"Mhm." Billy looked smug. "Compared to a lot of the people I investigate, Paul Simmons is an amateur. He's trying to hide what he's doing with his business arrangements, but he doesn't have enough business arrangements to bury it deep enough. On one hand, the man is convincing county agents to limit resource availability - usually water. On the other hand, he's hoping to sell that resource to the city, giving himself a monopoly."
"But it's water," Violet said. "How rich can the man really get on water? Considering how much he's already spent fighting us, hasn't he used up all the potential profits by now?"
"No," Billy assured her. "Not by a long shot. If you look at all of the pieces of property he owns, and which ones have mineral rights with them, it appears that the man is trying to position himself to control various markets. Water, natural gas, right-of-way for electrical lines. I'm not sure if half of this was coincidence or he actually planned it, but with your property and one other on the northeast side of town, Paul Simmons would basically become the utility service mogul around here. Violet, that's millions of dollars a year."
"Which," Berto said, "may not be a lot of money to you and Ash, but to the average person, it's huge."
Emily was nodding her head emphatically. "A million dollars a year is mind-blowing. A single payment of a million dollars is too!"
"So what do we do about it?" I asked.
"That is the question," Cessily said. "Violet has not hidden the fact that she will not sell this land. My concern is that the next step is to resort to violence."
"Exactly," Billy said. "Here's the part that all of you nice, sweet people aren't thinking about. In small towns like this, people don't like change. They hate the ones who aren't like them. Here at Southwind, we have a whole lot of different. It doesn't matter if it's a Black man, a gay man, or kids who may have a criminal background. All of those things are easy to hate. Once you can get people to start hating, it isn't a huge step to get them to starthurting."
"Hate crimes," Cessily muttered.
Billy just nodded. "Even worse, Paul Simmons won't have to do it himself. All he has to do is figure out who is racist and light a fire under their ass. If he makes a big enough deal about the homosexuality happening here, then that's another group of people. Guys, this threat is real. Like I said, I can take it out at the source."
"No," Violet broke in. "Billy, I'm serious about this. Even if nothing can be proven, that is not the precedent we want to set. Southwind is supposed to be about doing the right thing. Not the easy thing."
"I promise that 'disappearing' someone isn't easy," Billy told her.
"Is it easier than dealing with our problem in another way?" she asked.
Billy clenched his jaw hard enough for muscle to tense in his cheek. "It's more reliable."
"This is one of those times that right and wrong actually matter, Billy," she told him. "Southwind is where we fix problems, not start them. Never mind that even if we aren't tried in court, wewillbe tried by public opinion. If we want to open Southwind as a teen rehabilitation center, then we need people on our side. That won't happen if they’re secretly asking what we did to Paul Simmons."
"Wait," Emily begged. "Are we talking about figuratively?"
"No," Berto told her. "Billy has connections who can make people go away for a very long time. Some have three letter acronyms. Others don't."
"You kill people?" she asked.
"No," he assured her. "I fix problems. Sometimes, those problems require people to go away. I organize interested parties with people in need so that positive solutions can be found."
"He's the middleman," I clarified for her. "Yes, his business is legal. No, he's not a part of the mob."
"The mob might be a client, though," Billy joked.
"Not helping," I told him. "Believe it or not, most people don't like the idea of sitting down to dinner with bad guys."
Billy sighed, giving in. "My business is to use the loopholes in the laws to do the right thing. Usually, that's covering up a politician's affair." He looked over at Berto. "Or making a bad breakup stay out of the news."
"Which is why I'm having you vet women I'm interested in from now on," Berto joked. "My team said she had a nice, clean background. They forgot to mention the part where she'd tried to tell her last three boyfriends she was pregnant so they had to marry her."
"Emily's clean," Billy said, a devious little smile curling his lips. "I mean, she had a child out of wedlock, has gotten tickets in Bonham twice, which I assume was because she was running late to work, and her car is five months late for its inspection."
Berto shoved a hand over his face, but it wasn't enough to hide the fact that his cheeks were a little darker. "Yeah. Thanks. No, I really think you're helping me out here, man."
"Bad time to mention that she votes for both parties?" Billy teased.
Emily just giggled. "And independents," she added. "Although I'm pretty sure I did vote for you last time. I mean, if that makes it better."
"I didn't," Ash said. "No way I'm voting for some right-wing nutjob."
"Hush, Libtard," Berto shot back, but his smile made it clear he was just having fun.
