Nothing but Trouble_ A Kevin Kerney Novel - Michael Mcgarrity [48]
“No, you can’t,” Kerney said, looking at the four men who were busy setting posts. Two of them were the cowboys who had stopped at the accident scene on the highway. “Is this your permanent crew?” he asked.
“They’re day hands I hired on for the job,” Shaw said. “My two full-time wranglers, Kent and Buster, are busy gathering. We’re planning to bring the cattle up here nice and slow.”
Kerney nodded and asked if the slot canyon through the mountains was Granite Pass, and Shaw allowed that it was, noting that the smelter sat one valley over, due southwest of their location.
Ranch raised, Kerney knew better than to ask about the size of the spread, which was akin to asking how much money the Jordan family had in the bank. But he did ask Julia how close the ranch came to the Mexican border.
“About twenty miles,” Julia replied. She went on to explain that the high country on the ranch was mostly leased state and federal land, while the valley land was all deeded property.
Behind Julia, twenty feet away, the two cowboys Kerney had seen yesterday were eyeing him and talking to their companions.
When Shaw turned to check on his crew, the men quickly broke off their conversation and got back to the job of securing a crossrail to a post.
With Shaw and Julia at his side Kerney walked to the corral, inspected the work in progress, and praised the sturdy construction to Shaw.
“It should still be standing here long after I’m gone,” Shaw replied.
Kerney nodded in agreement as he admired the handiwork and made a mental note of each of the workers, whom Shaw introduced by first names only. The two cowboys Kerney had seen on the highway were Mike and Pruitt, and their coworkers were Ross and Santiago.
On the way back to the cabin Kerney commented to Julia about the panel van. “You don’t see many cowboys driving one of those.”
“That’s Walt’s,” she said. “When the weather’s good and the roads aren’t muddy, he uses it as his portable workshop. Carts just about anything he might need in it: wire, pipe, tools, spare parts.”
“I didn’t see it at the ranch headquarters,” Kerney said.
“He keeps it at the Harley homestead that Daddy bought about twelve years ago. Walt uses the old barn there for storage and repair work. It’s centrally located and a lot more convenient than having to run back and forth to ranch headquarters.”
“Has Shaw been here long?” Kerney asked.
“Almost twenty years,” Julia replied. “He’s like family.”
“Does he have one of his own?”
Julia laughed liltingly. “He’s a confirmed bachelor, although he has been known to flirt with the idea of marriage every now and then.”
“With you?” Kerney asked.
Girlishly, Julia bumped him with her hip. “I knew you were going to ask me that. Walt gave up on that notion a long, long time ago.”
Julia had resumed her flirting full bore, but it seemed so disingenuous Kerney decided not to take it personally. He quickened his pace, wondering what dynamics in the Jordan family could have caused such arrested development in the two offspring.
During the remainder of the afternoon the crew moved from location to location, and the planning went smoothly until Charlie Zwick announced that actually filming a fifty-mile cattle drive would put the movie way over budget.
Quite simply, the problem was logistics. Johnny Jordan, who had done the initial location scouting, had assured Zwick that transporting equipment and personnel to the various sites on the ranch would be easy. In fact, some of the locations were barely accessible by four-wheel-drive vehicles. Getting the necessary equipment to the sites would be a slow, time-consuming process, add several days to the shooting schedule, and cost thousands of dollars in overtime pay.
Zwick explained all this to Usher as the production crew stood on a ledge looking down into the narrow canyon that cut through mountains. It had taken them a half hour to traverse the rough jeep trail and reach the overlook.
Usher nodded as he stood enchanted by the view. Below him the canyon