Longarm and the Colorado gundown

_{“You don’t have to look so smug, damn you,” Billy said accusingly.}

_{Longarm’s grin didn’t waver. “I think you need a drink, Boss.”}

_{Billy kneaded his face with the palms of both hands and sighed again. The impromptu massage made his already pink complexion even redder. He ran one hand back over his scalp, a gesture of habit, not necessity. There no longer was hair growing there to be smoothed down.}

_{“What I need,” Billy said, “is a thirty-hour day. Twenty- four just isn’t enough anymore.” He grimaced, then shrugged as if to say what the hell, he hadn’t taken the job in search of a vacation anyway. “What can I do for you, Longarm?”}

_{“Oh, a raise would be nice, I suppose.” Longarm held the cheroot between his teeth and grinned.}

_{“Is that what you came to see me about, dammit? If that’s all it is, well, I have work to do. More important things than to—”}

_{“Billy. Whoa. You sent for me. Remember?”}

_{“I did?” The marshal seemed taken aback by that. He sat up in his creaking swivel chair and blinked once. Then comprehension dawned and he made a rueful face. That lasted only an instant before he smiled. “Could be you’re right. Could be I do need a drink. Or something.” He reached into a stack of paperwork and rooted through the sheets and folders until he found the one he wanted. “There’s a writ of habeas corpus here that needs serving, Longarm.”}

_{“Service of a writ, Billy? Damn, can’t you find something more interesting for me to do than that?” Longarm detested simple, boring, routine matters like this. He much preferred to be out digging and scraping and tending to real criminals than playing hey-boy for the courts and the fancy-pants judges.}

_{“As a matter of fact, Longarm, I probably could. But in this particular matter, you were asked for by name.”}

_{“Why me?”}

_{“Now that’s an age-old complaint, isn’t it,” Billy mused. “The eternal question, Custis. Why me? I ask it myself sometimes. Of course, it isn’t all that often any of us gets an answer to it.” The marshal smiled. “This time you happen to be in luck. I actually know the answer to it.”}

_{Billy was obviously in something of a mood today. Longarm went over to the cabinet where the marshal kept a little something for the oiling of troubled waters. He poured a brandy for Billy and a rye whiskey for himself while the marshal nattered on.}

_{“You remember a case a while back where you were in close, um, contact with the Ute Indian tribe?”}