Raylan

Chapter Twenty

Raylan walked up to him saying, “Dewey, I saw you in there during the meeting, but couldn’t make up my mind what side you’re on.” He didn’t appear to know what Raylan meant-for the mine company or against it-so Raylan said, “I saw you hangin out with Pervis, the old man treating you kindly, putting his hand on your shoulder?”

“Pervis says I’m like his son,” Dewey said.

“Which one, Dickie or Coover?”

“Neither. He said I’m like a son he never had.”

“You seemed close, Pervis smiling, and he isn’t known to smile much.”

“He’s got a kin now,” Dewey said, “to look out for his property when he’s gone.”

Raylan said, “Who’s the kin?”

“Me,” Dewey said. Got his voice normal again and said, “I’m his heir when he passes. Me and some colored girl he uses for his wants but no kin to him. I’m his only relation he knows of.”

“Both of you Crowes,” Raylan said, but at some distance from each other. “Where’s old Pervis? I haven’t seen him in a while.”

“He took my car and went home. Actually,” Dewey said, “I offered it to him, Pervis wantin to get away from people botherin him about property I’m due to inherit.”

“You’re telling me,” Raylan said, “he’s leaving you Big Black when he’s gone?”

Dewey grinned. “I didn’t say it, you did.”

“I get it,” Raylan said. “Pervis doesn’t want you to tell anybody.”

“Not till he passes. I’m not to dare think of sellin it either.”

“Trusting you with his mountain.”

“ En — trusting me.”

“Well, hell,” Raylan said, “you need to get home, don’t you? Ask Casper to give you a lift, or Ms. Conlan. They both have limos, plenty of room.”

“I don’t know either one to speak to.”

“Tell ’em you’re Pervis’s kin,” Raylan said. “That ought to get you a ride.”

He watched Dewey approach Casper’s car and knock on the window. Raylan heard him say he was looking for a ride back to Harlan.

Heard him say he was Dewey Crowe.

Heard him say Pervis was his uncle.

“Pervis Crowe, same as mine. The one owns Black Mountain.”

It got the limo door to open, Casper stepping out with a gesture, please, for Dewey to join them.

T hey had him sit next to Carol in the dark, Casper taking a seat he flipped open to face them. Carol saying, “Dewey, really, Pervis Crowe’s your uncle?”

“He is,” Dewey said, “and I’m the only kin he’s got. I come out of Florida-he knows they’s Crowes down there, see, but never heard from any of ’em. I come up here and introduce myself, I see the old man’s eyes fill up as he takes me to his bosom and hugs me. He said, ‘You have come at a time in my life when I most need a kin.’ ”

“Wmeswhehy is that?” Carol said.

“I took it to mean his end is near, his tired old heart telling him he’s a goner fore too long. You know Pervis has this colored girl worked for him years? He’ll leave her something, any trinkets he has from the time he was married.”

“But he’s surprised,” Carol said, “an honest-to-God kin has shown up? Why does he believe you?”

Dewey said, “Why wouldn’ he?” not liking her tone of voice. “We both Crowes. He knows some of his people live in Florida. I come here wearin gator teeth, he knows I’m a Crowe from down there.”

“And proud of it,” Carol said. “Let’s say he believes you. If he’s giving trinkets to his former cleaning woman, what’s he giving you?”

“None of your business.”

She smelled good, but Dewey did not like her tone.

Carol said, “Casper, how much have you made selling your mountains?”

Casper said, “How many million? You ought to know. M-T Minin checks pay all my bills. Bought me a house, this car.” Casper said, “You ever hear of a limo can go a hundred and forty miles an hour? Get out on the highway, anywhere you go, it’s a trip.”

“What engine you got in her?”

“I think they just did a job on the one’s in it.”

“I got a ’87 Hornet,” Dewey said. “Leaks oil.”

Carol said, “What’s Pervis drive?”

“An old Ford with a blower.”

Carol said, “Pervis is a sleeper.”

“He’s got more money’n God and never shows it.”

Carol said, “He told you he’s leaving you his mountain?”

Dewey grinned. “I didn’t say it, you did.”

T he next thing they were telling him to leave, Ms. Conlan asking would he excuse her? She had to get ready to go in there and talk, okay?

Casper jumping out and held the door open, De don it.”

“Casper will give you a ride sometime in his souped-up limo.”

Casper shrugged.

“You get the mountain we’ll give you a hot limo just like it,” Carol said. “Bye.”

Casper hopped in and the door closed.

Dewey turned to see Raylan standing there watching.

“You hear her?”

“Some,” Raylan said. “I think what she meant, she isn’t sure you’re gonna ever own the mountain.”

“I never come out and told her I was.”

“She reads minds.”

“I didn’t care for her tone a voice,” Dewey said, “like I was the help. She offered me a ride home, I turned her down. It wasn’t easy. I begun sniffin her perfume, I’d be sniffin her all the way to Harlan. But I prefer people that believe me I tell ’em somethin, they don’t put on airs.”

“You told Carol you’re gettin Black Mountain?”

“I never come out and told her. I let her figure it out once I said I’m Pervis’s heir.” Dewey frowned then like he was in pain. “I hope my Hornet don’t quit on him, have the old man irritated at me the time he’s got left on earth. I feel I got to take care of the old man, see he leaves with a smile on his face.”

Raylan said, “You goin up to Stinkin Creek?”

“Pervis ain’t been there since his boys were kilt. He took a property off Piney Run, mile or so north of Harlan. Pervis says he can’t look at the bloodstain all over his rug, remindin him Dickie and Coover are gone.”

“I think he’ll find peace,” Raylan said, “never having to worry about them again.”

“Hey, they were harum-scarums, I know that. Still, it’s hard to lose your boys,” Dewey said, “you watch ’em grow up from tads. It can break your heart you let it. Pervis’s got that colored girl comes to visit.” Dewey shrugged, shaking his head. “It takes all kinds, don’t it? They’s always things about people hard to figure out.”

“You have to walk a mile or so in their moccasins,” Raylan said, “before you understand where they’re coming fromre ng=".”

“You say so,” Dewey said.

Raylan watched him shrug and walk off in his Doc Martens.

R aylan walked up to the limo and knocked on the smoked window.

“You know there’s a whole gym full of people waiting on you?”

The window rolled down.

“I’m waiting for them to get restless,” Carol said, “so I can calm them down. Where did Dewey go?”

“Home, once he lines up a ride.”

“You know Pervis would never in sound mind give that idiot his mountain.”

“I don’t think he would,” Raylan said, “but I don’t know it for a fact.”

“We’ll see Pervis tomorrow,” Carol said. “Get him to admit it.”

Raylan said, “What do you care what I think?”

Carol said, “I want you on my side for a change.”

The window already rolling up.

P eople standing around outside smoking would come over to Raylan, offer their hand and say he’d sure told her and ask where she was, hidin in the limo? Raylan would say Ms. Conlan’s resting up, you people getting to her pretty good. Some would say they’d had enough company talk and were heading home. Raylan was surprised to see Hazen Culpepper walk up to him.

“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.”