5/1 16:27

Hugo drove his rough-idling old patrol car lazily up to Cooper's farm, where waiting for him outside the farmhouse was its owner, Cooper, his face twisted with fury.

Hugo parked under the tree by the gate, killed the engine, and climbed out slowly, keenly aware that his drowsiness hadn't fully worn off yet.

"Morning. What's going on?"

"Officer, it happened again." Cooper ground the words out through clenched teeth. 2

"You've got to be kidding — another cow?" At Cooper's words Hugo's drowsiness vanished in an instant; this thing had gotten thorny.

"Goddammit, that's the third one this week, and this time it was my only breeding bull." Cooper's fists clenched. "I don't care anymore whether those stinking reptiles are protected or not — if they set one foot on my land, I will shoot them dead!" He swung his fist and slammed it into the post in front of his own house. "Goddammit!"

"Hey, take it easy."

"Take it easy? Do you have any idea how much money those filthy reptiles have cost my family? Since my father's time, since my grandfather's — you know how much grief we've eaten from those stinking animals? Take it easy? How am I supposed to take it easy?"

"Okay, okay, don't get worked up. Don't worry, I'll file your report this time, I'll take it up with the Sheriff, and have him coordinate with the town council to see about compensating your losses."

"You don't get it. I don't want them to compensate my losses. I want that stinking alligator reserve upriver shut down for good. I want to do what my grandfather did — take a crate of ammunition and a big gun and kill every last one of those uninvited guests!"

"Hey, come on, don't. We go way back, you know what happens if you do that."

Cooper fell silent for a moment. "Meuse Town had better pay me back for this. If they don't, I'll move the farm to Dade Town next door! Then we'll see whether this dump can limp along to next year on tourism alone, without my farm."

"All right, all right, I'll try to write the report up as serious as I can. Just don't be so worked up, okay?"

Cooper didn't answer, his face set hard, looking deeply displeased and pent-up.

"Do me a favor — put up some kind of fence along the riverbank on your land, keep the cattle from wandering down there, cut your losses. All right?"

"Mm." Cooper glared at Hugo, grudgingly giving that much of a response.

Hugo turned, walked back to the car, started the engine, and put it in reverse, ready to pull out of the farm — but still uneasy, he drove up in front of Cooper instead and rolled down the window. "Don't do anything stupid. Call me first if something happens, all right?"

Cooper pulled his cowboy hat down low. "Once they've paid up, I'll give it some serious thought."

Hugo gave a faint smile and drove off from Cooper's farm. Once off the property, he followed the road a short way until it joined the levee highway along the Meuse River, and drove all the way back to the police station in the center of town.