Chapter 2

“You didn’t have a choice.”

“Still sorry I had to do it.” He looked at the two corpses, wrapped in white sheets. They didn’t have enough wood on hand to make proper coffins. “I couldn’t sleep last night.”

“Why not? Paul, if you feel guilty, don’t. She was going to kill Eliza, you knew it—”

“No, it’s not the guilt. I couldn’t sleep because the house was too quiet…the bed was too soft. Just not use to fine living, I guess.”

“I guess not.”

“Where you from, Martha?” Paul knew she wasn’t going to leave until both the bodies were interred. You do have to pay your respects to the dead. Paul believed it, too. Otherwise, he would have tossed the bodies to the desert, allowed the coyotes to make short work of Dead Man’s Corner’s former murderous mayor and former crazy first lady.

“New York City.”

“Now, what would a fine lady from New York City want with someone like me?” Paul joked.