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"Hi ya, Jess. What you find over at Nine-mile?" "Salt blocks, just like you thought." "Damn. If them hunters so much as look at one of my cows --" he left the threat unfinished. Murthy had a handful of free roaming steer that grazed along the edge of the forest. "You seen anybody round there? Maybe toting something heavy?" "Naw. Now wait -- just some teen-agers screwing in the bush. Not that they needed any salt, mind you." Murthy laughed from his barrel-chest and gave Jessie a wink. "Pretty young, too. I remember because she was wearing a fancy coat. Good for --" "Now, now. Better not let Laurel hear you." Roland scolded mockingly. Laurel was Murthy's common-law wife of six years and legal one of six months. The large swollen belly she hefted into the doctor's office every week explained the change. Murthy took it all in good humor. He was looking forward to being a daddy. "How do you do it, Jess? You must have been married since before the invention of the automobile." Murthy gave another Grizzly Adams laugh. "Not quite." Jessie grinned back. Thirty-one years. Since before man walked on the moon. "Well, government money's burning. I can just hear them complaining now. See you in a couple of weeks. Mac and I be around for moose." Murthy waved him good-bye, and went back to plucking chickens. * The obvious starting place for catching the salt block poacher was the General Store. Far from being merely general foods and simple clothing items, the General Store, run by Sela Witten, and Jerry Butts in the Post Office, had a lumber yard, gardening supplies, farmers' seed and grain -- and salt blocks. The officer straightened his hat and went to find Sela. Old friends from the day the Rolands had come to Alexander, having bought his first cup of coffee at The General, Jessie smiled and called to the middle aged woman wearing the green apron. "Hey, Sela! I need to talk to you." "Sure, Jess. Coffee?" Knowing the offer was genuine and not a form of sales extortion, he accepted. Sela's coffee was strong and she knew how he liked it. He sipped the hot liquid greedily, washing out the autumn chill from his body. "Sela, I want to know whose been buying salt blocks." The query got a strange look from Sela. "I don't rightly know. Let me talk to Palmer. He watches the back." The woman disappeared through a door marked EMPLOYEES ONLY.
Jessie knew this too. But Palmer and he weren't on the best terms
since Jessie had accused him of selling him wet two-by-fours the
summer Jess had built his shed. The officer also knew he'd do
better by asking Sela first, though it would rankle old Palmer.
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