Lost Man's River(260)
Daniels seemed flattered that the federal agencies were using a U.S. military “helio-copter” to come after him. “Joint federal secret big-ass operation! Goin to cost us poor ol’ taxpayers maybe a million dollars, and we ain’t even going to know one thing about it! Anyone questions it, them bureaucrats will paper ’em to death, spread the responsibility all over Washington, D.C. Bureaucrats can’t pour piss out of a boot without the instructions wrote onto the heel, but when it comes to coverin their butts, you just can’t beat ’em!”
Daniels had told his man at Parks to damn well finagle them enough time so that his depot could be cleared before the raid—either that or his official ass would fry along with theirs. “ ‘You fellers can’t prove nothin on me,’ he says. ‘You sure?’ I says. ‘We kept a fuckin ar-chive on you, Bud!’ So then he says, Well, that bein the case, he might screw up the paperwork a little, maybe delay the burnin permit for a day or two. ‘Good idea,’ I says. But he hung up on me, and I couldn’t get him back.”
Lighting a stogie, Speck let his news sink in. “When Parks hung up on me that way, I seen straight off that Dyer sold me out. Sold you out, too. He’s changed his plan some way. He was in Everglade the other night, so he could of made that court hearin at Homestead. Watson Dyer is a very efficient feller, he ain’t the kind to miss a hearin, so when he don’t bother to show up in court, that tells me he must of cut a deal. Dyer knows right now the injunction ain’t no good, he knows that Parks is gettin set to burn the house, but in Everglade he was still talking to Junior like he’s comin in with Parks to meet you, settle up the claim for the Watson family.”
“He told me that, too.”
“He ain’t comin in to meet you, Colonel. Know what he’s doin? He’s settin up Speck Daniels for this raid, under the cover of burnin down the house. Rob Watson, too. Crime fightin, y’know—look real good on his record. And when it’s all over, and the Major gets the credit for bustin up them criminal activities out in the Glades, nothing that low-down Daniels bunch might say won’t never hurt him.”
Daniels seemed honestly admiring, as if Dyer’s dealings throughout their acquaintance had been handled impeccably and with dispatch. “If I was him, I would not want me alive, knowin what I do. Dead would make a hell of a lot more sense, and Dyer is a very sensible type of feller. Plays his cards right, plays percentages, don’t go off half-cocked.” He nodded. “They’ll be lookin to catch Speck nappin on the Bend. But I aim to stay one jump ahead of ’em. Ol’ Man Speck will have flew the coop, as usual.”
“You think all that talk of preserving the house as some kind of pioneer monument was only to line the Watsons up behind the land claim?!”
“That plan didn’t work out. He made a deal. You really thought he cared about that house? He ain’t set foot in that old house since he left there half a century ago!”
“He was born there!”
“Colonel, they don’t make your kind no more! Wake up, boy! What we got here is a whole new kind of human bein! To a man like that, the house-where-he-was-born don’t mean no more than the crap that he took yesterday!” Speck shook his head. “It’s that forty acres of high ground he must be after. But all that time he was dickerin with the feds, he didn’t want to throw away no cards. He knew they was hot to burn the house cause it don’t fit in with their idea of a wilderness, and he knew he could hold ’em up for years with legal diddling. They knew that, too. Well, now he has stepped out of their way. They will burn the house but recognize the land claim.”
“This is all wrong! There’s nothing he can do with it! That’s Park land!”
“Well, I admit I ain’t got that part figured out. I will.”
Lucius stood up. “They can’t burn down the Watson house with Watson standing in the door.”
“I wouldn’t count on that if I was you. Old house all by itself, way to hell and gone out in the backcountry? Swoop in by helio-copter? They can get away with anything they want.”
“This is the U.S. Government, dammit! This isn’t some crime syndicate or something!”
“You don’t learn good, Colonel. Who’s goin to read ’em the Constitution way out here?”
Speck heaved back to his feet, a little creaky. “At our age, now, a man gets stiff all over,” he grumped, “ceptin the one part that might be some use.” He was set to leer, but met by Lucius’s bleak gaze, he did not bother. Slowly they returned toward the fire.