Now Playing: Save The Girl!
Episode Ten concluded with:
Tommy reached
under the counter for a bottle and glass. He poured a light brown liquid for
Jerri. Probably tea, Dehner guessed. A saloon girl’s day is long and “the
usual” is often tea or water. Of course, the customer who is buying her the
drink doesn’t know that.
“The name is
Jerri Mae Swanson.” Her voice was deep and husky.
“Pleased to meet
you, Jerri Mae. My name is Rance Dehner.”
“Thanks for
taking care of those two owlhoots, Rance.”
Dehner shrugged
his shoulders. “The Big Diamond is a place for meeting old friends.”
Jerri Mae
smirked and looked at her companion carefully. “You impress me as a man who has
a lot more enemies than he does friends. Let’s sit down, maybe you and I can
strike up a friendship.”
Episode Eleven
Jerri
Mae glanced around the saloon, then began to walk toward a far table which was
safely out of the swamper’s way. Walking beside her, Dehner noted that Jerri
Mae was about five foot seven, with black hair, prominent cheek bones and green
eyes. The woman appeared to be in her mid-twenties. Jerri Mae was very
attractive but had taken on the weary, artificial mannerisms of a woman who
works in a saloon.
They
sat down at a corner table that was immersed in a cloud of stagnant tobacco
smoke. Rance spoke first. “What do you do here, Jerri Mae?”
The
woman laughed and briefly looked down at her garish yellow dress. “No one has
ever asked me that before. Guess you could say I’m here to keep the cowboys
happy.”
“Oh,
come on,” Rance tried to sound casual. “You do more than that. Tommy, the
bartender, called you Miss Jerri.”
“So?”
“I
don’t think he calls all the girls, ‘Miss’. You carry some authority at The Big
Diamond, Jerri Mae.”
The
woman waved her left hand as if brushing off an unimportant fact. “Guess you
could say that. I’m a bit older than most of the girls here. I sort of look after
them, help the new girls fit in. What
brings you to town, Rance?”
The
question sounded casual enough. But the detective wondered if Jerri Mae wasn’t
trying to glean information from him. After all, he had planned on trying to
get more than a few details about Philip Richardson from her.
There
was little time to speculate on the matter. The bat wing doors swung open and a
very well dressed couple paraded inside. They immediately became the center of
attention, a fact they both seemed to relish. The man removed a cigar from the
side of his mouth and shouted, “I am given to understand that there was a show
here at the Big Diamond just a few minutes ago.”
There
was a scattering of laughter. The man continued. “Well, gentlemen, I am proud
to inform you that there’s going to be a show at the Emerald tomorrow night
which will be a lot more interesting than a couple of two bit hooligans
exchanging bullets!”
A
loud chorus of whoops followed the announcement. Dehner spoke in a low voice to
his companion. “Is that Philip Richardson?”
“The
one and only,” Jerri Mae stared at her drink for a moment and then added, “I
forget his real name, but it wasn’t distinguished enough for him, so he became
Philip Richardson.”
Philip
Richardson stood at slightly less than average height. He had brown hair and a
compact face dominated by intense blue eyes. He impressed Dehner as a man who
smiled a lot but was rarely happy.
Monday: Episode
Twelve of Save the Girl!
