Роберт Паркер - Robert B. Parker’s Blackjack

“Where did you lose him?” King said.

“Lose who?” Virgil said.

“Bill Black, of course.”

Virgil glanced at me before he answered King.

“We didn’t lose Bill Black,” Virgil said.

“The deputy that called on us said there was an apprehension of someone.”

He nodded to the back cell room.

“Someone that had been with Bill Black, but that Black got away.”

“Let’s start with something a bit easier,” Virgil said.

“What’s that?”

“Why are you here?”

King looked to Banes, then back to Virgil.

“Official business of the Denver Department of Law Enforcement.”

“What sort of official business?”

The young sergeant stood straight-backed with his jaw clenched.

“We are here to investigate.”

“Investigate what?”

“I don’t have to tell you this is serious business involving a member of our department.”

“Tell us about this murder,” Virgil said.

“I can tell you what is within my purview to be shared.”

Virgil glanced to me again, then looked back to the sergeant and smiled.

“Tell us all you know, within your purview.”

“I can answer the questions I feel are appropriate for me to answer, Marshal.”

Virgil looked to Banes, and Banes averted his eyes to me.

“Roger Messenger a member of the Denver Department of Law Enforcement?” Virgil said.

“Was,” King said.

“He’s not anymore?”

“He is on leave, pending investigation,” he said.

“Providing he lives,” Virgil said.

The young detective sergeant stared at Virgil.

“Who is Ruth Ann, and how is she related to Roger?”

“I’m afraid I cannot answer that.”

“There is really nothing for you to be afraid of, Detective Sergeant King,” Virgil said.

King blinked a few times.

“The case is confidential, Marshal.”

Virgil glanced to me.

“We heard something about that,” Virgil said.

“There is a warrant and there is a bounty,” I said. “Not much confidential about that.”

“Nonetheless...” he said.

“Messenger come here by himself,” Virgil said, “or as a member of the Denver Department of Law Enforcement to serve the warrant?”

Detective Sergeant King pulled his shoulders back and looked at Virgil without answering the question.

“Guess that means confidential,” Virgil said.

“I cannot answer that.”

“How is it that Boston Bill Black ends up being charged with this murder?”

“I told you this is confident—”

“Shut up, Sherman,” Banes said. “Goddamn it, son, just shut the hell up.”

King looked to Banes like his feelings were hurt.

“Ruth Ann was Roger Messenger’s wife,” Banes said. “Maybe you figured that part out already? Nothing goddamn confidential about that.”

“How is it that Boston Bill is wanted for her murder?” Virgil said.

“Ruth Ann was fucking Boston Bill Black,” Banes said.

Detective Sergeant King raised a rigid finger and said, “That is unauthorized and—”

“I said, shut up,” Banes said, looking sternly at the young man. “And I mean it. These fellas have lost one of their men trying to sort this shit out, and I’ll be goddamned if I’m gonna just sit here and listen to you avoiding what they need to know so they can do their job.”

Banes looked back to Virgil.

“If I said Ruth Ann was promiscuous, that would be a pound-and-a-half understatement. She was as wild as a March hare. She had a hard time keeping her legs together, you see... and Bill Black was not the first. Roger was no match for her, not from the damn beginning. Not sure how she even ended up with Roger or how he ended up with her, but when Black was in Denver, working on the gambling house there, he was giving it to her on a regular basis.”

King shook his head back and forth with a disappointed look on his face. Banes ignored him.

“Everybody knew about it,” Banes said. “Apparently, Ruth Ann had her hooks in Boston Bill bad.”

“Roger knew about it, too?” I said.

Banes nodded.

“Yeah,” he said. “Poor sonofabitch...”

“When it started up with Bill she flaunted it and shit. That was hard on Roger, you can imagine.”

King looked to Banes and said harshly under his breath, “Sir...”

Banes continued without acknowledging King.

“Rumor is Boston Bill tried to break it off with Ruth Ann, but she had different ideas. She wanted to leave Roger. Anyway, she leaves Roger, so the story goes, and Roger starts to drinking and then he gets his ass kicked off of the force.”

“And Ruth Ann?” Virgil said. “What happened to her?”

“Next thing you know, Ruth Ann ends up missing. Then two weeks go by, then Ruth Ann is found down by the South Platte behind the inn where Bill Black was staying, facedown in a foot of water. She’d been beaten, brutally murdered.”

“Any witnesses?”

Banes nodded.

“Folks, the owners of the inn, heard him, Boston Bill, and Ruth Ann arguing in the middle of the night, the night before Bill left Denver.”

“But no eyewitness?”

“Not directly, but all indicators point to... Black,” he said. “There was blood found on the back steps.”

“Who found her?” I said.

“Some kids who were fishing,” he said.

“How could you tell after that long a time what had happened to her?” I said. “That she had been beaten? Hard to believe no coyotes and other varmint got to her.”

“She was in shallow water, a bunch of green river weed wrapped around her, when the kid found her. When the officers got there to the riverbank and pulled her from the water she was still intact. She was brought in, looked at carefully.”

“And?” I said.

“She had a number of cuts on her body,” Banes said. “Looked like a blow to the head is what did her in. Hard to say, she could have been held down in the shallow water and drowned, for all we know. But it was her, it was Ruth Ann, and she was killed.”

Detective Sergeant King lowered his head as if he’d been defeated.

“You and Roger friends?” Virgil said.

Banes sat stoic as he looked at Virgil a bit, then nodded.

“Yes.”

“What he ever say to you about any of this?”

“Nothing.”

“Roger ever a suspect in Ruth Ann’s murder?” I said.

Banes looked at me.

“It was discussed,” he said.

“By who?” I said.

“All of us.”

“What do you think?”

Banes stared at me for a long moment.

“Maybe.”

“Maybe?”

“He had to be mad as hell at her. Fact, he even said to me he’d like to see her dead for making a fool out of him like she did... I suppose I would not have put it past him.”

“So what do you figure?” Virgil said.

Banes nodded a little, then shook his head. He glanced to his detective partner before he spoke.

“I’d most likely put my money on Roger as the killer of his wife, Ruth Ann.”

The young detective reacted liked he’d been shot and said with volume and precise, sharp, emphatic words, “Bill Black is the murderer of Ruth Ann Messenger... and he is a wanted man. He is on the run. And his warrant is supported by evidence and not hearsay. And not you or anyone else outside of the court of law can hypothetically go putting money on it.”

“I can hypothetically do what the sam-hell I want to do,” Banes said, looking sternly at his partner, but then he nodded a little. “But I can also say... you might be right.”

“There is no doubt,” King said.

“Oh, there is always doubt in this line of work,” Banes said. “Always... even when it involves friends, family, and loved ones. Always. It’s just how it is.”