Sqeeze Head

by Waggoner, Robert C.

  Sue hurried to the nice warm wood stove that sat in front of an old fireplace. She said, “It’s still cold out there. This heat feels so good. My heater in my old truck quit working last year. I wish I had that problem of a good man around Ms. Janice, as my house has only babies crying and my older brother who drinks too much.”

  The smile left Janice’s face as she sat down, hopefully, to enjoy some outside company. Now as her instinct took over, fearing this woman had more problems than she really wanted to hear about. However, to show her hospitality Janice said, “Sue, do you want to talk about it? I’m a good listener and David is brewing a fresh pot of coffee after hearing your truck coming.”

  Sue sat down, keeping her down coat on sat across from Janice in a large old armchair. Janice wondered if she might have a bit of trouble getting up out of that old chair due to her size. She looked over at Janice with her big brown eyes and red rosy cheeks still suffering from the cold outside.

  Janice guessed her age around mid-twenties. She didn’t see any wedding band. The rings on her fingers were turquoise along with a huge necklace made up of the same stones. It was later when she found out that Sue was part of the Flathead tribe, located here in Northern Montana.

  Sue said, “I’m sorry to bother you nice people, but I know you are detectives from Chicago. I’m worried to death about my grandfather. You see, he is one of the few who still hold title to some land up in the mountains. He has a cabin up there. There is a big meadow where he raises a few animals. A few years ago a wind power company came in and made a deal with our tribal council to put up these big ugly windmills. Like most white men they promised jobs and a big amount of cash to lease land for their wind power units.”

  “They’ve been trying since then to either buy or lease my grandfather’s meadow. He refuses and with his 30 -30 rifle, drove them off his property on more than one occasion. Since then he has lost many animals to strange happenings. This morning I got a phone call that he was in the hospital up in Kalispell. I drove up to see him, but he was asleep. What I found out was that some passerby found him in his old pickup truck with a broken leg. I was afraid to hear what happened so I drove up here to see you nice people. The nurse said it looked something hit his leg very hard just below the knee.”

  Janice saw tears flowing but Sue’s voice remained strong. David entered with a tray of mugs steaming with coffee. With his keen hearing and senses, he knew something unhappy was transpiring around the wood stove. He passed out the coffee catching a look from Janice that said, ‘no matter where we go, people look to us for help’, but he winked at her and sat down.

  All was quiet except for an occasional snap crack of wood in the stove. David slurped his coffee to make a sound. Then when he saw Sue looking at him he said, in a soothing voice, “I think Sue you could tell us more. If your grandfather lost some animals, which to me means some locals are involved. Have you been to the police?”

  “We have a tribal police force. We really don’t have much crime to speak of. Mostly we have drinking and nowadays drug problems. My cousin tends bar and she told me that there has been some rough talk around lately. And she said, some of the not so nice guys have been flashing some cash lately.”

  Janice said, “Sue, we feel for you and your family, but we have no jurisdiction in Montana. Especially when there’s a federal treaty between your nation and ours; I’d guess, that if a major crime occurred, the FBI would become involved.”

  “Once or twice the FBI has been here and all it did was bring out a lot of hate among our people against arrogant white authority. We really don’t deal well with white people in suits and ties.”

  David thought, I agree with you Sue, I don’t deal well with the bastards either. He said, “We need some air Sue. How about we take a drive up to Kalispell and see your grandfather. This would be unofficial of course.”

  Janice said, “Do they have a good place to have a steak in Kalispell?