A Flash of Green

Sixteen

The Palm County Commissioners met in Room 100 in the County Courthouse. It looked like a small auditorium in a country high school, a room which could double as a gymnasium or small ballroom. There were rows of folding chairs, enough to seat a hundred people. The seating area was separated from the dais area by a golden oak railing with a gate at the end of the center aisle. On the dais, raised about a foot above the floor level, was the long table at which the five commissioners sat, facing the audience. In front of the table, but down on the main floor level, was a smaller table with two chairs facing the commissioners. Behind the oak armchairs on which the commissioners sat were the United States flag and the flag of the State of Florida flanking a large detailed wall map of Palm County. The press table was to the left of the commissioners, and the staff table off to the right, where the secretaries, assistants and county attorney sat.

In front of the place where each commissioner would sit there was a table microphone. There was a sixth one on the small table facing them. The system reproduced voices in a harsh and metallic fashion, and was frequently afflicted by feedback, a thin screeing, yowling sound that always infuriated the commissioners.

When Jimmy Wing took his seat at the press table on Tuesday morning, the five commissioners were just filing in, followed by the staff. Wing was astonished to see Borklund at the press table. He looked into the audience and saw Colonel Jennings and Major Lipe sitting together and alone in a front row, their expressions stern and watchful. On the other side of the aisle was a group of about fifteen persons, most of them women, all wearing an expression of rigid indignation. Behind them were several young men, none of them familiar to Wing. They stood near a bulky object draped in white, which was leaning against the wall. They sat down as Gus Makelder, the commission chairman, called the meeting to order. The young men looked brisk, competent and attentive.

The atmosphere of the meeting was informal. As the minutes and committee reports were disposed of, the commissioners made small conversational asides to each other, laughed at small private jokes. Elmo Bliss was in the chair at the end of the table nearest the press table. He turned and nodded at Borklund, winked at Jimmy. Commissioner Stan Dayson and Commissioner Horace Lander were arguing with some heat about the bids on the concession at the public beach on Cable Key when Burt Lesser, Leroy Shannard, Bill Gormin and Martin Cable came through the side door into the spectator section, eased the door shut and tiptoed to the nearest vacant seats. Both Jennings and Lipe swiveled their heads around and watched the entire process.

“Any new business?” Makelder finally asked.

“Mr. Chairman!” a woman yelled in a piercing voice, jumping to her feet. “Mr. Chairman, I got something to bring up.” She came trotting down the aisle and through the gate and sat down at the small table. “I represent the Palmetto Circle Association. My name is Genevieve Harland.”

“Just speak into the microphone in a normal tone of voice, Mrs. Harland.”

“You put that wonderful storm sewer system in out at the circle, and it clogged up for that heavy rain we had last night, I mean night before last. All that water has tore out a big hunk of Palmetto Street. It come into four houses. And in the new houses out back of us, them septic tanks come a-floating right up out of the ground. Water is still standing around out there. I’ve been calling the County Health Officer, and the Road Supervisor and everybody I can think of and nobody has done one single thing, and we’re all sick and tired of the mess and the stink and having to come all the way around by Thompson Street to come into town. We want something done and we want it done fast!”

The commissioners muttered to each other. Makelder soothed her. He told her the storm had caused damage in other areas too. Crews were at work. He said Commissioner Bassette would follow her case up personally and inspect the area and see that the necessary work was done.

She thanked them in the same tone of voice she would have used to curse them, and stood up and marched out, followed by her entire group.

“Mr. Chairman,” Burt Lesser said. “My name is Burton Lesser. I am a realtor. I wish to petition the Board of County Commissioners, speaking as president of the Palmland Development Company.”

“Come down front, Burt,” Makelder said.

“Thank you, Gus. I have two of my associates with me, Mr. Gormin and Mr. Shannard. I’m sure you all know them. Mr. Shannard is secretary of the company, and Mr. Gormin is treasurer. I’ll ask Mr. Shannard to read and present the actual petition. In the meantime, I’d like your permission to set up a couple of exhibits.”

“You have it, Burt,” Makelder said.

Shannard read the petition and presented it to the board. As he read it, the brisk young men set up the exhibits. One was a greatly enlarged aerial photograph of Grassy Bay and the surrounding area. They mounted it over the county map behind the commissioners. There was a glassine overlay over the photograph, with the area to be filled marked in red grease pencil.

The second exhibit was considerably more impressive. It was a detailed table-top miniature of how the entire development would look after it was completed and all the houses had been built. There was a landscaped entrance, a serpentine wall, a tiny sign that read Palmland Isles. Bright cars speckled the blue curves of asphalt roads and made a herringbone pattern in the parking area of a shopping center facing Mangrove Road. Indigo canals wound through the filled land, with cruisers at miniature docks. The young men had set it up in an open area near the staff table, on low sawhorses.

“If you would gather around, gentlemen, you can see it better,” Burt Lesser said happily. “The news people too, if there’s no objection. This model was built by Costex Associates of Atlanta. All the engineering on the project has been done by them too. They were very excited by the possibilities here, and think this project will receive national attention and acclaim. Mr. Steve Kerr here, of Costex, was in charge.”

“Can Major Lipe and myself examine it?” Tom Jennings asked.

Makelder looked at the other commissioners and then at Burt. Burt nodded. “Come on right up, Colonel.”

There was general conversation around the display table. Horace Lander said, “Now Leroy, you know dang well there isn’t any zoning that far down Sandy Key to allow any shopping center.”

“Artistic license,” Shannard said, “plus a little plea for future dispensations.”

“Mr. Kerr,” Tom Jennings said sharply. “May I ask a question?”

“Yes sir.”

“This model seems to show a surprising amount of bay area surrounding the fill project. It seems to reach just a little more than half way to the mainland. According to the petition I heard read, Palmland wants the bulkhead line changed to include a little more than eight hundred acres of bay bottom. Is this model scaled to that request?”

“All the roads and canals in the project itself are to scale, sir.”

“Wasn’t my question clear? Is the project scaled to the area?”

“It’s to scale on the photo-map, sir, but not on the table model.”

Everyone turned and looked at the map the young men from Costex had put up. On that the red mushroom outlining the land requested filled the heart of the bay, reaching almost over to the channel markers along the mainland.

“We have some other things we would like to pass out to the commission and to the newspeople,” Burt Lesser said quickly. “I hope you will find them of interest. One is a study of what the project will mean to the area in actual dollars and cents, with a complete breakdown by types of retail and wholesale businesses. Bill, will you see that everyone gets copies, including the Colonel and the Major, of course. This second one shows the specifications as recommended by Costex. Roads, curbing, sea walls, elevations, sewage disposal system, street lighting, hydrants, drainage, underground conduits for power and phone. Please note, gentlemen, that in every single instance our specifications exceed county minimum standards for Class A Residential. What else do we have, Leroy? Oh, of course. This third study is an advertising and promotion plan, showing the dignified nature of the sales approach we will use. It shows the price range of the lots also. They will sell for a minimum of seven thousand up to a maximum of fifteen thousand five hundred.”

“How many lots, Burt?” Stan Dayson asked.

“Eight hundred.”

“If you average out at ten thousand, Burt, that would mean... eight million bucks.”

“Our expenses are going to be very heavy, Stan. They have to be, to make this a project the whole west coast will be proud of. If it was going to be anything less than perfect, I wouldn’t want anything to do with it. I might add that there has been a considerable investment in time, thought and money to bring the project up to this point of initial presentation. Beginning tomorrow this model of Palmland Isles will be on display in the Cable Bank and Trust Company, on the main floor. And right now I’d like to ask Mr. Martin Cable to say a few words to you about one aspect of this thing which may be bothering you.”

Chairman Makelder looked up from his examination of the model just in time to look directly into the automatic flash gun wielded by Stu Kennicott. Makelder scowled and said, “Boys, let’s all sit where we belong and listen to Mr. Cable.”

Martin sat at the small desk, arranged his notes and cleared his throat. “One of the matters which should legitimately concern any government body which must pass on any phase of approval of such a project is the question of financing. I am not here to make a firm commitment to you gentlemen or to Palmland Development. I can merely say this. All of Palmland’s plans and estimates have been examined by the loan committee of the Cable Bank and Trust Company. In the event — and let me stress this phrase — in the event all proper permissions are obtained by Palmland, and in the event there is no basic change in their plans of operation, the bank will be prepared to look favorably upon offering the financial assistance which will be needed to make this dream a reality. I... ah... speaking now as an individual, wish to add that my personal interest in this venture is attested to by my having made available to Palmland the necessary access land through approving an option, acting in my office as executor of my mother’s estate. That land is the portion on the map behind you cross-hatched in green. Thank you.”

“Thank you, Martin,” Gus Makelder said. “Any comment?”

“I just happen to have a little something to say,” Elmo drawled. “I just want to say I’m getting right confused here. Leroy certainly must know the public law on this thing. I’m not saying it’s a good project or a bad project. But I do know we’re sitting here, the five of us, getting buttered like breakfast hot cakes. Steve Merry, you being the county attorney, maybe you can straighten me out. We can’t vote on a damn thing, can we? This Palmland is supposed to present a petition and then we set a date for a public hearing. Isn’t the proper place for all this butter job the public hearing instead of now?”

Steve Merry adjusted his glasses and said, “Commissioner Bliss, I think these gentlemen were just explaining to the commission as a courtesy what they’re planning...”

“Steve, boy, I don’t want you telling me what you think they’re trying to do. I’ve got me a pretty good idea of what they’re trying to do. I want to know the law.”

“Properly, I suppose, this presentation should be made at the public hearing.”

“Where the folks on the other side of this question have a chance to make their objections?”

“Yes sir.”

“So what they’re doing is trying to get us all on their side before the other side has a chance?”

“I... I guess it could be interpreted that way.”

“Thank you, Steve. Gus, it looks to me as if we should just accept the petition and set a date for the hearing. I see no reason why the minutes should make any mention of all this other entertainment Burt and Bill and Leroy have given us.”

“Do you so move?” Gus asked.

“I so move,” Elmo said.

“Second,” DeRose Bassette said.

“Moved and seconded we accept the Palmland Development Company petition and proceed to set a date for the public hearing.”

“Mr. Chairman,” Burt said, “before you set the date, I’d just like to say that our timing on this whole thing is running very very close and we would appreciate your setting it for as soon as possible.”

“How soon can we do it according to law, Steve?” Gus asked.

Steve Merry bit his lip for a moment. “Two weeks has to elapse from the time of publication in the paper until the hearing itself. I could probably get the legal notification to the paper sometime tomorrow afternoon. That would put it in the paper Wednesday morning, the twelfth. The public hearing could be set for Wednesday, the twenty-sixth.”

“That’s real nice for Palmland, but how about the opposition? Gus, would it be out of order to ask Colonel Tom Jennings how this strikes him?”

“Colonel?” Gus said.

“Speaking as the President of Save Our Bays, Incorporated, I would respectfully request the Commission to give us a month to prepare our case against this bay-fill project. We did not even hear about it until last week.”

“Move we set the date for the twenty-sixth of this month,” Horace Lander said. Bassette seconded him. Bassette, Lander and Dayson voted for it, Bliss against. Lander suggested that the availability of the Palm City Municipal Auditorium be checked. A secretary left the room to phone and came back and said it was available. The time was set for 8 P.M. The commission meeting was adjourned, and the young men shrouded their display table and tenderly carried it away.

J. J. Borklund walked into the corridor with Jimmy. He said, “All I want from you today is more glowing copy than I can possibly use on this thing. Puff it all the way, James. Fatten it with interviews. Pie is raining out of the sky. Hosanna!”

“Then tomorrow you want a really glowing account?”

“That’s the pattern, James. You anticipate me.”

“And they’ll come in for at least two hundred full pages the first year?”

“At the very least.”

As Borklund walked away Elmo came up to Jimmy and said, “See me in fifteen minutes in Lupen’s office.” Jimmy nodded and Elmo hurried up the hall to catch up with Gus Makelder.

Jimmy stopped at a drinking fountain. When he straightened up he saw Tom Jennings and Major Lipe approaching him.

“They seem to be traveling first class,” Jimmy said.

Jennings made a rueful grimace. “Rough. Very rough indeed. As a colleague of mine named Custer once said, where are all these Indians coming from?”

“I have a feeling there’ll be more.”

“And our recruiting is terribly discouraging,” Major Lipe said. “I’ve just been reporting to the colonel. It looks as if I’m not even going to be given a chance to talk to some of the groups I’m supposed to contact. And I haven’t found a single recreational club which will back us unanimously. You know, I can’t even line up a decent committee to help me? I don’t see how they could have done such a tremendous propaganda job without our hearing about it. Jackie tells me she’s having the same problem. And Wally is going out of his mind trying to find reputable people to write the commissioners. It isn’t anything like it was last time.”

“You heard we lost Dial Sinnat?” Jennings said.

“Kat told me.”

Jennings sighed and smiled. “We’ll still make a good presentation at the public hearing. And losing this battle does not mean losing the war. That’s our advantage, you see. They have to win every battle. All we have to do is win one. They won’t be able to endure delay. Their money structure will collapse. And, best of all, Jimmy, we’re right and they’re wrong.”

They walked toward the exit, erect and in step, chins up, arms swinging in unison.

When it was time, Jimmy got into the creaking elevator and rode up to the tower office of Calvin Lupen, the ancient man who held the job of courthouse custodian, and who had been on sick leave for almost a year. His office was a ten-by-ten cube with one narrow window. The scarred desk was thick with dust. One wall was papered with yellowing Playmates of the Month, many of them with anatomical oddities added with pen and pencil.

Elmo sat at Cal’s desk, his feet on the low windowsill. He was staring at the wall of nudes.

“One thing I never noticed before, Jimmy. All different shapes and sizes of girls, but every smile is alike. Look at them.”

Wing had closed the door. He blew dust off a chair and sat and looked at the girls. “I think you’re right.”

“How did I do down there? How did I sound?”

“Eminently fair, Mr. Commissioner.”

“I didn’t want to overdo it. That damn Gormin looked like he was going to crack up. Leroy is the only solid one in the group. And maybe Doc Aigan. Buck has got hisself so pussy-happy over that Prindergast piece, he’s no damn good to anybody. I wish to hell his wife would come home and bust up that romance. Burt Lesser phoned me at home last night and talked like a crazy man.”

“About Sinnat?”

“Hell, yes. The Halley woman chewed him out. Oh, you were there, weren’t you?”

“What did you tell Burt?”

“What could I tell him? I said that if he thought I was the kind of man who’d use underhand methods on Dial Sinnat, then in the interest of harmony, maybe he’d better let me buy a hundred percent of his interest after my term runs out on the commission. That slowed him way down. He’s scared of that mean-mouth wife of his. She’d never let him forget I edged him out of his only chance to make any real money. He likes being president. I said if some nut was going around scaring people, it wasn’t my fault or his. He finally apologized. But I haven’t given up the idea of squeezing him out, that is, if he keeps getting in my hair. Worked out just fine with Di Sinnat, didn’t it though?”

“What made it work so well, Elmo?”

Elmo looked at him too blandly. “Why, I guess he didn’t want his little girl’s name dragged in the mud.”

“Maybe he didn’t want his little girl dragged in the mud, personally. Maybe he didn’t want her whipped by a bunch of south county nuts.”

“What in the wide world are you talking about, Jimmy boy?”

“Di reacted pretty violently. I’m making a wild guess, Elmo. You got a heavy vote from those people.”

“Man, I can’t help who votes for me! Anyhow ol’ Darse Coombs is kin of mine, about a fourth or fifth cousin. His middle name is Harkness, and my pa’s great-aunt married a Harkness from Collier County. But I don’t know as that means much to Darse. He figures me for a sinner. Told me so. Roared right into my face, sprayed me like a faucet.”

“Elmo, I wouldn’t want any part of this if you pulled something like that.”

“Boy, I wouldn’t want any part of it myself. You actually think that little Sinnat girl is going to get her tail whipped?”

“Not now, no.”

“Then don’t get all agitated. Damn it, Jimmy, I got a word for you. You’re morose. You got the sour uglies most of the time. Look out there at that great big broad sunshiny world, crammed full of people having a time. It’s a big world full of beaches and girls and sport cars. Full of bowling alleys and golf courses and cold beer. The things you get so broody about, why, they don’t matter a damn to those folks. They want ball games, westerns, the next drink, the next steak, the next roll in the hay. They can get a little jumpy about being blowed up with atom bombs, but aside from that one thing, you can hardly attract their attention. We’ll just be another part of the entertainment business, Jimmy, after we really get rolling. You give those people a few laughs and a little excitement, and they’ll love you forever.”

“If you say so, Elmo.”

“Here’s this week’s bite, Jimmy. A pair of fifties.”

Wing took the money. “Plus twenty-one dollars expenses.”

“Plus what?”

“Twenty-one dollars I spent doing your work for you. If it’s a hundred a week, the least I can expect is to have it free and clear.”

Elmo shook his head, chuckled, took two tens and a one out of his wallet. “You know, you’re making more sense as you go along, boy. I hope you run this up on that Doris Rowell.”

Wing took the money, and told Bliss what he had learned. Elmo stared at him with a puzzled expression after he was through. “You mean there’s people take a thing like that serious, Jimmy?”

“Yes indeed.”

“Those eggheads that come down here when she yells for help, they’d stay away if they knew about this?”

“Very probably. Even if none of them had ever heard of the incident before. It works like this, Elmo. Industry will use people who have been tossed out of colleges. Industry is interested in ability and results. But other educational institutions don’t want anything to do with anybody who has been caught in unethical practices. It’s a sensitive area.”

“My, my,” Elmo said. “Think of that! I know how to handle a little case of where folks mess around in the ordinary ways, but what the hell do you do with a thing like this?”

“It doesn’t have to be complicated, Elmo. She doesn’t even have to know we’ve done anything about it. I can look up the list of the experts who testified last time and just mail them, with no comment and no return address, the copies of the news items, with ‘Doris’ and ‘Rowell’ underlined in red wherever those names appear.”

“You mean that would do it? They wouldn’t come down?”

“It would be very unlikely.”

“And she wouldn’t know what was wrong, would she?”

“She might guess, sooner or later, but she could never be sure who spread the word.”

Elmo closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “You go right ahead and do it that way, Jimmy. I think I like it. Tom Jennings will be leaning heavy on having those experts telling everybody how terrible it is to mess with breeding grounds and tide flow and so on. This way he may not find out until the very last minute they’re not coming. I want him to walk in there with the heart tooken right out of him, with nothing left on his side but nuts and bird-watchers opposing the march of progress and prosperity.”

“Tom told me a little while ago that you have to win every battle to win the marbles, and all he has to do is win one.”

“I know that just as well as he does. What I got to do is win the first battle so big there won’t be anybody left to fight on his side. I’ve got lots and lots of people working, and now that it’s out in the open, they can work harder. By the time of the hearing, boy, I want to have this county so worked up that if anybody should speak out against the fill in a public place, they get cracked right in the mouth by the first person who can get to him.”

“Who’s next on the priority list?”

“You gettin’ eager, Jimmy?”

“Not noticeably.”

“Come on around to the house tonight when you get finished up. There’ll be some folks milling around out there. You an me and Leroy can have a little chat. Don’t look so nervous, boy. You’re supposed to go where the news is.”

“The morning paper ought to please you, Elmo.”

“Ben Killian promised Leroy it would.” Elmo slumped slightly in his chair. “You run along now and close the door, boy. I’ve got some quiet thinking to do. I’ve got to catch up on my mess list.”

“On your what?”

“Whenever I get into anything, boy, whenever I take one of those bites I was telling you about, I like to take time off to just set and make myself up a list of every possible thing that could go wrong, every bad break I can imagine. And I decide just what I would do in each case. Then when things blow up in my face, it doesn’t take me by surprise. I know just what direction to move because I’ve got it planned.”

“Elmo, who phoned Sinnat?”

“Nobody he knew. Nobody you know. And they’ve got no way of knowing either you or me had anything to do with any part of it. One nice thing about this mess list is the way you get in the habit of doing things in such a way you cut way down the number of things which could go wrong. The only time to get brave is when you’ve got aces back to back.”

“Is that what you have now?”

“It’s more like queens backed, but the up card is the highest one on the table so far. If I was raised, I’d bump it again, because there is one hell of a lot in the pot. The opener was forty thousand.”

“From Mrs. Lesser?”

“Most of it.” Elmo smiled and closed his eyes. Jimmy went out and closed the door quietly. As the little elevator descended in the airless shaft, he decided he would work at home that day, and bring his copy in by late afternoon.