Longarm 241: Longarm and the Colorado Counterfeiter (2 page)

BOOK: Longarm 241: Longarm and the Colorado Counterfeiter
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Longarm looked down at the money in his lap. “Well, that's fine and well that you took me, but I don't see how the average citizen out there on the street is going to be able to tell one of these bills from another. How did they find out in the first place? How did anybody know these were counterfeit?”
“Well, the Treasury Department, which operates a lot of banks, has a lighted piece of glass which they can run a bill over. In an instant, they can see if it's the right kind of paper. If they don't see what they are looking for, they know that something is wrong. That's the way they've gotten on to this fellow. They've traced him to where he is.”
Longarm slowly put the money together, folded it again, and tucked it back into his pocket. “You mean to tell me that they know who is doing this?”
Billy Vail nodded his head. “That's a fact. They know his name, which is Ashton, and where he lives. He's got one hell of a spread up in the mountains on the other side of Silverton.”
Longarm said, “What's his first name?”
“I think it's Vernon, but he gets called Vern. Anyway, he's run out about two million dollars. That's what the government figures. That's a hell of a piece of money that he's put over on United States citizens. I'm told that place of his looks like a palace and he has Hell's own men up there working for him. He's really got it set up.”
Longarm said, “Well, why the hell don't they go in there and just shut him down? How come he's still operating?”
Billy Vail raised his eyebrows. “That, my friend, is where you come in.”
A small frown passed across Longarm's face. He reached in his pocket and got out a cigarillo and a match, lit the match and then the cigarillo, and slowly drew on it while he studied his boss's face. He said, “What the hell are you talking about, Billy? It comes down to me? This is a United States Treasury problem. If this man is supposed to have run off two million dollars of those bills, they've got themselves a pretty good case. One lonesome deputy marshal ain't about to go in there and upset his apple cart anywhere near as good as the Treasury Department and the army and a half-dozen calvary detachments.”
Billy Vail shook his head. “No, it can't be done that way. Now, listen. I'm telling you, this thing has been got at from every way there is to get at it. They've figured it from every angle. Let me tell you, the Treasury Department has been on to this fellow Ashton for a good while. But he's slicker than goose-grease. He ain't going to be taken easy.”
“Why don't they just crash in there and shut him down?”
Billy Vail shook his head slowly and looked at Longarm as if he was ignorant. “Custis, don't you ever listen? By the time they got to getting at him, he would have hid his moneymaking machinery and all his paper stock and everything else somewhere back in those mountains where they could never be traced. He's got thirty or forty or fifty hired hands in that place. There ain't but one way to get at it, and that's straight up a canyon. There's going to be one hell of a fight before they can get to the castle this man lives in. By that time, there ain't going to be any evidence.”
Longarm lifted his hat and scratched his head. “Well, how does the sonofabitch get it out of there?”
“That part ain't hard.” Billy Vail shrugged. “A pack mule, a wagon, you can haul a whole lot of twenty-dollar bills.”
“And he's just passing these things right and left?”
“All over the country. They've found them in Ohio, they've found them in Pennsylvania. They get passed around. He's in a nice location and he's hard to get at.”
Longarm said, “What I don't understand is how this gent can make counterfeit money so good.”
“Well, that's the question that the Treasury Department wants the answer to. They don't know who made the plates that these bills are printed on. Somebody must really know how to do the engraving on those plates. If they had the paper stock from the United States Government, you couldn't tell his from ours.”
Longarm leaned over slightly. “You said this was going to be up to me. You are not sitting there telling me that you expect me to go up to some hideout with forty or fifty hired
pistoleros
and bring back the bad man and all his boodle. You're not saying that, Billy, are you?”
Billy Vail chuckled. “Sounds a good deal to me like
you're
saying it.”
“Well, that's just plain damned foolishness,” Longarm said with a little annoyance in his voice. “How in the hell do you expect me to get past all those guns? How do you expect me to get to this Vernon Ashton when a detachment of calvary can't even do it. That's silly. Billy. That's just damned foolish.”
Billy Vail looked at him with his dry eyes and said coolly, “Custis, when you hired on with us, the idea was that you were supposed to do what you're told. Have you heard about anything changing since then?”
Longarm stared back for a moment. “No, you old sonofabitch, you know damned good and well nothing's changed. But you're giving me a damned near impossible job.”
“They gave it to me, and if I didn't have you to give it to,
I'd
have to do it. But I'm the chief marshal here, so that gives me the right to say that
you
have to go do it.”
“How?”
Billy Vail shook his head again. “I don't know how. If I knew how, I could take anyone of the new hands and send him up there to do it. You're the most experienced. You've got the best record and you keep telling me that you're the best deputy marshal that I've got. If you were me, wouldn't you give yourself the job?”
Longarm sighed. “You slick-talking sonofabitch. I'm just glad I ain't a woman. You'd have your hand in my britches before I knew what had happened.”
“There ain't any chance of anybody taking you for a good-looking woman. They wouldn't mistake you for anything but what you are, which right now is somebody occupying my office when they ought to be out of here.”
Longarm said, “I didn't think I'd have to leave out until the morning.”
“That'll be soon enough. I think you need some time to spend planning and packing.”
Longarm stood up. “I'm just supposed to head out of here with an extra horse and a pack mule, go over to Silverton, and hunt down this—what did you say his name was? Vernon Ashton? Slip up on him, do a job that a detachment of calvary can't do, and bring you back his head and those things you called engraving plates? Is that about the size of it?”
Billy Vail said, “You need to bring back the paper stock too. You might need to bring back any samples he has hanging around. And don't let any of them stick to your hands either.”
“Oh, yeah. I understand now, Billy. So that's all there is to this job? I'm just supposed to sail on out of here like I know what I am doing?”
Billy gave him a dry look. “There will be a Treasury man coming around to your boardinghorse tonight about eight o'clock. He'll tell you everything you need to know.”
“If he's so damned full of information, how come he doesn't go on and do it himself?”
Billy Vail threw his hands up. “Will you get the hell out of here and quit bothering me. Go and do your work so you won't have to back up to the pay window and get your money. For once, do an honest day's work.”
Longarm shook his head as he came to his feet. “Boy, I'm glad I've got you for a boss, Billy. It's damned near better than being married. This way I get all the heartaches and headaches and I don't have to keep a wife up. I haven't had to buy you a new dress in quite a while.”
He ducked as Billy Vail threw a small book at him, and then he turned for the door. “I reckon you know, Billy, that this sort of foolishness can get a man killed.”
Billy Vail said, “Get out of here!”
 
Longarm lay on his bed, thinking. His mind was awhirl with details and plans and thoughts. He was in his room at the boardinghouse, and the lady who owned a dress shop who he considered his best girl was lying next to him. They had just finished making love. It had not been very satisfactory, mainly because Longarm couldn't get his mind off the job. If anything, he was amazed that the Treasury Department, Billy Vail, or the President of the United States for that matter, thought that he could go and do a job of this size without any help. They weren't even offering another hired hand to hold his horse.
Almost idly, he reached over and ran his hand down her smooth belly and into the furry patch where his girlfriend's legs met. She was about thirty, but she was well kept for her age. Pauline Gill was all lady in public, and all siren once you got her in bed. She was about as fine a woman as Longarm knew, and if he had been the marrying kind, she would have been the one he chose. But for now, he was content to stroke the silken patch of pubic hair and then bring his hands up to feel her firm, erect breasts. As he worked at it gently, the nipple of her right breast hardened and stood out. He could feel her start to breathe heavier. It didn't take much to get her aroused, but he wasn't sure he was up to it again.
Showing what he considered good sense, he stopped fooling around with her body and put his mind back to the visit earlier from the Treasury Department agent. Before his thinking could run very far, Pauline said, “Don't you want to?”
Longarm turned and looked at her. She had a sweet open face and nice light brown hair. She had smooth, milky-tan skin. There wasn't much about her that he didn't like. “No, sweetheart, not right this minute. I've got something on my mind that's interfering with the lower part of me. Until I get this figured out, I'm not going to be much better than I was just now.”
Pauline patted him on the thigh. “Now, don't you start worrying about that, honey. I didn't notice that it was any the less for your worries. Of course, your worst is generally better than most men's worst.”
He gave her a mock severe look. “How would you know that? You told me that you were a virgin and that I was your first man.”
Her eyes crinkled. “Oh, you are. I'm just telling you what I hear the ladies that come in my shop talk about.”
Longarm half smiled. “They come in the door, do they, and talk about making love?”
“Of course.”
He let out a low whistle. “I reckon I've been hanging around the wrong places. I need to stay out of saloons and hang around your dress shop.”
She gave his thigh a little slap. “Never you mind about any other ladies. When you are in Denver, you're mine.”
“Well, right now, I've got to do some thinking. Why don't you go on to your room. I'll come down later and we'll have another go at this thing.”
“All right.” With a smooth move, she was off the bed and gathering up her dress. Longarm enjoyed watching her lithe shapely body as she pulled her legs into her undergarments and then shrugged the bodice over her shoulder. She was a handsome woman indeed. In a moment, she was dressed. She didn't bother with her stockings or her shoes, but simply went to the door and blew him a kiss. She said, “Come down when you can.”
From the bed, he nodded, “All right, honey. I've got to do a little thinking.”
She disappeared. He had not told her that he would be leaving the next morning for a long job. He thought it might have intefered with the pleasure of his last night in town. But as it turned out, the Treasury agent had been the one who had intefered with his last night in town.
Chapter 2
The Treasury agent's name was Ladell Sump. He was a young man, younger than Longarm. The deputy marshal guessed the agent to be in his early to mid-thirties. He was very businesslike, very sure of himself, and very confident. At the time, Longarm thought that he was very free and easy with Longarm's time and trouble.
Sump had come up to his room a little after eight o'clock. Together they sat down across a small square table. Sump laid out in as much detail as he could all that he knew about Vernon Ashton and his affairs and how the man operated.
He began by saying, “You understand, Marshal....”
“I'm a deputy marshal.”
“All right, Deputy. You understand that counterfeiting has been around for a long time?”
“Yes, I understand that, Mr. Sump, but let's just stick to this one counterfeiter in particular since this is the only one I ever expect to be after.”
“The advantage that he has had over any others that we have ever run across is the quality of his paper. We think that he might have been in the papermaking trade somewhere or another. We have canvassed the country and all the appropriate companies, trying to find a very experienced employee who might have left in the past couple of years. I say the last couple of years, because that's how long we think this man has been operating.”
Longarm said, “Go on.”
“So far, we haven't come up with anything. We've found several men who have retired, but they didn't pan out. Either they were not experienced in making this grade of paper, or we were able to locate them and determine that they could not be this man who we call, and who calls himself, Vernon Ashton. We think the actual counterfeit plates that the bills are printed on were engraved in Germany. We have no sure knowledge of that, but that has been where the best engraving has been done. It could be that we're all wrong. It could be that this man is an engraver and he's getting his paper stock from another source. It's hard to tell. It is so damned close to United States Government stock that we at first suspected that our own supplier was selling him some of the seconds or thirds of the paper that didn't quite fit our grade. But every sheet has to be accounted for, and every one of them were accounted for, so you can see where we are.”
BOOK: Longarm 241: Longarm and the Colorado Counterfeiter
11.55Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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