Longarm and "Kid" Bodie (9781101622001) by Tabor Evans Page A

answered. “The envelope that contained the letter is clean without a trace of blood.”
    â€œI don’t understand this.”
    â€œNeither do I, but I’m beginning to form some ideas. Just read the letter, Billy.”
    Billy read the letter twice, and then he carefully laid it down before him and studied it for several moments. “All right, what do you think?”
    â€œI believe that Ruby Burlington wrote the letter and asked John Stock to deliver it to Bodie. But when Stock saw and understood what the letter meant, he must have flown into a rage and murdered Bodie’s mother. Then, he stripped her of her jewelry and hurried off to the town of Bodie to collect the boy. Only instead of taking him to Virginia City, he brought him to Denver.”
    Billy leaned back in his leather desk chair, steepled his stubby fingers, and said, “That’s quite a theory, Custis. But how on earth could you come up with it?”
    â€œThink about it,” Longarm urged. “If John Stock murdered and robbed Ruby Burlington, he would have had to run for his life. And when he was doing that, I think he remembered that Ruby’s wealthy mother lived here in Denver. So it’s an easy leap to imagine that John Stock would bring Bodie here and spin some wild story about Ruby being murdered. He’d gain Ida Clark’s sympathy. The dear old woman wouldn’t have any idea that her wild daughter had found religion and married a wealthy man. Ida Clark would have taken John Stock and Bodie into her home, and he could have then robbed and perhaps even murdered Ida and Rose. Then, he would have amassed a small fortune in stolen jewelry and money and lit out for parts unknown.”
    â€œI see what you’re thinking and you may just have it,” Billy said, chin dipping up and down. “John Stock would have been taken into Ida Clark’s fine home because of Bodie. And he would have claimed this bloodstained letter had been given to him by the authorities in Virginia City so he’d have the proof of her murder.”
    â€œExactly.”
    Billy clucked his tongue. “So what do you think we ought to do now?”
    â€œThe last thing we want to do is to tell Sheriff Miller about this or give him any evidence. He’d go straight to the press and try to make himself look as if he’d solved some murder case, and he’d want Bodie completely out of the picture.”
    â€œBut we’ve lost the boy.”
    â€œMr. Swilling found him, and Bodie is working at the Rocky Mountain Stable.”
    â€œThen we must get him before the sheriff or one of his deputies chances upon Bodie and takes him into custody.”
    â€œExactly.”
    â€œBut then what?”
    Longarm shook his head. “There is something else that has occurred to me.”
    â€œI’m all ears.”
    â€œWhat if the two men that murdered John Stock on Colfax Avenue weren’t just randomly picking out their victim?”
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œWhat I mean,” Longarm said, “is that you told me they were seasoned and lifetime criminals. So why would they attack a ragged man and a boy? If they were going to take the risk of robbing anyone, wouldn’t they have picked someone that at least appeared to be prosperous?”
    â€œYes,” Billy said, “that makes sense. But . . .”
    â€œWhat I’m suggesting,” Longarm said, “is that the murder of John Stock wasn’t random at all. That the two men who attacked him knew John Stock and his plan and followed him from the Comstock Lode intent on somehow cashing in on his scheme.”
    â€œCustis, that’s quite a stretch!”
    â€œIs it really?” Longarm asked. “What other possible reason could there be for all this evidence and what happened? Surely you must agree that if I’m right, everything that has happened makes some sense.”
    â€œYes, but how would you