Stuart Woods - Chiefs: A Novel (25th Anniversary Edition)

Chiefs by Stuart Woods STUART WOODS "An author who can tell a story as skillfully as Herschel Walker can carry a football." Atlanta Journal Constitution "Woods knows the downside (and backside) of the New South better than anyone else writing today, and he rivets readers to their chairs." Anne Rivers Siddons "A consummate storyteller." Library Journal "Mr. Woods keeps the pages turning briskly." Dallas Morning News CHIEFS "Stunning ... A gripping saga of race, politics and chilling mystery in small-town America." Larry L. King, author of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas Other Avon Books by Stuart Woods GRASS Roots Rrm BEFORE tE W UD R The LAra WHITE CARGO Avon Books are available at special quantity discounts for bulk purchases for sales promotions, premiums, fund raising or educational use. Special books, or book excerpts, can also be created to fit specific needs. For details write or telephone the office of the Director of Special Markets, Avon Books, Inc." Dept.

FP, 1350 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10019, 18002380658. I)IUARI WDI)DI) CHIEFI AVON BOOKS", NEW YORK All names, characters, and events in this book are fictional; any seeming resemblance to real persons is therefore purely coincidental. AVON BOOKS, INC. 1350 Avenue of the Americas New York, New York 10019 Copyright 1981 by Stuart Woods Published by arrangement with W.W. Norton & Co." Inc. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 8691639 ISBN: 0-380-70347-5 www.avonbooks.com All rights reserved, which includes the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever except as provided by the U.S.

Copyright Law. For information address W.W. Norton & Co." Inc." 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10110. First Avon Books Printing: April 1987 AVON TRADEMARK REG. U.S. OFF. OFF.

AND IN OTHER COUNTRIES. MARCA REGISTRADA. HECHO EN U.S.A. Printed in the U.S.A. WCD 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as "unsold and destroyed" to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this "stripped book." This book is for Judy Tabb Prologue o Will Henry Lee two * Sonny Butts msz Tucker Watts Author's Note Acknowledgments CONTENTS PROLOGUE IrHE BOY ran for his life.

He poured forth an effort born of fear and a wild sense of freedom regained. At first he ran entirely unconscious of his injuries, then tearing recklessly through the dark woods, he struck a tree and went down. He lay stunned for a time he could not account for, and when he was finally able to struggle to his feet, the full force of the pain and the winter air swept over him and made him stagger. He heard the dog and the man crasking through the brush, and he ran again, wildly, blindly, the underg, owth tearing at his naked body. Abruptly, he broke through onto a road, hesitated, decided against it, and threw himself across the open area into the brush on the other side. He was momentarily in thick, thorny blackberry bushes, then found hinelf on a narrow path.

He was Falling now sucking in air with a loud, rasping noise, his muscles aching, legs wobbling. He heard the man fighting through the blackberry bushes, cursing, and he flung himself forward with his remaining strength. He knew he would rather run until he died than go back to that house. He willed his heart to brrst, God to take him, but his exhausted body still carried him unsteadily forward. The path turned sharply to the right, but he lunged ahead into thick brush again, hoping for safety. Then he saw stars ahead through the bushes and thought he might break through into a field, while his tormentor followed the path.

He gathered his last strength and ao plunged forward and down, hoping to lie on the ground undetected. There was no ground; the earth fell away beneath him. He believed himself to be falling into a ditch, but his ditch had no bottom. He fell, twisting in the air, trying desperately to get his feet under him, while the hard earth waited far below him. BOOK ONE Will Henry Lee Book ONe: Will Henry Lee 23 HUGH HOLMES, president of the Bank of Delano and chairman of the Delano City Council, was a man who, more than most, thought about the present in terms of the future. It Was one of his great strengths, both as a banker and as a politician, but on a cold morning in December of 19x9, this faculty failed him.

It would be many years before he would have some grasp of how that morning changed his future, changed everything. Holmes prided himself on bing able to look at a man as he entered the bank and predict what the man would want. On this morning he watched through the sliding window in the wall between his office and the main room of the bank as Will Henry Lee entered, and Holmes indulged himself in a bit of his usual prognostication. Will Henry Lee was a cotton farmer; his standing mortgage was due the first of the year, and he would want it renewed. It took Holmes only seconds to review the circumstances: Will Henry's debt amounted to about thirty-five percent of the value of his farm, in reasonably goed times. That was a lower level of debt than was borne by most farmers, and Will Henry had paid his interest on time and made two payments against princilYal.

But Holmes knew, the boll weevil situation being what it was, that Will Henry might fail with his next crop. Still, he respected the man, liked him, even; he decided to renew. He leaned forward at his desk and pretended to read a letter, confident that he had anticipated the content of their approaching discussion and had worked out an appropriate response. Will Henry knocked at the open door, sat down, exchanged pleasantries, nd asked Holmes for the job of chief of police. Holmes was stupefied, partly by the completely unexpected request,-and partly by the total collapse of his early-warning system. His mind was not accustomed to such surprises, and it lurched about through a long moment of silence as it struggled to assimilate this outrageous input and get it into an orderly framework of thought.

The effort was a failure. To give himself more time, he clambered onto familiar ground. "Well, now, Will Henry, you're not overextended on your farm. We could probably see you through another crop, even with things the way they are with cotton." To his credit, Holmes maintained his banker's face throughout the exchange. "Hugh, if I extended I'd have to have more capital, which means getting deeperin debt to the bank. If I did that for another crop things wouldn't get any better; they'd just get worse.

Better farm em than me are going under. I think you'd be doing the best thing for the bank if you took the farm now and sold it. I might get something after the note was paid. To tell you the truth, Hoss pence offered me nearly about exactly what I owe for the place just last week, but I think I'd rather let the bank take it than let a man buy me out for a third of what the place is worth. Hoss's peaches and cattle are going to be on a lot of land where cotton used to grow, and I'd just as soon my land didn't get included in that." He stopped talking, looked at Holmes, and waited. Holmes's brain was beginning to thrash through the gears now.

Item one: Will Henry was right about the bank's position; taking the farm now would give a better chance of coming through the transaction profitably; things could truly be a whole lot worse next year. Item two: Delano had long been big enough for a chief, but the town wasn't big enough to attract an experienced officer from another force. Holmes, as chairman of the city council, had been looking hard for months for a suitable man. The chief at La Grange had put it to him bluntly. "Mr. Holmes, I'll tell you the truth; right now Delano couldn't even attract a decent patrolman from a larger town, let alone a sergeant.

My advice to you would be to find a local man that people respect, and give him the job. In a town like Delano he can do about ninety-nine percent of what he's got to do with just plain old respect." Holmes looked across the desk at Will Henry. He respected the man, and he was a harsher judge than most. Will Henry was well known in the community, even though he and his father before him had been country men. Maybe his always having lived in the country would mix a little distance with familiarity and give respect as harper edge. Holmes resisted an urge to pump Will Henry's hand and pin a badge on him right on the spot.