The Lawman

Chapter One

Pemberton wasn’t a big town, but as small towns go it appeared to have pretty much everything a town should have.

Decker noticed this as he rode down Pemberton’s main street.

They had a livery a hardware store, a hotel, a saloon, a haberdasher’s shop, a gunsmith’s shop, one of everything a town needed to survive and prosper.

The only thingh they didn’t have anymore was a sheriff—unless, of course, they had elected one during the two weeks since “The Lawman” had robbed their bank.

Decker put his horse up in the livery and went over to the saloon for a drink.

“Help ya?” the bartender asked.

It was after noon, and the saloon was doing a brisk business. It was the only saloon in town, so anyone who wanted a drink would have to go there.

“Beer, cold.”

“As cold as we can get it.”

Which turned out not to be cold enough, but Decker didn’t complain. At least it was wet, and it cut through the dust.

“Got a sheriff in this town?” Decker asked.

“That’s sort of a sore point right now, Mister.”

“Oh? Why’s that?”

“We had a sheriff, but two weeks ago he upped and robbed the bank and left town.”

“You don’t say?”

“Ain’t been able to get anybody to take the job regular since then. Fact is, we had the same problem just afore our last sheriff came into town.”

“You made a stranger the sheriff?”

The man shrugged his beefy shoulders.

“He said he wanted the job, and nobody else did, so the mayor and the town council hired him.”

“No election?”

“Wasn’t nobody wanted to run against him.”

“You mean you can’t find anybody in this whole town who wants to be sheriff?”

“Town’s mostly made up of merchants, Mister. Ain’t a lawman among ’em.” The man leaned forward then and said, “Say, you wouldn’t be looking for a job, would you?”

“After what happened you’d still be willing to hire a stranger?”

“A town needs a sheriff, don’t it?”

“Sometimes I wonder,” Decker said. He paid for the beer and asked where he could find the mayor.

“His office is down the street, above the general store.”

“Thanks.”

“Gonna apply for the job?”

Decker ignored the question and left the saloon.

He stopped at the bank first and found the teller who’d been on duty when the bank was robbed.

“It was terrible,” the boy said. “It was like Mr. Hampton—that was the manager’s name—like he didn’t believe the sheriff was serious.”

“You did, though?”

“Mister, if a man is pointin’ a gun at me, I’m gonna figure he’s serious.”

“Smart lad.”

Decker started to leave, then remembered a question he wanted to ask and turned back.

“How much did he get?”

“About twenty thousand.”

Decker whistled softly. A man could lay low a long time with that kind of money.

Next, Decker went over to talk to the mayor. An officious, blustering fool, the mayor had little to tell him about the sheriff.

“He was a total stranger when we hired him, and a total stranger when he left.”

“He didn’t make any friends while he was here?”

“None. He kept to himself.”

“No women?”

“A lot of women, but no one in particular.”

“Did he do his job?”

“Well enough—until he robbed us. I tell you, it’s a disgrace what that man did, betraying the trust the people of this town put in him.”

“Next time you’ll know better than to hire a stranger without some sort of references.”

Decker left the office, disgusted with the man and the town, thinking that people who won’t help themselves deserve whatever they get.

Decker had dinner in a small café and then went to the saloon for a beer. He took a back table and watched the townsmen at play

It was his routine to spend a day in the last town that his prey had been seen in, collecting any background information that was available. Before taking out after a man, he tried to form a picture of him beyond a physical description or drawing.

Moran was an ex-lawman, and apparently had been a competent one. He was able to get people to trust him and hire him, which meant that he could relate to people when he wanted to. He was arrogant, but he could control his arrogance when he needed to. He didn’t bother trying to get on with people once he had the job, and he stayed to himself.

Since the mayor indicated that there had been many women, it seemed he was attractive to them, unless he dealt solely with whores.

So far, Decker had seen one of everything in Pemberton. That meant it had to have a whorehouse.

He went to the bar and asked the bartender, who verified his guess. He obtained directions, and went over there.

The madam was a Milly Smith—Miss Milly—a woman in her mid-fifties who must have been a beauty when she was younger. She still had dark hair and an impressive bosom, but everything else had thickened on her and she was fighting a losing battle against aging with corsets, girdles and makeup.

“Sheriff Moran? Sure, he came in here from time to time, but he sure didn’t need to.”

“Why’s that?”

“Women threw themselves at him.”

“He was handsome, then?”

“Not ’specially. He had an innocent, wide-eyed look that drew women to him, though. Of course, after spending a night—or even an hour—with him, they found out he wasn’t so wide-eyed or innocent.”

“Did he mistreat them?”

“He beat up a couple of my girls and I had to talk to him.”

“Did you tell the mayor, or the town council?”

“Are you kidding? We finally got a sheriff in this town, they would have figured a few bruises on my girls was a price worth paying.”

“You didn’t figure it that way, though?”

“Hell, no. I told him that if he put one more bruise on any of my girls I’d ban him from the place. Hell, my stock ain’t that great to begin with. I can’t afford having them looked knocked around. He behaved after that.”

“But he had some women outside of here?”

“I’m sure, though I couldn’t name any.”

“Couldn’t, or wouldn’t?”

“Same thing.”

“That means he wasn’t above having a married woman from time to time.”

“You said that, I didn’t.”

“All right, Miss Milly, thanks for your time.”

“Sure you don’t want to spend some time upstairs with one of the girls?”

“Nope. I’ll be leaving in the morning and I’ve got to get my rest.”

“Pity, they would have liked you—but I don’t blame you. I ain’t got a one that’s worth spit.”

“Like you were in your day?”

“Hell, I could put these girls to shame now, if I wanted to, but my days of whorin’ are over. Still, if a man took a shine to me there wouldn’t have to be any money changing hands.”

Decker decided that if that was an invitation he was going to play dumb and pretend he didn’t read it right.

“Well, thanks again, Miss Milly.”

“Sure,” she sighed. “Glad to help.”

When Decker left the whorehouse he thought about returning to the saloon, but he knew if he did that he’d end up in a poker game. If he did that, it would end up being a late night, and he wanted to get an early start in the morning.

He went back to his room and stretched out on the bed, fully clothed. He hung his gunbelt on the bedpost, within easy reach.

He had a picture of Red Moran now—a lawman gone bad. And yet, until this town, he had never killed anyone. That meant that killing the bank manager had been an accident. Moran probably didn’t even realize that he’d killed a man. Faced with that when the time came, maybe Moran would give himself up. Maybe there was enough real lawman left in him for that.

The question now was, where did Moran go after robbing the bank? Where had he gone all the other times? To the same place?

So far, his jobs had been concentrated around the midwest. He had pulled none heading south, in Texas or New Mexico or Arizona.

Decker made his decision.

Come morning he was heading for Mexico.

Where else would a man hole up with money to spend?