'Glad I declined;' I said.
'After you called,' Dark said, 'I checked on you in Boston. Got booted around a little. Ended up talking to a state guy named Healy.'
'One of my biggest fans,' I said.
Dark made a wobbling metz metz gesture with his right hand.
'What do you think about Potshot?' he said.
'A mess,' I said. 'What do you think of the police chief down there?'
'Walker? Odd duck. I don't know how good he is but he's better than anyone else. The last two quit and left the area.'
'Always been a small force?'
'No,' Dark said. 'For awhile they had an actual police force. Then one of them got killed. And most of the rest sort of dropped out and went away, one at a time.'
'Who killed him?'
'Probably the Dell, but we have no evidence.'
'Why don't you roust them out of there anyway?' I said.
Dark grinned.
'I'm just a homicide cop,' he said. 'That's SWAT team stuff.'
'And why doesn't the SWAT team do it?'
'Got no legal basis for it for one thing,' he said. 'Far as we can prove, nobody in the Dell has committed an indictable offense. And, just to complicate things, The Preacher claims that the Dell is a religious organization and any effort to control them is an abridgement of their religious freedom.'
'And no one wants to get into another Waco situation,' I said.
'You bet,' Dark said.
'So you think Walker is in the bag?' I said.
'With the Dell? He's survived in a job that no one seems able to keep.'
'You feel the others were run off by the Dell?'
'That's what I figure,' Dark said.
'And you can't prove it?'
'Nope. Even talked to one of the previous police chiefs, fella named Mizell. He wasn't talking about anything. But he seemed to be living comfortable.'
'You think they bribed him?'
'I had to guess,' Dark said, 'I think they did both. They told him if he stuck around they'd kill him, so he left. But to keep him quiet, they gave him a separation bonus.'
'But Walker has stayed,' I said.
'Yep. He's either tougher than a rabid skunk,' Dark said. 'Or…'
'Or they like him just the way he is,' I said. 'Maybe they figured they couldn't keep running these guys off without one of them deciding to testify. They're paying them off anyway, so they got a guy they didn't need to run off, and paid him to stay and keep his mouth shut,' Dark said.
'Or maybe he's just stubborn,' I said.
'I'd be more likely to believe that if he was dead.'
'Cynical,' I said.
'Probably. You alone?'
'No, I have a few friends with me,' I said.
'According to Healy you can't help yourself. You'll annoy The Preacher enough so sooner or later he'll take a run at you.'
'Guys just like to have fun,' I said.
'Well if they kill you, try and get them to leave clues around,' Dark said. 'I'd love to bust everybody down there.'
Chapter 38
IT WAS TIME to confer with our employers, and, since we were hoping to keep our profile low, we invited them to our place.
It was a still, hot morning. In the scrub above our house some kind of desert bird was making a raspy sound appropriate to the desert.
Lou Buckman was the first to arrive. She pulled up in front of our house in a stripped-down yellow jeep with no top and no doors. She got out of the jeep wearing a big hat and riding clothes. A single blond braid showed below the hat, and her makeup worked beautifully with her face. Her eyes were very big and the color of morning glories. We were arrayed in a friendly manner, on the front porch, and if she found us daunting, she didn't show it.
