"Your twin sister?"
If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes I might not have believed it. There wasn't one hair's worth of difference between the two, but it did explain why 'Constance' didn't recognize me. I wondered if it was June Morgan who'd whacked me over the head. I looked over at Bret and waited to see if he was thinking the same thing.
He nodded at me, then winced as he shifted in his chair. "Coulda been her," he answered my unasked question.
"And she's the one that was in here arguing with the two of you?"
"Yep. And the one that shot me."
Still didn't know what the argument was about, but before I could ask the question there was a knock on the door, followed quickly by the Sheriff's face. He walked into the office and sighed, looking from Constance to Bret to me and back again. "Well, now I know who was shot. I just need to know who did the shootin'."
Before Constance could say anything I stepped up to take the blame. "It was an accident, Sheriff. I was tryin' to show my brother somethin' and I missed and caught him instead."
Bret nodded his agreement and Constance quickly closed her mouth and said nothing. "Why did I know that anybody named Maverick was gonna be trouble? So that wasn't June Morgan that I saw runnin' across the street with you chasin' her earlier this mornin'?" Of course he was staring right at me when he asked the question, and I simply gave him what Bret likes to call the 'puppy-dog' face.
"Nope, Sheriff Manning, that wasn't me. It was awful foggy this mornin'. Are you sure you saw anybody at all? Maybe it was just a shadow."
Manning displayed a kind of half-assed smile before he turned to leave. "In case anybody needs to know, June Morgan ran into the general store. Wilson's keepin' it open for Sammy Miller for right now. Just in case anybody needed ta know."
The sheriff left, closing the door behind him, and Constance breathed easier. "Why did you do that?" she asked me.
I shrugged my shoulders. "Remember the damsel in distress thing?"
Finally, a smile from Miss Morgan. "You, too?"
Bret had to chuckle a little, after all the teasing he'd endured over the years from me. "We are brothers, Constance."
"If June's involved with Rally Simmons somehow, she needs all the help she can get. What now?"
I got one of those 'Pappy' looks from Bret. "Now you go back to playin' poker and I keep watch on the saloon."
"That's not gonna solve any – "
"Maybe you can figure out from that side what's goin' on with Simmons and why June needs so much more money."
It made sense. Why hadn't he said that to begin with? "Alright, but I wanna know what's goin' on over here from now on. And no more of this Mr. Maverick business, Constance. Please."
"Agreed." She stuck out her hand. "Bart."
I kissed the back of it. What? I'm not shaking hands with a woman that looks like that.
XXXXXXXX
I got Bret back to the hotel and into bed, since he'd had about two hours sleep. I would have liked more myself but I wanted him to have the bed and not have to worry about bumping into anything, so I passed. I changed clothes and got cleaned up, then went down and got coffee and breakfast for the injured man. Believe me, trying to feed your brother is not the easiest thing in the world, especially since he was the one with all the experience at the task.
Fed and tucked into bed, I didn't expect him to take too long to fall asleep. As soon as he did I slipped out and locked the door behind me, going down to get breakfast myself. I would have gone to Minnie's, but I remembered that Maggie didn't work until the afternoon. As was my habit when I was alone, I sat in the rear of the dining room with my back to the wall. Can't be too careful. I had just ordered and was working on my second cup of coffee when I saw something I wasn't expecting – June Morgan. She had changed into a dress and she was the spitting image of Constance – I almost thought that's who it was at first. But as she walked across the dining room towards me I noticed something I hadn't seen before – her gait was odd, almost as if she'd had a broken leg that hadn't healed properly. Constance didn't walk like that.
She came straight over to my table and sat down. I think at first she waited to see if I knew it was her and not Connie, but I just kept drinking coffee and never said a word. When the waitress brought my food, she filled June's coffee cup before leaving. "Hungry?" I asked at last.
She nodded her head and I handed her the plate, taking a piece of toast from it. She ate like she was starving and never said a word until she was finished and the plate was clean. When the coffee pot came around again for refills, I ordered another breakfast. When we were alone she finally spoke. "Why'd you do that?"
"Because you were hungry."
"You noticed the limp, didn't you?"
I nodded my head and waited to see what else she'd tell me. We sat like that, in silence, until my second breakfast arrived. She took a piece of toast off my plate, to replace the one I'd taken from hers. The corners of her mouth turned up into a smile.
"June." It wasn't a question, merely a statement.
"I'm the one that shot your brother."
"I know."
"Aren't you going to turn me in to Dan Manning?"
I had to stop and think for a minute. It was the first time I'd heard Manning's given name. I thought maybe it was 'sheriff.' "No."
"He tried to stop me from . . . . . . . . . "
"From what?"
"Never mind. You're nice."
"I've been accused of that a time or two." Something seemed just a little off with June.
She drank some of her coffee and then picked the last piece of bacon up from my plate and ate it, watching me carefully the whole time. When I didn't complain she gave me a full smile. "I didn't mean to kill him."
"You didn't kill him." The conversation seemed pointless, but I had the feeling it wasn't.
"I saw you last night in Minnie's. Did you see me?"
I nodded. "I did see you. You were with Rally Simmons."
"Do you know Rally?" Now she was playing with her empty coffee cup.
"I play poker against Rally."
She chortled. That's all I could call the sound she made. "Play. That's a funny word. That's what Rally called it. Play. It didn't feel like we were playing."
"What didn't feel like playing, June?" There was more going on here than I'd first thought, and I was going to push it as far as June would let me. Until I got an answer, I hoped.
"When Rally and I - you know. When we hugged and kissed. It felt – real. It felt like I finally had something of my own, something that Constance didn't have."
Was she telling me what I think she was telling me? If so, Rally Simmons was the lowest form of human being on the planet. "June, did Rally tell you he loved you?"
She smiled again and for an instant looked truly happy. "No, not yet. But I know he does. He talks about us being together all the time. When I've got all my money and Constance can't bother me anymore."
Before I could ask her anything else, another couple entered the dining room and June disappeared faster than I thought possible. She hadn't told me everything, but she'd given me an awful lot of information. Looked like I was going to have to go to the source to get anymore. I put down my empty cup and paid my bill, then started back upstairs to our room. I needed my coat if I was going to track down Rally Simmons.