Longarm #396 : Longarm and the Castle of the Damned (9781101545249) (17 page)

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Authors: Tabor Evans

BOOK: Longarm #396 : Longarm and the Castle of the Damned (9781101545249)
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Lyon did not look very much in charge of anything right now. Not even himself. He was trembling and in a dressing gown again. He appeared to be unarmed.
Longarm stepped off the stairs to the more secure footing of the tower platform.
“You're under arrest, Lyon. For lots of shit. We'll work out the exact charges later.”
Lyon lifted his chin defiantly. “You have no cause to arrest me, Long. Murder is not a federal crime. You have no jurisdiction here anyway, as this is an independent protectorate of your United States of America. I make the laws here. Not you or yours.”
“All right, Mr., uh, how should I address you? As ‘Your Majesty,' perhaps?”
“Your Excellency will do,” Lyon said. He seemed entirely serious about it too. He was not trying to make a joke, never mind that he was in fact doing so without realizing it. And that seemed rather sad. The stupid son of a bitch was somewhere out of his mind.
“How about I just call you ‘under arrest,' Henry? If you think about it, you might could remember that slavery is outlawed by the Constitution, and that's what I'm arresting you for. Like I said, we'll work out the entire list of charges when I've got you safely behind bars.”
“I intend to lodge a protest about this, young man.”
“You do that, Henry. In the meantime put your hands behind your back.”
Lyon stood quietly, still defiant but not moving. Not reaching for any sort of weapon.
Longarm became aware that the girl had followed him up the stairs. Now she emerged onto the tower floor. She was still carrying the sawed-off shotgun she had taken from the guard room, although she had not fired the 12-gauge in the gunfight below.
She stared at the man who had kidnapped and repeatedly raped her.
Lyon looked at the nearly naked girl and sneered. “You look lovely, dear. How about giving me one last piece of ass before you are sent off to a brothel somewhere.”
The girl stepped around Longarm to directly confront Senator Henry Leon Lyon.
With deliberate care she pulled back the hammers of the shotgun and fired, the flame from her left barrel lighting up the pale predawn, the heavy charge of lead buckshot hitting Lyon in the crotch. Her right barrel wiped his face off his skull.
Then she dropped the shotgun and burst into tears.
She would not be crying for Henry Lyon, Longarm was sure, and neither would he.
“You can arrest me now,” she said.
“Why?” he asked. “You heard what the man said. I'm a federal officer an' murder ain't a federal crime. I got no jurisdiction to arrest you, little miss. Now, let's us go down and see if there's any more shooting to do.”
Chapter 47
If there were any guards, they had time to scamper. And they did. Longarm could find no sign of them, although the friendly cook was in his kitchen. The man did not seem particularly distressed to learn that his boss and the guards were dead.
“It was time I move along anyway,” he said.
“Where are the slaves kept?” Longarm asked.
“C'mon. I'll show you.”
The girls, three very pretty young women, were locked inside a small room off the castle courtyard. They came out squawking like a flock of geese and ran for a path leading down off the mesa.
The girl who shot Lyon had discarded her shotgun. Now she went inside the slave quarters long enough to retrieve a dress and a bonnet. She returned Longarm's tweed coat. Longarm thought she looked even prettier once she had her dignity back.
“Where will you be going now?” she asked.
“Down to free the slaves outa Lyon's mine. Then I need to find some horses so's I can get you someplace civilized. Could I ask you somethin', miss?”
“I owe you my life, Marshal. You can ask me anything.”
“What's your name? It seems strange, but in all this time and through all that's happened, I don't have no notion of who you are.”
“My name is Justine, Marshal. Justine Crowne.”
“Good Lord. You're the reason I came here. Your grampa Arthur died tryin' to tell me about you.”
“Gramp Mose is dead too? And my grampa and gramma Crowne are gone. So is their place. I don't know where my daddy is. I'm all alone now.”
Longarm smiled. “No, you ain't, Justine, and soon as we find us some horses I am gonna take you to your mama. She's been fretting about you, y'know.”
Justine squealed with pleasure and hugged him.
Longarm swallowed. Hard. Justine was one damned pretty girl, and they were about to set off on a very long trip back to Medicine Bow.
It just might, he thought, turn out to be a very
interesting
trip as well as a long one.
Watch for
LONGARM AND THE DOOMED BEAUTY
The 397
th
novel in the exciting LONGARM series from Jove
 
Coming in December!

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