A Touch of Camelot Read Online Free PDF Page A

I'll finally get something I can sink my teeth into. Sooner or later, I'll get to do what I've wanted to do all my life, real detective work.
    Cole rose to his feet. "I'll take it, Fritz, but count on my being back very soon. By then, I hope you'll come up with something a bit more challenging."
    Fritz chuckled good-naturedly. "Not every job well done makes the newspapers, Cole, but rest assured they never go unnoticed at the home office." He picked up the Brother Christian/Silas Pierce file from his desk and offered it to Cole. "All the information and paperwork is here."
    "Ten days," Cole stated firmly, taking the file and turning to leave.
    His hand was on the doorknob when Fritz's parting comment reached his ears. "Good luck, Cole. I have a feeling you're going to need it."
    *
     
     
    Caldwell, Kansas, July 11
     
    Temporary Deputy Hollis McGee was beginning to think he could use a stiff shot of rye whiskey about now. Constable Mears had promised Hollis a part of the reward money if only he would sit guard over the girl and her kid brother for a few hours. Nothing to it, he had said. How much trouble could they be?
    Like most bad ideas, it had sounded like a good one at the time.
    " Deputy McGee ! Are you listening to me out there?"
    Hollis felt the muscles in the back of his neck bunch into a knot. He renewed for probably the tenth time in the last hour his solemn vow to remain a bachelor for life. He suspected marriage would be a lot like this—like being stuck in a box with one of them yippy little Chihuahua dogs.
    "So, Deputy McGee, how many cards do you want?" The kid blinked at him from across the desk, his blue eyes sparkling like a couple of brand-new pennies.
    Now, the kid, he was another story. Good as gold. Sweet as a stick of horehound candy. And sharp as a tack, too. He was a pretty fair poker player, especially for a little squirt.
    Before Hollis could reply, his ears were assaulted anew by the banshee in the back room. "It’s hot as Hades in this stinking cell, and I’m sweating like a pig in a barnyard! I demand that I be permitted to bathe!"
    "Geez damn!" Hollis slapped his cards onto the desk. "Don't she ever plug it up?"
    The kid gave a shrug. "She's been in a bad mood ever since we got here."
    "Sheee-it! Ya can say that again!"
    "Did you hear me, Deputy McGee? Deputy McGee! "
    "Keep yer petticoats on back there! I heard ya! And ya know I cain't let ya out fer no bath! Mrs. Henry will see to yer woman-needs when she gets back from visitin' the Widow Palmer!"
    "This is an outrage! Just exactly what crime am I supposed to be charged with, anyway? I haven't heard a word about that!"
    Hollis focused on the dingy mirror that hung on the wall to the right of the constable's desk. The mirror, situated strategically between a brewery calendar and a collection of WANTED posters, afforded Hollis an unobstructed view of the jail cell in the back room. The girl now paced its short length, back and forth, grumpy and restless. She was a pretty little thing, but a fella sure forgot that soon enough. As soon as she opened her mouth, to be precise.
    "The way I hear it, Miz Pierce, you done got yerself caught a-stealin' long johns off the mayor's washline. Now, ain't that a fact?"
    She threw both hands up. "Oh, pooh! How was I supposed to know they belonged to the mayor?"
    “That's no never mind to me. All I know is that you two must be important to someone because they got one of them Pinkerton fellas comin' to get ya, and there's a hundred dollar ree-ward out on yer heads."
    She stopped pacing and clutched the cell bars. "I don't know anything about any reward money. There must be some mistake."
    Hollis chortled gleefully. "Well, I'm fixin' to spend my share of that mistake down at Moreland's Saloon as soon as—"
    "This is the worst excuse for a jail that it has ever been my misfortune to encounter!"
    "Well, Miz Pierce, I am so sorry, but the princess cell is plumb full up! What do ya 'spect me to do?"
    She just