Lauters was awake when Longtree walked into Dr. Perry's surgery.
Longtree wasn't surprised; he expected this very thing. Perry had said he'd given the sheriff enough drugs to keep him unconscious most of the day, but somehow, Longtree figured, given the state of the sheriff's mind, he wouldn't be out for long.
"Sheriff," Longtree said, staring down the barrel of his gun, "there's no need for that."
Lauters was a big man. Huge, really, bloated from alcoholism, but still a very large man in his own right. His eyes were red and puffy, presumably from crying, his face damp with perspiration.
"I've taken as much as I'm going to from you, Longtree," he hissed, "you've pushed me around for the last time. My family…oh, Jesus…"
Longtree felt pity for the man. But he also felt the gun on him.
"Put it away, Sheriff. Please."
Lauters gaped at him through tear-filled eyes. His bandaged nose making him look all the more pathetic, pitiful.
Longtree swallowed. The sheriff had his Colt on him. Even if he drew and drew fast, Lauters would still shoot him and probably in the chest. Such a wound had a high mortality rate.
Longtree held his hands out before him, innocently. "If you're gonna kill me, Sheriff, least you can do is hear me out first. That ain't asking too much, is it?"
Lauters stared at him. "I'm listening."
Longtree eased himself slowly in a chair. "You killed that Carpenter girl, didn't you?"
"Yes." Atrocity had brought honesty at last.
Longtree nodded. "You were part of that ring, the Gang of Ten. You boys set up Red Elk with that murder because he knew about you, then the other gang members lynched him and you stepped aside. Am I right?"
"You are."
"And now you're the only one left, the last of the gang."
Lauters nodded. "You're very good, Marshal. I always knew you were and that's why I didn't want you here. The beast is coming for me now…even the law can't change that. Your badge is useless, boy."
Longtree licked his lips. "What you did was wrong, Sheriff, and I think you know that more than any man could. But you've been punished beyond the limits of the law…I'm not going to arrest you."
Lauters lowered his gun. "Then why are you here?"
"Because I wanted to have this little talk with you." Longtree slipped a cigar from his pocket and lit it up. "You lost your family to this monster, Sheriff. You've suffered enough. Putting you on trial would be pointless, particularly given the fact that the witnesses and co-conspirators are all dead now." Longtree let that sink in. "What happened a year ago happened and we'd just better forget about it. The people in this town have a lot of respect for you and I've got no interest in dragging your name through the mud. Let 'em think you're a good lawman…because down deep, you probably are."
Lauters said nothing to any of this. A single tear slid down his cheek.
"We've got us a real problem here, Sheriff. We've got a monster that's killed a lot of people and it'll keep on killing until it's stopped. I think it's up to you and me to stop it."
"How?" Lauters asked.
"I don't rightly know," Longtree admitted. "But I do know that it'll be coming for you and I'm going to be there when it does."
"All that'll do is get yourself killed."
Longtree stood up. "It's my job to die fighting this thing same as it's yours. So get dressed. It's time we go hunting."
"You want me to help you?"
"Damn right. We're lawmen. Let's kill this thing or die trying."
It was about this time they heard shooting in the distance.