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Sloan nodded and went in The walls were covered with various weapons and rifles dating from the early 1800s to the 1960s The tables were stained wood, which gave the place at couple in question certainly looked dejected enough as they sat at the table, heads bowed and shoulders slumped They appeared to be in their late twenties Jerry Broling glanced up with hope in his eyes as Sloan entered "It’s the sheriff, honey He’ll do so will be fine, you’ll see!" he said

Lucinda, a blonde with cornflower-blue eyes, s

"How do you do? Sloan Trent," he said, introducing hiht In your room?"

"It had to be!" Lucinda insisted "We went to the show--it’s very funny, by the way--and aftere stopped at the bar in the Gilded Lily"

"We had Kahlua and cream," Jerry said

"I had Tia Maria You had Kahlua and cream" Obviously, the robbery had made them both irritable

"Neither of us drank a lot," Jerry said "We--"

"I hadn’t been drinking at all," Lucinda broke in "Jerry was draining a few beers in the saloon during the show"

"I wasn’t even slightly buzzed" Jerry’s tone was hard

Lucinda waved a hand in the air "I paid for the drinks"

"And that’s the last time you saw your wallets?" Sloan asked "At the saloon and the bar?"

"Mine never came out of ," Jerry said

Lucinda waved a hand in the air "I’d been usingall day His ht have been anywhere But I know that my wallet was in htfully "I understand you were in Room One"

"I’ve already searched it," Jerry told him

"We even pulled the mattress up," Lucinda said

"Did you ask at the Gilded Lily?"

"Well, they’re not open this early, are they?" Jerry asked

"Not for business, but they have rehearsals, oes in to sew up rips and tears and so on"

Mike was at the door "I called Spoke to Henri Coque They’re up and about, working down in the old storage roos He went up to the bar area and searched through everything Couldn’t find any credit cards Talked to everyone he could, but no one handed in a lost wallet"

"So, you were in Trey Hardy’s cell," Sloan said

They nodded "Excuse ive the place a search, too, if you don’t mind"

The couple looked at him doubtfully "Sheriff, there’s a thief in this town," Lucinda said

"A lon, no-account pickpocket!" Jerryto sound like soroaned

"Lucinda--"

Sloan left the squabbling couple, passed through the barred wooden door to the cells and walked down the length of the hallway The door to Room One, the Trey Hardy cell, was open

Hardy had been a true character in his day A Confederate cavalry lieutenant who had lost everything during the Civil War, he’d started robbing banks He was a hero to some back in Missouri--just like Jesse Jaive back to the citizens He’d been dashing and handsoone farther But in Lily he caerty Fogerty felt that the as over, and ex-Reb or not, Hardy wasn’t stealing from the citizens of Lily, Arizona He’d taken Hardy in after winning a fistfight on Main Street Hardy had pro crowd, he had turned hierty, his deputy, Aaron Munson, had a long-standing beef with anyone who’d fought against the Union Before Hardy could be brought to trial, Munson shot Hardy down in his cell, only to be dragged out to the street and lynched himself by a furious mob enamored of the handsome Hardy