Alice and Wheeler got up from the lunch table inside the diner to stretch as Bob settled the check. They saw the flash of the red light on top of the Sheriff's car whiz by the front window and was gone. Before they could say anything the buzz in the diner erupted.
“I wonder what that was,” Alice said to nobody in particular.
“Let's go see” Wheeler replied. “This might be one of our missing pieces.” They followed a small group of future gawkers out the front door of the diner on to the sidewalk. The Sheriff's car had stopped in front of the office building a few doors down the block and parked at a jaunty angle on the wrong side of the street. The red light was still blinking, the doors were open and there were no Sheriffs.
The crowd stayed a respectful distance and buzzed with “Who's in there”, “What's happening” and “This is more excitement than we've ever had in Eaton.” Alice, Bob and Wheeler stayed with the crowd to watch and hide at the same time.
It took a while but the wait was worth it. Two Sheriffs came out the front door with both Jim Wix and Vern Davies in tow. Both were handcuffed and both had their heads down. They were respectfully escorted to the back seat of the squad car, tucked in and the doors were shut. The deputies got in, turned off the red lights and drove off in the direction of the highway. After a few more moments’ after-buzz, the crowd dispersed.
Back at the shop, Wheeler was in his thoughtful mode and started thinking out loud “We know Davies and Wix were into some shady stuff: the casino, Walt Carter's loan and we don't really know all of it. Maybe it's just the money that got them.”
Bob was pouring them more coffee “I wonder where old Walt is? His house is gone and we haven't seen him. Do you think he's involved and going to jail?” He handed out steaming cups.
“Remember the water theft? If Walt was so desperate for money, probably for that loan, he has no farm to get a loan on now” Alice said, getting into the swing of it all. “Even if he has delusions of oil money, that's not going to work out too well for him. We made that all up.”
“If his balloon payment is due on the loan now, who is he going to default to?” Bob said. “Davies and Wix held the note.”
Wheeler responded “They will probably appoint some kind of Receiver to manage the company, collect and pay the obligations, that sort of thing. Walt will not get lost in the confusion.” Wheeler did have an interest in this sort of thing after all. “So one way or the other, Walt is probably out of luck.”
Alice continued the thread “With Walt and Davies and Wix 'indisposed' doesn't that mean Walt's loan is in default somebody will sell off the casino to pay the loan?”
“Not really” Wheeler replied. “That never really happens. It usually gets converted to a new loan for the new owner, the finances are re-shuffled, money gets bumped back and forth and the casino will probably continue with nobody even noticing.”
Bob put in his jab “So all they have to do is search the horizon for a teepee, evict the Indian and lock him up in the casino office as the new owner.”
They all three burst out in uncontrolled laughter. As crazy as that sounded it was not really crazier than any of the other details of the past few weeks. They needed the release and all enjoyed the moment.
Alice did stay at the shop for the afternoon and they drifted back to their individual tasks to salvage some productivity out of the day.