Barb found herself distracted by concerns for Cathy. She hoped she hadn’t placed a girl in danger by encouraging her to leave Jackery—and even offering to help by paying off the girl’s student loans. Was that manipulation? Or merely helping a conscience-stricken young woman to do the right thing?
Barb reminded herself that whether her offer was a bribe or a gift made no difference. Cathy was taking a risk, one that served Barb’s purposes. The ethics of the matter would make little difference if Jackery vented his rage on the girl.
As Barb was playing out the various scenes in her mind, her cell rang. It was the object of her concern.
“Cathy,” she said, answering. “Are you all right?”
“I’m better than all right,” said the girl. “I’m free. I told Peter tonight was our last.”
“How did he take it?”
“Not well. He was basically ready to rape me. But I maced him. And when he threatened me, I played back his own words at him. The bastard will think twice before messing with me again.”
Barb was glad the girl was safe for the moment, but she knew Cathy had only made an enemy of a man who never let a slight go unpunished. Jackery was currently occupied with his Dixon scheme, but once that was settled—whether he won or lost—Barb had no doubt he would come after Cathy. That meant that it wouldn’t be enough for Barb to foil Jackery’s plans for Dixon; she’d need to take away his power.
#
Barb had trouble getting to sleep that night, which wasn’t like her. After hearing Cathy’s story, she knew Jackery’s pride had been wounded. If he’d been impulsive and unpredictable before, he was likely to be even more so now. She was working on her plan, gathering the pieces—including the recording Cathy had made of Jackery’s complete conversation with her. But Barb needed more time to prepare her endgame. She’d only have one chance, and a draw wouldn’t suffice. She needed to checkmate the bastard.
While she was working on her plan, of course, Jackery would be making moves of his own. These were likely to be unpleasant for the good people of Dixon, but that couldn’t be helped. This train of thought reminded her she’d promised to get Maria Sanchez’s livestock back. She’d have to get on that first thing in the morning.
#
Peter Jackery was out of his mind with rage. His eyes were still red and raw even after he’d flushed them again and again. His hands cramped from repeatedly acting out what he’d do when he got them around the throat of that yellow bitch. She’d pay for how she treated him. He’d see to it personally. That recording she had of him complicated things, but it was nothing he couldn’t work around, given his vast resources.
People said revenge was a dish best served cold, but Jackery had never subscribed to that point of view. He preferred to exact vengeance while his feelings ran hot. This time, however, he needed to keep Dixon first and foremost in his priorities. He’d have to settle for crushing her later—and he’d make damn sure she paid for every ounce of disrespect she’d shown him.
He did his best to put the girl out of his mind so he could revisit his plans for the county. Those plans hadn’t been a failure, but they weren’t a success either. They were at best a rough stalemate. That could not be allowed to stand. He forced himself to take a step back and look at the big picture. Dixon was locked down with his occupying force of militias, giving him effective control of the area. But his objective wasn’t temporary control; it was permanent ownership. His plan had been to force the individual properties into auction—an auction in which he would be the sole bidder. That plan had been stymied. He needed either to revise it or to abandon it altogether.
The more he thought, the more he came to believe Barb had actually done him a favor by crashing the auction. Buying up the properties one-by-one was at best a time-consuming and inefficient process. It left too much room for complications to arise, too many opportunities for outside factors to gum up the works. What he needed was a way to take possession of the entire county in one fell swoop.
He paced the living room of his estate, not seeing the priceless, and, in some cases, stolen, works of art that adorned his walls. Those were yesterday’s conquests. His attention was laser focused on today’s. He didn’t have a mechanism in mind just yet for accomplishing his goal, but he’d damn well find one.
#
The next morning, Barb set about getting the Sanchez animals back to their rightful owner. There were any number of methods she could have employed to accomplish this, from bribery to theft. Prudently, however, she chose to stay within the law. She dialed Julian’s cell from memory.
“Do you know any livestock lawyers?” she said when she got him on the line.
“Do you mean cows with law degrees?”
“If they’re qualified to appear in County Court, I don’t care what species they belong to.”
“I do happen to have an old fraternity brother whose practice is defending family farms from the rapacious grasp of Big Ag,” he said.
“Perfect.”
Barb got the number from him and called it as she stood, waiting for the coffee machine to finish spitting out the morning brew. She dropped Julian’s name, and the receptionist put her right through. A hearty voice came on the line, inflected with just a touch of Middle American twang.
“So, you’re a friend of my old pal Julian?”
“Bosom buddies,” she said, earning her a laugh.
“What’s the son of a bitch up to now?”
“Helping to fight abuse of power by a governmental agency.”
“And the agency in question would be?”
“A county Ag department.”
“Sounds right up my alley. Hit me with the details.”
Barb quickly summarized the story of the confiscation of the Sanchez’s animals. She didn’t bother going into the larger story of Jackery and his scheme, figuring it had no bearing on the case. But she did mention that the Ag agent was most likely motivated by a bribe from a would-be buyer who had set his sights on acquiring the Sanchez farm against their will.
“Say no more,” said the lawyer. “I never turn down the chance to put the fear of God into a corrupt official. Send me the specifics. I’ll have him shitting himself before lunch.”
“That fast?”
“Honey, by the time I’m through listing the laws he’s broken and the prison terms he’s looking at, the poor son of a bitch will personally load up every animal and drive it back himself, breaking the speed limit the entire way.”
The man was as good as his word. By the middle of the afternoon, a train of livestock trailers made its way up the Sanchez driveway. The county Ag agent was on hand to personally ensure that each animal was returned to its proper place. Barb stood with Maria Sanchez in her front room, watching the process through the picture window.
“How’d you do it?” said Maria.
“The legal system comes through for the little guy every now and then,” said Barb. “You just have to supply a little kick in the pants.”
#
Jackery got the news about the return of the Sanchez livestock from Marcy. She’d apparently fielded a call from the Ag agent, who spent twenty minutes yelling at her about how she’d promised him nothing would come back on him.
“I tried offering him more money,” Marcy told Jackery over the phone. “He hung up on me.”
“Don’t worry about it. My plans have already moved past that little maneuver. Let Barb think he put one over on me. While he’s been wasting his time on that, I’ve been working on the big picture.”
“You have a new plan?”
“Of course. When the time’s right, I’ll read you in on it. For now, keep working on tracking down that cunning but foolish bastard who thinks he can take me on.”
“Yes, sir.”
Jackery ended the call. Even though he’d acted like Barb undoing his play with the Ag agent didn’t bother him, the truth was it rankled. The bastard was fighting a guerrilla campaign, popping up at random, taking his shot, and then vanishing from sight. It was a classic insurgency. In addition, the bastard no doubt had the support of the townspeople, who were helping him fuck with Jackery’s plans.
Jackery forced himself to put that out of his mind. The greatest danger Barb represented was his ability to serve as a distraction. Jackery needed not to take the bait. What was required was what he’d been thinking about last night before he fell into a fitful and restless sleep. (Damn that bitch, denying him release when he required it the most.)
He needed a move to sweep up the entire county, all at once. It had to be bold and decisive. It would require the legal system, but it didn’t necessarily need to rely on settled case law. Legal gray areas would serve, as long as, at the end of the day, he had the deeds in hand. If the previous owners wanted to fight him, let them take him to court. He had a fleet of lawyers whose only job was to drag things out. Every motion, challenge, and countersuit was another speed bump for the poor schmucks who not only had to keep their lives on hold—they also had to pay for lawyers of their own. By the time the case got to court—if it indeed ever managed to get that far, they’d be old and drowning in debt. He’d make them a settlement offer of pennies on the dollar, and they’d be eager to take it.
Fuck, but capitalism was great.
While Jackery cast about for a method to execute his vision, he found his mind returning to the spineless Ag agent. Again and again, he tried to put that aside and return to his priority. Finally, he decided to stop fighting his own mind. Maybe it kept returning to the Ag agent for a reason. Maybe there was something in there that could speak to his larger challenge.
Jackery was justifiably proud of his analytical mind, but he also valued his gut. Intellect and intuition were precious tools. Unite them, add the courage to act on the result, and you could accomplish wonders. Jackery let his mind wander where it would. He considered the Ag agent and how easily his move to impound the Sanchez livestock had been undone. He decided the only flaw in his plan had been allowing there to be a property for the livestock to be returned to. The flaw lay not in bribing the agent but in allowing the auction to be postponed.
That brought him back to the need for a grand move to gain possession of all the various properties at once. The bribe hadn’t been his mistake. Ergo, bribery might still be a valid move. It would merely need to be done on a grand scale. He needed to go big, so big that Barb would never see it coming.
He thought for a moment, feeling an idea tickling the edge of his consciousness. He gave it time, patiently waiting for it to finish making its way up from his unconscious.
Then he had it.