Джон Макдональд - A Flash of Green

After lunch he went to see Sheriff Wade Illigan at his courthouse office. Wade had the mild pink face of a fat man, and a stringy, durable body. After he was seated, Wade got up and shut the door and went back to his desk.

“I was expecting to be picked up by the city police,” Jimmy said.

“Well, I heard about that, and the way I understand it, Jim, they decided against it. Borklund was for it, but Ben Killian was against it. They’ll explain just how you worked it in tomorrow’s paper, and publish it along with Elmo’s statement calling it a pack of lies.”

“Wade, we’ve known each other a long time.”

“Don’t expect much trade out of that, Jim. I’m an elected official.”

“Elmo knows how badly I’ve hurt him. Maybe nobody else realizes yet except Elmo, and me. Wade, what happens to people who hurt Elmo?”

“He doesn’t do anything without a purpose in it.”

“How about Pete Nambo? Pete is nice and tame now.”

“Maybe Elmo used to be rougher than he is now.”

“Do you believe that?”

“Not especially. What are you getting at, anyhow?”

“I might not be worth taming.”

“If there’s any laws violated in Palm County, outside the incorporated areas, I intend to do my duty.”

“Wade, damn it, I want to know what could happen!”

Illigan leaned back in his chair, and his face was still a fat man’s face, but no longer mild. “There’s a lot of people, some of them kin to Elmo, some not, thinking he’s the second coming of Jesus. He’s put a lot of meat in their mouth. They could just get the idea you’d done Elmo a hurt and he might like something done. But they wouldn’t let it point back to Elmo. It would have to be one of two things, Jim. You’d have to have some kind of innocent accident. Or else one day you’d just be packed up and gone, which would seem likely.”

“So, in either case, how close would you check it?”

“What are you trying to ask me? I’m an elected county official. I got half the budget I need. You know that. When, like they say, an aroused populace is on my tail, demanding justice, I have a hell of a lot of work to do. But with you, Jim, it’s like this. Who is going to get aroused? Just who? I grease the wheels that squeak loudest. If it looks like you left, who’s going to insist you get found? If you smoke in bed, who’s going to order an autopsy? The county coroner?”

“So... I’m out in the cold.”

“You knew that before you came in here.”

“I guess I did.”

Wade stood up, a sign that the talk was over. “I’m not saying anybody is going to even think of doing anything. I’m just saying you’re awful short on friends. You’ve got nobody here. A sister you’re not real close to. Who else? I were you, I’d leave. I surely would. You’ve wore this place out for yourself.”

“I’ll think about it, Sheriff.”

Illigan said, “Good luck, Jim.” He looked uneasy. “When I walk you out the door, I got to cuss you some and give you a little push. Don’t take it too personal.”

Jimmy Wing sat stiffly on the couch in Elmo’s office. Elmo paced slowly back and forth in front of the couch, his hands locked behind him. He sighed audibly.

“Look at it this way, Elmo,” Jimmy said. “This is the time you took too big a bite.”

Sandra Straplin sat on Elmo’s desk, swinging her beautiful legs, glowering at Jimmy. “The hell he did!” she said. “Everything was fine. Then you turned stinker. You betrayed him!”

Elmo turned toward her and said in a weary voice, “Now, you get on out of here, Sandra.”

She crossed to the door with an exaggerated swing of her sturdy hips and banged the door shut behind her.

Elmo looked toward the door. “She got all worked up. Dellie got all worked up. My oldest four kids got all upset to hell. The other two are too little to understand. I tell you, when a man has so many folks depending on him and looking up to him, he carries a heavy load. Anything happens, he feels like he was letting ever’ last one of them down. Sandra there was about the worst of all. You know you have a steady thing going with an office woman, and after a while she gets to take herself too damn serious.”

“Should I take her to Tampa and put her on an airplane?”

“Don’t you get smart-mouth with me, boy. I’ve got awful damn sick of you awful sudden. Here I am giving you the fairest offer in the world. You got a little upset and confused in your mind on account of your wife dying. You get up in the Municipal Auditorium tonight and confess you made it all up so as to help those bird lovers. You say you’re putting yourself under a doctor’s care. In return, I either get you back onto the paper, or I get you into the county somewheres at good pay.”

“For the last time, Elmo. No!”

Elmo stood and looked down at him and smiled in a sad way. “Boy, you are not only stubborn, you are right stupid.”

“So be it.”

“You could wind up tied to a tree, boy.”

“I could wind up a lot of ways.”

“Are you too dumb to be scared?”

“That must be it, Elmo.”

“The pity of it is you’re causing me no real hardship, you know? Two out of that five are going to use it as an excuse to back out of their promise to sell me the share they agreed. I can smell that already. But when the time comes, they’ll be brought around so fast it’ll put a cramp in their necks.”

“But what are you going to use the money for, Elmo?”

“I told you that once.”

“But it isn’t going to work now. You have to run against somebody, Elmo. And as soon as you start running, they’ll start talking about Palmland, and they’ll have names, dates, places and amounts. Your name will have a nice clinging little stink of corruption about it. You’ll never get the state backing in the party you’d have to have. Elmo, I’ve cut down on the size of the bites you’re going to take for the rest of your life.”

Elmo studied him somberly. “What got you hating me so much?”

“I don’t hate you at all. I think we both got trapped in a typical folk dance, Elmo. I think that every time — almost every time — a greedy little second-rater like you starts to get too big for his pants, some clown like me has to come along and cut him down. I don’t think you or I could have kept this from happening, one way or another. Without me coming along just now, I think your chance of making governor was about one in five thousand anyhow. Now it’s nothing in five thousand. I’ve drawn a line around you, Elmo. The border of Palm County. Get as big as you want to, but don’t cross the line.”

Elmo shook his head. “And the one I was most worried about was Leroy. Beats all, don’t it? Anyhow, you’re wrong. This will all die down. I just wait longer, that’s all.”

Jimmy stood up and moved a few steps toward the door and turned and looked curiously at Elmo. “Are you going to have me killed?”

“Killed! Lord God, fella, what kind of a man do you think I am? I’m a businessman who’s got into politics a little. I got a wife and six kids and another on the way. Why, if I went around having everybody killed that let me down in some little way, I’d be busy night and day. Christ, I got to tell Dellie this. She’ll laugh herself sick.”

“I’ll see you around, Elmo.”

“Well, I’ll say one thing to you. Don’t hurry back. You’ve give me just enough misery so I can get along just fine if I don’t see you again.”

Jimmy Wing arrived at the Municipal Auditorium at twenty of nine. The large parking area was almost completely filled. He parked at the farthest fringe of the lot.

“And now what?” Mitchie McClure said in a tone of bored impatience. “Christ, Jaimie, this evening is full of such dizzy excitement I don’t think I can bear it.” She was slumped in the seat beside him, the hem of her short white sheath hiked above her round solid brown knees.