keep the gang slayings a secret for too long.
“A day or two,” I said, “maybe.”
“When Cherry McGee and Nose Graves were going at it, the press kept it buried,” he said. “AS far as
most folks know, the hoods that went down during that melee were robbers and thieves, part of the
body count that can be chalked up to your normal, everyday crime statistics.”
“Can?t you sneak some of this information to them?” I said. “Having the press on your side can help
sometimes.”
He leaned over the table toward me and said, “You don?t understand, Jake m?boy. They know it
already. It?s their option to underplay it. It?s the way things have always been done here.”
“As I recall, a sheriff is a very big man in this state,” I said.
“Nothing like Stoney. Big doesn?t even cover it. The way I hear it, he?s delivered the swing vote for
two governors, half a dozen senators, and this county helped give the state to Kennedy in 1960.”
“A lot of people owe him then,” I said.
“Yeah.”
“He could probably put Raines in the statehouse.”
“He could give him one helluva shove.”
“And the town blowing up around them could sink Raines, right?”
“Yeah, I suppose you could say that. But Raines is a heavy hitter. He might could slug his way out of
a scandal if it didn?t touch him directly.”
I leaned across the table and said very quietly, “You know as well as I do they can?t ignore this. It?s
going to blow up bigger than Mount Saint Helens.”
“Stoney?s point is well made,” said Dutch. “The sooner we stop it, the better.”
“For Raines?”
“For everybody.”
“Do you like Titan?” I asked bluntly.
“He?s a relic,” Dutch said. “And I love relics.”
14
THE COMMITTEE
Dutch looked as if he were getting ready to pack it in for the night, but there was still a question left
hanging in the air. He had avoided it. I didn?t want him to. I decided to back into it with a shocker.
“You think there?s any chance Harry Raines is behind this?” I asked, It worked. He looked up as if I
had thrown cold water in his face.
