Robert B. Parker - Brimstone

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Table of Contents

THE SPENSER NOVELS

Rough Weather
Now and Then
Hundred-Dollar Baby
School Days
Cold Service
Bad Business
Back Story
Widows Walk
Potshot
Hugger Mugger
Hush Money
Sudden Mischief
Small Vices
Chance
Thin Air
Walking Shadow
Paper Doll
Double Deuce
Pastime
Stardust
Playmates
Crimson Joy
Pale Kings and Princes
Taming a Sea-Horse
A Catskill Eagle
Valediction
The Widening Gyre
Ceremony
A Savage Place
Early Autumn
Looking for Rachel Wallace
The Judas Goat
Promised Land
Mortal Stakes
God Save the Child
The Godwulf Manuscript
THE JESSE STONE NOVELS
Night and Day
Stranger in Paradise
High Profile
Sea Change
Stone Cold
Death in Paradise
Trouble in Paradise
Night Passage
THE SUNNY RANDALL NOVELS
Spare Change
Blue Screen
Melancholy Baby
Shrink Rap
Perish Twice
Family Honor

ALSO BY ROBERT B. PARKER

Resolution
Appaloosa
Double Play
Gunmans Rhapsody
All Our Yesterdays
A Year at the Races
(with Joan H. Parker)
Perchance to Dream
Poodle Springs
(with Raymond Chandler)
Love and Glory
Wilderness
Three Weeks in Spring
(with Joan H. Parker)
Training with Weights
(with John R. Marsh)

For Joan: Well worth the pressure

ITS A LONG RIDE SOUTH through New Mexico and Texas, and it seems even longer when you stop in every run-down, aimless little dried-up town, looking for Allie French. By the time we got to Placido, Virgil Cole and I were almost a year out of Resolution.

It was a barren little place, west of Del Rio, near the Rio Grande, which had a railroad station, and one saloon for every man, woman, and child in town. We went into the grandest of them, a place called Los Lobos, and had a beer.

Los Lobos was decorated with wolf hides on the wall and a stuffed wolf behind the bar. Several people looked at Virgil when he came in. He wasnt special-looking. Sort of tall, wearing a black coat and a white shirt and a Colt with a white bone handle. But there was something about the way he walked and the way the gun seemed so natural. People looked at me sometimes, too, but always after they looked at Virgil.

Think that wolf mightve exprised of old age, Virgil said.

A long time ago, I said.

Exprised aint right, Virgil said. You went to West Point.

Expired, I said.

Means died, Virgil said.

Uh-huh.

Virgil believed in self-improvement. He read a lot of books and had a bigger vocabulary than he knew how to use. He sipped his beer.

Mexican, he said. Mexicans know how to make beer.

How much money you got? I said.

Got a dollar, Virgil said.

More than I got, I said.

Virgil nodded.

Guess we got to get some, he said.

I grinned at him.

We got sort of a limited range of know-how, I said.

Least we know it, Virgil said.

Lotta saloons, lotta whores, I said. Not much else.

Railroad station, Cole said.

Why? I said.

No idea, I said.

A tall, thin young man in an undershirt stood up from a table near us and walked over to us. He wasnt heeled that I could see.

Excuse me, sir, he said to Virgil. Boys at my table got a bet. Some say youre Virgil Cole. Some say youre not.

The young man hadnt shaved lately, but he was too young to have much of a beard. His two front teeth were missing.

I am, Virgil said.

The boy looked over his shoulder at the others at his table.

See that? he said. See what I tole you?

Everyone stared at Virgil.

Seen you in Ellsworth, the kid said. I was bout half growed up. Seen you kill two men slick as a whistle.

Slick, Virgil said.

The others at his table were all turned toward us.

How many men you figure you killed, Mr. Cole?

No need to count, Virgil said.

Most of the room was looking at us now, including the bartender. The boy seemed to have run out of things to say. Virgil was silent.

Well, uh, its been a real pleasure, Mr. Cole, to meet you. Can I shake your hand?

No, Virgil said.

The boy looked startled.

Virgil dont shake hands, I said to the boy. He dont see any good coming from letting somebody get hold of him.

Oh, the boy said. Acourse not. I shoulda known.

Virgil didnt say anything. The boy backed away sort of awkwardly. When he got to his table, his friends gathered in tight and whispered together.

No need to be explaining me, Virgil said to me.

Hell there aint, I said.

Virgil smiled. The kid at the next table got up and went out without looking at Virgil. A fat Mexican girl in a loose flowered dress came to the table.

Good time for joo boys? she said.

Sit down, Virgil said.

Buy drink? she said.

Virgil shook his head.

Nope, he said. You know a woman named Allison French?

The woman shook her head.

Probably calls herself Allie? Virgil said.

No.

Plays the piano? Virgil said. Sings?

Dont know nobody, the Mexican woman said. Round the world for a dollar. Joo friend, too.

Virgil smiled.

No, he said. Thanks.

No drink? she said. No fuck?

Nope, Virgil said. Anybody knows Allison French, though, they get a dollar.

The woman stood up and went back to the other girls in the back of the saloon. She was too fat to flounce, but she was trying.

Think she gets many dollars? I said to Virgil.

Nope.

Easy to turn down, I said.

Virgil shrugged.

She probably dont like it, either, he said. Just doing what she gotta.

A group of four men came into Los Lobos and stood at the bar and looked at Virgil. Each of them had a whiskey. Pretty soon two more men drifted in, and then three, until the bar was crowded with men.

Looks like that kid been spreading the alert, I said to Virgil.

Fraid so, Virgil said.

All of em look like town people, I said. Dont see no cowboys.

Nope, Virgil said.

Im feeling a little left out, I said. Nobodys looking at me.

Thats cause youre ugly, Virgil said.

Wait a minute, I said. Seorita offered me round the world for a dollar.

She included you second, Virgil said.

Thats just cause I aint famous like you, I said.

Also true, Virgil said, and drank the last of his beer.

I GOT ENOUGH CHANGE, I said, I can buy two more beers. Save the dollar for a room.

Maybe sleep in the livery stable, Virgil said. Ive slept in worse than a hayloft.

We been sleeping in worse for most of the last year, I said.

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