Free The Reluctant Pinkerton by Robert J. Randisi

“When could we do that?”
    “Well…now, if ya want,” Larry said.
    “Yeah, we gotta go to work anyway.”
    “Sounds good,” Roper said. “Let me pay my bill.” He almost offered to pay for their breakfast, too, but caught himself. He was supposed to be somebody who didn’t have much money.
    The brothers pushed their chairs back and stood up.
    “We’ll just wait for ya outside,” Stan said.
    “Yeah, okay,” Roper said, figuring they must have paid their bill already.
    The Fixx brothers left the café and Roper called over the waiter to settle up.
    “Did those two fellas pay their bill?” he asked.
    “The Fixx brothers?” the waiter asked. “Oh, they never pay.”
    “Really. How do I get a deal like that?”
    “You’d have to make arrangements with the owner,” the man said, “like they did.”
    “Okay,” Roper said, “maybe next time I come in.”
    The waiter nodded disinterestedly and walked away. Roper went out to meet the Fixx boys.

14
    The brothers took Roper to the stockyards to the office of the foreman.
    “What’s this fella’s name?” Roper asked as they walked up the steps.
    “Pete Orton,” Larry said. “Been the boss around here for a coupla years.”
    “A good boss?”
    “He’s fair,” Stan said, “if you get on his good side.”
    “Like you boys?”
    “Yeah,” Larry said. “He likes us.”
    “Come on, we’ll introduce ya.”
    Larry opened the door and the three men walked in.
    There was a man sitting behind a large, raw wood desk. He had short hair, a lantern jaw, and the look of somebody who used to work in the stockyards before he became a foreman. In his fifties, he also had the look of a man whose muscle had started going to fat.
    “What the hell?” he roared. “How many times I gotta tell you idiots to knock!”
    “Oh, hey,” Stan said, “sorry, boss.”
    “We got a feller here’s lookin’ fer a job, boss,” Larry said.
    “Yeah? I hope he ain’t a friend of yours.”
    “Um, yeah, well, we just met this mornin’,” Stan said.
    “Yeah, at the café,” Larry said. “The sheriff was givin’ him a hard time.”
    “That a fact?” Orton asked. “What’d you do?”
    “I killed two men.”
    Orton sat back in his chair and laughed.
    “Where’d that happen?”
    “My hotel room,” Roper said. “Seems they thought I was asleep and decided to rob me.”
    “Only you wasn’t asleep, huh?”
    “Yeah, I was,” Roper said, “but I’m a light sleeper.”
    “Haw,” Orton laughed. “Light sleeper. I like that.” He looked at the Fixx brothers. “You two, get lost. I’m doin’ a job interview.”
    “Sure, boss, sure,” Larry said.
    “Get to work!” Orton said.
    “Right, boss,” Larry said. “See ya later, Andy.”
    “Yeah,” Roper said.
    The brothers left the office and Orton said, “Have a seat. Andy…what?”
    “Andy Blake.”
    “From where?”
    “All over.”
    “Where you from first, boy?” Orton asked. “You gotta answer my questions if you want a job.”
    “I’m from Missouri, originally,” Roper said. “Been travelin’ around. Came up here from South Texas.”
    “You wanted?”
    “No.”
    “You sure you’re not wanted somewhere?” Orton asked. “We can’t hire no wanted men. If there’s paper out on you, you better tell me.”
    “No paper,” Roper said. “Not from anywhere.”
    “What can you do in a stockyard?”
    “Anythin’,” Roper said. “Cattle, sheep, whatever you got, I can tend ’em, haul ’em, butcher ’em.”
    “That so?” Orton said. “If that’s true, you’d be pretty valuable around here.”
    “I figure.”
    “Yeah, you figure,” Orton said. “I’m gonna have to talk to the sheriff about you before I hire you. And my boss.”
    “That’s okay,” Roper said. “The sheriff ain’t gonna tell you nothin’ against me.”
    “If he don’t,” Orton said, “then you’ll be hired.”
    “When will I know?”
    “Come back here in the mornin’,” Orton said, “ready to