"Evans, Tabor - Longarm 234 - Longarm and the Renegade Assassins" - читать интересную книгу автора (Evans Tabor)

Longarm felt a sickness in his belly and leaped forward. He was much
too late, though. And whoever had cut the fuse on the bomb knew his
business all too well. There was no time for anyone inside the carriage to
react.

A flash of orange and red flame filled the windows of the rig, and a
sharp, loud report boomed out to fill Colfax and stun the crowd into
immobility.

The body of the carriage seemed to bulge, then to sag as the frame was
broken and the body ripped apart. The back end broke completely away from
the front part of the rig, and the terrified team dragged what was left of
the wreckage down the street at as hard a run as they could manage.

Lying on the cobblestones where the entire carriage had been was the
back end of the broken vehicle surrounded by bits of lacquered and charred
wood.

And a broken body wearing a gay dress covered with ruffles and with
blood.

Longarm tried to push his way through a suddenly hysterical crowd, his
Colt held high as he hoped for a shot at the bomber.

But the bomber was gone. Vanished as completely as the smoke that had
trailed from the fuse of the cowardly bastard's bomb.

Longarm ran across to the other side of the street, then back again to
move through the now-noisy crowd of onlookers.

There was no sign of the person in the cloak.

The only thing left behind was the stink of exploded powder.

And the destruction wrought by the bomb.

Jesus! Longarm thought suddenly. Billy. Billy Vail had been inside
that carriage too.

Longarm whirled and ran as hard as he could down Colfax in the
direction the shattered carriage had been dragged.


Chapter 2


Longarm did not own a black suit, but for this occasion he'd gone out
and rented one. There was not another person in the whole miserable,
stinking world he would have done that for. Anyone else, well, a black
armband would be enough to show respect. But for Billy Vail ...