Read Online Crow Bait by Robert J. Randisi - Free Book Online Page B

the clerk against the wall behind them. The clerk cried out, both hands going out to try to protect himself.
    Lancaster and Ledge pulled the flimsy desk away and tossed it aside, where it fell to pieces. On the floor at their feet was an old Navy Colt that the clerk had been holding.
    “Okay,” Lancaster said, grabbing the clerk by the front of the shirt and pulling him up, “we went another way.”
    “Take it easy,” the clerk said. “I’m just tryin’ to make a few extra dollars.”
    “How about no money, and no beatin’ up?” Ledge asked. “We’ll just ask some questions and you answer ’em.”
    “Okay, then,” the clerk said. “That’ll work.”
    “I want to see your register for the past couple of weeks,” Lancaster said.
    “Why didn’t you just say so? It’s on the floor, there. Um, with my broken desk.”
    Ledge looked down at his feet, saw the book, and picked it up. He passed it to Lancaster, who let go of the clerk and opened the book.
    “Here we go,” Lancaster said. “It was actually about a week ahead of me. Sweet, Adderly, and Cardiff.”
    “You remember them?” Ledge asked.
    “Who wouldn’t remember a man named Sweet?” the clerk asked. “He was touchy about it.”
    “You ever hear them talk about where they were goin’ when they left here?” Lancaster asked.
    “You sure there ain’t a few dollars in this for me?” the clerk asked.
    “I can wrap the rest of this desk around your neck,” Ledge said.
    “Hey, okay,” the clerk said. “I heard somethin’ about Henderson, and I think one of them said somethin’ about Peach City, or somethin’ like that.”
    “Peach City?” Lancaster asked.
    Ledge just shrugged.
    “Never heard of it,” he said.
    “That it?” Lancaster asked the clerk.
    “Hey, mister,” he said, “that’s all I heard.”
    Lancaster looked at Ledge again and the man said, “I think that’s all we’re gonna get.”
    Lancaster pushed the register into the clerk’s chest. The man grabbed it with both arms.
    As Lancaster and Ledge headed for the door, theclerk called out, “What am I gonna tell my boss happened to the desk?”
    Lancaster turned, waved at the floor, and said, “Blame it on whoever broke these chairs.”
    As they went out the door, they heard the clerk mutter, “That’s actually not a bad idea.”

Twenty-six
    Lancaster invited Ledge to the K.O. Saloon for a drink, but Ledge declined.
    “I stay out of the saloons in town,” he said.
    “Why’s that?” Lancaster asked.
    “I get into too much trouble when I go to saloons,” Ledge said. “That’s why I make my own squeezin’s. I can get drunk at home without gettin’ into any trouble.”
    “Makes sense.”
    “So come back and share a jug.”
    “I can’t.”
    “Why?”
    “Isn’t so long ago I was a drunk, Ledge,” Lancaster said. “I can’t risk it again.”
    “I understand,” Ledge said. “I can make a pot of coffee, and then we can talk about what we’re gonna do next.”
    “What we’re gonna do?”
    “Yeah,” Ledge said, “to track those bastards who bushwhacked you.”
    They were walking back to Ledge’s place.
    “Ledge, I don’t expect you to pick up and leave your home to help me track them down.”
    “You gonna track three men alone?”
    “I’m gonna track ’em one at a time.”
    “Well,” Ledge said, “what the hell, let’s have some coffee and talk about it. Maybe I can say somethin’ that’ll help.”
    “What kind of horse?” Ledge asked.
    “Crow Bait.”
    “That’s his name or what he is?”
    “It’s what he looked like when we found each other on the desert,” Lancaster said, “but he walked me out of there. He saved my life.”
    “So you’re gonna stay with him to track these bastards?”
    “Ledge, it’s amazing the stamina this horse had,” Lancaster said. “With some feed in him and a few pounds on him, there’s no telling how long he can go.”
    “You can get a better horse, ya know,” Ledge said.
    “That