Turnback Creek (Widowmaker) Read Online Free PDF Page A

that?”
    “Yes.”
    “Without hesitation,” she said. “I admire your loyalty.”
    “I wouldn’t be putting my own life on the line if I didn’t think he could handle the job.”
    “I hope that’s the case, Mr. Locke,” she said. “If I don’t get that money up to my mine, I’m going to be out of business.”
    “We’ll get it up there.”
    “There are no-goods in this town just waiting for a chance to grab it,” she said.
    “They’ll have to take it away from us.”
    “They’ll try,” she said. “That much I’m sure of. You’re going to have to kill a few men to get that money to the mine. Does that bother you at all?”
    “If you know who I am, you know that’s a silly ques-tion,” he said. “It’ll be their choice to die, not mine.”
    “Good,” she said. “I really do feel better, then. Why don’t we celebrate over dinner tonight? My house?”
    Locke hesitated, then said, “Coop and I would be happy to have dinner with you.”
    She tossed her head back and laughed, a sexy, throaty sound.
    “Yes, by all means bring the marshal. I’ll even invite George. He wants to ride up there with the two of you, you know.”
    “Is he any good with a gun?”
    “They terrify him,” she said. “He’d just get all three of you killed. I’ve told him I need him here.”
    “That’s a good decision.”
    Locke finished his brandy and moved to her desk, setting the glass down there. “I better go out and have a look at this wagon and team.”
    “It’s a strong buckboard and a good team of horses,” she said. “Don’t you trust the marshal to inspect them?”
    “The buckboard, maybe,” Locke said, “but he’s a lousy judge of horseflesh.”
    She laughed again, not quite as heartily as before.
    “All right,” she said, reaching for her hat. “Let’s both go out and have a look.”

EIGHT
     
    W hen they got outside, Molly led Locke around to the back of the building, where there was a corral and a stable. Cooper and Crowell were in the corral, looking over several horses. Both turned when they heard Molly and Locke coming.
    “What do you think, John?” Cooper asked. “The gelding and the bay?”
    Locke took a moment, then said, “I’d go with both the geldings.”
    “That one’s about ten years old,” Cooper said, pointing. “The other one half that.”
    “That’s okay,” Locke said. “There’s something to be said for experience, don’t you think?”
    “I definitely agree,” Molly said.
    “So do I,” George Crowell said.
    “Fine,” Cooper said. “Let’s take a look at the buck-board.”
    “It’s in the stable,” Crowell said.
    “You take a look, Coop,” Locke said. “I’ll look these horses over a little more closely.”
    Cooper followed Crowell into the stable.
    “The geldings are the two best horses,” she said. “They work the best as a team.”
    Locke ran his hand over one of the geldings and said, “I figured.”
    “You didn’t go into the stable—you’re trying to boost his confidence?” she asked.
    He turned to face her. “I don’t have to boost anything,” he said. “Dale Cooper was a great man—a great lawman.”
    “Once,” she said. “I know a drunk when I see one, Mr. Locke. I was married to one.”
    “Then why would you hire him in the first place?”
    “Two reasons,” she replied. “First is, he has the experience for this kind of job.”
    “And the second?”
    “I knew he was going to bring someone else in on it,” she said. “I was hoping it would be someone from his past, someone with a reputation, someone—well—like you.”
    “So you have faith in the judgment of a drunk?”
    Now she got angry. “There’s no one else for the job,” she said. “I lost two men when the last payroll was hit—two good men.”
    “All right,” he said. “All right. Reasons aside, Dale and I are here, and we’ve taken the job. Tell me, how long will it take us to get up the mountain to your mine?”
    “With the buckboard?”