The Lawman

Chapter Seven

While they were waiting for Gilberto and his men—not to mention his sister—to arrive, Juanita brought out a plate of food for Ramon. As she passed Decker on the way back to the kitchen she gave him a long look. She had obviously been trying to pass him some sort of message, but he was too dense to see what it was.

Ramon, holding his gun in his right hand, picked up a dripping tortilla and took a bite out of it. He chewed, keeping his eyes on Decker, continued to chew, with some difficulty, then swallowed…

And gagged.

Blood came from his mouth suddenly as he doubled over, dropping his gun. Decker was on his feet quickly, rushing towards him. He pushed Ramon away from his gun, but he needn’t have bothered. He was past worrying about that. He staggered back, clutching his throat as blood continued to pour from his mouth, and then he fell over.

Decker picked up his gun and walked over to where Ramon was lying, Jose close behind him. Ramon was lying on his back, his eyes fluttering as blood oozed from his mouth.

“Me Dios,” Jose whispered behind Decker. “What happened?”

Decker walked over to where Ramon’s plate was and poked around in it with his finger. He came up with little bits of ground glass stuck to the tip of his index finger.

“Looks like Juanita added something to a recipe that already had some bite.”

The bartender leaned over and said, “Glass?”

“Ground glass,” Decker said, looking down at Ramon. “This fella’s insides must be in pieces.”

Ramon’s eyes had rolled up into his head by now, and he was dead.

Juanita came out of the kitchen and walked over to Decker.

“Is he dead?”

“Thanks to you he’s dead and I’m alive, Juanita. I’m much obliged.”

“What have you done, girl?” the bartender demanded, holding his head in his hands.

“She saved my life, that’s what she did.”

“But she has forfeited all of ours,” the man said. “The entire town.”

“Paco is right, señor,” Jose said. “Gilberto will now take his revenge against the whole town.”

“I see.”

“I do not care,” Juanita said. “Señor, when you leave please take me with you.”

“Juanita!”

She shouted something at him in Spanish, during which Decker heard her call him “Papa.”

In English she said, “I am ashamed of you, and ashamed of everyone in this town. You continue to let Gilberto and his bandidos frighten you. Well, he does not frighten me.”

“Foolish girl,” her father said.

“Señor…” she said to Decker.

“Maybe the girl is right,” Decker said, looking at Paco, Jose and the other men in the saloon. “Maybe it’s time for this town to stand up for itself.”

“Señor,” Jose said, “if we do that, will you stand with us?”

Me and my big mouth, Decker thought. He had a trail to pick up, but then Juanita had done him a big favor, and maybe he owed it to her to help them.

“All right, Jose,” Decker said. “If you can get enough men with guns who are willing to fight, I’ll stand with you.”

Jose grinned.

“Señor, I think I can do that.” He turned to the other men in the room, said something to them in Spanish, and they all stood up and nodded.

“This is a start, señor, and before we are done we will have many more men, as well.”

“Then get to it,” Decker said. “We don’t know how far behind this fella the rest of them are.”

As Jose and the rest of the men left, dragging the dead man with them, Juanita came over and pressed her breasts against Decker’s arm.

“Señor, how can I help?”

“Well, I’ll tell you, Juanita,” Decker said, nudging Ramon’s plate. “Maybe you could just fix up a big batch of these here tortillas—you know, the ones with the big bite in them?”

“It will be a pleasure, señor.”