Page 108 of Native Hawk
Miss Hattie showed them the pistol. “Now you listen, boys. Your daddy did somethin’ real bad. He shot at a woman, and he shot at an unarmed man. He deserved what he got.”
The bearded man looked like he was foaming at the mouth. “You done this? You?”
When he started coming toward Miss Hattie, she leveled the gun at him, stopping him in his tracks.
“I can shoot two men as easy as one,” she said.
“No, Jim, don’t do it,” Harvey begged. “Don’t get yourself shot. Don’t leave me alone.”
Jim spat on the floor. “You’re gonna hang for murder,” he threatened Miss Hattie. “My daddy was a sheriff.”
“Who was shot withyourgun,” she told him. “And I got a salon full o’ happy regulars who’ll swear it was in your hands at the time.”
The men below voiced their agreement.
“So unlessyouwant to hang for his murder,” she told them, “you’d best get dressed and get out o’ my town. You can take your daddy with you if you like or leave him here.”
There was a bit of an argument over that. Harvey wanted to take him back to Shasta. But Jim said he’d be rotten by then. In the end, after charging Miss Hattie to give him a proper burial, they decided to leave him.
Long after they’d gone, Miss Hattie glared down at the dead sheriff and muttered, “That’s the only way that son o’ the devil could possibly ever wind up in Paradise.”
Then she sat down on the stair step with the pistol on her lap and rested her head in her hands.
Catalina sat down beside her. “You saved my life.”
She shrugged it off. “He ain’t the first man I shot. Prob’ly won’t be the last.”
Catalina only knew she was grateful Miss Hattie had fired the gun when she had. A split-second later and…
She shuddered at the thought.
“Truth is, Catalina,” Miss Hattie said, “I’ve about had it with this business. I’m gettin’ too old for this kind o’ calamity.”
“Oh, Miss Hattie, you are not old.”
Miss Hattie patted her knee. “You’re a fine young lady, Cat. You’ve got a good man and a bright future. Me? I got nothin’ but this den of iniquity. When I die, I’m gonna be meetin’ up with all the fellas I shot, ’cause I sure ain’t gettin’ into heaven.”
Catalina frowned. That wasn’t right. The madam was a good person.
Miss Hattie gazed around the room at the red wallpaper and the crystal chandeliers, the card tables and the mahogany bar, the big mirror on the wall and the overstuffed chairs in the salon.
“You know, if it weren’t for my girls needin’ to make a livin’, I’d close down The Parlor tomorrow.”
Catalina didn’t know what to say to that. It was true that The Parlor was abordello,a place that catered to the sinful appetites of men. But she had friends here. She couldn’t imagine what Anne and Emily would do if Miss Hattie closed down The Parlor.
