Shotgun Read Online Free PDF Page A

him from his right arm.
    Beaudine said, “I admit I let loose the beast.”
    â€œDid this Bishop die?”
    â€œHe met his god that night, yes.”
    Widow Kate pounded on the door with bear-size fists until it swung open. She came in, coughing back dust-thick air and trying to clear her painted eyes, “Beaudine, you’ve been doing a damn poor job of clock watchin’. Find your pants.”
    Beaudine was sitting on the edge of the cot, its knotted-rope center giving way, his eyes fixed on the pages of the Sears catalog that papered the slat walls and ceiling of the room. Ads for lady’s corsets and iceboxes for a fair price surrounded him, their edges curling yellow. There were no windows in this place, just an opening for a stovepipe, and the only light came from a small oil lamp that smoked acrid brown.
    Beaudine said, “I’ve asked that you refer to me by my officer’s status.”
    Kate snorted. “I’m not playing games with you. This place is a trash pile.”
    A bourbon bottle, neck snapped off, lay empty by his feet, which were laced with blood from stepping on the broken glass. Behind him, a redhead of some age was curled into a corner, her stained nightshirt bunched around her. She didn’t utter a sound through her frozen smile.
    Beaudine said to Kate, “Madame, do you think I owe you an apology?”
    â€œForty more dollars. At least.”
    â€œSpeaking of money in front of a lady like Miss Bly is a true insult. You’ve interrupted us. Miss Bly and I were having an interview for an Eastern newspaper. She’s come a very long way to talk to me, and she deserves my full attention.”
    â€œNellie Bly again, huh?”
    The redhead sucked her thumb, while playing with her curls with her other hand. Her eyes were vacant spaces in her wide-white face, and she giggled when Kate asked her if she was hurt.
    Widow Kate said, “Whatever he did, you didn’t feel it. How much laudanum did you soak?”
    The redhead came back with a blank grin. Beaudine said, “If you leave us now, you won’t incur my wrath. We have important work yet to do.”
    â€œWhere the hell do you think you are?”
    â€œThe sanitarium at Milledgeville. And again, please show respect for my rank.”
    Widow Kate held back a slap and said, “You’re in the attic of my house, Major ! With one of my public girls. You got that?”
    There was a moment of thought, and then Beaudine met her glare, saying, “This hospital, and the way you treat a decorated Confederate officer, is a disgrace, and Miss Bly is here to expose these conditions. When her articles appear, there will be a clean sweeping, including you, Madame.”
    â€œAt least you got that right.”
    Widow Kate put one of her giant hands on the redhead’s face, gently wiping her nose with her thumb. “Look at me, honey. Anything happen that I should charge extra for?”
    The redhead settled for a moment with her thoughts. “No. He just talked like a genteel man—and I didn’t say nothin’ at all. He’d ask a question, and then answer it his own self. Carried on like he was two people.”
    Her words slurred together, but she made a point of saying “genteel,” and was proud of the choice, before slumping back into the corner of her own world.
    â€œSo just the forty.” Kate turned to Beaudine. “You’re crazier than a shit-house rat. How’d they ever let you out of anywhere?”
    Beaudine covered his face with his palms. “You’re pressing me to an edge. Madame, you do not want to incur my wrath.”
    Widow Kate grabbed Beaudine’s uniform jacket from a hanging peg. “That goes both ways. Downstairs. You know what happens when you owe the house.”
    â€œWhen my release is secured, my men will be coming for me.”
    â€œWe’ll wait downstairs for them, and if they bring cash, they’re as