"We're on special assignment, so we don't have to follow his
instructions."
"But? " "Rafferty's got some powerful friends in Washington. He might
be able to exert enough pressure to force us to do what he wants. I
don't want to get him riled up, so I'm letting him think we'll
cooperate. I promised him that we would know for certain today if we
had a witness or not."
"And will we know today? " "Hell, yes, we'll know."
"Grace might not be up to talking today. We might have to wait."
"We'll talk to her this afternoon, then. By the end of the day, we'll
know whether or not we have a witness." Cole muttered an expletive.
He'd just spotted Rebecca on the boardwalk across the street. She was
wearing a pink dress and carrying a pink-and-white-striped parasol.
She was so lovely, she was literally stopping traffic as men paused to
gawk at her. Her guard, Carver, trailed close behind, glancing in all
directions.
"Here comes Rebecca, " Cole said. "Ah, hell, she just stopped to talk
to the reporter." Ryan looked outside. "He was hanging around the
telegraph office while I was inside, and when I came out, he went
running in. He probably knows everything now, and from the look on
Rebecca's face, I'm guessing he just told her they caught one of the
gang."
"How do they know? " Daniel turned back to Cole. "Know what?
" "That the man they caught is one of the gang."
"He was carrying a large sum of money."
"So? Lots of people carry large sums of money when they travel."
"That's true, " Daniel conceded. "But they also found a copy of the
Rockford Falls Gazette in his saddlebags. The date's the same as the
day of the robbery."
"It's still circumstantial evidence, isn't it? " "Did I mention he
tried to kill the sheriff before he was captured? " Cole shook his
head. "No, you didn't mention that. He won't be walking away free and
clear, then.
They'll hold him for attempted murder."
"But I want to get him for the robberies. If he's one of the gang,
then he's going to talk to me and tell me everything. I want all the
other names."
"How do you think you're going to convince him to talk? " "I'll figure
out something, " Daniel replied. "It would make it easier if there was
a witness to point him out . . . " "I wouldn't get my hopes up,
Daniel.
Those women could have told the same story for an altogether different
reason. You think two of them are hell-bent to protect the third
woman. I'm not sure. It occurs to me that we don't know anything
relevant about these women, and I think it's time we looked into their
backgrounds."
"I'm not taking anything they tell us as true until I've checked it
out."
"Good, " Cole replied. He glanced out the window again, just in time