Read Payton's Woman for Free Online Page B

alive.”
    “The old man must have known
who those people were. No wonder you were anxious to talk to him. But why was
he afraid of you? He couldn’t have known you were on to him.”
    “He might have. From
what I heard, the authorities questioned Hennigan right after the incident. I’m
certain my name came up in the conversation. They couldn’t charge him with
anything illegal because it’s not against the law to ship guns and ammunition
to Mexico. As to piracy, Hennigan claimed he didn’t know anything about it.
With Dunbar dead, or so they thought, there wouldn’t be anyone to link the old
man to any criminal activities. Of course if he knew Dunbar was alive and on
his way here, and the fact that I wanted to talk with him must have given him
considerable worry.”
    “You may be right about
him knowing Dunbar was alive. The old man received a couple of letters a while
back. They were both from Mexico.” He ran his hand over his chin as he thought.
“When you showed up yesterday, he probably figured Dunbar would be arrested as
soon as he stepped foot in California, and he’d be implicated in the piracy. I
guess he thought putting a gun to his head was better than going to prison.”
    “Letters from Mexico?”
Payton repeated. “Did you happen to see what was in them?”
    “No, he always stuck
them in his pocket. But now that I think about it, each time he got one of
those letters, he made a hasty trip to Sacramento. I thought it was because he
was visiting a woman there, but those trips must’ve been to deliver the letters
to Dunbar’s mother.”
    Payton swore under his
breath.
    “It’s strange that he
would’ve picked last night to kill himself, though.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Each time he left for
Sacramento, he was real upset. But when he came back, he’d be as happy as a drunken
sailor. That’s why I thought he was seeing a woman. Yesterday afternoon he
perked up considerably. It was after you left. A messenger delivered a note
that put a smile on his face. He practically danced around the office.”
    “Do you think it was
from Dunbar?”
    “No, the handwriting on
the outside was a woman’s. I think she was in town and wanted to visit him.”
    “Why do you think that?”
    “There was a woman with
him last night. She was probably here when he shot himself.”
    Payton felt his mouth drop
open, but he snapped it shut. “How do you know all this?”
    “There was a bottle of
champagne and two glasses.”
    “Where?”
    He jerked his thumb over
his shoulder. “In the back. The old man changed one of the offices into a
bedroom for when he worked late. With the way he fixed it up, it looked more
like a room in a cathouse. He’d occasionally bring women here after taking them
to Chinatown for the evening. That’s how he hid everything from his wife.”
    “What makes you think
the woman was here when he shot himself?”
    “Because when they
picked his body up off the bed, there was a pair of lady’s gloves under him.” He
spoke slowly and distinctly, as though he knew Payton hung on his every word. “And
the front door was unlocked, but the key was still in the slot. If the old man
had let her out, he would’ve locked it behind her. He was real careful about
locking doors.”
    “You’d make a good
detective. You might try that line of work if you ever need another job.”
    “It appears I just might
be needing one.”
    “One thing is curious
about his death. Why would a man shoot himself if he was with a woman
that...what did you say, made him laugh and dance around the room?”
    “That is curious, but I
think it was because she turned down his advances.”
    “Can’t be.” He chuckled as
he shook his head. “A man doesn’t kill himself just because a woman turns him
down. If that were the case, I would’ve been dead when I was sixteen.”
    Stover laughed also but
quickly sobered. “I think this woman was different. His usual women were cheap
and gaudy. I could tell from the