Crow Bait Read Online Free PDF Page A

checked in at the Laughlin House. True to Andy’s word, a room was waiting for him. In fact, it was a two-room suite, which was more than he needed.
    What he needed was a bath, and some new clothes. After that, a meal with Andy, and maybe some conversation that might bring his memory back into focus.
    And he had to see about Crow Bait. He decided to do that first.
    He found the livery and told the man he was there about the Indian pony.
    “That crow bait?” the man asked. “You the crazy man who’s payin’ for that horse to take up one of my stalls?”
    “I’m the crazy man,” Lancaster said. “I want himwell fed and cared for. I want to put some weight back on him. Understand?”
    “I understand,” the man said, “but I don’t know why. It’ll take more than some weight—”
    “How much?” Lancaster asked.
    “How long you gonna be in town?”
    “A few days, maybe.”
    “Gimme three dollars for now.”
    Lancaster gave him the money.
    “My name’s Mal. I’ll take good care of him, but I don’t know how much good it will do.”
    “My name is Lancaster, and I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”
    He had a bath, then bought some new clothes, but he spent the money Andy Black had given him sparingly. One shirt, one pair of trousers, one pair of boots, socks, and underwear.
    “I’ll need a saddle,” he told the clerk. “Where can I get one in town?”
    “A good one?”
    “A good used one.”
    “Is your horse at the livery?”
    “Yes.”
    “Then that’s where I’d get the saddle.”
    “That’s what I thought,” Lancaster said. “Thanks.”
    He left the general store, wearing all of his new clothes—except for the hat, which was the same one he’d been wearing in the desert. A new one could come later.
    He walked over to the Wells Fargo office at five minutes to five.

Twelve
    Andy Black took Lancaster to a steak house a few streets away and ordered two steak dinners with everything.
    “Eat up,” he said. “Your horse isn’t the only one who needs to eat.”
    “I was only in the desert for a couple of days,” Lancaster said. “I was beaten, but not starved.”
    “And you were at the Castle place for a few days,” Andy said. “I bet you lost a little weight.”
    “Kimmie Castle is a great cook,” Lancaster said. “I don’t think so.”
    “Kimmie Castle,” Andy said. “Haven’t seen her in a long time. Still pretty?”
    “Very.”
    “And her brothers?”
    “Not so pretty. Zack wasn’t happy that she was nursing me back to health.”
    “Zack’s never happy,” Andy said. “They in town?”
    “They all brought me here.”
    “All of them? Her, too?”
    “Yes.”
    “Well, that’s an event.”
    The waiter brought the steak dinners and they each dug in. Andy ate as ravenously as Lancaster did.
    Halfway through Andy said, “How’s your memory?”
    Lancaster frowned. “Three men rode me down. Shot my horse. Before I knew it, they were on me, putting the boots to me. I went in and out of consciousness. Whenever I came to they knocked me out again.”
    “See anything? Faces?”
    “No.”
    “Anything at all?”
    “Boots,” Lancaster said. “And I heard voices.”
    “Saying?”
    Lancaster frowned again. “I think I heard one saying they should kill me, and another saying…”
    “What?”
    “That wasn’t the plan.”
    “What plan?”
    “I don’t know that,” Lancaster said.
    “So they were paid to ambush you and leave you in the desert to die?”
    “That’s how it sounded,” Lancaster said.
    “So,” Andy said, “all you need is to think of who wants you dead that badly.”
    “That much I can remember.”
    “Good. Who?”
    Lancaster took a bite of potato and said, “Lots of people.”
    After supper Andy Black went home to a small house he had on the edge of town. No wife. He was married to his job. He didn’t gamble, didn’t drink excessively. And he liked his time alone.
    Lancaster decided to go and see the local sheriff.Maybe if he talked