Horace said later to his wife, “And if you ever saw death still breathing, there it was.”
Adam’s cheeks hugged the bone and pulled the skin of his nose tight and slimy. His eyes seemed to bulge out of his head and to take up the whole upper part of his face, and they were shiny with sickness, intense and myopic. His bony right hand kneaded a fistful of coverlet.
Horace said, “Howdy, Mr. Trask. Heard you got hurt.” He paused, waiting for an answer. He went on, “Just thought I’d drop around and see how you were doing. How’d it happen?”
A look of transparent eagerness came over Adam’s face. He shifted slightly in the bed.
“If it hurts to talk you can whisper,” Horace added helpfully.
“Only when I breathe deep,” Adam said softly. “I was cleaning my gun and it went off.”
Horace glanced at Julius and then back. Adam saw the look and a little color of embarrassment rose in his cheeks.
“Happens all the time,” said Horace. “Got the gun around?”
“I think Lee put it away.”
Horace stepped to the door. “Hey there, Ching Chong, bring the pistol.”
In a moment Lee poked the gun butt-first through the door. Horace looked at it, swung the cylinder out, poked the cartridges out, and smelled the empty brass cylinder of the one empty shell. “There’s better shooting cleaning the damn things than pointing them. I’ll have to make a report to the county, Mr. Trask. I won’t take up much of your time. You were cleaning the barrel, maybe with a rod, and the gun went off and hit you in the shoulder?”
“That’s right, sir,” Adam said quickly.
“And cleaning it, you hadn’t swung out the cylinder?”
“That’s right.”
“And you were poking the rod in and out with the barrel pointed toward you with the hammer cocked?”
Adam’s breath rasped in a quick intake.
Horace went on, “And it must have blowed the rod right through you and took off your left hand too.” Horace’s pale sun-washed eyes never left Adam’s face. He said kindly, “What happened, Mr. Trask? Tell me what happened.”
“I tell you truly it was an accident, sir.”
“Now you wouldn’t have me write a report like I just said. The sheriff would think I was crazy. What happened?”
“Well, I’m not very used to guns. Maybe it wasn’t just like that, but I was cleaning it and it went off.”
There was a whistle in Horace’s nose. He had to breathe through his mouth to stop it. He moved slowly up from the foot of the bed, nearer to Adam’s head and staring eyes. “You came from the East not very long ago, didn’t you, Mr. Trask?”
“That’s right. Connecticut.”
“I guess people don’t use guns very much there any more.”
“Not much.”
“Little hunting?”
“Some.”
“So you’d be more used to a shotgun?”
“That’s right. But I never hunted much.”
“I guess you didn’t hardly use a pistol at all, so you didn’t know how to handle it.”
“That’s right,” Adam said eagerly. “Hardly anybody there has a pistol.”
“So when you came here you bought that forty-four because everybody out here has a pistol and you were going to learn how to use it.”
“Well, I thought it might be a good thing to learn.”
Julius Euskadi stood tensely, his face and body receptive, listening but uncommunicative.
Horace sighed and looked away from Adam. His eyes brushed over and past Julius and came back to his hands. He laid the gun on the bureau and carefully lined the brass and lead cartridges beside it. “You know,” he said, “I’ve only been a deputy a little while. I thought I was going to have some fun with it and maybe in a few years run for sheriff. I haven’t got the guts for it. It isn’t any fun to me.”
Adam watched him nervously.
“I don’t think anybody’s ever been afraid of me before—mad at me, yes—but not afraid. It’s a mean thing, makes me feel mean.”
Julius said irritably, “Get to it. You can’t resign right this minute.”
“The hell I can’t—if I want to. All right! Mr. Trask, you served in the United States Cavalry. The weapons of the cavalry are carbines and pistols. You—” He stopped and swallowed. “What happened, Mr. Trask?”
Adam’s eyes seemed to grow larger, and they were moist and edged with red. “It was an accident,” he whispered.
“Anybody see it? Was your wife with you when it happened?”
Adam did not reply, and Horace saw that his eyes were closed. “Mr. Trask,” he said, “I know you’re a sick man. I’m trying to make it as easy on you as I can. Why don’t you rest now while I have a talk with your wife?” He waited a moment and then turned to the doorway, where Lee still stood. “Ching Chong, tell Missy I would admire to talk to her for a few minutes.”
Lee did not reply.
Adam spoke without opening his eyes. “My wife is away on a visit.”
“She wasn’t here when it happened?” Horace glanced at Julius and saw a curious expression on Julius’s lips. The corners of his mouth were turned slightly up in a sardonic smile. Horace thought quickly, He’s ahead of me. He’d make a good sheriff. “Say,” he said, “that’s kind of interesting. Your wife had a baby—two babies—two weeks ago, and now she’s gone on a visit. Did she take the babies with her? I thought I heard them a little while ago.” Horace leaned over the bed and touched the back of Adam’s clenched right hand. “I hate this, but I can’t stop now. Trask!” he said loudly, “I want you to tell me what happened. This isn’t nosiness. This is the law. Now, damn it, you open your eyes and tell me or, by Christ, I’ll take you in to the sheriff even if you are hurt.”
Adam opened his eyes, and they were blank like a sleepwalker’s eyes. And his voice came out without rise or fall, without emphasis, and without any emotion. It was as though he pronounced perfectly words in a language he did not understand.
“My wife went away,” he said.
“Where did she go?”
“I don’t know.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know where she went.”
Julius broke in, speaking for the first time. “Why did she go?”
“I don’t know.”
Horace said angrily, “You watch it, Trask. You’re playing pretty close to the edge and I don’t like what I’m thinking. You must know why she went away.”
“I don’t know why she went.”
“Was she sick? Did she act strange?”
“No.”
Horace turned. “Ching Chong, do you know anything about this?”
“I go King City Satdy. Come back mebbe twelve night. Find Missy Tlask on floor.”
“So you weren’t here when it happened?”
“No, ma’am.”
“All right, Trask, I’ll have to get back to you. Open up that shade a little, Ching Chong, so I can see. There, that’s better. Now I’m going to do it your way first until I can’t any more. Your wife went away. Did she shoot you?”
“It was an accident.”
“All right, an accident, but was the gun in her hand?”
“It was an accident.”
“You don’t make it very easy. But let’s say she went away and we have to find her—see?—like a kid’s game. You’re making it that way. How long have you been married?”
“Nearly a year.”
“What was her name before you married her?”
There was a long pause, and then Adam said softly, “I won’t tell. I promised.”
“Now you watch it. Where did she come from?”
“I don’t know.”
“Mr. Trask, you’re talking yourself right into the county jail. Let’s have a description. How tall was she?”
Adam’s eyes gleamed. “Not tall—little and delicate.”
“That’s just fine. What color hair? Eyes?”
“She was beautiful.”
“Was?”
“Is.”
“Any scars?”
“Oh, God, no. Yes—a scar on her forehead.”
“You don’t know her name, where she came from, where she went, and you can’t describe her. And you think I’m a fool.”
Adam said, “She had a secret. I promised I wouldn’t ask her. She was afraid for someone.” And without warning Adam began to cry. His whole body shook, and his breath made little high sounds. It was hopeless crying.
Horace felt misery rising in him. “Come on in the other room, Julius,” he said and led the way into the living room. “All right, Julius, tell me what you think. Is he crazy?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did he kill her?”
“That’s what jumped into my mind.”
“Mine too,” said Horace. “My God!” He hurried into the bedroom and came back with the pistol and the shells. “I forgot them,” he apologized. “I won’t last long in this job.”
Julius asked, “What are you going to do?”
“Well, I think it’s beyond me. I told you I wouldn’t put you on the payroll, but hold up your right hand.”