“It appears he’s been planning this for years, with the idea that someday he’d be in a position of foreclosing on the majority of the town. So he could own most of the properties outright and become the biggest land baron in the county.”
“But why, Lilly? Why would he even want to live in a place where he drove the rest of the town to hate him?”
“Greed is a terrible thing, Red. For some people, money is everything. It’s more important than family, friendships, relationships. For some people, and I suspect Savage is one of them, money is his life. But I heard another rumor which might make sense of it all.”
“Oh? What?”
“Somebody in Mrs. Montgomery’s boarding house told her she went out with a guy who came to town a few months before the blackout. The man worked for the U.S. Geological Survey and was in Blanco doing drilling and surveys on government-owned property just outside of town.
“Supposedly the man had too many drinks one night and was trying to impress the boarder. And he let slip that they’d discovered oil beneath the government land. Supposedly the biggest oil field in the state. And they never knew it existed before the survey team accidentally found it.”
“If it’s on government land, how does that affect the situation in Blanco?”
“Because supposedly the oil field extends below part of the town as well. And that anybody drilling on that part of the town could tap into the oil reservoir and siphon it off, right under the government’s nose. And there wouldn’t be anything the government could do about it.”
Red got a peculiar look on her face. As though many of the things she’d wondered about for a long time were suddenly starting to make sense.
She said, “Before Jesse Luna died he said something that didn’t register at the time. He said, “Savage would have preferred not to have to kill anyone. He just wanted our land. But he knew that I’d never sell to him, never let him have the land because I despised him. He told Luna that I had to die. I never asked Luna why he wanted our land.”
She looked at Lilly and asked, “Is that why? Does the oil field extend below the property where I lived with Russell and Rusty? Did he kill them, and try to kill me, so he could take our land back and put an oil well on it?”
“If the rumors are true, then it looks that way.”
Jacob spoke up.
“But… he didn’t kill your family until after the blackout. The world has changed since then. In all likelihood the oil will never be pumped out of the ground because the world no longer needs it.”
Red was still deep in thought, and anguish, and couldn’t answer him.
Lilly did for her, “You haven’t met Savage yet, Jacob. You’d have to meet the man and listen to him, to learn what makes him tick. What motivates him. He’s told everybody in town that he’s looking forward to the long term. He believes that everything will get back to normal again, and in our lifetimes…”
“Our lifetimes or his?” Red interrupted. “His lifetime, I assure you, will be much shorter than ours.”
“His lifetime, apparently. He’s convinced that in a couple of years things will start moving again. They’ll figure out a way to get all the cars running and get the power back on. And then they’ll start needing oil again.
“I think that when that day comes, he wants to own as much land on that part of town as he can.”
Red said, “Our property is only a few hundred yards from here.”
Lilly read her mind, and finished her thought.
“You’re right,” she said. “That means in all likelihood the oil extends under this land too. And if that’s true, then that was the motivation for Savage to want Butch killed.”
Red stormed off the porch and began walking toward town.
“Red! Where are you going?”
The fiery woman called back over her shoulder, “To pay John Savage a visit.”
-40-
John Savage belched loudly. He’d had his flunky, Tad Taylor, bring him a grilled ham and cheese sandwich from Mrs. Montgomery’s kitchen, and it was reminding him that he had a delicate digestive system.
His stomach was churning and he placed a hand upon his midsection.
Being in his position, and holding the notes of most of the properties in town, he had perks that most others didn’t.
The food that the town’s volunteer runners brought back from the trucks outside the city was fairly distributed each day at the town gathering. Judge Dan Moore was in charge of equitable distribution and made sure that happened.
Tad Taylor was Savage’s representative, as confirmed by a letter Judge Moore had verified himself. As such, he was authorized to pick up John Savage’s share each day and to bring it by the bank.
Mrs. Montgomery, because of the nature of her business running the town’s only boarding house, was given an amount of provisions which fluctuated day to day. It was based on the number of boarders she reported each day.
Every few days Tad Taylor came to her, shortly before lunch, to tell her that John Savage was in the mood for this or that.
And every time she’d prepare it for him, knowing full well that Savage held the note for the boarding house. And that she hadn’t made a mortgage payment since the blackout.
Because she simply had no jewelry or old coins to make the payments.
Of course, each meal she made for Savage meant someone else got shortchanged.
Sometimes one of her borders wasn’t hungry and skipped lunch.
That helped.
On the days that didn’t happen, she had to forego her own lunch. On those days it was especially hard, knowing that her own nourishment was going into the stomach of an obese man who certainly could afford to miss a meal or two.
On this particular day Savage had, as was his practice, cut off a part of the sandwich for Tad to eat himself.
Sometimes he cut a section from the left side, sometimes the right. On this particular day, as he sometimes did, he cut a piece from the middle. His reasoning was that by varying his cut every time, Tad was much less likely to conspire with Mrs. Montgomery to poison him.
It was only after watching Tad consume his part of the sandwich that Savage devoured his own.
So his intestinal discomfort wasn’t due to some type of poison.
He made a point of telling Tad to watch Mrs. Montgomery more closely the next time. To tell her not to use as much butter. That it upset his stomach.
He walked to the bank’s doors with the intent of posting a “CLOSED” sign on the outside and then locking them.
Then he’d retreat to his bed upstairs and treat himself to a long nap.
Only he didn’t quite make it to the door before it burst open in front of him.
And he was shocked to see Red facing him with fire in her eyes.
Shocked because she was never supposed to make it this far.
He’d paid Gomez and Duncan very good money to shoot her down before she made it to the city limits.
He was unarmed and defenseless. And he briefly saw his life flash before his eyes.
“Red! How in hell… I mean, what in hell are you doing here?”
“You surprised to see me, you filthy animal? Did you expect Jesse Luna to get the best of me? To kill me so I’d no longer be your worst nightmare? You underestimated me. I survived, Luna didn’t. I hate to disappoint you, but your worst nightmare is back.”
As she talked, he backed toward his oak desk. She followed closely. So closely, in fact, that Savage could smell on her breath what she had for breakfast.
She was fearless. He, on the other hand, was terrified.
When she pinned him against his desk she crossed her arms and held her ground.
Then she did something he never would have expected.
She laughed.
“Don’t worry, you fat toad. I’m not going to kill you. Not today, anyway.”
“Then… then why are you here?”
“I want to check my balances.”
Savage wa
s, perhaps understandably, taken aback. He was expecting to die, and instead he got this.
But he wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth. Or to argue when offered a reprieve.
“Pardon me?”
“I didn’t stutter, creep. I said I want to check my balances. When the power went out I had a checking account and a savings account with your bank. My dad had similar accounts, and as his only living relative I have inherited them. I’d like to know the balance on all four accounts.”
It was something no one else in town had asked for. Everyone knew the dollar was now worthless. Everyone knew the whole concept of keeping one’s assets stored in a bank was probably gone forever.
He was at a loss for words.
“I… everything was computerized…”
“I don’t care. I know you must have paper reports you printed out for backup purposes. Some kind of written record. Something. I want to know how much of my money you have in your greedy little hands.”
“I do have reports that were run two days before the blackout.”
“That’ll do. I don’t recall spending any money just before the lights went out.”
“It’ll… it’ll take a few minutes.”
“I’m in no hurry.”
He grew just a bit bold.
“Do you have something from the court, naming you sole heir to your father’s accounts?”
Red could have exploded, but chose to smile instead.
It had a chilling effect, causing Savage to cower just a bit.
“Are you sure you want to piss me off, Savage ?”
“Um… no. I suppose not. Please, give me just a few minutes.”
-41-
As Red waited in the bank’s lobby she heard the familiar sound of a horse huffing outside.
She’d know the sound anywhere. It was Bonnie.
She walked out the bank’s doors onto the covered sidewalk and smiled.
Jacob smiled back.
“What are you doing here?”
“Well, Beth and Lilly and I were just a bit curious about why you needed to see Savage in such a big hurry that you’d run off the way you did.
“I asked Lilly if maybe you had a fondness for the man. Whether maybe he was a secret lover of yours and you couldn’t wait to jump his bones or something. Lilly took offense to that for some reason. She said the mere thought made her want to puke.
“So I said, ‘what other reason could there be?’
“She said she didn’t know, but that perhaps one of us should follow you to see.
“We took a vote, and I lost. So here I am.”
He climbed down from his horse and tied his reins to the rail in front of the bank. Then he tied Bonnie’s lead as well.
“Lilly had me bring Bonnie with me. Said you might need her to carry Savage’s body back. She said it would give her great pleasure to ride out to the town dump with you so you could lay him to rest with the rest of the garbage.”
“I already told him I wasn’t going to kill him. Not today, anyway.”
“Then why in heck are you here?”
“Because this is my bank. Mine and almost everybody else who lives in Blanco.”
“So?”
“So, I’m just conducting some business with my banker. Would you like to meet him?”
“Yeah. I think I would.”
“Follow me.”
The pair walked back into the bank, and Savage looked up from his desk. He’d been poring over computer printouts and thinking perhaps he’d dodged a bullet when Red walked out the door.
That perhaps she’d walked into the bank merely to scare him, with the intention of leaving again.
Had that been the case, she certainly accomplished her goal.
He was already wondering whether he should leave the safety of the town to ride out to Highway 281 to find Gomez and Duncan. First, to cuss them a blue streak and demand to know how they could be so incompetent as to let Red slip through their ambush.
Then, to drag them back into town with him so they could finish her off and correct their mistake.
Of course, getting to Gomez and Duncan wouldn’t be easy.
Walking wasn’t an option. He was way too much out of shape.
He could walk up to one of the town’s residents who had horses and demand to borrow one, threatening foreclosure on their house if they didn’t comply.
But he had a hard time getting on and off horses. He was a portly man, as wide as he was tall. Getting one foot into the stirrup was a very difficult task.
Hefting himself into the saddle was damn near impossible, without the aid of someone pushing him up from below.
He was pondering the possibility of borrowing a bicycle, and weighing the odds of him having a heart attack while riding it, when the door opened again and Red and Jacob disturbed his thoughts.
Savage was newly distressed to see that Red was no longer alone.
And that the lanky young cowboy at her side looked none too friendly.
The fear for his life returned.
“I’m almost done, Red. Just a couple of more minutes.”
“Take your time, fat man. I’m not in any hurry.”
Savage somehow found the courage to ask, “Who is he?” while nodding at the young cowboy.
“Oh, him? He’s your second worst nightmare.”
Savage swallowed hard and went back to his books, trying to focus as sweat poured down his brow.
Red and Jacob paced back and forth, the loud taps of their boots echoing through the building with each strike on the floor. The bank was original, having been one of the first structures built on Main Street. It was well built, with hearty planks of oak making up the floorboards.
Those floorboards made a very distinctive sound when cowboy boots walked across them.
A sound which increased Savage’s anxiety to a great degree.
Finally, he announced, “Okay. I’ve got it.”
Red and Jacob approached his desk.
His hand was shaking as he held out a piece of paper to show her. A sheet hastily ripped off a yellow mini-legal pad.
A sheet that said:
B. Poston Primary Checking: $8341.10
B. Poston Regular Savings: $6,997.12
B. Poston Second Savings: $43,545.95
B. Poston Business Account: $22,210.10
D. & R. Benedict Primary Checking: $3116.16
D. & R. Benedict Regular Savings: $13,006.05
Rusty Benedict Regular Savings: $2,300. 56
Red looked over the sheet of paper and her knees went weak.
She didn’t know her father had a second savings account. Probably a secret legacy account he’d created for the purpose of leaving her something when he died.
She’d also forgotten that she and Russell had set up a college fund for little Rusty, and that a portion of Russell’s paychecks had been automatically going into the account.
She wondered again whether she’d slighted Russell’s memory by not keeping his name.
Benedict was a good name, a strong name. But she decided to go by her maiden name after Russell’s death because she knew…
She knew that every time she saw his name in writing, or heard it uttered from someone’s lips, it would bring back another flood of memories.
Including some memories she no longer wanted to remember.
She decided, once again, that Russell would have supported her in her decision to go back to her maiden name after his death.
He always supported her in everything she did.
He almost certainly wouldn’t support her in her decision to seek her own brand of justice against those who’d murdered him.
But that was her decision to make. He no longer had a voice in the matter.
She handed the paper back to Savage and said, “Add them up.”
It wasn’t a request. It was a very terse demand.
“But Red, all of our calculators ran on electricity. They’re all worthless now. And… well, I
was never real good at math…”
“A banker who isn’t good at math,” she said with considerable disdain. “Just peachy.”
She took a pencil from his desktop and added the figures together.
Then she wrote the total at the bottom of the sheet and circled it with a flourish.
$99, 517.04.
“That’s how much you owe me. I want to withdraw it all and close all the accounts.”
-42-
Savage was in no position to argue.
But for someone like Savage, who loved money more than he could possibly love another human being, greed sometimes trumped common sense.
“But Red… you know as well as I do that the dollar is now worthless.”
She stared him down in a deathly glare.
“Okay, okay. I’ll go get it out of the vault.”
He padded over to the bank’s front doors and took a set of keys from his pocket, then locked the doors with his still-shaky hands.
He’d been telling Gomez and Duncan, among others, that his vault was on a time lock and could only be opened once in the morning and once in the evening.
It just wouldn’t do for another customer to wander into the bank at mid morning to find him rummaging around in the open vault.
“Wait here. It’ll only take a minute.”
True to his word, he returned very quickly with a metal tray full of currency, which he placed on his desk in front of Red.
“There you go, Red. Ten bundles of hundred dollar bills, each containing ten thousand dollars. One hundred thousand dollars in total.”
He grinned like the Cheshire cat and added, “I took the liberty of rounding it upward. I assumed you wouldn’t mind.”
She held a steady tongue, but Savage could tell he’d made a terrible mistake.
“Now Mr. Savage, do I have the word ‘idiot’ tattooed on my forehead?”
“Um… no ma’am.”
Savage knew she held all the cards. And she held his fate in her hands. That’s why he lost every bit of his bluster and false bravado and adopted a subservient tone with a woman half his age.
“Or maybe someone told you I fell and hit my head? And that maybe my brains were now scrambled?”
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