Роберт Паркер - Robert B. Parker's Revelation

Gracie stopped talking. He looked down, then looked back up to us.

“He... he cornholed me... before he stabbed me,” he said. “He did that to me... Made the lady watch.”

“What lady?” Virgil said.

“She was no lady, no woman,” he said weakly as tears fell from his eyes. “Not really, she was a girl, younger then me... I’m fifteen.”

“Goddamn,” I said.

Virgil shook his head.

“Settlers’ girl.”

I nodded.

“What’s the closest town to here?” Virgil said.

“Twenty miles, up the road here, there is Rose Rock,” he said.

Driggs went upstairs to the center room where Uncle Dave had been keeping watch. There were cigar ends and rib bones on the floor, a canteen, a few empty bottles of beer, and the pair of binoculars. Driggs looked out through the binoculars to his room up the street. He peered at the window, thinking he might catch a glimpse of the princess, but saw nothing. Then he collected all the stuff — the bones, bottles, cigar ends, canteen, and binoculars. When he got back downstairs he dumped the stuff and Uncle Dave’s body into a hinged opening he discovered that led to the building’s substructure.

When he was done he scanned the room, making sure everything was in order, then moved toward the front of the building and looked out the window. Then as he watched the rain pour from the porch overhang, he heard a deep voice behind him. “Got a gun to the back of your head. Get your hands up.”

Driggs froze. He did not turn and he did not raise his hands.

“Who are you?”

“I am the sheriff of Appaloosa,” he said. “Name’s Chastain. Got a Colt pointed at the back of your head. Now I need you to raise your hands... right now.”

Driggs did as he was told.

“As high as they will go,” Chastain said. “Straight up in the goddamn air and do not turn around. You don’t do as I say I will not hesitate to put a bullet in your head.”

Driggs raised his arms higher. Then he started to turn.

“Don’t you fucking move,” Chastain said. “Don’t you think about fucking moving unless I say so.”

“What seems to be the problem?” Driggs said, as he remained looking out the front window of the building with his hands held above his head.

“Problem?”

“Yes,” Driggs said.

“One of my smallest problems with you, and it ain’t the first one, or the biggest one, I might add, is you thinking you is sneaky, going through the goddamn drugstore like you did, trying to lose me.”

Driggs started to lower his hands some.

“Fucking up and high, goddamn it,” Chastain said.

Driggs did as he was told, and once he had his hands back up high, Chastain said, “Turn around, slow-like.”

Driggs turned very slowly and faced Chastain.

“What the fuck you doing in this building?” Chastain said.

“Just stepped in to get out of the rain,” Driggs said.

“Fuck you,” Chastain said.

“The truth, Officer.”

“I know who you are,” Chastain said. “So you can spare the horseshit.”

“I don’t know what you are talking about,” Driggs said.

“I followed your ass, tracked you in the mud all the way to right here, you see.”

“You followed me?” Driggs said.

“You goddamn right I did,” Chastain said. “Footprint by footprint.”

“Why?”

“You are under arrest,” Chastain said.

“For what?”

Chastain took a pair of cuffs from his pocket and tossed them to Driggs. The cuffs hit Driggs’s chest and fell to the floor.

“Put those on.”

“Why,” Driggs said. “What for?”

“You are under arrest for escaping Cibola for one, and I’m sure when it is all said and done there will be a whole bunch of other shit that you will be charged with.”

“You have the wrong man,” Driggs said.

“Put them on,” Chastain said. “Put the cuffs on, now.”

“Okay, just know I’m here to cooperate,” Driggs said. “So just take it easy... but you have made a grave mistake, I’m afraid. I’m not who you think I am.”

“Do like I tell you,” Chastain said as he moved toward him with his Colt pointed at his head. “I won’t ask again, and believe me, I got no problem in putting a bullet in your goddamn fucking head. Put them on, now.”

“Okay,” Driggs said.

Driggs lowered his hands.

“Very fucking easy as you go,” Chastain said. “You so much as flinch, make any kind of goddamn move otherwise than getting them cuffs on, you will be a dead man.”

“Okay Sheriff,” Driggs said. “Okay... please just take it easy...”

Driggs leaned down and picked up the cuffs. He secured one side of the cuffs to one wrist and then clicked the other side closed.

“There,” Driggs said. “Are you happy?”

“Let’s go,” Chastain said.

Driggs smiled and looked to the doors.

“Front door or back door?”

“Same way you came in.”

“As you wish,” Driggs said. “But you are making a big mistake, I assure you.”

“Just move,” Chastain said.

Driggs walked toward the rear door. Chastain followed with his Colt pointed at his back. The door had swung back closed after Chastain’s entrance. When Driggs got to the door, he turned ever so slightly to Chastain.

“Shall I open it?” Driggs said. “Or do you prefer to open it? I don’t want you to be impetuous.”

“Just open it very easy,” Chastain said. “Easy all the way to the jail and you won’t have a problem. You don’t and you will be dead.”

“Yes,” Driggs said. “As you have reiterated.”

Driggs reached for the door and as he pulled it open he swiftly removed Uncle Dave’s pistol from under his belt, swiveled his hands around his side without turning back toward Chastain, and pulled the trigger. The bullet caught a piece of Chastain’s side just as Chastain pulled the trigger of his Colt. His bullet just missed Driggs’s head as it splintered the doorjamb. Driggs spun around on Chastain, but Chastain’s body slammed him into the door before Driggs could fire again. The impact with the door made Driggs lose control of the pistol. Driggs spun around with his boot outright and flipped the sheriff off his feet. Chastain got off a second shot but the fall made the bullet go wild. Driggs got his hands on Chastain’s Colt.

Driggs tried to wrestle the pistol out of Chastain’s hand and, even though Chastain had received a shot to the side, he was every bit as strong and as powerful as Driggs. Driggs was now on top of Chastain and he slammed Chastain’s pistol free. Chastain managed to turn his body and reach for the fallen pistol, but Driggs got his cuffed hands over Chastain’s head. With the chain between the cuffs around Chastain’s neck, Driggs pulled hard. Chastain reached behind him, trying to get ahold of Driggs, but Driggs maintained control. Driggs put his knee to Chastain’s back as he pulled the cuffs tighter and tighter around Chastain’s neck. Chastain began to violently flail as Driggs choked him. Chastain spun around, kicking. He kicked a hole in the wall, spun, and kicked a hole in the door. He fought as he got to his knees, then he got to his feet, but Driggs kept choking him. Chastain kicked the glass out of the door, then spun around into the room with Driggs on his back. He dragged Driggs toward the front door, but before he got too close Driggs fell back with him. Chastain spun around, getting to his feet again, but Driggs was not about to let up. Chastain charged a wall and tried to dislodge Driggs, but to no avail.