red-handed. All those evenings I spent stewing fruit and berries saved us.”
It also had helped to have a father-in-law to whom nailing scrap lumber together to form shelving had been the work of only a few hours. The exertion had pained his wounded arm for days after, but he would be glad to hear that his effort had prevented a catastrophe.
“The mayor likes to push his weight around,” Davy said. “He’s a blowhard.”
“Don’t underestimate how sinister he is under all that bluster,” Laurel said. “He frightened me, and so did Landry. At least with Croft you know where you stand. Landry lurked and listened, all the while smiling like a snake oil salesman.”
Mike said, “Yeah, he’s a sneaky one.”
“How do you know Chester Landry?”
“We don’t,” Mike said, “but we’ve seen him around, usually at Lefty’s. I know the smile you’re talking about. Like he knows you’re the one who farted.”
Laurel said, “Thatcher warned me of him.”
“When was this?”
“Oh, it’s Thatcher now?”
Davy spoke over his brother, but Laurel addressed Mike’s question. “That was Thatcher’s purpose for coming here the night you saw him in the yard. He cautioned me about Landry. I didn’t take him seriously. I should have. Croft made it clear that he and Landry are committed to squashing the Johnsons.”
“Do they realize how many Johnsons there are?” Davy asked. “They’re like cockroaches.”
Musing aloud, Laurel said, “I wouldn’t be surprised if Croft’s and Landry’s operation isn’t just as large. They’re more discreet, but ambitious and every bit as ruthless as any Johnson. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that they initiated all the trouble last night.”
“Exactly what did Mr. Croft propose?”
“The upshot was that he and Landry have a pool of moonshiners producing for them, and they want me to become one of them. An ‘or else’ was implied.”
“You’re not thinking of joining them?”
“Absolutely not. I haven’t worked this hard to pay middlemen ten percent. I suppose we should be flattered that they considered us enough of a threat to bother. Croft even admitted how good our liquor is and how well it sells.”
“What happened after your grandstanding?”
“They complimented me on the pie business’s expansion and left.”
Mike frowned. “I don’t like it. These men aren’t fools, Laurel. They were too dignified to go tearing down shelving looking for your stockpile of ’shine. They backed off, but they’re drawing up another plan of attack. Mark my words. Next time I doubt they’ll be so polite.”
“Then we’ve got to move our whiskey to another hiding place away from the house,” Davy said. “Safer for the whiskey, safer for Laurel.”
“That would require careful planning,” she said. “First, we have to find a place, and we can’t do that tonight. Not with the county already a powder keg. And forget delivering to Ranger tonight. It would be too risky.”
“Don’t worry about us,” Davy said. “We know to be on the lookout.”
“On the lookout for what?”
Mike smacked his twin on the side of his head. “You never could keep your friggin’ mouth shut.”
“On the lookout for what?”
Mike shot his brother a drop-dead look, then said to Laurel, “The other night, a truck loaded to the gills with whiskey was hijacked between here and Ranger. The poor bastard was dragged from his truck, blindfolded, manhandled into the woods, pushed to his knees, and told not to move or speak. He had a gun held to his head while all his whiskey was taken from his truck and put into the other vehicle.
“He never saw how many of them there were, but they made short work of it. When they were done, he thought he was dead for sure. But he was threatened with the removal of body parts a man holds dear if he was seen on that road again. He was ordered to spread the warning to anyone whose ambition was to get rich selling ’shine in the boom towns. He was left there with a drained gas tank. But he lived to tell it.”
Laurel said, “The Johnsons are hijacking now?”
Davy and Mike shared a look, then Davy said softly, “He was a Johnson.”
“Lawmen don’t terrorize,” Mike said. “They would have identified themselves, confiscated the liquor, and placed him under arrest. Had to be a competitor who plans on taking over.”
Laurel lowered herself into a chair at the kitchen table. Hearing of this on top of Thatcher’s warnings this morning, and the visit from Croft and Landry this afternoon, left her rattled. She needed time to assimilate all this and plan her next course