Longarm and the Missing Husband Read Free Page B

pocket of her dress.
    â€œYes, I am, thank you.”
    â€œCan we go see Hank’s boss now?” Longarm said.
    â€œOf course. That’s why we are here, after all.” Acting very prim and proper, Beth led the way to a suite of second-floor offices of the Berriman and Jones Land and Investments Co. Inc.
    Interesting title, Longarm thought. It would cover almost anything Messrs. Berriman and Jones wanted to undertake.
    â€œHave you been here before?” Longarm asked on their way up the stairs.
    Beth shook her head. “No, but Hank told me about it. To tell you the truth, he wasn’t sure about the partners, but they offered him a very generous salary.”
    Longarm raised an eyebrow at that information.
    â€œI have no idea what happened to his pay,” Beth said, “or if he even got any. He never sent anything back home. He wrote to me, of course, but he never sent any money. I kind of think he didn’t get any, but I don’t know that for sure.”
    â€œWe’ll ask his bosses about that. If they are holding his pay for some reason, maybe they will hand it over to you.”
    â€œIt would be nice to have something other than my nightshirt and some tooth powder in my handbag,” she said.
    Longarm opened the door for Beth to enter the Berriman and Jones office. There was no receptionist in the small inner office. A door leading into a larger office in the back stood open. A man in sleeve garters and an eyeshade was seated at a rolltop desk there. He looked up when Longarm and Beth came in.
    Rising, the man came into the reception area. He was tall and slender, bald but with wildly bushy eyebrows and a very thin, graying mustache. “May I help you?”
    â€œAre you one o’ the partners?” Longarm asked before Beth could launch into her tale of woe.
    â€œI am, sir. I am Honus Berriman. And you are . . .”
    â€œI am Mrs. Bethlehem Bacon, and I want to know where my husband is,” Beth blurted out in a rush.
    â€œAh, yes. Mrs. Bacon. We received your telegrams, of course. I only wish I knew what to tell you,” Berriman said. “Would you care to come in and sit while we talk?” The man smiled and spread his hands palms upward. “Not that there is so very much to talk about. You probably know everything that we do. We lost touch with your husband several weeks ago. Haven’t heard a word since.”
    Berriman ushered them into the main office, which was larger than the reception area and held two desks, a bookcase, and two file cabinets. “Please. Sit down, Mrs. Bacon.” He fetched the chair from the other desk for Beth. He ignored Longarm and did not offer to find him a chair.
    â€œIs there anything I can do for you?” Berriman asked, not sounding like he particularly meant it.

Chapter 9
    â€œPerhaps you know that the government grants land holdings on every other section along a railroad right of way. Our purpose is more the land than the railroad, although that would be nice to have, too. In order to get the land, though, we have to lay track.
    â€œThere is already another company planning to build a line north running east of the Big Horns. Our idea is to build west of that mountain range. The line would be shorter by a good many miles, and that would lessen the cost of construction,” Berriman told them.
    â€œWouldn’t that also reduce the amount of land you can get from the government?” Longarm asked.
    Berriman glanced up at him as if annoyed. Longarm had not told the man what he did for a living, and Berriman had expressed no curiosity about who Longarm was or why he should be accompanying Beth Bacon. Probably he assumed Longarm was Beth’s brother or some other close relative and was acting as her chaperone.
    â€œWe have done some calculating, of course. The land grant would be more than adequate, and our construction expenses would be greatly reduced,” Berriman said.