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Episode Eight
concluded with:
“Sherriff Hunter!”
The lawman was
yanked from his thoughts. Looking up from the bench, he saw Thorton Weaver
standing beside him. “Mr. Conklin will see you now, Sheriff.”
The sheriff wanted
to say something snarky but settled for, “Thanks.” As he stood up and walked
toward the office, Rush tried to convince himself that he had done nothing
wrong. After all, George Conklin had identified Lon Westlake as the man who
robbed the bank. Westlake had been found guilty by a jury of his peers.
“My hands are
clean,” Hunter whispered to himself before entering the office.
Episode Nine
As the lawman stepped inside,
Conklin motioned for him to close the door. The banker then took a long look at
the stogie in his hand as if it were more important than the man standing in
front of his desk.
“A little problem has come up,”
Conklin said.
“Oh.”
“I need you to kill a man.”
“What?!”
George Conklin continued to speak
in a soft monotone as if explaining the
details of a loan. “His name is Stacey Hooper. A professional gambler.
He knows me from Denver, knows that I lost a lot of money playing poker there.”
“So?”
In an act of anger, Conklin inhaled
deeply from his cigar and blew smoke in the lawman’s direction, as if firing a
weapon at him. The banker then leaned forward, his voice a growl, “Why do you
think I faked that robbery?”
Hunter didn’t reply. This was the
first time George Conklin had admitted to executing the hold up.
The banker continued, “I stole from
the bank to pay my debts. The fake hold up covered that. The mining company
accepts that Lon Westlake stole the money and hid it somewhere, hoping to get
it when he’s released. The mining company needs a bank in Hard Stone. They
helped me keep this operation on its feet. If those people find out what I did, I’d be ruined.”
“How can you be sure this Hooper
fella will blab to them?”
“I can’t. Hooper just got into town
a few hours ago. We ran into each other in the restaurant. He said, ‘We must
get together to discuss old times.’ Sounded like a threat to me. Blackmail.”
“Maybe not.”
“I can’t take chances. I want that
gambler dead. Tonight.”
“Mr. Conklin, I don’t think--”
“This isn’t Sunday school, Hunter.
This is the real world, where you are one of the highest paid sheriffs in
Colorado because the mining outfit pays your salary, not a bunch of
townspeople. There are plenty of ways a sheriff can get rich in Hard Stone
before the mines go dry. You’ve sat on the fence as long as you can. Now, are
you going to follow orders?”
Monday: Episode Ten of Last Job
