Neely smiled and shook his head at the thought of Silo Mooney. "I haven't seen him since we graduated."
"He didn't graduate, if you recall."
"Oh, yeah.I forgot."
"Had that little problem with the police.ScheduleFour controlled substances. His father kicked him out of the house a month before we graduated."
"Now I remember."
"He lived in Rake's basement for a few weeks,then joined the Army."
"What's he doing now?"
"Well, let's say he's in the midst of a very colorful career. He left the Army with a dishonorable discharge, bounced around for a few years offshore on the rigs, got tired of honest work, and came back to Messina where he peddled drugs until he got shot at."
"I assume the bullet missed."
"By an inch, and Silo tried to go straight. I loaned him five thousand dollars to buy the old Franklin's Shoe Store and he set himself up as an entrepreneur. He cut the prices of his shoes while at the same time doubling hisemployees wages, and went broke within a year. He sold cemetery lots, then used cars, then mobile homes. I lost track of him for a while. One day he walked into the bank and paid back everything he owed, in cash, said he'd finally struck gold."
"In Messina?"
"Yep.Somehow he swindled old man Joslin out of his junkyard, east of town. He fixed up a warehouse, and in the front half he runs a legitimate body shop.A cash cow. In the back half he runs a chop shop, specializing in stolen pickups.A real cash cow."
"He didn't tell you this."
"No, he didn't mention the chop shop. But I do his banking, and secrets are hard to keep around here. He's got some deal with a gang of thieves in the Carolinas whereby they ship him stolen trucks. He breaks them down and moves the parts. It's all cash, and evidently there's plenty of it."
"The cops?"
"Not yet, but everybody who deals with him is very careful. I expect the FBI to walk in any day with a subpoena, so I'm ready."