Chapter 13
Posted: July 07, 2007 - 07:38:53 pm


I stood there on the steps of the courthouse and watched Rosalinda and Pedro walk down the street. Pedro was strutting along like a bow-legged Bantam Rooster as Rosalinda towered over him by at least a foot. I had to shake my head in wonder at the way love worked.

It was almost noon by the time I had Pedro back on the street. It was too late to go back to my office and too early to go home. Instead, I decided to try to track down Burton Toliver for a little chat.

I arrived at the Gold Nugget at twelve-thirty and the joint was practically empty. I snagged a cup of rancid coffee from the barman and asked if Toliver was around. The bartender said Toliver had left about nine that morning, but should be back any minute. I thanked him, found a table and an old newspaper, and took a chair facing the door.

I just about had the paper memorized, when Toliver walked through the door an hour later. He was holding a brown leather satchel and looked smugly relaxed. He headed straight to the bar, sat the satchel on the floor beside him, and ordered a beer. I started to get up when the barman pointed to me, and Toliver turned around. He picked up his satchel and beer and walked over to my table. I stood up as he approached.

"I remember you young man, kind of early to be looking for a card game, isn't it."

I stuck out my hand, introduced myself and asked him to have a seat. When he settled into his chair, I dropped the bomb on him.

"I'm not looking for a game right now, Mister Toliver, instead I have a personal legal matter to discuss with you."

Toliver raised his eyebrows and nodded for me to continue.

"Mister Toliver, I represent Miss Feleena de la Vargas. Miss Vargas has retained me to collect the sum of two hundred dollars she alleges you owe her."

Toliver's eyebrows were arched so high by then that his ears were wiggling. Then he started getting angry.

"She is a common prostitute, McGuinn; surely you don't take her word over mine."

"Whose word to take is a matter for the courts, if you and I can't resolve this, Mister Toliver. I would, however, remind you that prostitution is legal in El Paso; therefore she has the same right to payment as any other service provider. Miss Vargas is offering you this one chance to pay without her filing charges of theft of services against you. Miss Vargas has also authorized me to file suit against you in civil court in Santa Fe if necessary. Miss Vargas bears you no ill will, and does not wish to cause you public embarrassment. She is, however, adamant that you pay her what you owe."

Toliver leaned back in his chair, his anger slowly mutated through disbelief, then fear and finally resignation. He sighed and leaned towards me.

"That woman is evil enough to do all that, even if it ruined me and destroyed my family. You better be thinking about that for when she turns on you."

I did not feel any sympathy for Toliver; he brought this all on himself. If his family suffered because of it, the fault didn't lie anywhere but at his feet.

"My relationship with Miss Vargas is strictly professional, anything else would be unethical. She sought me out and hired me to recover her money. Now how are we going to resolve this?"

Toliver thought for a minute and then reached for the satchel by his side. I unsnapped the safety loop off the hammer of my Colt and rested my hand on the butt.

"Gently, Mister Toliver," I cautioned.

Toliver looked at me and gave me a crafty smile. Then he pulled a stack of brand new bills out of his bag and counted out twenty of them. At my inquisitive look, he explained.

"Railroad money Mister McGuinn, I was out trying to purchase land today. I'll replace this with my own money once I'm back in my room."

I nodded my understanding and thanked him. He wasn't as cordial in dismissing me. By then though, it didn't really matter, because Burton Toliver had just passed me twenty of the counterfeit ten dollar gold certificates. His goose was well and truly cooked. Of course that left me holding the bag with a bunch of bogus funny money.

I waited until Toliver stalked off, then walked along the far wall and backed out the front door. I didn't think that he would shoot me over counterfeit money, but my Ty Ringo memories told me men had died for less.

I walked from the Nugget over to Rosa's Cantina to give Feleena her loot. A woman I did not recognize was at the bar when I walked in. I asked to speak with Feleena. She grinned and told me Miss Feleena did not see anyone before six in the evening without an appointment. I asked her if she could inform Her Majesty that her humble lawyer had concluded her business and she could visit me at my office tomorrow to discuss the matter further. The woman laughed out loud at what I said and told me sure, she would be happy to relay my message to Her Highness.

I took a well deserved two hour siesta when I made it back to my room. It had been an incredible day for me. At five-thirty, I went to Molly's parlor, bursting at the seams to spill the beans to Agent Gordon. Gordon was already sitting in his usual chair, only instead of a book, he appeared to be reading a letter. I politely waited until he put the letter aside before I produced one of the bills from Toliver.

"Ever seen one of these?" I asked nonchalantly.

He took the note and examined it briefly, nodded and looked at me questioningly. I whipped out the rest of the notes from behind my back with a flourish.

"Then how about twenty brand new ones?"

Gordon's eyes widened and he snatched the stack out of my hands.

"Where in the hell did you get these?" he asked.

I'll tell you that in a minute, but first I want you to replace all of these with legitimate currency. You should be able to get your funds back from the man who passed these to me."

Gordon hemmed and hawed, but finally went to his room and returned with two one hundred dollar bills. I raised my eyebrows when he handed them to me. He caught my look and became all indignant.

"They are real, damn you," he hissed.

I shrugged and told him I was kidding, then I sat him down and told him all about Burton Toliver. When I finished my story, he let out a whistle.

"So that's how they were able to get the money spread around so quickly. This railroad agent could courier the money all over the southwest without drawing suspicion. I am going to go arrest him right now, before he can get out of town with that satchel. I'll keep your name out of it, but I plan on putting the screws to Toliver tonight to see if I can get him to name his source." Gordon said excitedly.

I told Gordon where he would probably find Toliver and wished him luck. He went back to his room and came out five minutes later wearing a badge on his black leather vest, and sporting a brace of shiny Colts in a fancy fast draw holster rig. In that get up he looked anything but his normal accountant persona.

When I made it to the Toro at a little after seven, the place was abuzz with the news of the arrest of Toliver down at the Nugget. According to most accounts, Toliver was with two of the hired guns that worked for Georgie Boy Howard. When the two men took exception to the arrest of their meal ticket, the Federal man gunned them down, graveyard dead. Sheriff Faulkner was fit to be tied that a Federal Lawman had usurped his authority, but by then, Gordon and Toliver had disappeared.

Saturday in old El Paso was just another day for us working stiffs, so I was in my office by nine fifteen. I was counting last nights take at the saloon, when Feleena breezed through the door around eleven. I stood up politely when she came in and pointed to a chair for her to sit. Feleena folded herself into the chair with that same feline grace that distinguished all her movements.

"You have my money?" she asked.

"Good morning Miss Vargas, I'm fine thank you," I replied sarcastically.

Her cheeks flushed and she shot me a scathing look. Then suddenly her face underwent a transformation and she smiled.

"Touché, Mister McGuinn, I deserved that. I was only concerned because I heard what happened to Toliver last night. It is vindication for me that he was arrested as a common criminal."

I nodded my understanding and took two hundred dollars in mixed bills out of my desk. The two c-notes were safely in my stash at Molly's. I handed her the money and she carefully counted it. When she finished counting, she peeled off a few bills and handed them to me. I noticed immediately that it was two twenties and a ten.

"This is more than we agreed on," I protested.

"Yes, but without your help, I wouldn't have received anything. Please take it as a token of my appreciation."

I looked at the money then grinned at her.

"Only if you let me spend part of it on you for lunch."

Her smile seemed to brighten a little.

"Really? I didn't think you approved of me, Mister McGuinn."

I stood up, walked around the desk and held my hand out for her.

"Whatever gave you that idea?" I asked in astonishment.

I took her to the El Paso Grand Hotel's Restaurant for lunch. The Grand had the best food in town, and I would be among my friends there. Sure enough, both Juanita and Maria were working the lunch shift. Juanita seated us at my favorite table, gave Feleena a look, then kissed me on the cheek. I told Juanita that we were celebrating the successful completion of a legal matter, and asked for a glass of wine to start. Nita nodded and scurried away.

Two minutes later, Maria arrived with two glasses of white wine.

"I understand congratulations are in order," she said and kissed me on the lips.

Feleena's expressive dark eyes narrowed as Maria sashayed away from our table.

"I understand why you eat here, you get exceptional service," she said cattily.

"I am friends with their family; you know that because you've seen us together at church."

I picked up my wine glass and tipped it towards her.

"I declare a truce, Feleena. For the rest of this meal, let's be friends and enjoy ourselves."

She picked up her glass and clinked it lightly against mine.

"So be it," she said.

For the rest of the meal, we did just that. When she wanted to be, Feleena was naturally charming. Strip away her veneer of snobbery and over the top sexuality, and she was excellent company. We were half way through our third glass of wine, when I regaled her with the story of my first big criminal case. She was bubbling with tipsy laughter as I embellished on the antics of Pedro and Rosalinda.

"I know that woman!" she exclaimed. "She worked at Rosa's for a while. Rosa had to let her go when she beat up two of our best customers."

After our meal, I walked Feleena back to Rosa's front door. She asked me if I'd like to come in for a drink. I declined, saying I had to get back to work. She nodded then surprised me by standing on her tip toes and kissing me lightly on the lips.

"There," she giggled, "three beautiful señoritas have kissed you today. Perhaps now you can come by and visit me tonight."

"I would love to, Señorita Vargas, but it is Saturday night and I will probably be working until very late. However, I am sure we will see each other tomorrow in church," I said.

"Perhaps," she said coolly, as she spun on her heels and went through the door.

I sighed as she stalked away in a willful snit. Feleena could be the most ill natured woman I had ever met.

From Rosa's I dropped by the mercantile then walked back to the Bull, as I still had a few duties to perform. I thought about Feleena all the way there. It was very hard for me to pretend to be immune to her charms, but I had a lot to lose by escalating our relationship. For one thing, George Howard hadn't entered the picture yet, and I was going to make sure my first meeting with him wasn't at Rosa's. For another, Feleena seemed to be a different person away from her job at the cantina. No matter how sultry and sexy she was at work, I liked the other Feleena much better. For lack of a better term, I wanted to be in position to 'take her away from all that'.

As luck would have it, George Howard and his gang rode into town that Saturday night, looking to raise some hell. They were at loose ends with the arrest of Toliver and pissed off about it. The El Toro Cantina wasn't on George's list of preferred hang outs so we were spared the trouble they caused. Unfortunately the Gold Nugget, Liz Collins and Pen Smythe were not.

Of course, I didn't foresee any of that happening when Pen put me in charge, and went to visit Liz at eleven that night. I even kidded him about leaving me in a lurch as he headed out the door. He waved me off with a casual remark about how I ran the place better than he did anyway as he scooted out the door.

I was a busy man for the next hour, as we had a large and thirsty crowd. They were mainly well behaved though, so most of my work revolved around helping out at the bar and keeping the card games afloat. The crowd had thinned out some by midnight; we were down to one table playing poker and a dozen or so drinking and dancing patrons. I was contemplating issuing last call, when a man came bursting through the doors looking around frantically.

He finally spotted me and rushed over.

"Miss Liz at the Nugget needs you, the Englishman has been hurt," he said breathlessly.

I told the bartender to give last call, flew out the door and sprinted up the street to the Nugget.

When I skidded through the door of the Nugget, I saw a small crowd gathered by the dance floor. Off to the side, I saw a couple of Faulkner's deputies talking to two big rough looking cowboys. One of the deputies saw me and nudged the other. The second deputy started walking towards me, but I was already pushing my way through the crowd standing on the dance floor. I was aghast at what I found in the middle of them, as Liz was sitting on the floor crying with Pen's head in her lap. Pen had been brutally beaten and stomped. He was either unconscious or dead.

I knelt beside Liz and checked Pen's pulse, it was strong and steady, but his breathing was shallow as he sucked in air through his mouth, because of his broken and bloody nose. I stood up and turned towards the cowboys with the deputy, just as the second deputy walked up to me. He looked nervous, but had a firm grip on a double barreled shotgun.

"Don't start anything Mister; we have everything under control."

I took a deep breath to get my anger under control. I asked the deputy if they'd called for a doctor, and he nodded affirmatively. I was just beginning to relax, when the deputy with the two cowboys handed them their guns and walked them to the door. The cowboys looked smug and cocky. I rounded on the deputy with me, and he gripped the shotgun tighter.

"The Englishman started the fight, everyone here confirmed that. Those boys were just defending themselves. I don't much like it, but there ain't nothing we can do," he said unhappily.

I bit back my reply that there was something I could do about it, when I saw Doctor Willis come into the saloon. I ignored the deputy and watched as Willis ministered to my friend and employer. Willis checked over Pen thoroughly, as he murmured calming words to the sobbing Liz. After his exam, he pulled a vial of smelling salts out of his bag and stuck it under Pen's nose. It took a few seconds for Pen to come around as he groaned and turned his head away from the pungent smell of the ammonia salts.

"That boy took some kind of beating; he has some cracked or broken ribs for sure. We need to get him to his place so I can wrap them. I also don't like the way his pupils are unequal, we need to keep him awake for a while."

I nodded and asked Charlie the bartender if he could help me get Pen home. The Nugget was equipped for lugging bodies out of it, as Charlie pulled a beat up canvas stretcher out from behind the bar. Pen grimaced and groaned as we moved him onto it. Charlie and I picked up the stretcher as Liz held onto Pen's hand. With Doctor Willis bringing up the rear, we trudged down the street to the Bull.
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