flags from the losing side in the Civil War, and entered an office.
Judge Kendrick was sitting behind the receptionist’s desk, his carved cane lying in front of him. One gnarled fist was wrapped around a paper cup. The men in the room-there were four or five-averaged fifty pounds apiece overweight. The air was heavy with cigar smoke and male companionship.
They all looked at Shayne as though they considered him a threat to their standard of living and their way of life.
“This here’s Mike Shayne,” the deputy said unnecessarily. “All the way from Miami.”
Kendrick broke the silence that followed by coming to his feet and stretching out a hand. “Yes, I met Shayne this morning at the capitol. I didn’t expect to see you again so soon, but it’s a pleasure and an honor. Let me introduce you around.”
The man who had guided Shayne in from the helicopter was, in fact, a deputy sheriff, named Grady Turner. Next Shayne shook hands with the sheriff. He had the same look around the chops and the same overflowing belly, but he had had a decade longer to ripen. Of the others, one was called “Commissioner,” another “Doc.” They all had chilling smiles and firm handshakes. They looked Shayne in the eye when they shook hands, obviously sincere about hoping he would prove to be a friend so they wouldn’t be called upon to stomp him.
“You boys are going to have to excuse us,” Kendrick told the gathering. “Can’t keep a helicopter waiting.”
He insisted that Shayne precede him, and Grady Turner closed the door behind them. They were in the judge’s own office, a comfortable room furnished with guns and law books, with a large inscribed color photograph of the most recent Democratic president.
The judge stumped to a file and took out a quart mason-jar filled with colorless liquid. There was a burst of hearty male laughter from the outer office, causing a shadow of annoyance to cross his face.
“Let you have a taste of something special,” he said. “Jackson County’s finest export product. Some little old boys made it in the brush up along the Alabama line, but they never applied for a United States revenue permit so you know we had to confiscate it.”
He broke out two paper cups and filled them both, handing one to Shayne. Sitting down behind his big desk, he motioned Shayne to a leather chair facing him.
“Only thing wrong with it, you better drink it fast. Or the wax on the inside of the cup is going to melt on you.”
Shayne emptied his cup in one long swallow.
“It’s smooth,” he agreed. “I don’t want to keep you up any longer than I have to, so-”
“Let me break in briefly. You said you have something for me to hear, and I’ll gladly listen. First let me say a word about your presentation before the committee this morning. Life would be easier if all our witnesses were as succinct. You’re a persuasive arguer. In point of fact, you came close to convincing me.”
“You must have a pretty good idea what I have in my pocket.”
Kendrick lighted a cigar with a kitchen match. “Some proof of lobbying activities on the part of proponents of the bill, I expect. I’m not still wet behind the ears. I’ve spent many a long year ambulating around the corridors of the capitol, observing the interaction of politics and human nature. If this bill passes tomorrow, certain citizens of Dade County stand to benefit enormously, and they can be expected to bend every effort to assure a favorable outcome. Being the kind of people they are, their methods of advocacy may not be gentlemanly or even entirely legal. This is one of the innumerable factors we are obliged to consider. To quote from your testimony, ‘You have to remember these people are crooks.’ Words to that effect. Should we permit such people to solve the state’s financial problems? That is part of the quandary. Did you read the statement I put out yesterday?”
“I’ve been told about it.”
“I tried to pose the questions objectively, without the emotionalism that always seems to force its way in when legalized gambling is mentioned. The tourist interests are for this bill. My own views on the subject of skinning the hapless tourist happen to be somewhat reactionary, but each year tourism contributes more and more, percentage-wise, to Florida’s economic well-being. The old ways are passing. Our state employees want to be paid more money. Welfare costs are rising. Roads, mental hospitals. Do you realize the state budget has tripled in two years? Has
His cigar was drawing well. He rotated it carefully.
“But you know all the arguments, pro and con, as well as I do, if not better. I almost succeeded in convincing myself that with care and watchfulness we could quarantine ourselves against what would be happening across the Dade County line. And then you came along, with your ‘you have to remember these people are crooks.’ Well.”
“What’s this leading up to? Have you decided to switch back?”
Kendrick permitted himself a tight smile. “Read my statement. Those words were chosen carefully. They meant no more and no less than they said. I came back to Jackson County tonight to take the advice and counsel of some old friends. Up here at the end of the world we look at things differently than you do in the cities.”
“And what’s the consensus?”
Kendrick drew on his cigar carefully. “The consensus hasn’t yet formed. They see the dilemma as well as I do. They’ll be hit by the new taxes. However, this is a godfearing community on the whole, and looked at purely as a political matter, as a question of votes-”
Shayne cut in. “Listen to the tape first. It won’t give me as much satisfaction if you’ve already changed your mind.” He took out a flat tape recorder and set it on the desk beside the jar of whiskey. “I also think you had another reason for coming up here tonight-so you’d have a few witnesses to your whereabouts if you have to dump your son.”
Kendrick’s expression solidified. “Explain that, please.”
“In a moment. I did a lot of chasing around to get my hands on this, and I want to get the right effect. You may not know a lady named Lib Patrick. I took a little Japanese recorder off her about an hour ago. She had it inside her bra-this is hazardous duty. It was about as big as a small pencil. Transistorized, powered by nine-volt batteries, voice-actuated, with three reels of tape. A beauty. I didn’t want anything to happen to it, so I tied it into another recorder and retaped it. I think I can find the part you’ll be interested in.”
Setting the controls in playback position, he pressed the fast-wind button. The recorder produced a gabble of animal noises. When he slowed it down, Grover Kendrick was speaking.
GROVER’S VOICE: — on the vote.
LIB’S VOICE: Never mind. So long as he definitely took the forty thousand.
GROVER:
LIB: That’s a weight off my mind. At just about the last possible minute! And we had to plan around him. I don’t like to think about the next time I wash my hair. I know I’ve turned gray in the last week.
GROVER: Then you’ll be even more gorgeous than you are now. This has been a classy operation. No matter what happens-
LIB: It’s going to work. We can’t lose.
GROVER: That’s right, sweetheart, and what do we want to do to celebrate?
LIB: Not yet. Don’t say things like that, I’m superstitious. I have to ask about a couple of other people. Matt McGranahan is being very cagey, for some reason. How high do you think we have to go?
GROVER: How much has he had from you so far?
LIB: Ten.
GROVER: That’s enough, for God’s sake. He only has his one vote. As far as his influence goes, it’s zero.
LIB (
GROVER: If you don’t mind a suggestion, what you need with McGranahan is leverage. He’s a married man. I thought that was why some of these girls-
LIB
