Longarm 243: Longarm and the Debt of Honor (21 page)

Longarm nodded. “Mrs. Fitzpatrick. Her and Norm have been lovers. I'd guess he was stealing so he could keep her in style. Is that right, Norm?”

Norm wasn't saying much.

“Something else I'd bet on without having to be told. You kept your money in gold, right? She knew that. That's why she was poking through that shit last night. Currency might've burned up, but she knew the gold would still be there in the box where you hid it. Good thing you never told her where you kept that box, or she'd've had it and been gone by now. She wasn't as loyal to you as you seem to've been to her, Norm. I'm sorry to tell you that, but it's the truth.”

Longarm had no intention of explaining the rest of his reasoning for accusing Eleanor Fitzpatrick. This morning, though, it had come together. Including how even in pitch darkness she'd gone straight to the grain bin last night. And knew it was a perfect height for her favorite form of fucking.

“I'm sure you can find some charges to place against the lady, Sheriff,” Longarm said. “Conspiracy, intent to defraud, some shit like that. Let the county attorney offer her a deal and I bet she'll open right up. After all, no jury is gonna go hard on a woman that handsome. But she won't know that. Charge her with some small shit an' put a scare in her. She'll open up if she thinks she might have to spend some serious time behind bars. When you do that, I think you'll find she's the one that made that poor kid Dinky set the courthouse fire an' then come after me with a gun she gave him.”

Longarm shrugged. “With Dinky already dead, there's not much hope of laying any charges about either of those things. But don't tell that to Miz Fitzpatrick. Give her some juice to stew in and there's no telling what else you might get out of her.” Longarm looked at his old friend again. Although, funny, Longarm no longer felt particularly close to this man who had been damn near a father to him once upon a time. “Norm?”

“I...I won't give you any trouble. None of you. I'm ... sorry.”

“Yeah. Sure.”

“I mean it. God, you don't know how sorry I am.” The former Crow's Point town marshal looked at Longarm and gave him a lopsided little smile. “Thanks for getting me off on the arson charge.”

Longarm felt something twist inside his gut. He wished things could have been different. He wished ... fuck what he wished. “Sure, Norm. Glad to help.”

Norm Wold sighed and walked slowly, woodenly, back into the jail cell that had been his residence of late. And would continue to be for some time to come.

Watch for

244
^th
novel in the exciting LONGARM series from Jove