by PAUL BENNETT
‘Wow. So it’s valuable?’
‘In 2007 it was worth eight times as much as gold, 450 times as much as silver and 27,250 times copper. Prices have dropped back a bit, but it’s still worth around 2,750 dollars an ounce.’
‘Wow, again,’ I said, exhaling. ‘What’s it used for?’
‘Mostly for catalytic converters. Small amounts for jewellery, too. Plate over white gold to enhance its appearance – the shine – and on silver to prevent it tarnishing. The world can’t get enough of the stuff.’
It all made sense now. The final pieces of the puzzle were fitting together.
‘About this field trip?’ he said. ‘I was thinking of taking the geography students to Iceland, study the volcanoes and the places where the two tectonic plates meet. Would be good for them.’
‘Go the long way round the world, if you like. I – or more precisely, my soon-to-be rich friend – will foot the bill. I’ll get him to send a cheque in the next couple of weeks.’
‘Very generous,’ he said. ‘How much of this rhodium does your friend have?’
‘Wealth beyond the dreams of avarice,’ I said. ‘I would guess there’s a major seam of rhodium running through his ranch.’
‘Hallelujah,’ he said.
‘Hallelujah indeed.’ I stretched out my hand and we shook. ‘Many thanks, Mr Meacham. You don’t know how grateful I am.’
‘I think I can guess,’ he said, smiling.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
I called Pa Blenkenstein first thing the next morning and arranged for him to come round and pick up his digger at ten o’clock. I made all the necessary arrangements and brewed some coffee. I carried the pot through to the dining table, leaving the kitchen door slightly open. I poured some coffee into mugs, passed them around to everybody and sat to wait for his arrival. I was looking forward to this. It’s not often you can show off your deductive capabilities. For effect, I wore the Browning conspicuously in the shoulder holster over a T-shirt, no jacket.
I heard a vehicle outside and went to the window; Ma Blenkenstein was dropping her husband off. He went across to the digger, climbed on board and paused. I had the keys.
I walked to the door and opened it, cried out a welcome. Pa approached me.
‘You’ll have some coffee,’ I said.
‘I better be getting back.’
‘You’ll have some coffee,’ I said firmly.
He looked at me uncertainly. ‘OK,’ he said.
I ushered him through the door and gestured at a chair at the table. There were nods from around the table. Bull stood up and went to the door, leaned against it – no escape. I poured Pa a coffee and placed it in front of him along with the sugar bowl and a small jug of cream. I took a chair opposite him.
‘I want to posit a theory,’ I said.
In the background I could see Bull mouth posit, smile and shake his head.
‘I want to tell you a story,’ I said. ‘It’s a story of a couple of old folks. Farmers who scratch a living from their spread. It’s a hard life, but they have known no other and have no hope of a different future.’
‘What’s this about?’ he said. ‘I ain’t got time to listen to fairy stories.’
‘Bear with me,’ I said. ‘This is no fairy story.’ I took a sip of coffee to increase the tension. I saw beads of sweat forming on Pa’s forehead. ‘Then one day everything changes. Their one and only son dies. They’re grief-stricken and wonder how life will be without him. Sound familiar?’
He gave a grunt, which I took to be a grudging answer in the affirmative.
‘This old couple,’ I continued, ‘decide to bury their son on their land rather than in a graveyard in a church of a different faith. They start to dig. How am I doing so far?’
He made a move to get up. Red stretched across an arm and pushed him back in the chair. ‘Be rude to leave before Johnny’s finished his story. You ain’t going nowhere.’
‘So they dig,’ I repeated so as not to lose the flow. ‘And they notice something funny about the soil – it glitters in places. They think they’ve struck silver like in the old days. Their eyes begin to light up. This could be the answer to all their prayers.’
I took another sip of coffee and scanned his face. There was fear there now. The sweat was beginning to run faster, too.
‘So one of them, let’s say it’s Pa, says we need to get this checked out. They prepare a sample and take it to an assay office somewhere, Dallas maybe; I’m guessing, but some place big where the guys know their stuff. Bingo! Hallelujah! It’s not silver, it’s rhodium. They haven’t ever heard of that, but the assayer tells them it’s one of the rarest metals and the price is sky high. They extend their mortgage at the bank, buy a digger and see that there’s a big seam of it running diagonally through their spread. They’ve made it. A fortune just sitting in their own land, waiting to be dug up and cashed. But this is where they make their first mistake – they get greedy. Whose idea was it, Pa – you or Ma?’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. Rhodium – what the hell is that?’
‘Oh, well. Let’s say it’s your idea. You start to think: “Wait a minute. This band of rhodium seems like it goes through Red’s land and the Retreat, too. There’s more money to be made here. Buy up their land and their fortune grows three-fold. But they hit a snag. They don’t have the money. The bank won’t lend them any more – they won’t be able to keep up with the higher mortgage payments. What are they going to do? Can’t let that potential huge sum slip through their fingers. So they have their second idea. Involve someone who does have the money and split the profit – half’s better than none.’ I turned my attention towards Red and the other guys. ‘Help me out here, boys. Who do we know who’s got plenty of money and no conscience? Someone who wouldn’t consider Red and the people from the Retreat as being “proper” citizens worthy of respect and who deserve to be cheated out of what is rightfully theirs? Who do we know who fits the bill?’
‘Senator O’Hara,’ they chorused.
I nodded my head. ‘Good old fine upstanding Senator O’Hara. One who likes to live dangerously – calls Bull “boy”. He’s got big ambitions. The White House beckons. The money from the rhodium will kick start his campaign fund. Manna from heaven. So they start to make approaches to Red and Rafael. No dice. Rafael and his people like living there, got no reason to move. And as for Red, it’s the first real home he’s ever had. Why should he move on?’
Pa shuffled in the chair, started clenching his hands tightly, the sweat running off him like a mountain stream. He was beginning to crack. Any minute now it would all spill out and there would be no holding back the dam.
‘The senator knows people – that’s part of the benefit of being a senator: you come across lots of people, good and bad. He knows the man in black, or he’s heard of him from a friend or a friend of a friend. Whatever. The man in black can solve all their problems. No one can get the best of the man in black. Red and Rafael were as good as out the door.’ I picked up the coffee pot and poured myself some more. ‘And then we show up. Best laid plans and all that. They hadn’t bargained for any resistance. The man in black starts off low by poisoning the water, frightening the ranch hands, even shooting a bullet at me to try to warn us off. But Red’s stubborn, and his friends even more so – try moving Bull when his mind’s made up.’
‘You got that right,’ Bull said.
‘So the man in black starts to escalate matters. Hires a bunch of bikers to beat the stubbornness out of us. We beat them instead. So it’s more bikers and we beat them, too. And then he sinks really low – kidnaps Lucy.’
‘And we fool him with some phoney letters,’ Red said. ‘And nearly kill him. Send him off with his tail between his legs and a bullet in his shoulder.’
‘How have I done, Pa? Anything I missed out?’
‘They didn’t deserve it,’ Pa said. ‘Red won the ranch in a poker game. Didn’t have to work hard for it like the rest of us. It wasn�
��t fair. And as for the hippies, they don’t need it. Bunch of good-for-nothings. Probably spend it all on drugs.’ He looked me in the eye. ‘We slaved all those years. We deserved it.’
‘And you were willing to go along with the senator’s plans. Beat up people, kidnap a young girl, kill a few of us while you’re about it?’
He shrugged.
‘Don’t you shrug at me,’ I said angrily. ‘You knew exactly what you were doing. You deserve everything that you get. I only wish that you were younger so that you could spend more of your life in jail.’
‘How did you put it together?’ he asked. ‘Where did we slip up?’
‘That’s where Bull comes into the picture.’
‘Proud to be of service,’ he said.
‘Bull and his rotten tooth. The dentist didn’t have to take it out. He just drilled it. It struck me that, in these modern times, you don’t dig for a well, you drill it. So what were you doing with that digger? Checking out where the seam of rhodium ran, that’s what. What beats me is why you lent us the digger in the first place. Big risk we might come to the right conclusion.’
‘Thought it might look odd if I refused you. And, let’s face it, Red is an Injun.’ I could sense another hole being dug here. ‘They don’t have the brains to work anything out. And as for you, well, I never put you down as being smart.’
I think I would have preferred to be called an Injun.
‘Damn digger,’ he said. Then he became pensive. He leaned back in the chair. Looked me in the eye. ‘Seems like you’ve got nothing to go on but guesses. No hard evidence. It’ll be your word against mine. And who are they going to believe? An honest God-fearing man like me, or a bunch of mercenaries?’
I got up from the table, walked across to the kitchen door. Opened it wide.
‘You can come out now, Sheriff,’ I said.
‘Thank you, boys. Getting a bit claustrophobic in there.’ He smiled at Pa Blenkenstein. Not a nice smile. His eyes looked like those of a cobra before it rears up and bites you. ‘Well, Pa. I’ve always wanted to say this. Ah ha, the game is up.’
‘In England nowadays we say ‘You’re nicked.’
‘I stand corrected. You’re nicked. Why don’t we take a ride to town and you give me a statement. Then I might persuade the judge to go easy on you. And your wife, too. Shame for her to finish up in prison. You might not ever see each other again.’
The sheriff was smarter than he looked. Knew where to hit the hardest. He took Pa by the arm and led him to the door. Just before they went out he turned around and said to us, ‘Give me a couple of hours and then join me at my office. I think we’ve got another call to make.’
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
We stood in a line facing the sheriff in his office. We were wearing our shoulder holsters under lightweight jackets and stood as much to attention as such a disparate group could manage. Tucker held a Bible in his hand, although we were not quite sure why. I suspected he didn’t know either.
‘Repeat after me,’ he said. ‘I do solemnly swear …’
‘I do solemnly swear …’ we chorused.
‘That I will do my duty …’
‘That I will do my duty …’
He looked up at us helplessly. ‘Hell, I’ve never done this before.’
‘Hell, I’ve never done this before.’
‘Don’t do that.’
‘Don’t do that.’
By this time we were doubled up with laughter.
‘If you don’t stop that, I’ll put you in the cell with Pa Blenkenstein.’
‘If you …’
We looked at each other. Time to stop teasing him. After all, he was helping us. He was making us all special deputies so that O’Hara couldn’t refuse to let us into his house. Not one of us wanted to miss the climax of all our efforts, the denouement of our stay in Texas.
‘Don’t I get a badge or something?’ Red asked.
The sheriff looked around, saw some yellow Post-it notes on his desk. Peeled off one, wrote ‘Deputy’ on it and stuck it to Red’s jacket. ‘Happy now?’ he said.
‘Just what I always wanted,’ Red said. ‘Let’s go.’
We followed the sheriff’s car out to the senator’s ranch. Stood in a group at the front door while waiting for Jackson to answer it. When he did, he stared at me. I got the impression he knew what was coming. Maybe not any details, but that he would be looking for a new job by the end of the day. I felt sorry for him. Hoped he’d find somewhere else with someone who would treat him with respect.
‘We’ll come straight in,’ the sheriff said. ‘No need to tell the senator that we’re here.’
‘Yes, sir,’ said Jackson. ‘Follow me, sir. This way, sir.’
He led us through to the garden. O’Hara and Slim were sitting at the table under the shade of a white-fringed umbrella. There was a jug of something cool between them, a bucket of ice and two highball glasses half-full, or half-empty, depending on your point of view. The senator looked at us as a group, focused on Bull and Red and jumped to his feet, his face red with anger.
‘What the hell are you doing here?’ he shouted. ‘Jackson, show these men out.’
‘’Fraid not,’ said the sheriff. ‘This is official.’ He waved his hand in our direction. ‘These are my five special deputies.’
‘Who’d love nothing more than to find you resisting arrest.’ I opened my jacket to reveal the shoulder holster. ‘We’re packing,’ I said. ‘You behave yourself, Senator.’
Jackson turned round and started to walk back inside the house.
‘You should stay, Jackson,’ I said. ‘Might learn something about human nature.’
‘I’m well versed in that already, sir.’
‘How about greed?’
‘’Specially that, sir. But I will stay.’
‘I call the shots around here, Jackson. Leave us.’
‘I think I’ll stay, sir.’
He didn’t say “if you don’t mind”, simply moved to the side so that he could see both O’Hara and us in his field of vision. He removed his white gloves and put them in his pocket. The spell – the thrall – he’d been under here had just broken. It was probably the first time that Jackson had said anything for himself, rather than maintaining silence, acquiescing to O’Hara’s whims and bowing and licking.
‘What’s the meaning of this?’ O’Hara said, sitting back down. ‘You’ll pay for this, Tucker. Don’t you forget that I’m also the mayor of this town and I appoint the sheriff.’
‘At the moment,’ Tucker said. ‘There are some big changes coming.’
I picked up a spare chair, turned it round and sat with my legs straddling the seat so that I was facing O’Hara, and looked pretty cool in the process. I knew Bull would make me pay for it later, but it was worth it to see the senator’s face – if the veins bulging got any worse, then O’Hara would have a heart attack.
‘Get rid of this bunch of thugs, Sheriff.’
‘You’ve got a big mouth, Senator,’ said Bull. ‘Goes with the territory, I suppose.’
‘What do you want?’ he said.
‘I want to see you squirm, Senator,’ I said.
‘That goes for me, too,’ said Bull.
‘And the rest of us,’ said Red.’
‘Always been partial to a bit of squirming,’ said Pieter.
‘When you can’t eat another dill pickle, then it’s time to give in,’ said Stan enigmatically.
‘My lawyers—’
‘I know. Crane, Oaks and Crane. And they’re going to sue the arses off us.’
‘Asses,’ Tucker corrected. ‘I have a sworn statement, Senator, from Pa Blenkenstein implicating you in a series of crimes. I’ll settle for conspiracy to kidnap a minor while we piece together everything else.’
‘I’ll take my leave, Sheriff,’ said Slim.
‘You stay right where you are,’ said Tucker. ‘We haven’t figured out your part in all this yet.’
‘I only acted as a go-bet
ween,’ Slim said. ‘Between the senator and the man in black.’
‘Hold your tongue, Slim,’ said O’Hara. ‘If we say nothing, then they can’t make anything stick.’
‘It’s too late for that, Senator,’ I said. ‘You’re finished.’
‘I’ll testify,’ Slim said. ‘I was just obeying orders. I didn’t know what the man in black would do.’
‘Ah, the man in black,’ I said. ‘How much did he cost you, Senator? Because you didn’t get your money’s worth.’
‘I refuse to answer any of your questions. I plead the fifth amendment.’
‘We could rough him up a bit,’ said Bull.
‘You lay a finger on me and I’ll …’
‘You’ll do what?’ said Bull. ‘Retch? Because being a bigot’s going to get you into even more trouble.’
I turned to Slim. ‘Help us catch the man in black and the sheriff will do whatever he can for you.’
Slim looked at the sheriff. Tucker nodded.
‘I’ll help where I can,’ Slim said. ‘But it’s not much. I don’t even know his name.’
‘How do you get in touch with him?’ I asked.
‘Ring a cellphone. It’s his answering service. He then gets back to you.’
‘How many times have you met him?’ Tucker said.
‘Just the once at the very beginning of the contract. Met him in a park at Fort Stockton. Stood on a bridge over the water feeding the ducks, like in the spy movies. Explained exactly what we – I mean the senator – wanted. Handed over half the fee in cash. Brown-paper bag. You know how it works?’
‘I can guess,’ Tucker said.
‘Do you still owe him the other half of the money?’ I said.
‘Not due until we had the land.’
‘Better hope that the man in black sees it that way, too,’ I said. ‘Otherwise prison won’t be the worst that happens to you.’
‘I told you, I was just the go-between.’
I turned my attention to the senator. He was looking calmer, like he was planning something that would get him out of trouble.