Sara grimaced. “I ought to ban them for good.”
“Is this your place?”
“Yep,” she said. She absentmindedly twisted the rings on her left ring finger. “Ever since Stan died.”
“How long ago?”
“Nearly two years now,” she said. “He was a good man. We worked hard. But lately the whole town’s been going to hell.”
“Why? It sounds like there’s lots of work up at the toy factory. My boss and I were up at the offices this morning.” I watched Sara and the old man closely. Neither reacted to that last statement at all. Neither said,
She shrugged.
“We’re a timber town,” the victim at the end of the bar said. “We’re not a toy town.”
“How do you mean?”
“A job isn’t just a job,” he said. His voice was thick and his words slow. Sara stayed close to him, listening just as closely as I was.
“A job is an identity,” the man continued. “You don’t put down a chainsaw and then pick up a sewing machine. Making doll clothes isn’t the same as clearing trees. If you switch from one job to the other, you turn into a different person.” He stumbled over that last word, but he was at least making sense.
“Why don’t you guys cut timber anymore?”
“Lots of reasons,” the man said. “The main one is that we’ve cut pretty extensively on our land already. There just aren’t that many trees out there worth harvesting anymore, where we can get them.”
“And there’s the environmentalists,” Sara put in.
“That’s right. Charlie Junior knew what to do about them. So did his father. But the latest Hammer doesn’t care about any of that.”
“To be fair,” Sara put in, “Junior had let the whole thing slide the last ten years or so.”
“It was his health, I think. When times got tough, he had breakdowns-“
“More like seizures,” Sara said.
“Yeah, seizures. He worked like crazy to get through tough times, and he paid the price. But for the last ten years or so, he had the tough times without the working like crazy.”
“Not that you can blame the man. He would fall on the ground and thrash like a flounder in a boat.”
“Really,” I said, just to contribute something.
“Yes,” the man said. “Charlie Three seems to have inherited the family condition.”
“And he’s a helluva success, too,” Sara said.
“I’ll give him that,” the man said. “Now, Cabot has a clean bill of health. No seizures, near as anyone can see, but he did get the family timber business, and it’s sinking fast.” The old guy slid off his stool and moved closer to me. “My name’s Bill Terril. What’s yours?”
“Ray Lilly,” I said. We shook hands.
“Lilly, huh? That’s kind of a girly name.”
“Sure is,” I said. “I’m the delicate type.”
Bill chuckled as he looked me over. “I’ll bet.”
“So, this Charlie Three,” I said, “he live in town?”
Sara and Bill were instantly suspicious. “Why do you ask?” Sara said.
“Whoa. It was just a question.”
“We’re pretty protective of our own around here,” Sara said. “Especially of the Hammers. We look out for them. I don’t know a body in this town who wouldn’t. So, again: Why do you ask?”
I shrugged. “I dunno. Rich guy, little town. It sounds like he could live wherever.”
“Nope,” Bill said. “The Hammers created this town, and they stick by it.”
I wondered how deep and widespread the support for the Hammer family extended. If Charles Hammer’s memory wasn’t wiped after this morning’s fight-and I’d have bet it wouldn’t be-he’d have gone into hiding. He might be tough to find without local help. I needed a way to drive a wedge between our target and the town.
Amazing, really, how quickly I’d gone over to Annalise’s side.
“Huh.” I didn’t know what else to say. “So who’s Cabot? Another one of the Hammers?” I asked.
“He…” Bill paused. He thought about how he wanted to answer.
Sara chimed in. “He’s Charlie Junior’s little brother. See, this town was founded by their grandfather, also named Cabot. He came out here with a crew of men and started cutting trees. He decided that the little Chimilchuk Inlet ought to be larger. He dredged it, widened it, and called it Hammer Bay.
“He had a lot of people rushing here to find work. Built the town right up. He ran a tight ship. He owned the newspaper, the grocery, the speakeasies, all of it. If he could have paid everyone in company scrip, he would have.”
