall on the