Fiddlefoot Read Free

pleasantly now, “What’s that country like where you were?”
    â€œA big white dry bone, some of it.”
    He heard her sigh. “I started out to see it once when I was twelve. My dad brought me back, because little girls didn’t run away, he said.” Her warm laugh came again, and he found himself carefully recalling what he knew of this girl. In the three months he had worked for Rhino, he had come in from buying trips only rarely and at hours that sometimes made him miss her entirely. He recalled someone saying she was a daughter of one of Rhino’s former teamsters who had died, and that Rhino had given over to her the running of his trifling freighting business.
    Now she said, “How far did you go?”
    â€œAlmost into Idaho.”
    â€œDid you men stick together or did you split up?” Tess asked. Frank looked down at her in the dark, a caution touching him now. Most certainly, this girl was not in on any of Rhino’s dozen secretive schemes, and he was wary of her curiosity.
    â€œWe split up. That’s a big country.”
    â€œWere you alone any of the time?”
    Frank halted in the road now, and she halted too, facing him. “I know I’m snooping, Frank,” she said quietly, forestalling him. “I’ll tell you in a minute. Will you answer me?”
    â€œNo, I wasn’t alone,” Frank lied.
    â€œAnd you can prove it?”
    â€œBy Hugh Nunnally. But why should I prove it?”
    Tess turned now, saying, “So Rhino didn’t tell you?”
    Frank said nothing, and fell in beside her, and presently Tess said, “Buck Hannan’s been in the office three times this week since they found your stepfather.”
    â€œHe’s sheriff. Why not?”
    â€œHe keeps asking if you’ve come in yet.”
    Frank put out a hand now, and Tess halted, and Frank said in a low voice, “What are you trying to tell me, Tess?”
    â€œYour stepfather had been dead two or three weeks before he was found.”
    â€œSo Rhino said.”
    â€œYou’ve been gone how long—two months?”
    â€œA month and a half this time.”
    â€œYou and your stepfather had had a quarrel, and that news is all over town, Frank.”
    â€œWe had a lot of quarrels,” Frank said grimly. “A thousand, maybe.”
    â€œYes, but you own Saber, now he’s dead. That might mean something to Hannan.”
    Frank was utterly still a moment. “That means Hannan thinks Rob was murdered.”
    â€œAnd that you might have done it.”
    Frank let his hand drop from Tess’s arm, and they began walking again. It was odd that Rhino hadn’t told him this. As for Rob being murdered, the fact was of complete indifference to him, and of little curiosity. It had been years since he had felt anything about Rob Custis save a quiet and controlled hatred. So many people felt the same way that he had always accepted it as inevitable that Rob would die a violent death.
    They were on the outskirts of town now and a couple of Slash H riders overtook them and spoke quietly to Frank. Where the first tie-rail of the business section and its boardwalk began, Frank halted. A few of the stores were still open, their lamps casting a faint glow over the quiet main street. By their light, Frank regarded the girl beside him, and he surprised her watching him with an expression of gravity that was mingled with curiosity.
    â€œWhere do you live, Tess?”
    â€œI have a room at the hotel.”
    He spoke slowly now. “Thanks for telling me this. But why did you?”
    The faintest of smiles curled a corner of her wide, full mouth. “Maybe because you’ve never asked me to take a buggy ride in the moonlight.” She shrugged. “Maybe I like a man who laughs once in a while. Maybe I don’t think it’s a crime to be fiddle-footed. I don’t know, Frank. Good night.”
    He touched his hat and watched her