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Sela came back with Palmer in tow. His scowling face became even tighter when he saw Jessie. "Hi, Palmer. Maybe you can help me?" Jessie asked, trying to keep the gloating out of his tone. He wasn't altogether successful. "If its about those two-by-fours --" "No, official business. I want to know if anyone has been in here buying a lot of salt blocks. Not the usual customers, but someone you wouldn't recognize as having cattle?" "Nah, that'd be mighty suspicious, and I know all the farmers." "OK, thanks, Palmer. You too, Sela. See you later. And Sela, call me if anyone buys any blocks that you don't knows is a farmer?" Jessie waved good-bye as he walked out. Damn, he said to himself. Whoever the poacher was, he was either a local farmer or he had bought the blocks in Dawson. There had to be at least a dozen suppliers in the city. No point in trying outside of Alexander. A needle-in-a-haystack. Damn, he said it again, and meant it. * "How's things with Mel?." Jessie asked Janice over lunch, Tuesday. "Damn it, Jess. Mac's really upset. She's his sister's kid. He knows she's going to get in trouble with that Pini kid. Remember Sally Freeman's girl, the one that went to live in the city. He got her pregnant. She had the baby, gave it up for adoption. And he sells drugs. He tried working in the mill, but got fired. He's selling to half the kids in town, not to mention all the guys he knows from the mill. You know how it is for some of them. Making money but nothing to spend it on. Mac's afraid she's going to get picked up by the cops or hooked on something." Jessie listened with a stoic expression. His lunch of chicken chow mein found its way to his mouth without taste or pleasure. "Does Michelle see her at school? Is Melanie showing up stone or anything?" "Mel hasn't been going. She's been skipping out after the lunch hour. No one seems to know where they go." Jessie shook his head, sadly, then changed the subject. * "Hello, Murthy. Any news?" "Hi, Jess." The trapper yelled from the window of his jeep. The empty gravel road swept before and behind the two vehicles. With nobody for miles, neither felt rushed. "I found more salt blocks. Somebody sure wants deer there. They didn't even try to move to another spot." "Well,
I haven't seen anyone. Just them kids again. Wish I had the juice
to go at it like that. Sometimes I see them out there a couple
of times a day." |