Free Crow Bait by Robert J. Randisi Page B

me.”
    “What makes you think you can succeed where they couldn’t?”
    “I’m getting paid a lot of money to succeed,” Lancaster said.
    “That’s it?”
    “I happen to know Gerry Beck.”
    That surprised Worth. “You know him? How?”
    “We rode together once.”
    “What are you, a reformed gunman?”
    “Something like that,” Lancaster said. “You want to tell me what happened?”
    “Sure,” Worth said. “Come on, I’ll walk you through it. I was here by the safe, my partner was at his desk, and there was another man…”
    After Worth finished laying out the way it happened, Lancaster said, “You got lucky.”
    “Whataya mean?”
    “I mean all that flying lead and none hit you.” Lancaster looked around. There were chunks takenout of the walls from the shooting. “You must have a guardian angel.”
    “What are you tryin’ to say?” Worth asked.
    “Nothing,” Lancaster said. “I just know the way Gerry Beck works.”
    “And how’s that?”
    “He likes to get himself an edge.”
    “What kind of edge?” Worth went over and stood behind his desk. The fingers of his left hand were touching the handle of the top drawer.
    “He likes to use an inside man when he can,” Lancaster said. “He finds somebody who needs money, or has a family.”
    Worth was easing the drawer open.
    “Which one were you, Sam?” Lancaster asked. “And if you try to pull that gun out of the drawer, I’ll kill you.”
    Worth pulled his hand away as if the drawer were hot.
    “Now talk,” Lancaster said. “Do you have family in town?”
    “No.”
    “Then Gerry must have offered you money,” Lancaster said. “A cut.”
    “H-he said he’d kill me if I didn’t go along with him.”
    “If he was going to kill you, he would have done it when he was killing the other two,” Lancaster said. “No, there was no threat. He was cutting you in. Did you get your money yet?”
    Sam Worth licked his lips.
    “No, you didn’t get paid yet. So why are you still here?”
    Worth frowned.
    Lancaster laughed.
    “You don’t know where he is, do you?” he asked. “He pulled a fast one on you.”
    Sam Worth sank back in his chair with a defeated look on his face.

Twenty-nine
    The sheriff came out of the cell blocks and hung the key on a wall hook. He turned and looked at Lancaster.
    “I got a telegram that said you were coming,” he said. “I didn’t expect you to solve the robbery so soon after you got here.”
    “I got lucky, Sheriff Carver,” Lancaster said. “I happened to know Gerry Beck’s methods. And there was too much lead flying around that office for Worth not to have been hit. It had to be deliberate.”
    “Do you think he did any of the shootin’?” Carver asked.
    “I don’t know,” Lancaster said. “He had a gun in his top drawer. You could check to see if it’s been fired.”
    “You didn’t do that?”
    “Not part of my job,” Lancaster said.
    “But you questioned him.”
    “That was part of my job,” he said.
    “Did you find out anything?”
    “Only that he was in on the job with Beck,” Lancaster said.
    “And you believe he doesn’t know where Beckis?” Carver asked. “That they’re not gonna meet and split the money?”
    “No,” Lancaster said. “I believe he was cheated by Beck, who left him here to take the rap.”
    Carver settled his bulk behind his desk. He was in his forties, had been sheriff of Henderson for over ten years. “So what are you gonna do now?”
    “Try to find Beck.”
    “How?”
    “I’ll think about that over a steak,” Lancaster said. “Where can I get a good one?”
    “Across the street. Bessie’s serves the best steak in town.”
    “Thanks.”
    Lancaster headed for the door, then stopped. “One other thing.”
    “What’s that?”
    “Have you ever heard of a man named Sweet?”
    “Sweet? No.”
    “What about Adderly or Cardiff?”
    Carver gave it some thought.
    “I don’t know those names, either,” he said finally. “Why are you