“I thought you’d left.”
“I may as well. I don’t see you doin anything about Otis.”
“Like what? I could do anything I would.”
“Sit her down in one of those rooms you got and shine a light on her. Get her to talk.”
“The sheriff’s people already have Ms. Conlan’s statement,” Raylan said. “Otis fired at her and Boyd shot him, saving her life.”
“You believe that?” lang='en-us' height='0em' width='1em' align='justify'›“I asked her myself. Otis fired a twelve-gauge at you from thirty feet and didn’t even hit the trailer? Ms. Conlan said, ‘He missed, didn’t he?’ and will swear to it. That’s where we are. I doubt her word, but there’s nothin I can do about it.”
“Otis fires his scattergun,” Hazen said, “he don’t miss. I’ll swear to that in court.”
“We ever get inside a courtroom you can say anything you want. But we aren’t near to gettin there,” Raylan said. “You try to settle this yourself, I’ll have to come get you. Understand? I know how you feel. We can both stew over this without it doing either of us any good.”
“My brother killed,” Hazen said, “ain’t something I can put out of my mind.”
“I understand,” Raylan said. “But getting Boyd’s my job, not yours.”
“You ever forget it,” Hazen said, “call me. I’ll come remind you.”
Another time they’d be good friends. Raylan offered his hand to Hazen, already walking away.
Carol came out of the car, Casper following. She said to Raylan, “That was Otis’s brother, wasn’t it? I thought he’d left. What’s he looking for, revenge? Boyd gets the chair or what’s his name will shoot him. Hazen?”
Casper said, “Or shoot the two of you, you were both there.”
She gave him a look.
Casper said, “The intended victims.”
“Why is everyone picking on me?” she said in a normal tone. “We go inside, I’ll do five minutes of warm-up, get some of the crowd on my side, and the bleeding hearts will take their shots. Why do I want to turn mountains into dunes? ‘Lifeless dunes,’ I was told one time. I’ve forgot their line. But what we do is lay waste to beauty, to grandeur, to God’s idea of a pretty nice place… that’s full of coal.”
Raylan listening, watched her light a cigarette.
Casper said, “You then put a curious look on your face.”
“It isn’t curious, it’s a look of curiosity. Wait a minute. Wasn’t it God put all that coal under the grandeur?”
“It stops them in their tracks,” Casper said.
“I say, ‘Heck, if God pueckWht it there…’ Or I might say, ‘Hell, is God tryin to hide it on us?’ I smile. ‘Playin a game on us?’ I tell them, ‘But gettin it out gives you men jobs and heats your homes,’ and I go through all the coal rewards.”
She turned to Raylan.
“I’m warmed up. How are you doing? Wait. ‘Har you doin, big boy?’ I start thinkin that way and it comes out of my background naturally.” She said to Raylan, “You don’t comment? My security, Marshal One-Liner?”
“I haven’t thought of anything,” Raylan said, “worth saying.”
“You just did it again. You make one-line declarations. You sort of mope around, so to speak, while your mind is flicking lines at you.”
Raylan said, “Wait’ll I tell Art.”
Carol said, “See?” She said, “When I finish my chore we’ll go back to the house-where you picked me up and told me how smart you are, but it didn’t work, did it?”
Raylan said, “When I take you back to Woodland Hills, my time’s up, isn’t it?”
Carol said, “I’ll let you decide.”
Chapter Twenty-one
She talked all the way back to Woodland Hills.
“The woman asks, ‘What’s the matter, don’t you like beauty?’ Like I’m color-blind, void of any appreciation of nature. I was tempted to go with the usual, the more heavy-handed. ‘You’d rather look at the view than your husband having a job?’ But I tried something else, agreeing with her. ‘Of course I’d rather have the view. I watch the work going on, your husbands operating those giant machines, and all I can wonder is, How long will it take us to restore that grandeur, home for all of our animal friends.’ I don’t know why I said that, it just came out. So I added, ‘And some like skunks who aren’t especially our friends.’ ”
In the limo going back to Carol’s place, Raylan said, “You could hold your nose as you’re saying it.”
“Isn’t that obvious?”
“Get a laugh,” Raylan said, “from the ones who don’t know you’re putting them on.”
Neither spoke again-Boyd watching then in the rearview-until they pulled up the drive to the Colonial and Carol said to Raylan, “Iem' aace want you to come in with me.”
Boyd wasn’t told anything. He sat there.
S he took him into a paneled study with pictures of horses and furniture covered in Black Watch plaid, the room done, Raylan believed, by someone other than Casper. He said, “Casper loans out his house to the company, doesn’t worry about guests looting the place? Ones he doesn’t even know?”
“You think I’m a looter?” Carol said.
She was at the tea table bar pouring, Raylan believed, cognac. He wasn’t sure until she handed him a wineglass half full and he raised it to his face, Raylan thinking, Don’t clink glasses with me.
She did and he clinked hers back.
She said, “Snifters require care. These glasses are easier, quicker too, and I’m dying of thirst.”
It was dark in the house, lamps on, and almost dark outside.
Raylan told himself she was taking a moment with the sip of cognac to become a different Carol, someone he hadn’t met before. He had watched her all day going from down-home to mine company executive with the facts. Now she looked up at him and said:
“Tomorrow Boyd and I are driving up to Piney Run to see Pervis. He’s staying there while, as he puts it, he shakes off the deaths of his boys. I have to admire Pervis. He makes his bullshit sound nearly as authentic as mine. I do my West By-God Virginia accent and they believe me.”
“You want to know,” Raylan said, “did Pervis will Black Mountain to Dewey or not.”
“He wouldn’t,” Carol said. “I might make Pervis an offer, or, it might not be the right time.”
Raylan was thinking of Carol offering Otis Culpepper a settlement for his property. And Boyd shooting him.
She came close to Raylan, moving in on him, saying, “You’ve seen me at work playing different roles. It’s exhausting. Well, finally it’s done and I get to be myself.”
Looking at him over her glass.
Raylan believed if he took her glass and set it on the bar with his, he could put his arms around her, give Carol a soulful kiss, and he’d get laid.
Man, she was right there waiting.
It turned out he didn’t have to take their glasses and set them aside. She did, and turned to him, he believed, not having a lot of time; wanting him to get to it. He wondered if she’d be serious and do a lot of gasping or grin, having fun?
He wondered why she was so sure he’d want to jump her.
Picks some guy to be her security and says, “Him.”
Because she read about him and Layla. Carol wondering what Layla saw in him.
He didn’t care for what he was doing here.
Raylan said, “Carol, I’m sorry but my time’s up,” and offered his hand.
She said, “You’re turning me down?” Surprised but not showing it much. But then she said it, “I’m surprised.”
Raylan said, “You aren’t the only one.” He gave Carol a kiss on the cheek and got out of there.
