The Lawman

Chapter Fifteen

Decker went to the cantina and found Paco back behind the bar, limping back and forth as he attempted to clean the mess of broken glass behind it. Decker could hear it crunching beneath the man’s feet.

“Paco, you should be off your feet.”

“And who will take care of by business?” Paco asked, frowning unhappily. “Look at this mess. Glass, broken wood, and holes in my ceiling…”

He gave Decker a look that said it was all his fault. Maybe having his town back wasn’t worth the mess his cantina was in.

Indeed, the place was a shambles. Pieces of broken tables and broken glass littered the floors. And something would have to be done about the square hatches Decker’d had the men saw in the floors of the rooms above.

“What about your neighbors? Won’t they help you clean up?”

“They are all off somewhere getting drunk, bragging about how they killed twenty bandidos each, so that they won’t have to help me.”

“This town is really a great place to live, isn’t it, Paco?”

Paco scowled and did not answer.

“Where is Juanita?”

“Upstairs in her room.”

“May I go and see her?”

“Si, the second door on the right is hers.”

Decker went upstairs, found the door and knocked.

“Come in.”

He entered and Juanita smiled from the bed.

“I knew you would come.”

“How are you feeling?”

“Fine,” she said, but he knew she was lying.

“That’s good,” he said, “because my shoulder hurts like hell.”

She smiled and said, “Yes, so does mine. Will you be staying the night?”

“Yes. The sheriff has extended to me the hospitality of the hotel.”

“No, you will stay here with us.”

“That’s all right—”

“I insist—and later, during the night, when father is asleep, you can come to me.”

“Come to you?”

“We will make love, no?”

He smiled at her and said, “With the two of us toting these bad shoulders around?”

“We will manage.”

“Juanita—”

“You do not want me because you know Gilberto has had me,” she said, sadly.

He sat on the bed and said, “That isn’t it at all.”

“Then why?”

“I wouldn’t do that under your father’s roof.”

“We can go somewhere—”

“You will stay right in that bed, young lady”

“Then we will not make love?”

“I’m afraid not,” he said, and then added, “not this time.”

She brightened.

“When you come back this way?”

“Perhaps,” he said, “when I’ve finished my job.”

“And by then we will both be healed.”

“Yes.”

“And we will make wild, passionate love.”

He grinned at her enthusiasm and said, “We will see. Right now I think I’ll earn my keep by going downstairs and helping your father clean up.”

“You will be leaving in the morning?”

“Yes.”

“Will you come and say goodbye first?”

“I’ll be leaving early.”

“Wake me.”

“All right,” he said, “I’ll wake you. Get some rest, now.”

Decker went downstairs and offered to help Paco clean up, an offer Paco accepted with his customary frown.

Turning in for the night Decker found himself thinking not of Juanita down the hall, but of Raquel Diaz, sitting in a jail cell.

“If you want me,” she had said, “come and get me.”

What a waste.