Elmore Leonard - Raylan

She let the miners hoot and whistle, then turned to Raylan saying, “Marshal, may I ask if your salary as a law enforcement officer is in the neighborhood of eleven hundred a week?”

It surprised him and he hesitated, taking his boot from the first step to the stage. Raylan said, “Base pay startin out? It’s around there.”

“About the same as a surface miner’s.”

“Well, there’s overtime…”

“But you start out with a weekly salary not much different than if you were diggin coal. Isn’t that right?”

“It’s pretty close,” Raylan said. “Except marshals are paid fifty-two weeks a year. I’ve put ten years in, that’s five hundred weeks I’ve been paid without a miss. I take a day off-sometimes I have to-I come down with a ferocious hangover…”

Raylan paused, letting the miners come alive yelling remarks at him, “Tell it like it is,” shouting, “Day off’s a day of pain!”

“I take a sick day,” Raylan said, “I don’t get fired.” He waited a beat and said, “Even get paid for it.”

C arol saw it coming. Raylan finished and the gym erupted in applause, those piercing whistles, miners yelling his name-“You tell her, Raylan!”-and Carol realized she’d blown it. She’d let Raylan in, let him go on when he said, “Except”-and nailed it in a few words-“there’s a big difference between my pay and a coal miner’s working for a company that shuts down when they feel like it,” Raylan giving them something to cheer about, the crowd applauding and yelling remarks.

Carol announced to the crowd, most of them standing now, “Let’s take a break, all right? We have refreshments waiting in the front hall. Then we’ll come back and have at it again, okay? Meanwhile I’ll have a talk with Raylan, let him know he’s supposed to protect me, not step on my lines.”

The hill folk probably wouldn’t get it. They weren’t listening anyway.

She saw Raylan talking to miners gathering around him and turned to Winona sitting by her steno machine. Carol walked across the stage toward her.

“Winona? Hi, I’m Carol. We’re so pleased we could get you for this meeting.”

“I wasn’t sure why you wanted me,” Winona said. “Other than I was married to Raylan at one time and you’re curious about him.”

“My,” Carol said, “you speak right up, don’t you?”

“I wondered why you wanted a court reporter for this. Because it’s what I do and you can ask me about Raylan? Or because you like reading transcripts?”

Carol walked away, got hed a Because ir chair from the middle of the stage and dragged it over. She sat down saying, “Which do you think?”

“You’ve heard all the complaints before. I think you’d like to know about Raylan. From a woman once married to him.”

Carol said, “Did he fool around?”

“Not once in six years.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“He’d walk in the house and if he had, it would be on his face, but never was.”

“He left you, didn’t he?”

“I left him. We’re in bed he’d start talkin about offenders. I had different moves I’d have to put on him.”

“You’re married to a real estate man now.”

“Sorta. I can’t say the marriage was made in heaven. I thought I needed security.”

“It’s obvious you don’t,” Carol said. “You want a job?”

“I’ll never in my life go to work for a coal company,” Winona said. “I’m surprised you did, your dad a miner.”

“He died,” Carol said. “I was at Columbia and switched my major from English lit to mining management and joined the company.”

“And save your love for your dog?”

“I have a cat. That’s what I call her, Cat. ‘Hey, Cat, whatcha doin, huh?’ She never purrs.”

“I don’t blame her.”

Carol said, “What kind of moves worked best?”

“On Raylan? All of them. Being seductive wore me out.”

Carol said, “You’re after him again, aren’t you?”

“I’ll bet what you owe me,” Winona said, “you don’t get him in bed.”

Carol said, “What about in the limo?”

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Boyd straightened. He said to Raylan, “I believe with hope in my heart you’re gonna arrest that Mayfield hick. You’re standing there, you heard him threaten me. Tell me you are so I can go sit down.”

“He didn’t threaten you,” Raylan said, “he called you a liar.” He turned to Ava saying, “Ms. Crowder,” with that hint of a grin he put on, “you’re a double-dip ice-cream cone in that yella dress.”

Ava said, “Raylan, I’d let you have a lick, but I’m with Boyd. We’re seein how it goes right now before our relationship becomes serious. If you know what I mean.”

“Well, you’ve had a taste of Crowders,” Raylan said. “Married Bowman and had to shoot him. I’m not criticizing you. You believed he had it coming.”

Ava said, “Thank you.”

Boyd said, “Hey, leave us alone, all right?”

“I’ll tell you,” Raylan said, “I’m lookin at ways to bring you up for shootin Otis, Carol telling you to do it. Bring her into it, you might get your plea down to second degree. Only have to do twenty years.”

Ava took Boyd by the arm saying, “I don’t want to hear this.”

“He’s lyin,” Boyd said, “accusing me of a premeditated act, so he can get at you when I’m gone. Force himself on you.”

Ava seemed to hesitate, losing a step, dragging Boyd toward the door now. She turned her head past his shoulder to look back at Raylan.

The morning of the day of the meeting, God told Pervis he ought to use Dewey Crowe as honey to attract the insects.

Pervis had sat almost bolt upright in bed. God’s message was in his head, so he knew who the bugs were: Casper Mott and others who wanted his mountain, Big Black. He phoned Rita, Rita having everybody’s number.

She said, “It’s tomorrow I’m coming, not today.”

“I know,” Pervis said, “I want to make sure I’m home from Cumberland and hear you come in the door sayin, ‘I’m ho-ome.’ I get that tug in my groin. What I’d like you to do, locate Dewey Crowe and let me know where het mep coar ys at.”

Rita said, “What is it you need fucked up?”

See how smart she was?

Rita was back in a minute. “He left word he’s in Harlan. Will be at the Dairy Queen from noon on, takin orders.”

“Oh yeah, he’s sellin whiskey.”

N oon on the dot Pervis called Dewey’s cell. Dewey, no life in his voice, said, “Yeah?”

Pervis said, “That’s how you answer a phone?”

There was a pause. Dewey came back on showing life.

“Is this Uncle Pervis I’m speakin to?”

“You recognize my voice.”

“Yes sir, and pleased to hear it.”

“You goin to Cumberland tomorrow for the meeting?”

“What meeting’s that?”

Pervis said to the nitwit, “The one at the high school. Am I gonna see you there?”

“Yes sir, I was thinkin of goin.”

“Boy, what’re you doin in Harlan?”

“Sellin hooch I get in Cumberland and mark up.”

“You doin all right?”

“I clear least two bucks a fifth.”

The boy needed help, bad.

Pervis said, “Since I lost my two sons, you’re the only Crowe left to carry on what I consider my life’s chore. You understand what that is?”

“Is that true? I’m your only kin?”

“I’m not leavin you my business,” Pervis said. “I’m referrin to my property, Big Black Mountain.”

There was a silence. ce.”

“Sir, you telling me you own Big Black?”

Pervis believed everybody in East Kentucky knew it but this moron. Pervis said, “I do, and when I’m gone the mountain’ll be entrusted to you.”