Роберт Паркер - The Bridge

Doc Crumley came into the room with a dark bottle and a spoon.

“Oh,” Doc said. “Didn’t know you fellas was up here.”

“’Lo Doc,” Chastain said.

“Doc,” Virgil said with a nod.

“No more, Doc,” I said.

“Too soon not to,” he said.

“No more,” I said.

“You sure?” he said.

“More than sure,” I said. “I’ve had enough of that, don’t know if I’m coming or going.”

“You’re gonna be in pain,” he said.

“I know,” I said. “No more. If I go ahead and die, at least I will be alert enough to know it.”

“Okay,” he said. “Let me know if you change your mind.”

“Will do,” I said. “But I won’t. And I will be walking outta here shortly.”

Doc put his fists on his hips.

“Don’t want to push it, Everett,” he said.

“I’m good,” I said.

Doc shook his head.

“You’re tore up inside,” he said, “and that needs time to heal, Everett.”

“I know,” I said. “I’ll take it easy.”

The doc looked to Virgil and Chastain and shook his head a little, then looked back to me.

“Don’t get on any horses,” he said.

“I won’t, Doc,” I said.

Doc Crumley left the room, shaking his head.

“So what now?” I said.

Virgil folded his arms and looked to the floor for a moment.

“Chastain and me rode out and talked to each of the ranchers from that list Swickey provided us,” Virgil said, shaking his head.

Chastain nodded.

“We don’t think none of them had a hand in this,” he said.

“No,” Virgil said. “We don’t.”

“We talked to the rancher Eddie worked with, too,” Chastain said.

“Westmorland,” Virgil said. “The one that Dee and Dirk had worked for.”

“And?” I said.

Virgil shook his head.

“He’d be the last to muster something like this,” Virgil said. “Good man.”

“Leaves us with the whores,” I said.

Virgil nodded.

“We talked to a few,” Chastain said.

“And we’ll talk to them all, but it’s like Belle was saying. Whores are whores because they are whores.”

“I’m done with being looked after, Allie,” I said. “Really.”

“Nonsense,” Allie called from the kitchen.

“Not nonsense,” Virgil said. “If Everett wants to be left alone, leave him alone.”

After I left the resting room above Doc Crumley’s, Allie had insisted I stay with her and Virgil. The bullet I received from Ballard was a.45 that Crumley took out of me. Crumley said if it’d been an inch to the left it would have been the last train .

I was weak from the loss of blood, and got around a little slow due to the pain, but was on the mend.

Allie had a special down-filled cot she borrowed from one of her gal friends with the ladies’ social. She placed it near the fireplace and demanded I stay with them until the snow was all melted and it was no longer muddy.

Allie came out of the kitchen carrying a tray with a bowl of soup and a chunk of bread.

“Everett needs continued rest,” Allie said. “And my special nourishment.”

“Hell, Allie,” I said. “That’s pretty much all I have been doing, is eating and sleeping.”

“Well, that’s just the way it is,” Allie said. “It’s not every day I get to take care of somebody.”

“By God, not true, Allie,” Virgil said. “You take care of me every day.”

“Oh, pooh,” Allie said, swinging her tail like a cat as she walked back to the kitchen. “Nobody takes care of Virgil Cole... ’Sides, Everett likes to be looked after by me.”

She poked her head back out the kitchen door.

“Don’t you, Everett?”

I picked up my spoon and smiled.

“I appreciate what you do for me, Allie,” I said. “I certainly do.”

“See, Virgil,” Allie said. “Everett knows the meaning of appreciation.”

Allie tucked back in the kitchen.

“Only so much appreciation a man needs,” Virgil said. “Since Everett left that halfway room above Doc Crumley’s office all you been doing is looking after him. I think Everett might have just had his fill of appreciation.”

“And thank that Jesus on the wall of that halfway room above Doc Crumley’s office,” Allie said, as she came back into the living room with a glass of milk, “that Everett’s come back this halfway of that room and not the other half so I can take proper care of his recovery. Here you go, Everett.”

“I will say, Allie,” I said, “I’ve had enough milk to last me a lifetime.”

Allie pinched my cheek.

“Oh, moo,” she said with a giggle. “Drink it. It’s good for you, help you get your strength back.”

“Quite frankly,” I said, “I’m looking forward to having a nudge or two of that Kentucky.”

“Oh, Everett,” Allie said.

We heard footsteps on the porch followed by a musical rat-a-tat-tat rap on the door.

Allie leaned over me and looked out the window.

“It’s some little fellow in a checkered suit wearing a hatbox derby,” Allie said.

Virgil got up and answered the door.

“Might you be Marshal Virgil Cole?” the man said with a crisp British inflection.

“I might,” Virgil said. “And you?”

I leaned forward in my chair to have a look at the little man in the brown-checkered suit.

“Sebastian Winthrop,” he said.

“What can I do for you, Mr. Winthrop?”

“I was wondering if I might have a few words with you,” Sebastian said.

“Words about what?” Virgil said.

Sebastian leaned forward on his toes, looking past Virgil to Allie and me.

“Well,” he said, glancing at Allie and me through the door, “it is, perhaps, a rather delicate matter.”

“What sort of delicate matter?” Virgil said.

“Um, well,” he said. “It’s a matter regarding the Rio Blanco Bridge project.”

Virgil looked back to me, then opened the door for him to enter.

“Come on in,” Virgil said.

“Why, thank you,” he said.

He entered and removed his derby. Virgil closed the door behind him.

Sebastian nodded to Allie and me and smiled.

“This here is Allison French,” Virgil said. “And my deputy marshal, Everett Hitch.”

“Sebastian Winthrop,” he said with a click of his heels.

Sebastian carried a small leather satchel. He was completely bald, without even a hair on the sides of his head, though he had full eyebrows. He sported a small mustache that was curled up with a twist at each of its ends, firmly fixed with a touch of wax.

For a little man, there was something about him that made him seem somehow larger than his size. He was strong-looking, and his eyes were curious and perceptive.

“What matter regarding the bridge?” Virgil said.

“Well,” Sebastian said. “Thanks to you, Marshal Cole, for reaching out to the governor. You’ve uncovered something that has alarmed him and his staff, and I’m here on the governor’s behalf. I would have been here sooner, but the trains were slowed by the weather of course and it wasn’t only until the last few days the rails were even operable to Appaloosa and this area. But, nonetheless, I’m here now.”

He looked to a chair.

“May I?”

Virgil glanced at me, then nodded to Sebastian.

“Thank you,” Sebastian said, as he sat. “I’ve been traveling for days, mind you... I’ve yet to even have a proper glass of water.”

“Oh, well,” Allie said. “We do have water.”

“Why, thank you, Miss French,” he said.

Allie started for the kitchen.

“Tea, I presume, is out of the question,” he said, with the tips of his fingers together just in front of his silk tie.