Read Online Threepersons Hunt by Brian Garfield - Free Book Online

nobody cares what happens to a no-account Indian. Well I just want it clear this is one Indian who’s got enemies in high places. I want him brought down and I want it done fast.”
    Watchman asked gently: “Why?”
    The sunglasses hid Rand’s reaction. After a moment he said, “Let’s just say I’ve got a grudge against him. It was my foreman he killed.”
    â€œThat was a long time ago.”
    â€œMy foreman’s just as dead as he was then.”
    â€œCome off it, Mr. Rand.”
    The Texan put his hand to his mouth and dragged down the corners of his lips as if clawing grit from the crevices.
    â€œAll right, look. I’ve got a property up there that shares thirty miles of boundary with this Reservation. I run beef up there—hell I feed the population of a fair-size city every year. It’s not the biggest industry I’ve got, but I’m still the Texas cowman my daddy made me and this ranch counts heavy with me. You understand what I’m sayin’? Then this worthless Apache kid comes busting up here, ramming around the Reservation, stirring folks up, and before you know it there’s going to be an incident. Now I don’t want an incident. I can’t afford one right now. I want this boy stopped before he can create one.”
    â€œI’m just a country boy myself, Mr. Rand, and I don’t see the connection between your cows and Joe Three-persons’ incident.”
    â€œThen I’ll spell it out. This tribe’s got litigation against me, they’re trying to destroy my beef operation by drying up my water supplies. Now that case could go either way right now. But suppose there’s a big splash of publicity about some poor unfortunate lone Indian that’s being hounded for weeks and weeks by merciless white racist authorities. You see what that does? I can’t afford to let the bleeding-heart press get all het up right now on this killer-boy’s account. That kind of sentimental horseshit weighs too heavy with some of those Federal judges. They claim they’re objective but that’s a lot of crap—they’re just like everybody else in the government; they’re petty bureaucratic hacks and they’re eager to get pushed around by public opinion. Here I’m running more beef on that little old ranch than this whole tribe manages to feed on two million acres, and now they want to take my water away from us so we can all starve. And everybody keeps whining about lo the poor Indian. Poor Indian hell. I’m not about to give up what’s mine for the sake of a bunch of hardscrabble losers that had this country for a thousand years and couldn’t even grow a blade of grass on it.”
    Watchman peeled back his sleeve to look at the time and Rand took the hint. “All right, I didn’t mean to ride my hobbyhorse. But you wanted to know why it’s important to get that killer fast and get him quiet. I’ve told you.”
    â€œI intend to find him as fast as I can, Mr. Rand. But I’m not up here to do special favors for you.”
    â€œYou find him, that’s all. I don’t care who you do it for. And make sure he doesn’t find you first. You wouldn’t be the first man he killed. He’s a son of a bitch with a rifle.”
    â€œSo I hear. If you were to send those men of yours after him—where would you tell them to start looking?”
    â€œNow that’s the first smart question you’ve asked me. All right, I’d prowl Whiteriver. I’d send my boys into every tumbledown wickiup in town. That’s where his worthless friends hang out—that’s where his sister lives. He’ll be around there, scrounging food like a pariah dog.”
    â€œThen I’d better get at it. Unless you had something else to say to me.”
    â€œI’ll say this much. You’ll likely have to kill him, if he doesn’t kill you first. He’s a real