Read Online Longarm and "Kid" Bodie (9781101622001) by Tabor Evans - Free Book Online Page B

he don’t tell me what to do like I was some slave. He asks me to do things and I do ’em because he asks. That’s all it takes, just the askin’ rather than the tellin’. Understand?”
    â€œI understand.”
    â€œOkay, then. I’ll go with you if you ask.”
    â€œWould you go with me to my office to see that letter your mother wrote, maybe even on the day she was murdered?”
    â€œYes, sir, I will. But Homer comes with me.”
    â€œFine,” Longarm said. “Let’s go.”
    â€œWait a minute.”
    Longarm watched Bodie go out the back of the barn. He was gone only a few minutes, and Longarm figured it was to tell Otis Redman that he was leaving for the Comstock Lode and to thank him for his help.
    Bodie was a good kid. Hard as nails, but a good kid all the same. Longarm wasn’t sure if Billy Vail would go along with letting Bodie go off to Virginia City. But then again, Longarm didn’t think that Billy had any choice in the matter. None at all.

Chapter 9
    â€œSo,” Billy Vail said when Custis and Bodie walked into his office, “you’ve been found.”
    â€œI wasn’t lost,” Bodie said. “I had a good stable job and the marshal decided that was over.”
    Billy’s eyes moved to the huge dog. “Custis, you know you can’t bring that beast into the Federal Building.”
    â€œI know, but I promised Bodie that they could stay together. It was that or else arrest and then drag him here.”
    â€œI came for the letter my ma wrote me,” Bodie declared. “And I guess there was some jewelry worth a lot of money.”
    â€œThat’s right.”
    Bodie stepped right up to Billy’s desk. “I don’t have much of anything other than Homer and what I’m wearin’. So if you have something of mine, I’d be obliged to have it now.”
    Billy studied the ragged and dirty kid. “All right, but first you’re going to have to answer some questions, and I want you to be honest. If I think you’re lying to me or to Custis, I won’t give you the letter or the jewelry. Understand?”
    Bodie nodded, lips tightly compressed.
    â€œBoth of you have a seat and close the door behind you.”
    When everyone was seated, Billy said, “Bodie, when was the last time you saw your mother?”
    â€œA couple of years ago.”
    â€œAnd at that time was she living with John Stock, the man who was shot to death and claimed to be your stepfather?”
    â€œNope. They’d separated.”
    â€œHow long ago?”
    â€œI was around twelve.”
    â€œDo you know why your mother left you with Mr. Stock?”
    â€œShe was havin’ a real hard time makin’ a livin’. Said she was goin’ to a town called Eureka and she’d send for me when she had some money saved and a place for us.”
    â€œBut she never did.”
    â€œNo. I lived and worked doin’ just what I’m doin’ now. Muckin’ out stalls, feedin’ and groomin’ horses. Shovelin’ a lot of horse shit. Cleaning spittoons and sweeping out saloons.”
    â€œWhy did you come to Denver?”
    Bodie drew a deep breath. “John said I had a rich granny and aunt. He said they’d give us a place to stay, a little work and some money. He said we’d both wear new clothes and eat well. It sounded fine to me, and I’d lost track of Ma, so I came.”
    â€œHad you ever seen the two men that attacked you and your stepfather out on the street?”
    Bodie looked down at his worn-out shoes. He reached down and petted his dog. “I might have seen ’em in Bodie,” he finally admitted. “They looked like some men that I’d seen there, but I can’t be sure.”
    â€œDid they say anything to John Stock before they attacked and killed him?”
    â€œNope. But . . .”
    â€œBut what?” Longarm