Doctor Who_ Peacemaker - James Swallow [15]
Teague’s revealed his cards with a flourish. ‘Four of a kind!’ He went for the pile.
The Doctor shook his head slightly. ‘You know, when wild Bill Hickok was shot in Deadwood, he was playing cards, and he had a fantastic hand! It’s a shame he never got to play it.’ He smiled and laid down the Aces of Spades and Clubs, followed by an Eight of Clubs, Eight of Spades and Jack of Diamonds. ‘Aces and Eights,’ said the Doctor, with a mock-sinister voice. ‘The Deadman’s Hand!’ He reached for the chips. ‘That would make me the winner, then.’
Teague exploded with rage. ‘You dirty four-flusher! You rigged the damn game, coming on like some Coney when you was a card-sharp all along!’
The Doctor frowned. ‘Cor, sore loser or what? Come on, don’t be a big girl’s blouse about it.’
Suddenly there was a wicked-looking buck knife in Loomis’s hand.
‘Nobody makes a fool outta me –’
‘Quit it!’ Another figure hove into view, and the Doctor saw a man with a sheriff’s tin star on the lapel of his jacket place a firm hand on Teague’s shoulder. ‘Simmer down.’
‘This crow-bait’s a cheat, Sheriff Blaine!’ snarled Teague. ‘Check his pockets! He’s gotta have a holdout in there, aces up his sleeves or somethin’!’
‘Perish the thought,’ said the Doctor.
Blaine eyed him. ‘So you’re this Doc I been hearing about, eh? Tell me, is Loomis right? You got a deck of cards on you I should know about?’
The Doctor spread his hands. ‘I don’t know. I might have. I’ve got very deep pockets. You never know what you’ll find in there.’
‘Let’s take a look-see.’ The lawman bent forward and plucked a thin wallet out of the Doctor’s coat. ‘What have we here?’ He flipped it open and his expression darkened.
‘What does it say?’ demanded Teague.
37
The sheriff tossed the wallet back to the Doctor with a scowl. ‘It says he’s a Pinkerton Agent, that’s what. A private investigator.’
The Doctor picked up his psychic paper and nodded sagely, playing along. ‘That’s right. I’m just passing through. Doing, you know, investigating.’
‘How can y’all be an investigator and a doctor?’ snapped Teague.
‘I wear many hats,’ he replied. ‘Well, obviously at the moment, I’m not wearing a hat at all, but you know what I mean.’ He picked up the poker chips. ‘Maybe I should get a hat, actually.’
But his emerging smile froze when Blaine leaned closer and gave him a hard, threatening stare. ‘I don’t give a horse’s backside what you are,’ he growled. His voice was loaded with menace, and low so only the Doctor could hear him. ‘But if you and that little missy keep asking questions and buttin’ in where you ain’t wanted, nothin’s gonna stop me runnin’ you outta town.’
38
Martha leaned against the TARDIS central console with her arms folded across her chest. ‘Nathan was terrified,’ she concluded, coming to the end of her description of what had happened in the schoolhouse. ‘And that big lunkhead Joe didn’t help matters any by dragging him off.’
‘Mmm.’ The Doctor nodded, his concentration on the computer screen extending out of the console panel. He fiddled with the dials and switches underneath it.
Martha pouted. ‘Have you been listening to me?’
‘I pay attention to everything you say and do, Martha Jones,’ he replied, without looking up at her. ‘I don’t even need to look at you to know you’re doing that face.’
‘What face? I’m not doing any face.’
‘Yes you are. The moral indignation, how dare they do that, just wait
’til I get my hands on them face.’ He glanced at her and nodded. ‘Yeah.
That one there.’
She sighed. ‘OK, I am feeling indignant. But I’ve got a right to. First that loser Hawkes and then that smelly stable-guy. . . ’
‘What about me? I had a bloke waving a knife at me and an unfriendly sheriff in my face.’ He sniffed. ‘Mind you, that sort of thing 39
does happen to me a lot. I suppose I should be used to it by now.’
‘But maybe he’ll leave you alone if he thinks you’re a. . . What did you call it? A pinky-something?’
‘A Pinkerton,’ the Doctor corrected. ‘From