Good.
'Henry Morrison and Toby Whelan on the bookstore. Georgie Frederick and one of those new kids on the drug. A Killian brat, I think. Rommie Burpee volunteered to go up with em:
'Got your walkie?'
'Course I do.'
'And Frederick's got his?'
'All the regulars do.'
'Tell Frederick to keep an eye on Burpee.'
'Rommie? Why, for Lord sake?'
'I don't trust him. He could be a friend of Barbara's.'Although it wasn't Barbara Big Jim was worried about when it came to Burpee. The man had been a friend of Brenda's. And the man was sharp.
Randolph's sweaty face was creased. 'How many do you think there are? How many on the sonofabitch's side?'
Big Jim shook his head. 'Hard to say, Pete, but this thing is big. Must've been in the planning stages for a long time. You can't just look at the newbies in town and say it's got to be them. Some of the people in on it could have been here for years. Decades, even. It's what they call deep cover.'
'Christ. But why, Jim? Why, in God's name?'
'I don't know. Testing, maybe, with us for guinea pigs. Or maybe it's a power grab. I wouldn't put it past that thug in the White House. What matters is we're going to have to beef up security and watch for the liars trying to undermine our efforts to keep order.'
'Do you think she - ' He inclined his head toward Julia, who was watching her business go up in smoke with her dog sitting beside her, panting in the heat.
'I don't know for sure, but the way she was this afternoon? Storming around the station, yelling to see him? What does that tell you?'
'Yeah,' Randolph said. He was looking at Julia Shumway with flat-eyed consideration. 'And burning up your own place, what better cover than that?'
Big Jim pointed a finger at him as if to say You could have a bingo there. 'I have to get off my feet. Get on the horn to George Frederick. Tell him to keep his good weather eye on that Lewiston Canuck.'
'All right.' Randolph undipped his walkie-talkie.
Behind them, Fernald Bowie shouted: 'Roof's comin down [You on the street, stand back! You men on top of those other buildings at the read], at the ready!'
Big Jim watched with one hand on the driver's door of his Hummer as the roof of the Democrat caved in, sending a gusher of sparks straight up into the black sky. The men posted on the adjacent buildings checked that their partners' Indian pumps 'were primed and then stood at parade rest, waiting for sparks with their nozzles in their hands.
The expression on Shumway's face as the Democrats roof let go did Big Jim's heart more good than all the cotton-picking medicines and pacemakers in the world. For years he'd been forced to put up with her weekly tirades, and while he wouldn't admit he had been afraid of her, he surely had been annoyed
But look at her now, he thought. Looks like she came home and found her mother dead on the pot.
'You look better,' Randolph said. 'Your color's coming back.'
'I feel better,' Big Jim said. 'But I'll still go home. Grab some shuteye.'
'That's a good idea,' Randolph said. 'We need you, my friend. Now more than ever. And if this Dome thing doesn't go away...'
He shook his head, his basset-hound eyes never leaving Big Jim's face. 'I don't know how we'd get along without you, put it that way. I love Andy Sanders like a brother but he doesn't have much in the way of brains. And Andrea Grinnell hasn't been worth a tin shit since she fell and hurt her back. You're the glue that holds Chester's Mill together.'
Big Jim was moved by this. He gripped Randolph's arm and squeezed. 'I'd give my life for this town. That's how much I love it.'
'I know. Me too. And no one's going to steal it out from under us.'
'Got that right,' Big Jim said.
He drove away, mounting the sidewalk to get past the roadblock that had been placed at the north end of the business district. His heart was steady in his chest again (well, almost), but he was troubled, nonetheless. He'd have to see Everett. He didn't like the idea; Everett was another noseyparker bent on causing trouble at a time when the town had to pull together. Also, he was no doctor. Big Jim would almost have felt better about trusting a vet with his medical problems, except there was none in town. He'd have to hope that if he needed medicine, something to regularize his heartbeat, Everett would know the right kind.
Well, he thought, whatever he gives me, I can check it out with Andy.