Free Blue Heaven by C. J. Box Page B

thousand eight hundred acres of it outright and the other one thousand two hundred acres deeded from the forest service, state, and federal Bureau of Land Management. He ran 350 Herefords in a cow/calf operation and sometimes, when the grass was good like this year, took in fifty to one hundred feeder cattle on a lease. It was the second-largest private holding remaining in the county. Hearne knew the herd size, deed arrangements, and layout of the ranch from memory, and didn’t need to open his file.
    Jess nodded. “There’s not much to say. I can’t make my payments, and I don’t see how that’s going to change, Jim. I’m broke. I laid off Herbert Cooper yesterday.”
    Hearne looked at Jess impassively, but Jess thought he noticed a softening in Hearne’s eyes as he spoke.
    “Calving is going as well as it ever has,” Jess said. “The alfalfa’s doinggreat with this moisture. I’ve got several calls from folks wanting to pasture their cows on my open meadows. But even with that …”
    Hearne pursed his lips. Silence hung in the air.
    “Everywhere you look,” Hearne said, “people are eating beef. Everyone I know, practically, is on that low-carb meat diet. You’d think the prices would rise. That mad cow stuff out of Canada is a red herring.”
    Jess agreed. This was a never-ending conversation, one they had had before. Meat-processing conglomerates controlled prices and had long-term options on supply. Jess had agreed to those prices years in advance, before the increase in meat consumption, before costs skyrocketed.
    “No one held a gun to my head to make me sign those futures contracts,” Jess said. “I’m not here to whine.”
    “I know you’re not.”
    “I’m not here to tell you everything’s going to get better, either,” Jess said. “It probably won’t. But I do know I run a good outfit, and I don’t waste your money or mine.”
    This was as close as Jess would come to asking for a favor, and it made him uncomfortable. He wouldn’t have even made the statement if he wasn’t still thinking of Herbert Cooper’s packing up. He had made Hearne uncomfortable, too, Jess could tell.
    “No one ever said that,” Hearne said. “I sure as hell didn’t.”
    Jess nodded.
    “It’s just that the day of the pure cattle outfit in northern Idaho may have passed us by,” Hearne said, his face still flushing as he did so.
    “I know.”
    “You’re land-rich and cash-poor,” Hearne said. “You’ve probably been following the price of real estate the last couple of years.”
    “Yup.”
    “Your place is worth millions, if developed properly,” Hearne said morosely, delivering news neither one of them really wanted to hear but had to. “There are ways to get out from under this debt, Jess.”
    Jess sighed. His back was ramrod straight, but he felt like he was slumping. “I’m no developer.”
    “You don’t have to be,” Hearne said. “There are probably a half dozen developers right now who would work with you. I’ve gotten some calls on it, in fact.”
    It hurt Jess to know that others knew he was in trouble, that he was a soft target. “I’ve gotten some calls, too, and offers in the mail. I used to just throw ’em out without even opening them. But the Realtors are getting wise to it and sending ’em in unmarked envelopes. Karen even came out yesterday with her new husband.”
    “You could diversify,” Hearne said. “Look at the Browns.” The Brown Ranch was the other remaining family ranch in the area. “One son runs cattle and a meatpacking facility. The other son runs a gravel operation. The daughter operates a guest ranch on the property.”
    Jess snorted. “I had plans like that once,” he said. “You know what happened.”
    Hearne sat back and sighed. He knew.
    The silence groaned.
    Hearne said, “None of us who grew up here wants to see you lose that ranch. I sure as hell don’t. I think if all of the old ranches are replaced by those five-acre ranchettes, like