The Loner Read Online Free PDF Page B

you think?”
    Moss’s beefy shoulders rose and fell. “It might work, I reckon.”
    “It will work,” Sinclair said. “For one thing, once I’m there, Mrs. Browning will insist that I at least stay and have a cup of tea with them. I’ll find a way to get Browning alone and knock him out.”
    “That’s the only way we can be sure he won’t get ventilated,” Lasswell said. “You better have it done by eight o’clock, though, because that’s when we’re comin’ in the back. You’re sure there won’t be any servants there?”
    “They only have a woman who does the cooking and cleaning, and she goes home by six. It’ll be just the two of them…and me.”
    Lasswell nodded. “There’s one more thing we been wonderin’ about. Do you have any idea where Frank Morgan is these days?”
    “Browning’s father?” Sinclair asked with a frown. “Why do you want to know?”
    “You know who Frank Morgan is, don’t you?”
    “Of course I do. He’s some sort of dime-novel gunman.”
    Lasswell gave a harsh laugh. “Not hardly, mister. Morgan’s the genuine article. If he’s anywhere around these parts and hears that his daughter-in-law’s been kidnapped, he’ll come a-runnin’ to get on our trail. And we don’t want that. We don’t want no part of it.”
    Sinclair suppressed the impulse to sneer. “You’re that afraid of one man?”
    “It’s not a matter of bein’ afraid. It’s a matter of bein’ careful.”
    Sinclair sighed. “I don’t know where Morgan is, but I can tell you that not long ago he was in California, down around Los Angeles. Browning mentioned that his father was lending a hand to one of their lawyers.”
    “That don’t make no sense at all,” Lasswell said with a frown. “Morgan’s a gunfighter, not a lawyer.”
    “All I know is what Browning said. It had to do with some sort of dispute over oil wells, or something like that.”
    “Oh,” Lasswell said. “Some kind of ruckus. Gun work, more’n likely. I can see Morgan bein’ mixed up in something like that.”
    Moss said, “California’s too close. I wish he was over in Texas, or way the hell and gone up in Montana or the Dakotas.”
    “It’ll be all right,” Lasswell said. “The whole thing won’t last long. It’ll be over and done with, and we’ll be gone before Morgan can ever get here.”
    “You hope,” Moss said.
    “Damn right I do.”
    “All right, it’s settled,” Sinclair said, not bothering to try to keep the impatience out of his voice. “I’ll do my part. You do yours.”
    Lasswell poured himself a drink. “You can count on us.”
    “One last thing…Under no circumstances is Mrs. Browning to be hurt in any way, shape, or fashion, do you understand? No one lays a finger on her except to restrain her and bring her along.”
    “Sure, sure,” Lasswell said. “We know we got to be careful with her.”
    “Good.” Sinclair gave them his best steely-eyed glare. “Because anyone who harms her will answer to me.”
     

    When Sinclair was gone and Lasswell and Moss were sitting there polishing off the whiskey, Moss chuckled and said, “That young fool don’t have any idea what’s really goin’ on, does he?”
    Lasswell shook his head as he emptied the last drops from the bottle into his glass. “No, he don’t,” he said. “Not one damn bit.”

Chapter 4

    Conrad enjoyed dinner with Rebel, as he always did. A cloth of fine Irish linen covered the table in the dining room. The china and the crystal sparkled. The meal prepared by Mrs. O’Hannigan was delicious. But of course, it was Rebel’s company that really made the meal special. She sat at the other end of the table in a white blouse and dark gray skirt, with her blond hair pulled up on top of her head in an elaborate arrangement of curls this evening.
    Conrad could hardly wait to pull loose the pins that held Rebel’s hair and allow it to tumble freely about her shoulders. Bare shoulders by that time, he hoped.
    But of course, he