Longarm #399 : Longarm and the Grand Canyon Murders (9781101554401) by Tabor Evans Read Free Book Online

folks. He’s full of anger and he’ll cheat anyone that doesn’t yet know him well.”
    “Carl isn’t going to do much of anything for a few days.”
    “Oh, and why is that?” Wallace asked.
    “Because he’s not feeling well since we met up a short while ago.”
    Wallace stared, but Longarm wasn’t in the mood to satisfy the man’s curiosity, so he headed out the door to see what kind of horses and pack animals the man had in mind to rent.

Chapter 6
    Longarm went back to the Hotel Weatherford, and when he entered the room, Heidi was reading a local newspaper while a Chinaman was filling a huge tub with buckets of steamy water.
    “You got a bathtub moved in here?” Longarm asked.
    “Sure. I thought you’d like one, and I’ve ordered some food and drinks to be brought up at five.”
    “Must be nice to have money.”
    “It is. Why don’t you start thinking about the proposition that I made you before we left Denver?”
    “You mean the one about handing in my badge?”
    “Yes, that one.”
    Longarm removed his coat and hat and waited for the Chinaman to finish filling the tub. When the man was done, he bowed and Heidi gave him a few dollars, which pleased the Chinaman very much.
    “He’s a nice little fellow,” Heidi said when they were alone. “He can’t speak a word of English, but he’s smart as anything and it was easy enough to let him know what I needed.”
    “That’s good.”
    She put down her paper and smiled. “So, when are we leaving tomorrow morning on the stagecoach?”
    “Well, we’re not,” he said, deciding to get right to the point. “I couldn’t find a buggy or coach, so I rented us a couple of horses and a pack burro.”
    “What!” She dropped her newspaper and stared at him. “Are you crazy! The clerk down at the registration desk said that it was over a hundred miles up to the Grand Canyon.”
    “More like a hundred and forty.”
    “I can’t ride that far!”
    “Have you ever ridden a horse?”
    “No, and I’m not going to start tomorrow morning.”
    Longarm took a chair. “Listen,” he said. “I’ve got to leave in the morning, and I can’t wait around for the stagecoach, but…
you
can.”
    “You’re suggesting that I wait here and take the coach while you ride out by yourself?”
    “That’s exactly what I’m suggesting,” Longarm told her. “There is no point in you suffering saddle sores, blisters, and all the hardships of the trail. I’ll go on, and you follow on the stagecoach. That way, we’ll both be happier.”
    Heidi’s lips turned down at the corners. “I don’t like this very much.”
    “I know you don’t,” Longarm told her, “but think hard about it. You’ve never ridden before, and you would be miserable riding a horse that many miles. The insides of those lovely thighs would become blistered, and the blisters would burn like fire and weep. Is that what you want?”
    “Of course not.”
    “Then do as I suggest and wait here in the lap ofluxury and come on the stage. I’ve made arrangements for two horses, but that can be changed in the morning, and I’ll tell him to hold a seat on Wednesday’s stagecoach for you.”
    Heidi got up and came to sit in Longarm’s lap. She kissed his face and whispered, “I don’t want you to leave me.”
    “I can travel a lot faster alone,” he said frankly. “And you’d suffer too much on horseback.”
    “But what if something terrible happens to you before I get to this place called Lees Ferry?”
    “Better something terrible happens to just me rather than us both, if it came to that. And if it does, I’d want you safe. I’d want you to take care of…of things if I couldn’t.”
    Tears welled up in her eyes. “This kind of talk upsets me, Custis.”
    “I’ll be fine and so will you. The stage line’s owner is named John Wallace, and he’s a good, solid man. He’ll see that you’re kept safe and that you reach me by Friday or Saturday.”
    “I’ll have to ride in a