Blue-Eyed Devil by Robert B. Parker Page B

remember it when I’ve made a few of those stops.”
    “Need money to go where you want to go,” Virgil said.
    “Sure do,” Callico said. “One reason people like the general are important.”
    “Reason why you charge folks a fee for police services, too,” Virgil said.
    “Town don’t give us enough operating budget,” Callico said. “Got to do what I can.”
    Callico smiled a big, friendly smile.
    “Opened up a little business for you boys, too,” he said.
    Virgil nodded.
    “Did,” he said.
    “I can do things like that,” Callico said.
    Virgil and I didn’t say anything.
    “I ain’t asking you boys for help. You’re the only ones round here could give me trouble. You stay out of my way, and I’ll consider it help.”
    “We got no ill will,” Virgil said. “Do we, Everett.”
    “Nope.”
    “Good,” Callico said. “Thanks for the coffee.”
    He stood and walked back down Main Street.
    I looked at Virgil.
    “You sure we don’t have no ill will?” I said.
    Still studying the western horizon, Virgil smiled slowly. “Well,” he said. “Maybe a little.”

25
    I HAD STARTED keeping company with Emma Scarlet. “Your partner killed General Laird’s son,” Emma said.
    It was midafternoon and business was slow for both of us, so we took a siesta in her room.
    “Yes,” I said.
    “And I started it,” Emma said.
    “I guess,” I said.
    “It’ll get him in trouble with the general,” Emma said.
    “Or it might get the general in trouble with Virgil,” I said.
    The life hadn’t gotten her yet, and she still looked pretty good with her clothes off.
    “General draws an awful lot of water, round here,” Emma said.
    “I heard that,” I said.
    “Be governor if he hadn’t been a reb,” Emma said.
    “People still care?” I said.
    “Not around here,” she said. “But lot of other voters. Don’t make much difference to me. I can’t vote, anyhow.”
    “What you can do, though, you do pretty well,” I said.
    “Pretty well?” she said.
    “Best in the history of the goddamned world,” I said.
    She giggled.
    “Oh, Everett,” she said. “That’s real sweet.”
    “Like me,” I said.
    “Most men are scared of the general,” she said.
    “Virgil ain’t,” I said.
    “How do you know so sure?” Emma said.
    “’Cause Virgil ain’t scared of anything,” I said.
    “I feel kinda bad about Nicky getting killed,” Emma said. “You know? Like it was my fault. Couldn’t Virgil have just whonked him on the head with his gun?”
    “Ever see a gunfight, Emma?”
    “Sure, I have. I’m a whore. I work saloons. Seen a lot. Drunks, mostly. Usually they miss.”
    “There’s another kind, too,” I said.
    “Like the ones you and Virgil do?”
    “Like those,” I said. “What I learned about those, I learned from Virgil. Because of what he does, what we do, mostly we’re outnumbered.”
    “Like you were with Nicky,” Emma said.
    “Yep. So we got to mean it, soon as it starts. No whonking people. No shooting them in the leg. They need to know, and we need to know, that we are ready to kill them.”
    “Someone told me Nicky had six men with him,” Emma said. “How come they all didn’t just start shooting at the same time and kill both of you.”
    “Couple reasons,” I said. “One, Virgil always makes it one against one. He always lets them know that if they draw first they are going to die first. And he’s so quick that he’s killed the first man before anyone else has cleared the holster. It tends to freeze everyone. Once they freeze, it’s over.”
    “God,” Emma said. “You talk about this like it was some kind of regular work, like herding cows.”
    “Seems like regular work after a while, I guess. How ’bout you?”
    Emma giggled.
    “Depends who I have to fuck,” Emma said.
    “It would,” I said. “Wouldn’t it.”
    “I do it ’cause, pretty much, I gotta. I got no money, no husband, don’t know how to do nothing else,” Emma said. “But you can do