LuEllen has an oval face with dark hair, big, interesting eyes, and a few freckles scattered across the bridge of her nose.
“
We’re
going to live on it.”
“Down in Longstreet?”
“Yeah. Down in Longstreet.”
I SPENT TWO WEEKS compiling Bobby’s raw data into economic and psychological profiles of the individual city council members—the same kind of work I often do for politicians. Hill, the dogcatcher-enforcer, was a gambler and probably a loser. Dessusdelit and Ballem, though, were hoarders. I couldn’t yet tell how much money they were taking out of Longstreet, but it was substantial. They couldn’t invest it legally, because then they’d have to explain where they got it; none of it showed up on their IRS returns. Neither Dessusdelit nor Ballem had a passport, so they weren’t personally taking it out of the country. They had to be stashing it.
Marvel talked to a man who worked for Ballem’s lawn service and heard a story that Ballem collected stamps and maybe coins. Dessusdelit had been seen by another man in aMemphis jewelry store, and she’d been looking at unset stones.…
“Stamps are great inflation hedges,” LuEllen said. “Coins are not so good, but they’re OK. Gold sucks, but it gives you some protection. Stones aren’t so good either. But all of it stores value, and all of it is easy to move.”
She knows what she’s talking about.
Besides the research, I put in three hard hours at the Ramsey County Law Library. Every night I talked to John, Bobby, or Marvel.
“How much clout do you have with the black caucus of the state Democratic party down there?” I asked Marvel.
“Me? Not much. But Harold does.”
“We may need their help. I’ll get back to you. For now I just needed to know if you had any clout with them. Have you made any progress on finding the machine’s books?”
“No, but we think you’re right; there must be some. We have Xerox copies of letters on the sewer scam, and there’s information in them that must be based on other letters, or files, or books. You know what I mean? You can infer the existence of the books from what these letters contain.…”
“Gotcha,” I said. “When will I get the letters?”
“I gave them to John this morning. He was going back to Memphis, and he said Bobby wouldscan them in and ship them to you, whatever that means.”
“I read an article in the Longstreet paper about the bridge. You mentioned it when I was down there. Tell me again.…”
She told me about the bridge. The bridge, she said, was the only reason the town hadn’t blown away fifty years earlier. Now that it was gone, the city might go with it.
“Sounds serious.”
“For people down here, it’s desperate.”
L U E LLEN CAUGHT ME staring at the ceiling that night, chewing the eraser off a pencil.
“You have something?”
“What?”
“A plan?”
“Yeah. Maybe. An edge of one.”
L U E LLEN FOUND a thirty-six-foot Samson houseboat docked on the St. Croix River and took me down to see it.
“It’s a fucking tub.” I paced off its length along the dock. A huge tub, a shiny white, plastic behemoth, ugly, ungainly, and slow. Just what we’d need to catch the eye of a small river town. A diminutive American flag hung dispiritedly from a bent stainless steel rod on the peak of the cabin, to one side of a radar antenna. I looked under thestern and found the name
Fanny
inscribed in gold paint.
“Wait till you see the bedroom,” LuEllen said.
“The sleeping cabin,” I said, correcting her.
“Uh-uh.” She shook her head. “I mean the bedroom. The guy who rents it said you don’t use nautical terms for a houseboat. It’s bedroom and kitchen and bathroom, instead of cabin and galley and head.”
“Why’s that?”
“Marketing,” she said wisely. Everything she knew about marketing you could have written on the back of a postage stamp with a Magic Marker. “They didn’t want houseboats to sound like submarines. They don’t want
“
We’re
going to live on it.”
“Down in Longstreet?”
“Yeah. Down in Longstreet.”
I SPENT TWO WEEKS compiling Bobby’s raw data into economic and psychological profiles of the individual city council members—the same kind of work I often do for politicians. Hill, the dogcatcher-enforcer, was a gambler and probably a loser. Dessusdelit and Ballem, though, were hoarders. I couldn’t yet tell how much money they were taking out of Longstreet, but it was substantial. They couldn’t invest it legally, because then they’d have to explain where they got it; none of it showed up on their IRS returns. Neither Dessusdelit nor Ballem had a passport, so they weren’t personally taking it out of the country. They had to be stashing it.
Marvel talked to a man who worked for Ballem’s lawn service and heard a story that Ballem collected stamps and maybe coins. Dessusdelit had been seen by another man in aMemphis jewelry store, and she’d been looking at unset stones.…
“Stamps are great inflation hedges,” LuEllen said. “Coins are not so good, but they’re OK. Gold sucks, but it gives you some protection. Stones aren’t so good either. But all of it stores value, and all of it is easy to move.”
She knows what she’s talking about.
Besides the research, I put in three hard hours at the Ramsey County Law Library. Every night I talked to John, Bobby, or Marvel.
“How much clout do you have with the black caucus of the state Democratic party down there?” I asked Marvel.
“Me? Not much. But Harold does.”
“We may need their help. I’ll get back to you. For now I just needed to know if you had any clout with them. Have you made any progress on finding the machine’s books?”
“No, but we think you’re right; there must be some. We have Xerox copies of letters on the sewer scam, and there’s information in them that must be based on other letters, or files, or books. You know what I mean? You can infer the existence of the books from what these letters contain.…”
“Gotcha,” I said. “When will I get the letters?”
“I gave them to John this morning. He was going back to Memphis, and he said Bobby wouldscan them in and ship them to you, whatever that means.”
“I read an article in the Longstreet paper about the bridge. You mentioned it when I was down there. Tell me again.…”
She told me about the bridge. The bridge, she said, was the only reason the town hadn’t blown away fifty years earlier. Now that it was gone, the city might go with it.
“Sounds serious.”
“For people down here, it’s desperate.”
L U E LLEN CAUGHT ME staring at the ceiling that night, chewing the eraser off a pencil.
“You have something?”
“What?”
“A plan?”
“Yeah. Maybe. An edge of one.”
L U E LLEN FOUND a thirty-six-foot Samson houseboat docked on the St. Croix River and took me down to see it.
“It’s a fucking tub.” I paced off its length along the dock. A huge tub, a shiny white, plastic behemoth, ugly, ungainly, and slow. Just what we’d need to catch the eye of a small river town. A diminutive American flag hung dispiritedly from a bent stainless steel rod on the peak of the cabin, to one side of a radar antenna. I looked under thestern and found the name
Fanny
inscribed in gold paint.
“Wait till you see the bedroom,” LuEllen said.
“The sleeping cabin,” I said, correcting her.
“Uh-uh.” She shook her head. “I mean the bedroom. The guy who rents it said you don’t use nautical terms for a houseboat. It’s bedroom and kitchen and bathroom, instead of cabin and galley and head.”
“Why’s that?”
“Marketing,” she said wisely. Everything she knew about marketing you could have written on the back of a postage stamp with a Magic Marker. “They didn’t want houseboats to sound like submarines. They don’t want
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