Crow Bait

Thirty-nine

Lancaster followed George back to the hotel and up to the second floor. Sam gave him a smile along the way. Going up the stairs, he remembered Dan telling him not to be fooled by their smiles.

He noticed that none of the brothers wore guns, so he didn’t feel threatened. He didn’t see any reason not to follow George up to Hermione’s room. After all, she was in charge, and he probably should have been talking to her the whole time.

George led him down the hallway, past his room, to the door at the end of the hall. There they stopped, and George knocked.

“Come in,” a woman’s voice said.

George opened the door.

Lancaster was about to get his first look at Hermione Dickson, who seemed to be in charge of the entire town—all three buildings—of Peach Springs, Arizona.

“Hermione?” George said. His voice quavered just a bit. “Mr. Lancaster is here.”

“Get out, George,” the woman said.

“Yes, Hermione.” George gave Lancaster a look, then turned and went back up the hall.

“Come on in, Lancaster,” Hermione said.

He walked in the door and saw her standing by the window. She was a tall, rawboned woman with short red hair, wearing a plain cotton dress that obviously had nothing underneath it. The kindest thing you could say about her was that she was a handsome woman. Not what you’d expect to find in a whorehouse or a saloon. He supposed if a man came to town looking for a woman, and Hermione was what he got, he could make it work.

“Close the door, please,” she said.

He did.

“I been watchin’ you since you came to town,” she said.

“That a fact?”

“Oh yeah. You spent some time talkin’ to my cousin Dan.”

“He’s a bartender,” Lancaster said. “That’s what you do with a bartender, you talk to him.”

She stood framed in the window, the light coming in from behind her, making her dress almost transparent. She had to be aware of that, but she didn’t have the body to give it the desired effect.

She folded her arms beneath her small breasts.

“Why did you come to Peach Springs, Lancaster?”

“I’m told men come here for the food, and the, uh, female companionship.”

“You got a good look at me, right?” she asked, dropping her arms to her sides. “You think men come here for me? You didn’t come here for me.”

Lancaster gave it some quick thought. He had not seen a gun since he arrived, and certainly no one had made any kind of threatening move toward him. The entire town was made up of one woman, her four brothers, and their cousin—who seemed to be the smartest of the men. And he said he hadn’t seen a stranger in town in over a month.

“Okay,” Lancaster said, “okay, Hermione—uh, Miss Dickson.”

“Hermione’s good,” she said. “Just Hermione.”

He wondered why, with a name like that, she didn’t have some sort of nickname.

“Hermione, I’m looking for a man named Adderly,” he said. “I was told he was coming here to meet a man, named Cardiff.”

“Cardiff?” she repeated. “You’re lookin’ for Cardiff?”

“Actually, I’m looking for three men,” he said. “Adderly, Cardiff, and Sweet.”

“I don’t know anybody named Sweet,” she said, “but I know Cardiff.”

“Not Adderly? Chet Adderly?”

“No, not Adderly. Just Cardiff, Jim Cardiff.”

“I don’t know his first name,” Lancaster said, “but Cardiff’s not a common name, so it must be him. Where is he?”

“He’s gone.” She folded her arms again.

“Gone? Gone where?”

“Just gone. Let’s talk about you. Did the boys tell you about the toll?”

“Toll? What toll? They didn’t mention anything.”

“Anybody who rides through Peach Springs has to pay a toll.”

Lancaster wondered what the hell she was talking about.

“Hermione, we’re getting off the point.”

“No, we’re not,” she said. “The toll is the point. See, you can’t leave town without payin’ the toll.”

“What toll?” Lancaster was getting frustrated. “Nobody said anything about a toll.”

“George!” she suddenly yelled. The door opened and George appeared. “Nobody told Lancaster about the toll?”

“Not yet, Hermione, dear.”

“Why not?”

“We just didn’t get to it yet.”

“What if he don’t have any money?”

“He’s got money,” George said. “I saw it when he paid for his beef stew. He’d got a lot of money.”

Lancaster had kept his money on him, rather than leave it in his room. He still had most of the thousand dollars Andy Black had given him.

So that was it. They were after his money. But how did they expect to get it?

“Look,” he said, “all I’m interested in is where Cardiff or Adderly went when they left here.”

“When they left?” Hermione asked.

“That’s right.”

“You don’t got to worry about that,” she said. “Let’s talk about the toll.”

“Okay,” he said, “let’s get this out of the way. What about the toll? How much is it?”

“Half,” she said.

“Half of what?”

“Half of whatever you have,” she said.

“He’s got a lot,” George said again.

“George,” she said, “go talk to your brothers.”

“Talk to—”

“Go!”

“Oh,” he said, as if he just got it. “Okay.”

“Okay,” she said, after George had gone, “how much have you got?”

“It doesn’t matter how much I’ve got, Hermione,” Lancaster said, “I’m not giving you any of it.”

“In that case,” she said, firming her jaw, “you’ve got a problem.”

“What kind of problem?”

“If you don’t pay our toll,” she said, “you don’t leave Peach Springs alive.”