Read Longarm #399 : Longarm and the Grand Canyon Murders (9781101554401) for Free Online

officers and some that would love nothing more than to put a bullet in my back.”
    “Oh, I see.”
    “I hope you do, Heidi. I really hope you try and remember that, because it will make my job easier and a damn sight safer.”
    “I’ll remember.” She smiled. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I really do have to piddle!”
    “Chamber pot is usually under the bed, or there may be a running toilet at the end of the hall in a place this fancy.”
    “You’ve never stayed here either?”
    “Nope. Like the fella at the train station, the Hotel Weatherford has always been a little rich for my wallet.”
    “Not this trip it isn’t,” she said, blowing him a kiss and stooping to peer under their bed.
    “Find it?”
    She dragged out a porcelain chamber pot that was decorated with purple pansies. “How cute.”
    “Use it,” he said, heading for the door to find them a bottle of whiskey and another of good chardonnay wine.

Chapter 5
    Longarm visited a livery that looked prosperous, and when he found the owner, a large man who smelled like a pile of ripe horse turds, and told the man that he wanted to rent a private coach, the liveryman laughed.
    “I sure as hell won’t help you.”
    Longarm frowned. “Mind telling me why not?”
    “Because there is a stage that goes up to Lees Ferry and I can’t compete with them.”
    “We’re in a hurry.”
    “Yeah,” the man said, “I’ll just bet you are.”
    “What’s that supposed to mean?”
    “I
know
who you are, Marshal. And I’m not stupid. You’re in a hurry to get up there so you can investigate the murders and that missing judge and his young wife.”
    “I guess you got me pegged,” Longarm said.
    “There’s another thing, and that is that I don’t like anyone who wears a badge…especially a federal badge.”
    “Fair enough,” Longarm said, turning on his heel and starting to leave.
    “Hey, don’t you turn your back on me before I’m through talking!”
    Longarm turned.
    “Do you remember a man named Reece Whitfield?” the liveryman said with a snarl in his voice.
    “Yeah, I shot the asshole dead about three years ago right here in Flagstaff.”
    “Reece was my kid brother.”
    “Come to think of it, I do remember that fat bastard smelled almost as bad as yourself.”
    “You son of a bitch, you just
insulted
my dear dead brother!”
    “I guess I did,” Longarm conceded. “Truth is, I’m starting to remember you now. You got away with a bank robbery while your brother took the blame for it and I hunted him down. Like you, he was stupid and thought he was a real bad fella, so he tried to pull a gun on me and I drilled him twice before he could even get the pistol out of his holster.”
    The big liveryman’s mouth twisted down at the corners. “My brother would be alive now if it wasn’t for
you
!”
    “I’m surprised,” Longarm said, “that someone in Flagstaff hasn’t shot you down.”
    “No one has the balls to try.”
    Longarm was wearing his sidearm, and he noted that this angry man had inched closer to a double-barreled shotgun that was leaning up against a wall. “Mister,” he said, “I can tell that you are nearly feeble-minded, and I can read your mind like a cheap dime novel, and I can tell you right now that you’ll be dead before you can pick that scattergun up.”
    The liveryman glanced at the shotgun, which was almost within arm’s reach. “I guess you probably couldat that,” he said. “But I’m a patient man. I can wait for my time.”
    “If that’s a threat, I won’t give you the time to wait.”
    The liveryman raised his hands up near his shoulders. “You gonna gun me down? You gonna arrest me?”
    “I’m considering it.”
    The man grinned wickedly. “Sheriff Clyde Petrie is my cousin. You arrest me and take me to jail, then you’ll look like a fool. Clyde will laugh in your face and so will I.”
    Longarm expected this was true. In his long time as a federal marshal, he’d often come up against