Free Longarm 243: Longarm and the Debt of Honor by Tabor Evans Page A

tonight. All right?”
    Longarm smiled again, truly meaning it this time, and leaned down to plant a very brief and gentle kiss on the old bawd’s forehead. She meant him well. He couldn’t object to that, could he? “Thanks.”
    Feeling if anything more puzzled than ever by the people of Crow’s Point, Kansas, Longarm stepped out into the night.
    No one shot at him on his way back to Norm’s house. No one seemed to pay any attention to his passage whatsoever.
    But somewhere in this town there was a person who—for reasons Longarm could not begin to comprehend—wanted him dead.
    That was an annoying thought to say the least, and one he could have done without. Still, he’d been hunted before this. A man would have to be quick, accurate, and almighty lucky if he expected to put lead into Custis Long and walk away from the encounter.
    He let himself into the house. This time there was no one waiting for him in the dark. It occurred to him that he would not have minded if Norm’s lady friend Eleanor Fitzpatrick had been waiting for him again this evening.
    He felt a little guilty when he realized where that train of thought could take him.
    But only a little.

Chapter 16
    Longarm slapped the ledger shut with a disgusted snort. Nothing. Two and a half days of effort and he had absolutely nothing to show for it. Not so much as a sniff of a hint of a suspicion of an idea.
    But dammit, a whole hell of a lot of lawing was like that. You busted your butt just to find out there was nothing up an alley worth learning. So then you turned around and found another alley to look into.
    That, he supposed, was what he would have to do this time too. For sure he was not inclined to give up.
    Longarm glanced up at the big Regulator clock on the wall. It was still short of noon. No point in looking for the next step to take quite yet. He stood, stretched, and told Schooner, “I’m gonna go up and visit with Norm for a spell, then go get lunch. See you back here later.”
    The fat clerk nodded absently. He was elbow deep in a stack of paperwork.
    Longarm got his Stetson from the rack and headed out for the staircase, where he found Jonas Brown’s young deputy coming down from the top floor.
    â€œMarshal,” the youngster greeted him with a nod.
    â€œHello, Jeremy.”
    â€œI’m on my way to fetch lunch back for the sheriff and Marshal Wold. Can I bring something for you too?”
    Longarm considered the offer and liked it. “You bet.” He dug into his pocket and pulled out a quarter that he contributed to the lunch. “Bring me whatever looks good.”
    â€œSandwich be okay? That’s what the others are having.”
    â€œFine.” Jeremy continued down the stairs, and Longarm went on up. He found Norm and Sheriff Brown sitting on opposite sides of a chessboard laid out on top of the sheriff’s desk. The door to Norm’s cell was standing wide open.
    â€œBe a helluva time for a jailbreak,” Longarm said with a grin as he helped himself to a seat where he could watch the game in progress.
    â€œHuh,” the sheriff complained. “If this man doesn’t quit beating up on me, I may have to throw him out, never mind what the judge wants. I’m getting tired of this.”
    â€œNow, Jonas, I keep telling you, if you had as much time as I do to study on these things, maybe you could keep up with me,” Wold said. He seemed in a good humor. But then he ought to. The sheriff’s queen, one of his rooks, and three of his pawns were sitting off the board, compared with only a lonesome pair of pawns that Brown had captured in return.
    â€œSomething we can do for you, Longarm?” Brown asked.
    â€œDon’t let me interrupt you.”
    â€œFrankly, I’m hoping like hell you will interrupt. Give me a chance to change my luck here.”
    Norm chuckled. “It would take more than a little interruption to do that,