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Mingo asked, “Are you armed?” Hunter shook her head no, and Mingo continued, “I have one pistol here, behind the bar. I can get other weapons later today.”
“We should be prepared,” Hunter said.
There was the sound of someone knocking on the front door. Mingo stood up and moved to the edge of the room so he could see down the hallway and all the way to the glass windows by the saloon’s door. He looked once, looked again, then turned to Hunter and Anda with a little smile on his face. “I recognize her,” Mingo said, “It’s that TV reporter, Pepper Easton.”
He started down the hallway, and Hunter said, “Oh, this is not good.”
CHAPTER 16
Hunter turned to Anda while Mingo walked to the front door, “Do you have clothes?”
“Mingo has clothes left by some female friends. He said I could have any I wanted.”
“You need to dress now. I think things will happen quick when they start.”
Anda went into the bedroom and Hunter could hear her rustling around. Mingo returned, smiling as he led Pepper into the room.
Pepper didn’t seem surprised and said, “Hello, Agent Kincaid.”
Hunter couldn’t help but wonder how much those breasts had cost. She said, “What brings you here? It can’t be good, whatever it is.”
Mingo sat in the chair and Pepper sat on the sofa across from him. She crossed her legs and Mingo’s eyebrows went up. Pepper spoke to Hunter, “Let’s drop the pretense, okay?”
“Oh sure, you bet. What are you doin’ here?”
“I’m a reporter. The big story’s here, and I’m going to be first on the scene.”
Hunter looked at Mingo and cocked her head to the side, then she turned back to Pepper. “What are you talking about?”
“A kidnapped woman, murder, money, hostages,” Pepper nodded at Hunter, “A federal agent in Mexico, in a criminal’s house-”
Mingo said, “Hey, I’ve never been convicted-”
Pepper said, “-who skipped her own trial and left her lawyer in the hospital.”
Hunter sat up, “What happened to Truman?”
Pepper s
aid, “You don’t even know? How special.”
Hunter reached for Mingo’s phone, but Pepper said, “You don’t need that. I’ll tell you, but I want us to stop this. We play straight up with each other from now on, deal?”
Hunter hesitated, then said, “Deal.”
Mingo wasn’t quite sure what had happened so fast, but he could tell their claws were sheathed. Pepper said, “Truman was jogging Friday morning and a car struck him. Actually, it was a pickup. He was on the scenic overlook road and it almost knocked him off the mountain.”
“How bad?”
“Broken bones, lacerations, bruises, but he is tougher than people think. I peeked in on him, and he threw his bedpan at me.”
“So, there was no head trauma, no amputations?”
“No, like I said, he’s tough. He wouldn’t grant me an interview, but I talked to a nurse and she said he was coherent and agitated, said he couldn’t stay still.”
Hunter eased back on the sofa. Everything seemed to be happening at once. There was a distant sound of knocking again, coming from the saloon in front. “What is goin’ on this morning?” Mingo said. He edged to the wall for the angle, shook his head and said, “Great, now Elvis wants in.”
***
