Robert Parker - Resolution

“That’s right,” I said. “They called it a victory, promoted him to major, cancelled the court-martial process, and gave him an honorable discharge.”

“Three squads,” Virgil said. “Each with a squad leader.”

“Plus Lujack and Swann,” I said. “You know anything ’bout Mr. Swann.”

“Pretty much all I need to,” Virgil said.

“Ever hear of him?” I said.

“Nope,” Virgil said.

“But you know what he is,” I said.

“I do,” Virgil said. “You?”

“Yeah,” I said. “I know what he is.”

“Might be we’re being replaced,” Virgil said.

“Do look kind of suspicious,” I said. “How ’bout Cato and Rose.”

“Days are numbered,” Virgil said. “But Wolfson’ll wait until all the squads arrive. Case we resent it.”

“We gonna resent it?” I said.

“Hell, no,” Virgil said. “Makes it easier to change sides.”

The squads drifted into town over the next few days, set up tents, and dug latrines out back of the hotel. A lot of them appeared to be ex-soldiers. No one was in uniform. But there was a military tone to things, and everyone wore badges that said Lujack Detective .

“Heard about Lujack,” Frank Rose was saying. “Offered me a job once.”

“Think he remembers?” I said.

“Hell no,” Rose said. “I never talked with him. His bitch buddy does most of the early hiring work.”

“Swann?”

“Yep. And Lujack makes the final call.”

“And you didn’t get that far?” I said.

“Did,” Rose said. “But I didn’t like Swann. So I never showed up for Lujack.”

“How’s he work?” Virgil said.

“Pretends he’s still a major,” Rose said. “Runs things like a military unit. Chain of command, all that shit.”

“Ah, yes,” I said. “One of the many reasons I left.”

“Got a lot of bad, mean people working for him,” Rose said. “And he keeps them in line.”

“They good?” Virgil said.

“Yeah,” Rose said. “Lujack don’t hire no virgins. They know what they’re doing and they’re willin’ to do it.”

“Puts them ahead of the collection of gasbags,” I said, “that Wolfson brought in before.”

“The way it works,” Rose said, “you hire Lujack. Lujack hires everybody else.”

“And pays them,” Virgil said.

“Yep. You pay Lujack,” Rose said. “Lujack pays them.”

“So their loyalty is always to Lujack,” I said.

“Yep.”

“Look at the Winchesters,” I said.

“What about them.”

There were three pyramid-shaped clusters of rifles.

“They’ve stacked arms for each squad,” I said.

“One stack per squad,” Rose said.

We all looked at the rifles. We all smiled.

“See that fella there,” Cato said, “with the big yella mustache? And the black handle Colt? Saw him kill three men in Ellsworth. They had words in the street.”

Cato gestured as if shooting.

“Bang, bang, bang,” he said. “One bullet each.”

And made a falling gesture with both hands.

“Hope the words mattered,” Rose said.

“Don’t matter much anymore,” Cato said.

It might have been the most I’d heard him talk since he’d arrived.

“Figure they’ll get through setting up today?” I said.

“Sure,” Rose said. “Hell, they’re almost there now.”

“So you think Wolfson’ll fire us tonight?” I said.

Rose shrugged.

"If he brings them all in for a meetin’,” Virgil said. “You’ll know.”

Wolfson had his meeting. He sat at a back table in the Blackfoot, with Swann on one side of him and Lujack on the other. The three squads stood against the wall on either side of the room.

“Boys,” Wolfson said to the four of us standing in front of the table. “We’re gonna have to make a change.”

None of us spoke.

“You boys done a fine job keepin’ the peace here in Resolution, ” Wolfson said. “But we all knew it was only temporary, and, well, now we got what you might call permanent cadre here, and there just ain’t no need for you fellas.”

“Don’t fuck with it, Wolfson,” Virgil said. “Just fire us.”

“Well, I wouldn’t want you to think of it as getting fired,” Wolfson said. “I like you boys. It’s just that you, ah, served your term, you know?”

Cato Tillson looked slowly around the room, snorted silently to himself, and walked out. Wolfson watched him and didn’t say anything for a moment. Then he refocused on the rest of us.

“I’ve asked Major Lujack to be town marshal,” Wolfson said.

“With nineteen deputies,” Rose said.

“Exactly.”

“I figure you owe me four days’ pay,” Rose said.

“I do,” Wolfson said. “And I’m happy to give all of you what I owe you. And room and board through the end of the week… plus a nice bonus for the job you did.”

“When do I get the money?” Rose said.

“Tomorrow. See Hensdale anytime tomorrow,” Wolfson said. “All of you.”

“I will,” Rose said, and headed for the door.

Wolfson looked at Virgil and me.

“You boys been with me the longest,” Wolfson said. “And I want to thank you both special.”

“Amos,” I said, “I’m too old to listen to horseshit. I’ll stop by and see Hensdale.”

“Well, just so there’s no hard feelings,” Wolfson said.

“None,” I said.

“You, Virgil?” Wolfson said.

“No feelings at all,” Virgil said.

Wolfson nodded. There didn’t seem to be anything else to say. But nobody ended it, and Virgil, for whatever reason, didn’t seem quite through yet. I didn’t know what his reason was, but Virgil was never a creature of whim, he was doing something. What he appeared to be doing was looking at Swann. Swann looked back.

Finally, Lujack said, “’Fore you boys go, I’d be interested in your plans.”

“Got no plans,” I said.

Virgil continued looking at Swann, as if Swann was an odd specimen of something.

“You, Cole?” Lujack said.

“None,” Virgil said.

Then I realized what Virgil was doing. He was pretty sure he’d have to go against Swann one day, and he was getting to know him as well as he could in preparation for that.

“Well,” Lujack said. “That’ll be fine for a few days, while you get your affairs in order. But in a week or so, I’ll be asking you all to move on.”

“We’ll keep it in mind,” I said.

Swann continued to meet Virgil’s stare. But it was a waste of his time. Virgil was probably unlike anyone Swann had ever seen. Virgil didn’t care if you met his stare or not. He didn’t care if he intimidated you or not. He was just gathering information.

“You got any plans, Cole?” Lujack said.

Without taking his eyes off Swann, Virgil said, “I’m formulatin’. ”

“And you heard me,” Lujack said, “about not hanging around too long.”

“I did,” Virgil said.

“Hope you’ll keep it in mind,” Lujack said.

“Surely will,” Virgil said.

He continued to look at Swann.

“Would,” Swann said to Virgil, “I was you.”

“One of the things I’m real happy about,” Virgil said, “is you ain’t me.”

They looked at each other for another minute. Then Virgil nodded to himself as if he’d learned something and turned and walked out. I went with him.

Virgil and I were sitting out front of the Excelsior, formulatin’ with Cato and Rose, when the new marshal and his deputies rode out of town in a neat column of twos, heading south. Virgil stood as they went by.

“Think I’ll go along behind them,” he said, “for observatory purposes.”