Bull Mountain(9)

“Nope.” Clayton wasn’t as convincing with that answer.

“Well, you’re lucky. These people are bad news. They’ve got their hands in some heinous shit. Dope, money, guns, you name it. Recently we’re getting intel that shows them involved in human trafficking as well, and they’re getting bigger and richer for the effort. Your brother Halford knows these people well. He has intimate knowledge of their entire operation and they trust him implicitly.”

Everything else Holly was going to say clicked in place before he could say it.

“You want to flip him.” Clayton almost laughed. “You want Hal to give up your boys in Florida so you can close your case on this Wilcombe fella.”

“Yes,” Holly said.

“In exchange for what?”

“Conditional immunity.”

“What’s the condition?”

“He opts out of the meth trade.”

“It won’t happen,” Clayton said. “Halford isn’t your average drug dealer. It’s against his warped sense of honor. He’d die before turning over on anyone he considers family. If these bikers have been in bed with my kin for as long as you say, you can bet they fall into that category. He’d never rat them out. Never.”

“Well, if his sense of honor is skewed, then we appeal to his other sensibility.”

“Which is?”

“His money.”

“Halford doesn’t care about the money.”

“Don’t be that naive, Sheriff. The money is paramount. The money is all that matters.”

Clayton shook his head. “No, it’s not, and that’s why you people will always lose, Agent Holly. Because you don’t understand how it works up here. Money isn’t the endgame for my brother. It never was. It’s simply a by-product of the lifestyle my father raised him on.” Clayton leaned way back in his chair, lifting his arms and interlacing his fingers at the back of his neck. He let himself feel the stretch down his back, and debated what road he wanted to walk down with this federal. Most of the time, it didn’t matter to these guys how he tried to explain things. They just sat there behind their dark sunglasses and pretended to listen, while they waited to blurt out whatever they were itching to say next. Clayton brought his arms down, and used an index finger to rub the dust from the edge of a small framed photograph on his desk. It was a picture of him and Kate taken by a stranger on their honeymoon on Tybee Island. It was the first, and only, time either of them had ever been to the beach. He couldn’t say he was much of a fun-in-the-sun guy, but that was a good day. He smiled, and decided to take the long road. “Are you married, Agent Holly?”

“I was. It didn’t take.”

“Girlfriend?”

“For the moment,” Holly said, leaning back in his chair as well, settling in to the small talk. “For however long that lasts.”

“A girlfriend, good, that’s good.” Clayton reached over and picked up the picture of him and Kate. “You ever pack her up, or the ex, for that matter, back when you were hitched, and just get out of town for a few days? Get away from the daily grind, and go get lost, find a place off the map to just relax, enjoy each other?” Clayton talked more to the picture of him and Kate than to Holly.

“Not as much as either of them would like, I’m sure, but yeah, I try to get away a few times a year.”

“Okay, good. We’re tracking. Now imagine the feeling you had the last time you took a few days off and packed the car, your girl, maybe a few beers and a camera, and set off to find a secluded spot in the mountains, or by a still pond or lake somewhere. You with me?”

Holly nodded, waiting for the point.

“This is the break from most people’s lives that makes the burdens and pressures that come from all the responsibilities we heap on ourselves the rest of the time worth enduring. Would you agree with that?”

“Sure, Sheriff. Everyone needs a vacation sometimes. What does—”

“Bear with me, Agent Holly. Now imagine that same setting, that pretty picture you got in your head, imagine that as the basis for your everyday. Imagine it’s the foundation for work, family, relationships, wisdom, pain, all of it. It’s a different mind-set. It’s not a break from life for these people. It is life, and the urge to protect it, and hold on to it, can be fierce.”

Holly began to say something, but Clayton kept on.

“There is a subtle symbiotic relationship between the land up here and the people who call it home that folks like yourself never seem to fully understand, no matter how many files you read, or training scenarios you run. It’s not your fault, you’re just not from here. It goes way beyond simple pride or honor. Pride is a brand-new red bike or a better-paying job. Up here it’s something different. It’s something deeper than bone. It’s not something that they earned or had to fight to get. They were born into it, and the fight comes on real hard when someone threatens to take it away. It’s an integral part of who they are—who we are.” Clayton wiped the dust from his finger onto his pants, took his stare off the picture and put it back on Holly.

“The point is, the money absolutely does not matter. And that’s not me being naive, that’s me telling you how it is. No one gets to tell them what they can and cannot do on their own land. No one’s going to take what God gave them. Not on their mountain. And believe me, Hal thinks it’s his mountain. He would burn his money before he would give up his home, or his people. Your plan is flawed. He won’t betray his kin.”