Crow Bait

Fifty-eight

Jacobs put the two men in a jail cell.

“You said we had to leave town!” Fielding complained from inside his cell.

“You do.”

“But you said tonight.”

“Well, maybe I misspoke there,” Jacobs said. “I’m just gonna keep ya here for a while, so you can’t get to Sweet and warn him.”

“We don’t wanna warn Sweet,” Fielding said. “We want you to kill ’im.”

“I’m just makin’ sure,” the sheriff said. “Relax, I’ll feed ya good and let ya out in a couple of days. Just consider yourselves my guests.”

“Guests?” Williams asked, rattling the door of his cell. “With locked doors?”

“Don’t want you to get out and hurt yerselves,” Jacobs said.

He left the cell block, went out into the office where Lancaster was standing with Deputy Bodeen.

“That was a good idea, Sheriff,” Lancaster said. “I appreciate it.”

“I just figured they might leave town and suddenly remember they’re more afraid of Sweet than you,” Jacobs said. “This’ll give you time to catch up to Sweet yourself.”

“Where did they say he is?” Bodeen asked.

Lancaster looked at the deputy and said, “The less people who know that, the better.”

“You don’t trust me?”

“It ain’t that,” Lancaster said. “I just want to keep it to myself for now. If I get there and Sweet’s been warned, I don’t want to have to wonder who told him.”

“Nobody’s gonna tell him,” Bodeen said, “because these two are in jail and you ain’t tellin’ me. If he gets warned…” He trailed off.

“It would have to be by me, is that what you were gonna say?” Jacobs asked.

“Or Frank at the rooming house,” Lancaster pointed out. “He was there to hear it, too. See? Already two people who know. I’m gonna keep it to myself, Deputy. Get insulted if you want, but there it is.”

“Ah,” the deputy said, waving his hand. “Do what you want, Lancaster. It’s your business.”

“That’s right,” Lancaster said. “It is.”

“What about Beck?” Jacobs asked.

“I’ll have to take care of Sweet first,” Lancaster said, “and then find Beck.”

“No word on him?” Bodeen asked.

“No.”

“Think he knows Sweet?”

“We talked about that already,” Lancaster said. “Too much of a coincidence.”

“What about the man who hired Sweet and those other two?” Jacobs asked.

“I’m gonna have to find that out from Sweet.”

“What if he won’t tell you?” Bodeen asked.

“He’ll tell me,” Lancaster said.

“How can you be so sure?” the deputy asked.

“Because I’m gonna make it impossible for him not to tell me,” Lancaster said.

Bodeen laughed and asked, “What are you gonna do, torture it out of him?”

Lancaster just stared at Bodeen, who looked at the sheriff.

“He is, isn’t he?” he asked. “He’s gonna torture him, and then kill him.”

Sheriff Jacobs shrugged and said, “I didn’t hear that.”