Texas Bluff

CHAPTER 42

As Butler left Al Newman’s house he had the feeling that the man had lied to him. Well, not so much a lie, as a bluff. He’d picked up something about Newman at the poker table, and felt that he knew every time the man bluffed—and he was bluffing now.

But about what?

A simple lie about his wife, maybe? He didn’t want Butler to think she was a shrew? The woman had displayed no good qualities in Butler’s presence, at all. And, apparently, Newman had spoken to her about being rude but she had ignored his counsel.

Or was it something else?

Maybe about Sutherland?

Maybe he knew Sutherland’s reputation and wanted to keep Butler from going after him?

Maybe he didn’t want Butler dead, because then he’d never get into another of Luke Short’s games?

And maybe Butler was just being unfair and Newman was trying to look out for him out of friendship?

When a man bluffed it usually meant he had no hand.

In this case, what did it mean?

“They have to stop coming here, Albert,” Helen Newman said to her husband in the kitchen.

“Yes, dear.”

“I mean it,” she said. “You’re not part of that world anymore. And you were never part of that gambling world. I don’t like that.”

“I know dear.”

“I don’t like any of them, and I don’t want them in my house.”

“I’ll remember that.”

She turned and looked at him.

“You’re just yesing me, aren’t you, Albert?” she demanded. “You’re just going to go on doing what you want to do, aren’t you? No Matter what I say?”

He smiled at her and said, “Yes, dear.”

She turned her back on him and busied herself at the stove.

“Will you be staying in for lunch today?”

“I believe I will.”

She fell silent, then said, “You could at least keep them out of my kitchen.”

He came up behind her, took her shoulders, kissed her hair and said, “Yes, dear.”

Butler thought he might be reading something into nothing, but he didn’t have many other options. Catching Sutherland and proving that he was the killer was the only way to get Luke Short out from under. And it was the only way for him to be able to move on. Things had not gone the way he planned in Fort Worth. Other than that one game—and he had done very well in it—there had been no high-stakes poker. Just like Dodge City and Denver, he’d gotten himself wrapped up in the troubles of his new friends, to the detriment of his poker. He needed to get this matter resolved so he could leave town and head for California before he got himself killed.

He watched as Helen Newman came out of her house, closed the door behind her, and walked away. As far as he knew, Al Newman was still inside. But at the moment he wasn’t concerned with Al, he was concerned with Helen.

He left his hiding place, fell in behind her, and started to follow her.