Роберт Паркер - Robert B. Parker's Revelation

“I’ll be goddamned,” I said.

“What?” Tillary said.

“He took Lonnigan’s name,” I said.

Virgil looked to Tillary.

“What?” Tillary said. “Who?”

“Man I knew,” I said.

“You got a photograph of Donnie Lonnigan?”

“No,” Tillary said.

“Describe him,” I said.

After Tillary gave a detailed description of Donnie Lonnigan, Virgil looked to me.

“Damn sure sounds like him,” Virgil said. “The fella you knew, that we saw.”

“I’ll be damned,” I said.

Tillary looked back and forth between Virgil and me with a frown on his face.

“What?” he said. “What are you talking about?”

“We believe we have seen him,” Virgil said.

“Four days after the breakout,” I said.

“With her?” Tillary said with a confused look on his face.

I nodded.

“Where?”

“Appaloosa,” I said.

“Better than a good chance that it is her, Eleanor,” Virgil said. “And him, Lonnigan.”

“Appaloosa?” Tillary said.

Virgil nodded.

“Who took Lonnigan’s name?” Tillary said, narrowing his eyes.

“Someone I knew a long time ago.”

I looked to Virgil.

“Why Appaloosa?” I said.

Virgil shook his head a little.

“Gotta be some reason,” Virgil said. “Otherwise he might just stay hiding.”

“You sure?” Tillary said. “Appaloosa is a hell of a long way from here.”

Virgil looked to me.

“Damn straight,” I said. “Two names I know coming up from long ago seems better than a good chance.”

Virgil nodded and looked to Tillary.

“Where is the closest depot?”

“San Cristóbal,” he said. “Due west, ’bout seventy miles.”

“Getting out of here and getting to Appaloosa,” I said, “without a care in the world, looking like a refined, distinguished couple. Seems kind of bold and excessive, but who would ever consider them a convict and his accomplice.”

Virgil nodded.

“It is far enough away to start anew, though,” I said.

“Scholes said they took his best horses,” Virgil said.

“San Cristóbal’s a big place,” I said. “They rode there, bought fineries, sold the horses, or loaded the horses and left, took the train to Appaloosa.”

Virgil nodded.

“Then again,” I said. “This could all be a bunch of something made out of nothing.”

Virgil looked to me like he didn’t believe that notion any more than the conviction I used in saying it, but he obliged the moment for consideration.

“The woman we saw was for certain older than this photograph of her in her wedding gown, though,” Virgil said.

“How long ago was it they were married?” I said.

“Four, maybe five years,” Tillary said.

“So let me understand. In Appaloosa?” Tillary said. “You believe you saw Eleanor with him, with Lonnigan.”

“His name is not Lonnigan,” I said.

“What is his name?”

“Gus Driggs. Augustus Noble Driggs,” I said.

“You ever hear that name?” Virgil said.

“No,” Tillary said.

“Well,” Virgil said. “Not uncommon for criminals to change their names.”

“No,” Tillary said with a scoff.

“Especially when it’s a name of someone they know from their past that no longer existed,” I said.

“Hell, no telling who is really who when it comes to the incarcerated.”

I nodded.

“We’ve damn sure seen that,” I said. “And I believe we are seeing it now.”

Virgil nodded

“Hell,” Tillary said, “half the time the crimes that criminals are accused of are lesser crimes than they committed while going by their given name. Crimes they want to be distant of. So they are more than willing to be someone else if they can get away with it.”

“No telling what kind of life Driggs lived after I last saw him. Most likely not one without plenty of dead in his wake.”

“We fought together,” I said. “Like I mentioned, it was a long time ago, during the Indian Wars. Lonnigan, too. Lonnigan was lost in action, never found him or his body. The same thing happened to him that happened to a number of soldiers during those times. They ended up just gone.”

“Driggs and Lonnigan obviously knew each other?” Virgil said.

“They did,” I said.

“And Driggs?”

“Driggs’s situation was a far sight ’nother matter altogether. He was let go of his rank and command for killing. He’d be sent on a mission to round up Indians and they’d end up dead. Happened more than once. He enjoyed the killing. He was mad as hell when he was let go. He thought the other officers, including me, had turned him in. Fact of the matter was, the general knew all too well who Driggs was. He figured it’d be only a matter of time before his killing spree would end by getting himself killed. I kind of thought that’d be the case, too. I will say he was smart, graduated top of his class.”

Tillary nodded.

“Lonnigan was a smart fella,” he said. “No doubt about that, what so ever. Spent most of his time reading.”

Virgil looked to Tillary.

“How long was Lonnigan, or Driggs, locked up here in Cibola?” Virgil said.

“He’d been here for four years but locked up for eight altogether. He was transferred here. He came in here in need of an operation. He was first sent to San Cristóbal for the surgery, then was transferred to here. The first six weeks here he spent most of the time chained to a bunk in the infirmary. Most likely where he met and developed a relationship with Eleanor. Though I don’t know that for certain, but that could very well be the case. If what Scholes believed to be true is in fact a reality.”

“What was he locked up for at the other prison?” Virgil said.

“Murder and robbery.”

“You got a file on him?”

“We do on Donnie Lonnigan,” Tillary said. “Providing Lonnigan and this Driggs you are talking about are one and the same, as you say. I can most likely tell you what you want to know, though. Know most every inmate’s history or the ostensible criminal history that led them to incarceration.”

“Tell me about him.”

“Well, Donnie Lonnigan is a powerful sonofabitch. Once he recovered fully after the surgery he became one of the most revered men here... Didn’t liked being locked up, though. Most of the men get used to it, but Lonnigan never did... Revered might not be the right word. Feared is the right word. Kept to himself, would spend most of his time exercising or reading books or newspapers. We let them read whatever we have to read — newspapers, books, and so forth. We encouraged reading here, a good distraction. The other inmates were scared of him... well, all but Ed Degraw. The other one you are after. Degraw is not afraid of anybody. Both Degraw and Lonnigan, or Driggs, or whoever the hell he is, are both kind of hell on earth, I guess you could say. Each in their own way. Degraw is a beast. He’s been in and out of prison since he was old enough to walk, robbed banks, dynamited rail-car safes, burnt down an entire village, then killed an old couple with his bare hands, that’s what got him locked up last. He’s ruthless, like a pissed-off griz, as fierce and as scary as one, too. Lonnigan has a powerful way about him that works through his mind as well. Degraw and Lonnigan were in the same cell together for a time and we had to separate them, thought they might kill each other... In hindsight I suppose that would have been the best thing to happen to them.”

“Where was Lonnigan first locked up,” Virgil said. “Where did he transfer from?”

“Mexico,” Tillary said. “He was in prison in Mexico City. Cibola is the closest stateside facility to Mexico. Well, here and El Paso, but he ended up here.”