Read Valdez Is Coming for Free Online

face.
    “You go where?”
    “Here,” Valdez said. “To speak to Señor Tanner.”
    “About what?”
    “Money,” Valdez said.
    The man who had dismounted continued to study him for a moment. He handed his reins to the one with the rifle and walked off toward the adobe. Valdez watched him and saw the men by the fires, on the side of the adobe, looking out toward him. It was quiet now except for the stirring of the horses in the corral. He saw the light in the doorway as the man went inside. The door remained open, but he could see nothing within.
    There was a bar inside the room and two long tables. The station man, Gregorio Sanza, would be behind the bar maybe, serving Tanner. He remembered Tanner did not take anything to drink at the pasture.
    He said to the one with the rifle, “The company I work for owns that building. The Hatch and Hodges.”
    The man said nothing. Beyond him now two figures appeared in the doorway, in the light for a moment and out of it into darkness. Not Tanner, neither of them. The one who had gone inside called out, “Bring him over.” The two men in shadow came out a few steps and the second one, also with an accent, said, “Against the wall,” motioning with a nod of his head to the side.
    Some of the men by the fires had stood up or were rising as Valdez walked toward them. Others sat and lounged on their sides — dark faces, dark leather, firelight reflecting on cartridge belts and mess tins — and Valdez had to walk around them to reach the wall. As he turned, the man who had come out of the house walked over to stand across the fire from him, the men standing or sitting there quickly making room for him.
    The segundo , Valdez thought. They move.
    He was a big man, almost as big as Diego Luz, with a straw Sonora hat and a heavy moustache that gave him a solemn expression and a strip of beard beneath his mouth. The segundo, with one cartridge bandolier and two long-barreled .44s on his legs.
    Valdez nodded to him and said in Spanish, “Good evening,” almost smiling.
    “I don’t know you,” the segundo said.
    “Because we have never met.”
    “I know everyone who does business with Señor Tanner.”
    “I have no business with him. A private matter.”
    “You told them business.”
    “I told them money.”
    The segundo was silent, watching him. “He doesn’t know you,” he said then.
    “Señor Tanner? Sure, I met him today. I killed a man for him.”
    The segundo hesitated again, undecided or taking his own time, watching him. He motioned with his hand then, and the Mexican who had gone into the house before moved away, turning the corner. The segundo continued to stare. Valdez shifted his gaze to the left and to the right and saw all of them watching him in the light of the fires. There were Americans and Mexicans, some of them bearded, most of them with their hats on, all of them armed. He counted, looking about idly, and decided there were at least twelve of them here. More of them out in the darkness.
    He said in his mind, Mr. Tanner, do you remember me? Bob—
    Tanner came around the corner. He took a stub of cigar out of his mouth and stood looking at Valdez.
    Now. “Mr. Tanner, do you remember me? Bob Valdez, from the pasture today.”
    Tanner held the cigar in front of him. He was in his shirtsleeves and vest and without the dark hat that had hidden his eyes, his hair slanting down across his forehead, the skin pale-looking in the firelight. He seemed thinner now and smaller, but his expression was the same, the tell-nothing expression and the mouth that looked as if it had never smiled.
    “What do you want?”
    “I just wanted to talk to you for a minute.”
    “Say it.”
    “Well, it’s about the man today.”
    “What man?”
    “The one that was killed. You know he had a wife with him.” Valdez waited.
    “Say what you want and get out of here.”
    “Well, we were talking — Mr. Beaudry and Mr. Malson. You know who I mean?”
    “You don’t have much