Turnback Creek (Widowmaker) by Robert J. Randisi Read Free Book Online Page B

She’d get somebody else to deliver her gold, or get killed trying to do it. Locke’s only reason for being involved was to try to help Cooper regain some of his self-esteem and possibly some of his lost stature.
    He went up the walk to the two-story rooming house, mounted the porch, and knocked on the door. Out of all the homes he’d seen in town, this was the only one built nearly as well as Molly Shillstone’s house.
    An elderly woman answered the door, and he asked politely for Dale Cooper.
    “The marshal is having his breakfast,” the woman said.
    “Oh,” Locke said. “I was going to buy him breakfast.”
    “Well, I’m Mrs. Helms, and this is my house,” she said. “You’re welcome to come in and eat with him. There’s plenty of food.”
    “That’s very kind of you, ma’am,” Locke said, removing his hat. “Thank you.”
    He entered, and she closed the door.
    “I don’t have any other boarders at the moment,” she said. “Come this way.”
    He followed her into the dining room, where Cooper was digging into a pile of flapjacks. Also on the table were plates of scrambled eggs, bacon, and fresh biscuits. The aroma of coffee was heady.
    “Marshal, you have a guest.”
    Cooper looked up from the table and smiled when he saw Locke standing there.
    “Pull up a chair, John,” he invited. “Ingrid makes the best breakfast in town.”
    “That coffee smells mighty good, ma’am.”
    “I’ll get you a cup,” she said. “You just set and dig in.”
    “Thank you.”
    Locke sat across the table from Cooper and was amazed at how well rested the man looked. He was eating heartily and looked like a completely different man from the day before.
    “Coop, I’ve got to say you look … changed.”
    Cooper waved his fork. “I’ve given up the bottle, John.Look at my hands.” He held them out, and they were as steady as a rock.
    “Just like that?”
    “It’s time to go to work,” Cooper said. “I don’t drink when I’m working.”
    Ingrid Helms came back into the room and poured Locke a cup of coffee. Then she walked over to Cooper and refilled his cup, leaning on his shoulder with one hand. She appeared to Locke to be older than the marshal, but he wondered if the two had formed some sort of a relationship.
    He helped himself to bacon and eggs and biscuits, intending to follow that with some of the flapjacks.
    “You’re gonna be wantin’ to see me shoot today, right?” Cooper asked.
    “That’s right.”
    “That’s why I gave up the bottle. My hands have got to be steady to show you I’m as good as I ever was.”
    Locke wondered if Cooper had had a drink that morning. Very often, the hair of the dog that bit him will brace a man, but Cooper’s eyes seemed very clear.
    “Will you gentlemen be wanting any more food?” Mrs. Helms asked at one point.
    “Ma’am,” Locke said, “I do believe you’ve got enough food here to feed an army, and might I say I haven’t had a better meal since … well, since I can’t remember when.”
    “You should move in here,” Cooper said. “You could eat like this every day.”
    “You’d be most welcome, sir,” Mrs. Helms said. “Are you staying at the hotel?”
    “Yes, ma’am.”
    “Be cheaper here, and you’d eat better.”
    “I can see that, ma’am,” he said. “Fact is, we’ll be leavin’ tomorrow to pick up Mrs. Shillstone’s payroll, and then we’ll be taking it up the mountain to the mine.”
    “Might there be anything you’d be leaving behind?” she asked. “It’d be safer here than at that hotel.”
    “She’s got a point there, John,” Cooper said, with a jabbing motion of his fork.
    “All right, then,” Locke said. “I’ll move my stuff here from the hotel later today.”
    “That’ll be fine,” she said. “I’ll give you the room right next to the marshal’s.”
    Locke felt the least he could do for this meal was give the woman another boarder.
    “Now, you gents just eat up, and I’ll go upstairs and get