Five Points (15 page)

With that, Willie pulled a gun from his belt and pointed it at Appo.

“Hold it, O'Donnell!” Clint shouted from down the hall.

Willie turned, saw Clint, and brought his gun around. Clint's gun was in his hand, and as he fired from down the hall he thought he heard another shot.

Willie staggered, his gun fell from his hand, and he collapsed to the floor, dead. Clint walked up to the body to examine it and saw that Willie had been shot in the chest—and in the back. He looked at Ma, saw her tucking a small gun away into the folds of her dress.

“Even if I did want that stupid girl dead,” she muttered, “I'd do it myself.”

Clint looked around Grand Central Station terminal, then suddenly felt a hand in his pocket.

“That you, Red?”

“Ha, I was deliberately sloppy that time,” Red said with a smile. “Are you really leavin'?”

Clint looked down at the dirty-faced little urchin and said, “Yes, I'm really leaving.”

“Aren't you glad Bethany is gonna be all right?” Red asked.

“I sure am, Red,” Clint said.

It had been touch-and-go for a while, but after three days the doctors were able to say that she would live. Clint did not have the time to stay and see how the whole Ma-Ben-Bethany relationship turned out. He hoped that Bethany would go through with her decision to leave Ma Mandelbaum, but he wasn't sure that going with George Appo was the best decision, either.

“If you ever come back, look me up, huh?” Red said. “I'll be older then.”

“Yes,” Clint said, “so will I, Red.”

Red spotted Captain Byrnes coming their way and said, “I gotta go. Bye, Clint. We're friends now, right? I'm friends with the Gunsmith?”

“That's right, Red,” Clint said. “We're friends.”

Red disappeared in the crowd, no doubt putting the touch on as many of them as he could.

“Mr. Adams,” Byrnes said, “I'm glad I caught you.”

“Captain.”

They shook hands. They had not become friends, as Clint and Red had.

“I thought you'd like to know we recovered all the merchandise that was stolen from the murdered lady in Denver.”

“Oh, where?”

“In a warehouse on Varick Street. The odd thing is, we don't know who the warehouse belongs to.”

“Can't connect it to Ma Mandelbaum?”

“No, she's too smart for that.”

“Well,” Clint said, “at least she doesn't have Willie to do her dirty work for her anymore.”

“And she doesn't have Ben, either.”

“What happened?”

“He's gone, disappeared.”

Clint thought Ben must have still been wrestling with the guilt he felt, even though it wasn't certain whether it had been his bullets or Willie's that had struck Bethany.

“Well, I guess she won't have Bethany anymore, either, once she gets out of the hospital.”

“I doubt any of that will slow Ma down much,” Byrnes said.

“I've got to catch my train, Captain,” Clint said. “Anything else?”

“Yes,” Byrnes said. “The waitress Angie. She asked me to tell you she's mad at you for not saying a proper good-bye.”

He thought he had said a proper good-bye all night the previous night, but he had slipped out this morning without waking her.

“Give her my apologies, will you?”

“Only if you give my best to Roper,” Byrnes said in return.

They shook hands again.

“I'm sorry things didn't go . . .” Clint said, then stopped.

“You have your own way of doing things, Mr. Adams,” Byrnes said. “Don't we all?”

“Yes, Captain,” Clint said, “yes, I guess we do.”

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OUT OF THE PAST
319
^th
novel in the exciting GUNSMITH series
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