Slocum and the Larcenous Lady Read online

  But then she broke the silence. “I’ve already decided to stop, Slocum. This was my last con, for good and all. I’m going up to San Francisco. Going to settle down.”

  He lowered his fork. “I’m right pleased to hear that, Lil, right pleased. You’ve made an old saddle tramp real happy.”

  She slid into the chair on his right. “I know this is asking a lot. I mean, I know it’s practically impossible. But . . . Slocum, would you consider coming . . . with me?”

  He grinned at her. “I reckon I could spare you a week or two, Lil, but—”

  “But your feet get to itching,” she said with a sad smile. “I understand.” She brightened. “I’ll take what I can get, though. Consider it a deal.”

  Slocum winked at her, then turned back to his eggs. If he’d been another man—or maybe the same man, but at a different time—he might have taken her up on it. But right then, he wasn’t a man who could live on the proceeds of a woman’s larceny, nor was he a man who could stay in one place very long.

  He was glad she understood.

  “You make any toast?” he asked.

  Back in town, Miles Kiefer had made his drop-off at the undertaker’s and was already at his desk. He put off writing reports, however, to go back through the old wanted posters. He kept a couple boxes of them in the extra cell.

  There was nothing in the first box, but lo and behold, halfway through the second he came across a worn handbill for Bill Messenger. He was wanted for attempting to stick up a stagecoach. After that single flyer, there was no more paper on him.

  Kiefer sniffed and went back to his desk. He could write some letters and track Messenger’s record later. Right now, he had to make enough sense of what had happened last night to write it up for the files.

  He wasn’t much looking forward to it.

  Lil rolled toward him on the bed, and rested her chin on his chest.

  “Slocum?”

  He opened one eye. “What can I do for you? That I haven’t already, I mean,” he said with a sly grin.

  She playfully slugged his arm. “Oh, you!”

  “Sorry,” he said, chuckling. “What is it?”

  “I’ve been thinking.”

  “Sounds dangerous.”

  “No, really. I have. When I go on to San Francisco, and you come along—”

  “For a week or so.”

  “Right,” she said reluctantly. “Well, wouldn’t you, couldn’t you try to—”

  Gently, he put his hand on her back. “No, darlin’. I can’t. That’s not the way things are.”

  “But if you stayed with me . . . Just think how it could be! The Barbary Coast could be your pearl! The theater, the opera—”

  “Opera?” he snorted. “You’re dreamin’, baby.”

  “All right, then,” she said. “Champagne sold on every corner, practically! The finest cigars! And me, waiting for you every night in a nice, soft, warm bed.”

  He played with a russet strand of silky hair. As nice as she made it sound, Panther and a stretch of open desert called to him more insistently.

  “Sounds tempting, but no. Don’t push it, Lily. Please.”

  She sighed deeply. “I had to try. It’s just . . . how I am going to do it without you, Slocum?”

  He frowned. “Do what?”

  “Live this . . . straight life! Be an upstanding citizen! I don’t know how.”

  He hugged her. “Oh, you’ll remember, Lil. It’s been a while, but you’ll remember and be fine.”

  “No, I won’t. I’ve never been straight and legal, not since before I was born!”

  “Afraid you lost me, there, Lil.”

  “I mean that even before I was born, my mother was turning cons. Daddy, too. I didn’t pick this trade, Slocum, I was born into it. My real name is Rhiannon Escobar. My daddy was a Spanish gypsy—worked fake fortune-telling and the badger game, mostly—and Mama was an Irish sneak thief and the next thing to a prostitute. If I hadn’t had talent, I’d probably still be back in New York, turning tricks at Five Corners.”

  “Lil,” he began, but she cut him off.

  “No, I wanted to tell you, Slocum. It’s my way of . . . begging, I guess.”

  “Baby, listen. You don’t need to beg from me or anybody else. Look how far you’ve come already! My, God, Lil! You’ll be fine. You’ll land on your feet. You always do, you know.”

  She began to cry.

  He pulled her closer, saying, “Shh, shh, it’s all right, Lily. It’s all right.” He kissed her brow. “I’ve seen this happen before, honey.”

  She sniffed. “You have?”

  “You’ve had a dream all your life,” he continued. He supposed crooks could have dreams, too. “And now, that dream is coming true. That was one thing you didn’t really allow for, was it, that it would actually happen? And I’ll bet you didn’t plan beyond it.”

  She nipped at his chest, and he shouted, “Ouch! What was that for?”

  “For being so smart. You know, I think you’re exactly right. I just don’t have a plan. I never did. For the happily-ever-after part, I mean.”

  “You’re the cleverest gal I ever met, Lil,” he said with a smile. “You’ll come up with something that’ll shake the world right down to its shoes.”

  She lifted her head and looked up at him, smiling, although her eyes still brimmed with unspilled tears. “I will, won’t I?”

  He kissed her.