Imposter Read Free Page B

few minutes before I got your food. They’re around back. In that stand of trees behind by the creek. Your dog is there too.”
    â€œYou go back to your house and wait for me. Pack a few things. I’ll be over to get you at eight o’clock this evening. All right?”
    â€œOh, yes. I’ll be waiting impatiently for you.”
    You’ll wait a long time, Frank thought. By eight o’clock, I plan on being about ten miles from this crazy town.
    Frank sat down on the bunk, his Peacemaker beside him. He wondered for a few seconds if this was all a nightmare, a really bad dream. Was he really asleep back on the trail, and would he wake up in a little while and have a good laugh about it?
    â€œNo,” he whispered. “I’m not asleep. But it is a nightmare. A real, living nightmare.”
    And, he silently added, that noose waiting for me is damn sure real.
    And, he added with a frown, so is Alberta.
    With that, Frank experienced a slight pang of conscience about the way he was manipulating the woman. He wondered how, once he was free, he could possibly make it up to her.
    He shook that away. He would think of something . . . once he was out of this lockup and far away from this town.
    Frank looked up as Deputy Tucker walked into the cell block. He walked to Frank’s cell and stood staring in.
    â€œYou want something?” Frank asked.
    â€œThe great Val Dooley,” the deputy said, a sneering tone to his words. “You don’t look so damn tough to me.”
    â€œI’m not Val Dooley. I keep telling you people that. My name is Frank Morgan.”
    â€œYou’re a liar. Frank Morgan is dead.”
    Frank sighed and shook his head. He cut his eyes to the single window of his cell. It was dusk. Time to make a move. He looked back at the deputy. The jail keys were hanging from his belt.
    â€œI’m surprised the sheriff would leave an idiot like you in charge,” Frank said. “You don’t appear to have sense enough to come in out of the rain.”
    â€œWhat!” Deputy Tucker blurted out. “What the hell did you say?”
    â€œI said you’re a fool. You want me to repeat it?”
    Deputy Tucker cussed Frank as his face reddened. He sputtered and spat the obscenities while Frank sat on the bunk and smiled at him.
    â€œWhy don’t you go somewhere and play with dolls, Tucker,” Frank suggested. “You’re not man enough to take charge of me.”
    â€œI’ll stomp you flat, Dooley!” Tucker hollered.
    Frank yawned at him. “Not a chance, little boy. Or are you a girl all dressed up in man’s clothes?”
    Tucker reached for the keys hanging from his belt. “By God, I’ll teach you a hard lesson, Dooley. I’ll show you a thing or two, I sure will.”
    Frank showed his contempt by spitting on the floor and then making a very obscene hand gesture toward the deputy.
    Deputy Tucker’s face flushed even deeper as he jerked the keys from his belt and opened the cell door, stepping inside.
    When he drew close, Frank stood up and cringed, “Oh, please don’t hurt me, Deputy,” he whimpered. “I was only funning with you.”
    â€œYou yellow skunk!” Deputy Tucker said with a laugh. Then he slapped Frank across the face.
    Frank suddenly drove his left hand into the deputy’s belly and followed that with a right fist to the man’s jaw. Deputy Tucker folded like a house of cards and hit the hard floor, unconscious. Frank quickly handcuffed and gagged the man and shoved him under the bunk. He locked the cell door and pocketed the keys, then walked out of the cell block into the main office.
    Frank retrieved his gunbelt and pocket watch, and then locked the front door from the inside and pulled down the blinds. Then he walked out the back door and locked it, using a key he found on the key ring taken from Deputy Tucker.
    Frank ambled along nonchalantly, looking like a man