Raylan_ A Novel - Elmore Leonard [46]
Pervis waited for Dewey to spot him and come pushing past people to get to his old uncle.
“You all dressed up,” Pervis said. “You feelin good?”
Dewey said, “Yes sir, I’m proud you’re trustin me with the mountain.”
“I’m entrustin you with it,” Pervis said. “That don’t mean I trust you.” Let the nitwit chew on that. “I have a heart condition,” Pervis said, “can kill me any time it wants. I’ve seen my will lawyer and put you in for the mountain. But you’re not gonna tell anybody about it, are you?”
Dewey said, “No sir, I’ll swear to it on a Bible.”
“Say this wop gangster has you. Gonna stick your hand in a fire less you tell him your secret.”
Dewey was shaking his head.
“No,” Pervis said, “what the wop says, he’s gonna cut your nuts off and feed ’em to the squirrels you don’t tell him.”
It seemed to give Dewey pause, till he squared his narrow shoulders in the borrowed suit and said, “Uncle, this here’s nobody’s business but mine.”
They sat in the crowd and listened to the first part of the meeting, Pervis with Dewey next to him, bored, squirming, Pervis directing his attention to Ms. Conlan softening her accent for the boobs sitting here listening. She gave Raylan the floor and he pulled the rug out from under her, Pervis thinking, Good for you, boy. But it wouldn’t hurt Ms. Conlan none. The way she’d see it was coal miners looking for a hero. She wasn’t solving disagreements, she was the coal company.
The first part ended and Dewey asked Pervis if he’d like a drink, he had some whiskey in his car.
Pervis said, “We’ll have one and then I’m goin home.”
“But you come in Casper’s limo,” Dewey said, “you don’t have a car with you.”
“You’re right,” Pervis said. “I’ll take yours and leave it at the Dairy Queen.”
Carol sat with Casper in his limo having a cigarette while the tree huggers, sworn enemies of mountaintop mining, presented their arguments to the crowd in the gym.
Casper said, “How you gonna give the company side you don’t hear what they’re talking about.”
“They’re saying shame on us for letting our mountains go bald,” Carol said. “Our beautiful countryside gone to hell. Twelve hundred miles of streams filled with debris. Waste dumped on their homes. I’ve heard it.”
“They gonna throw flooding at you,” Casper said. “Cut down the forest they’s nothin left to catch the rain, soak up the water. You know animals are coming down from those bare-ass mountaintops? Foxes, skunks, coyotes. Fella told me he has to put his garbage on the roof of his house, keep it out of reach of bears.”
Carol said, “Really, there are bears?”
“Blasting causes damage to homes in the area, cracks the foundation—you have a house close to a mining operation—she can depreciate on you ninety percent. This home bein all the man’s got.”
“Coal’s his life,” Carol said, “in his family for generations. I’ve already talked about more work. Give us the mountains and we’ll give you jobs.”
“You don’t have enough to offer. Man’s out of work, falls behind in his payments, the bank takes his house. You gonna get health questions too,” Casper said. “More kids gettin asthma, all the coal dust in the air.”
“But a lower incidence of black lung,” Carol said, “mining from the top?”
“I suppose,” Casper said. He watched Carol light another cigarette off the one she was smoking. “I know you want that parcel a thousand feet from Big Black’s summit.”
“I don’t see that coming up at the meeting.”
“Everybody knows you’re sneaking up on the mountain, the jewel in the crown, known to be fulla coal. I bet it’ll be a question thrown at you. Gonna talk to Pervis about it?”
“As long as I’m here.”
“Like it isn’t your only reason.”
“I’ll open his eyes to possibilities.”
“Open his fly,” Casper said, “he might make you a deal.”
She had told Raylan to wait by the car, outside. He asked how close he should stay to it. She looked at him—maybe she couldn’t think of anything good to say, so she didn’t. Carol got in the limo. After a while Casper came out, said hi