Free The Quiet Gun - Edge Series 1 by George G. Gilman Page A

what he took them for. But that’ll leave the horse and buggy plus whatever’s in the suitcase under the seat, and the cash that’s left over. Figure Kress can afford a pretty fancy funeral for himself.’
    55
    The skinny undertaker grinned, expelled a cloud of tobacco smoke and seemed like he had to consciously check an impulse to rub his hands avariciously together. Williams blinked rapidly behind the thick lenses of his spectacles and said diffidently:
    ‘If Kress really was cheating in the saloon last night, then I guess I got a right to – ‘
    ‘He was cheating, feller,’ Edge growled.
    ‘Well, like you know, mister, I wasn’t there at the end of the game. But he took me for almost ten dollars before I went home.’
    ‘You sure it was that much, Billy?’ Bannerman demanded officiously.
    ‘Sure I’m sure!’ The slightly built druggist was shrilly insulted by the bigger man’s slur. ‘I ain’t the kind to rob the dead!’
    Bannerman showed mournful contrition and looked around to reveal his regret to everyone nearby. ‘Yeah, you’re right, Billy. You wouldn’t do that. I’m real sorry for doubting you. But what with the trouble at my place last night and Phil Raine getting killed and then the jail break . . . Dalton Springs has always been a real fine town and I wouldn’t want to see it go bad. But once things start downhill in a good town like we got here, they can go real fast in a whole lot of ways.’
    There was a low buzz of glum faced agreement among the gathering of townspeople. Interrupted when Emily Jonas, still attired in the mourning black dress, stepped forward and extended a cupped hand with some coins in it.
    ‘I certainly would not take advantage of the dead in any way at all,’ she stated firmly, her ruddy complexioned features uncharacteristically hard set. ‘No matter how bad an individual he was. That man paid me in advance for a night’s room and board. He ate his supper, but then he did not stay the night. This is the seventy five cents refund due. Despite him breaking some of my best china.’
    ‘Aw, Emily, you don’t have to – ‘ Slocum began as she gave him the money.
    ‘A clear conscience makes for a good night’s sleep,’ Miss Jonas proclaimed primly as she turned away. ‘And I have never had anything but that for as long as I’ve lived an honest and blameless life. Which is what I have always lived.’
    56
    The group began to disperse and Slocum, the cheroot clamped tightly between his yellow teeth, waited until there was space on the street then drove the buggy into the alley beside his premises. Which left just Edge, Williams and Bannerman standing outside. The druggist chewed on his lower lip and wondered anxiously: ‘Maybe he wasn’t cheating at the time when he won the money off me, you think?’
    ‘We’ll never know,’ Edge said.
    ‘It’s between you and your conscience,’ Bannerman growled, uninterested in the man’s moral quandary, his mind obviously concerned with other matters. Williams, looking slighter than ever in the sole company of the massive Bannerman and above average height Edge, seemed undecided whether he should go back into Slocum’s funeral parlour to get his money or return to his own place of business along the street. Then after sucking on his lower lip for a few moments more, he revealed this was not in fact his dilemma when he said: ‘It wasn’t on account of any ten bucks that I tried to shoot Sam Kress, Bart.’
    Bannerman scowled as he answered: ‘With them arthritic hands of yours, you ain’t the best shot in the world, Billy. So I guess you didn’t have much of a chance of hitting the buggy, let alone the guy in it.’
    ‘I was inside with Jake. Getting a price on a new headstone for the wife’s plot. Heard the ruckus over at Emily’s place and saw who it was driving the buggy so fast out of the alley. Knew John McCall wanted to see Kress on account of what happened at your place last night. But more important,