Rarities Unlimited 03 - Die in Plain Sight

twelve-dollar eggs and thirty-dollarwomen to forty-niners. Mining gold from other men’s pockets was a lot easier than crouching in icy water and panning for gold from “can see to can’t see.”
    Benford had taken the gold and bought up an old Spanish land grant. Land and wealth had passed from generation to Savoy generation for almost one hundred years without a hitch. Said hitch was the third generation’s bride, Sandra Wheaten Savoy, who had the gall to leave part of her Savoy inheritance to her sister’s children. It was an irritant to have someone “not of the blood” sit on the board of Savoy, Inc., but when the cause was important enough, those of proper Savoy blood unbent enough to acknowledge their shirttail Pickford cousins.
    Another hitch in the proud Savoy tradition occurred in that same generation. Benford Savoy III, called Three by his close friends, had the bad fortune to beget a daughter rather than a son for his one and only child. The next best thing to a son was to have his daughter marry the son of an old friend. Gem Savoy and Ward Forrest duly tied the knot. And if they didn’t live happily ever after, they multiplied in a way their parents and grandparents hadn’t. Four children came along in short order. Two of them contracted severe cases of Moonie religion and were completely excised from the family. Not even cards at birthdays or Christmas.
    That left the much married Bliss and her younger brother, Savoy, to play tug-of-war with the family fortunes. Bliss’s interest in running the family business was erratic. When she was between husbands and/or lovers, she meddled in her brother’s business life and ignored her three grown children. Savoy managed to keep his marriages to two and his off-spring to three.
    The six cousins weren’t present at today’s important meeting for the simple reason that as long as Bliss and Savoy lived, corporate control was theirs. Like their own father, Savoy and Bliss were very much alive. The Savoy Curse of accidental death hadn’t visited them, probably because they weren’t as reckless as some of their ancestors.
    The chair at the head of the conference table was empty when the door at the far end of the room opened. With a nod here and a word of greeting there, Savoy Forrest walked confidently to the waiting chair. His dark blond hair was like his clothes—casual, expensively cut, and hinting of the sun that flooded southern California’s saints and sinners with equal light and warmth.
    Bliss closed the book she’d been reading, Powerful Women in the Twenty-first Century , and glanced at her solid gold digital watch, which she always wore with the gold-and-diamond heart design bracelet she’d inherited from her mother along with a diamond necklace that showed well at the opera. “You’re seven minutes and forty-four seconds late.”
    “Thanks, Blissy,” he said, putting a thick folder on the table. “I gave the governor your best regards.”
    “Fuck her.”
    “She’d be one of the few you’ve missed,” Rory Turner said.
    “Fuck you.”
    “Been there, done that, remember?”
    “No,” Bliss said. “Was it good for you?”
    The rest of the people around the conference table sighed, shifted, or looked impatient, depending on their mood. In addition to being sheriff of Moreno County, Rory was one of Bliss’s four ex-husbands. The other three had taken their money and run for more welcoming pastures. Rory hadn’t. The two of them fought more now than they had when they were married. But since this was family rather than civil business, Rory had changed into a suit and tie and left the khaki uniform at his office.
    “Thanks for the update,” Savoy said ironically to the two of them. “Can we keep it above the belt while we take care of business?”
    Rory shrugged and smiled. “Sorry. Old habits and all that.”
    Bliss ignored her ex-husband. She’d had a lot of experience doing that, as Rory had worked for her father before, during, and after their marriage. Ward Forrest had never quite forgiven her for divorcing Rory, “the only one of the lot with balls.” She had to admit that the sheriff did indeed have an impressive pair, but he never used them on her behalf outside of sex. Yes sir was all he ever said to his father-in-law. It was pretty much the same when it came to her brother, too.
    What was the point of having a badge and a gun if all you did was kiss ass?
    Savoy looked around the table. As always, at least one of