Broadway Bounty

Chapter Seven

An insistent knocking woke Decker the next morning. He staggered to it, wondering if Linda Hamilton had decided that they did know each other that well, after all. Then he remembered that he hadn’t told her the name of his hotel.

It was Lieutenant Tally, bearing gifts.

“Your guns,” he said, holding them out.

“Thanks.” Decker reached for them with one hand.

“Not so fast,” Tally said, holding back.

“More conversation?”

“If you don’t mind.”

Decker waved him in and moved back to the bed to sit down.

Tally entered and closed the doors. He put the guns on the nearby dresser.

“Is this going to take long?” Decker asked.

“That depends.”

“How about doing it over breakfast?”

Tally shrugged.

“I don’t mind. Who’s paying?”

“I guess I am.”

“I’ll wait downstairs while you get dressed,” Tally said. “Don’t disappoint me.”

“I’ll be along as soon as I can. I can’t move around real fast with this wound, you know.”

“The way you look, you’ve been through this enough times to know all the shortcuts.”

Tally left, and Decker washed up and got dressed. He wanted to put the shoulder rig on, but one of the straps put pressure on his wound. He took the New Line out of the holster and dropped it into the pocket of one of his new coats.

Tally was waiting in the hotel lobby.

“Hotel dining room?” he asked.

“I was warned against it. Let’s go to a small restaurant I found last night. It’ll be a long walk, but I need to stretch my legs, anyway.”

As they left the hotel, Decker saw Billy Rosewood standing out front. As Rosewood spotted Tally, he immediately hid his face.

He needn’t have bothered. Tally saw him.

“Hello, Billy.”

“Good morning, Lieutenant. Mr. Decker.”

“You two know each other?” Tally asked.

“Billy gave me a ride from the train station.”

Tally gave Rosewood a meaningful look.

“Selling guns again, Billy?” he asked. “I warned you about that—”

“Hey, hey,” Decker said, “the gun’s mine. The kid had nothing to do with it.”

“Sure,” Tally said, “you cowboys always carry ladies’ specials.”

Tally turned back to Billy Rosewood.

“What are you doing around here? No business today?”

Rosewood looked past Tally at Decker.

“He’s waiting for me,” Decker said. “I needed somebody to show me around town.”

“Well, you picked the right boy. Billy knows all the spots in town, don’t you, Billy?”

“What spots?” Decker asked.

“The trouble spots.”

“Oh, I don’t want to see those. Billy said he was going to show me the best churches.”

“Churches,” Tally said, nodding his head.

“Wait here, Billy,” Decker said. “The lieutenant and I are going to have some breakfast.”

“Sure, Mr. Decker.”

Tally gave Rosewood a pointed look and then followed Decker.

“Who showed you this place?” Tally asked. He looked around with disapproval. Decker noticed for the first time that Tally’s suit was a lot more expensive than his—a lot more.

“A lady friend.”

“You’ve been in town one day,” Tally said, “and so far you’ve found Billy Rosewood, a lady friend, a hole-in-the-wall restaurant and a mess of trouble. You work fast, Decker.”

“Listen, Lieutenant, I haven’t even started to work yet.”

“Aha. Then you are here working.”

“Let’s get a table.”

Tally looked around and saw that the place was empty.

“That shouldn’t be too difficult.”

There were two waitresses working. One of them was the same one who had served Decker and Linda Hamilton the night before. She came over and smiled at him.

“Hello. You’re Linda’s friend.”

“That’s right.”

“The eggs must have been good last night.”

“Are they still good?”

“The best.”

“We’ll have some.”

“This way.”

Tally gave his chair a good close scrutiny before sitting in it.

“I assume you’re used to better places than this,” Decker said.

“I usually frequent, uh, cleaner establishments, yes.”

“Wait until you taste the eggs,” Decker said. “You might find cleaner, but you won’t find better.”

“Coffee?” the waitress asked.

“Yes,” Decker said, “two cups.”

“One clean one.”

The waitress gave Tally a hurt look and went to fill the order.

“You’re a mean man,” Decker said. “You hurt her feelings.”

“She’ll live.”

“You have some questions for me?”

“Did you remember anything else from last night?”

“Not a thing.”

“Boil had six hundred dollars on him.”

“What about his brother?”

“Boil carried all the money for both of them.”

“Oh,” Decker said, “for a minute there I was almost flattered.”

“Anyway,” Tally said, “it looks like the brothers were paid to kill you.”

“That’s nice,” Decker said.

The waitress brought the coffee and the eggs. She slammed a cup down in front of Tally and said, “Here’s the clean one!”

After she left, Tally said, “Who wants to kill you that bad?”

“I just got to town, Lieutenant,” Decker said. “I don’t know anybody.”

“Well, somebody knows you. Somebody had them at the station waiting for you.”

Decker decided it was time for him to give the lieutenant something to occupy his time.

“Wait a minute.”

“You remember something?” Tally asked. He was eating the eggs without a hint of complaint.

“Yeah. The big one, Boil…he called me Dover.”

“Well, I guess they thought you were this Dover guy.”

“I guess so. Maybe you can find out if a man named Dover came into town on the same train I did.”

“I’ll check on it after breakfast.”

“How are the eggs?”

Tally stopped short as he was shoveling the last of his eggs into his mouth and said, “Uh, they’re not bad.”

“Here,” Decker said, dropping some money on the table, “eat mine.”

“Where are you going?”

“I told you,” Decker said, standing up, “I’m going to church.”