Texas Bluff

CHAPTER 58

They went back to the White Elephant, had baths, changed their clothes, and met in the dining room. Short had decided he not only wanted to face what was coming while clean, but also with a steak in his belly. They both ordered a sirloin with all the trimmings. That was when Bill Ward found them.

“I’ve been looking all over for you two,” Ward said, seating himself at their table. “Tell me what’s going on with Al Newman?”

“Do you really want to know” Short asked.

“I asked, didn’t I?”

Short looked at Butler who shrugged, giving him the floor. Short told Ward everything they knew, and everything they thought they knew.

“Jesus,” Ward said, “are you sure about all of this?”

“No doubt.”

“Well, I know Newman’s father did have a hardware store,” Ward said.

“Great,” Butler said, “now tell us why he’d get mixed up with someone like Sutherland, and why he’d drag his own wife into it?”

“I don’t know,” Ward said, frowning. “The sheriff was here looking for you two. He had half a dozen deputies with him. I’m getting the feeling you should turn yourselves in. Luke, let him lay out his evidence against you in a court of law.”

“Courtwright will make sure Luke never gets to court,” Butler said.

“He just wants to run you out of town, Butler,” Ward said. “Why not let him do it?”

“I’ll let him do it, all right,” Butler said, “as soon as we finish with Sutherland and Newman.”

“Well…”

“Bill, do you know something?” Short asked.

“Nothing definite,” Ward said, “but if Al Newman has kept his father’s shop closed up all these years, he might have also kept his father’s house.”

“And you know just where that is, don’t you?” Butler asked.

Ward looked at both of them and nodded.

“This is some big old house,” Sutherland said. “Why keep it boarded up? Why not live in it instead of that smaller one you’re in?”

“It was my father’s,” Newman said. “Not mine to live in.”

“Albert,” Helen Newman said, “I insist you make this man go away.”

“Ma’am,” Sutherland asked, “just what is it you don’t like about me?”

“I don’t like the way you act, the way you look,” she said, “and I most assuredly do not like the way you smell.”

“Yeah,” Sutherland said, with a laugh, “but other than that?”

“Sutherland, I think my wife is right,” Newman said. “I think perhaps you should stay the night here, and then be on your way.”

“On my way where?”

“Well…leave town.”

“Why would I leave Fort Worth?” Sutherland asked. “I like it here.”

“Well, the law…”

“The law’s not lookin’ for me,” Sutherland said. “They’re lookin’ for Luke Short, and for Butler.”

“Then why not let the law have them?”

“Because I want them,” Sutherland said. “Those two have been up my ass for too long. It’s because of them I had to kill Cramer and Zeke. It’s because of them the Bloody Spur is boarded up.”

“You…are a murderer?” Helen Newman said, shocked.

“Aw, Ma’am,” Sutherland asked, “what did you think I was?”