Free Longarm and "Kid" Bodie (9781101622001) by Tabor Evans Page B

long.”
    â€œOh,” Ida said, “and why is that?”
    â€œTomorrow me and the marshal are goin’ to get on a train and ride all the way to Reno, then take a stage or a wagon on to Virginia City. I’m going to find out if my mother is still alive or not . . . but it don’t look too promising.”
    Ida’s hand fluttered to her mouth and she looked away for a moment, struggling to gain her composure. Longarm touched her on the arm and said, “Bodie means that his mother wasn’t feeling too well the last time he saw her.”
    â€œI see,” Ida managed to say. “Bodie, we would like to help you out in any way that we can.”
    â€œA good meal for me and Homer and some cash would be appreciated, ma’am.”
    â€œOf course,” Rose said quickly. “Would you please come inside and make yourselves comfortable. Ida and I have made some freshly squeezed lemonade.”
    â€œThat would be nice,” Longarm said, wishing he were someplace else.
    Bodie told his dog to wait on the front porch, and once inside the house he was obviously impressed. “You sure have a nice place here,” he told the two women. “Nicer than anything I’ve ever seen before.”
    â€œWe like it, and we have an extra bedroom all made up and ready for you . . . of course, after you’ve had a bath and tried on some new clothes that we bought.”
    â€œYou bought
me
new clothes?”
    â€œThat’s right. The man at the store had seen you in the street, so he had a good idea of your size. I hope you like what we’ve bought for you, Bodie.”
    â€œAnything would be nicer’n what I’m wearin’ now, ma’am.”
    * * * 
    An hour later, Bodie was getting along just fine with the ladies. He’d talked them into giving his dog a hambone and some scraps, and he’d taken a bath and put on the new clothes, which fit well. With his clean face and hands and his hair slicked down, the boy looked almost handsome, and Longarm could see that he was quite the talker as he told his grandmother and aunt, without being too graphic, all about the wild mining camps he’d been brought up in. Nothing was said about the shoot-out and his role in it, and for that Longarm was grateful.
    When Rose led Bodie to a bedroom that had been prepared just for the kid, Longarm took a moment to speak privately to Ida.
    â€œWhat do you think?”
    â€œI can see a lot of my daughter in that boy,” Ida said quietly. “And I see a lot of sadness, too.”
    â€œBodie has had a hard life,” Longarm reminded the older woman. “He looks like a boy, but he already thinks like a man. He’s had to grow up very fast.”
    â€œWhy are you taking him back to Nevada?” Ida asked. “Hasn’t he seen enough of all that?”
    â€œIt’s complicated, but necessary,” Longarm assured her. “You see, there was a letter that was found on John Stock’s body, and it told us some very good things and some very troubling things about Bodie’s mother.”
    â€œI can’t take any more strain right now,” Ida confessed. “So just tell me the good things.”
    â€œYour daughter found religion and quit her wild and dangerous life to marry a good and respectable man named Mr. Burlington. Apparently, they were very much in love and Mr. Burlington was quite wealthy.”
    Ida took a deep breath and smiled. “That’s a miracle! Whatever could be bad about something like that?”
    â€œI’m not sure that anything is,” Longarm said, unwilling to tell her about the bloodstains on the letter. “But Bodie has to go back to see his mother and meet her new husband.”
    â€œThen we will probably never see the boy again.”
    â€œAgain,” Longarm hedged, “I’m not sure. All I know is that Bodie needs to go with me to Virginia City. He has some