believed went by the name of Wayne. He looked hungover.
“They’s another car,” Pervis said, “pullin in behind the company truck.”
Rita came from the kitchen smoothing her white shirttails over her shorts, saying, “How many’s that woman need?”
Pervis waited till he saw a sight for sore eyes step out of the Audi and said, “It’s Raylan, bless his heart.”
Rita said, “Yeah…?” Watching Raylan with keen eyes and heard Pervis say:
“And Dewey. What in the world he bring Dewey for?”
D ewey hurried to catch up to Raylan while counting the people in the yard, Raylan turning to him.
“You gonna go up there and say anything?”
“Ask Pervis where my Hornet’s at.”
“I mean about the mountain.”
“I told you last night she guessed I’m gonna own it, and I let her think it. She makes a deal with the old man before he passes? I get a stretch limousine goes one-fifty full out. I figure ought to sixty-that’s a load to get off from standin still-but she’ll do it’n less’n ten seconds.”
Raylan was looking at the two thugs waiting for him, Carol and Boyd closer to the porch where Pervis stood calm as could be, his girl Rita right there close by.
Dewey said, “The company woman ever wants to offer a deal at a future date, I’ll get some tips from Casper, smartest man I ever met.”
Raylan said, “It’s four to four I count you on my side.”
“Me and you,” Dewey said, “Pervis and his colored girl?”
“That’s our team,” Raylan said. “You don’t have to say nothing you don’t feel like it, all right?”
“You come due to own a mountain,” Dewey said, “they’s all kind of people askiof — usng about it.”
He hung back now watching Raylan approach the two company thugs in the yard.
K id,” Raylan said to the middle-aged guy, “tell me what you’re doing here.”
“Mine company business,” Billy the Kid said. “It sure ain’t none of yours.”
Raylan said, “You come armed?”
“One I’m licensed to pack. So’s Wayne here.”
Carol called to Raylan, “Leave them alone. They’re my security people.”
Raylan said, “You afraid of Pervis?”
She didn’t bother to answer. Raylan watched her turn and walk toward the house, Boyd still facing Raylan until she stopped and looked back at him.
“You coming?”
The company thugs turned and followed Boyd.
Pervis stood on the porch waiting, Rita close by, hands on her hips, slim brown legs coming out of her shirttails.
Carol, turning to Pervis said, “You going to invite me in?”
“What for?” Pervis said.
“Talk about mineral rights.”
“I’m not sellin none today.”
Billy the Kid was facing Raylan again. The Kid turned his head to say something to his partner and now Wayne, wearing dark sunglasses, was looking this way like he’d just now woke up. The Kid seemed alert but anxious, loosening the hat on his head, an old businessman’s Stetson, and setting the curled brim over his eye again.
Pervis said, “You want to talk business-” and stopped, the company woman looking at Raylan. Pervis said, “Miss, I’m talkin to you,” and waited for Carol to look up at him.
He said, “You come to talk about buyin my mountain, tell me why you bring these thugs along?”
Carol said in her nice tone of voice, “Mr. Crowe, I represent M-T Mining. I come to Harlan, I know full well I’m not gonna win any popularity contest.”
“You sure aren’t,” Pervis said, “puttin on that West Virginia voice. Case we forgot your dad mined.”
The Kid said, “Grampa sees how it is. Talks hard to us, huh, in front of his nigger puss.”
Raylan saw Rita’s hands ease down to her thighs.
He said, “Pervis, why don’t you and Rita step in the house while we finish up here.”
He said to Carol, “Pervis is thinking how you did business with Otis Culpepper and what Otis got out of the deal.”
“They musta got Otis drunk,” Pervis said, “and shot him he’s got his eyes closed. That’s what I think of this company girl’s story.” He said to her, “Honey, you want to talk bout a mountain I’m leavin to my kin? He swears he’ll honor my wishes and never sell it.”
He looked out at Dewey standing across the yard, not close to anybody, and waved to him.
“Come on up here, boy. Show this girl we standin together on this.”
Raylan said, “Go on up there,” getting Dewey out of the way. Watched him edge around the gun thugs heading for the porch. Watched Dewey step up there as Pervis put his arm around his shoulders.
“Tell this little girl,” Pervis said, “a time comes I ever pass, you ain’t sellin. Remember what I said about my gravestone?”
Dewey standing small under Pervis’s arm, people in the yard watching him, said, “You want it up on top of Big Black.”
“Laid to rest in the trees,” Pervis said.
“Yes sir, you don’t want no trees cut down.”
“You don’t either,” Pervis said, “or any coal taken out of your mountain.”
Raylan watched Dewey hesitate, a look of pain on his face. He said, “No matter how much they offer me.”
“Mr. Crowe,” Carol said, “if I thought for a moment Dewey was your heir, I wouldn’t be here to make you an offer, would I?”
“Since I’m never gonna sell it,” Pervis said, “I believe you’re thinkin of puttin a gun to my head and have me sign a deed over to you. Then have the Kid shoot me and make up a story how it happened.”
Raylan saw the Kid adjust his hat again as if he was taking a bow, the Kid acting like he was in a movie.
They were getting to it now.
Raylan said to Boyd, “You have a gun stuck in your pants? I like to know who’s in this and who’s watchin.”
It was the Kid, not Boyd said to Raylan, “You got one way to find out,” sliding his hand down to his belt.
What Raylan did, he pulled his Glock, raised it and shot the hat off the Kid’s head, saw him look stunned, dropping a chromed-up revolver in the dirt, his hand going to the top of his head, then looking at his palm to see if there was blood, Raylan doubting he saw no more than a speck, his hair parted clean. Wayne, at this time, was working to get a gun cleared of his coat, finally drawing another chromed-up piece as Rita stepped off the porch pulling the old man’s. 38 from under her shirttails and swiped the barrel across Wayne’s skull. Wayne stumbled, dropped his piece and stood in the yard looking bewildered. What Rita did next was put the. 38 on Carol saying to Raylan, “You want, I can shoot her.”
“Hey, come on,” Carol said. “I came here to talk business and Raylan pulls a gun.”
“On your two thugs,” Rita said. “I could shoot you and put a gun in your cold hand.”
“We’re done,” Raylan said, looking at Boyd again. He hadn’t moved. “You thinking about the time I shot you and you rose from the dead? It only happens once in your life.” He turned to Carol again and she said:
“Were you actually aiming at his hat?”
“I hit it, didn’t I?”
Raylan looked at the two gun thugs, both sitting on the ground now, wobbly.
“You gonna take these two with you?”
“They’re fired,” Carol said, and took a moment before saying, “you know I grew up in coal camps-”
“You keep reminding us.”
“To make the point,” Carol said, “I know hill people are a different breed, strange to outsiders. But you’ve
