SIX

I dropped Della off in front of the abstract company and drove on toward the surveyor’s office with instructions to get plats and maps of everything surrounding the Coby Smith well site. I was back in an hour to find her hovering over a nervous-looking, dark-eyed young man in a brown suit who sat pounding away at a typewriter. Around them both orbited a fidgety older fellow in a tattered cardigan sweater and a printer’s eyeshade.

“This is Mr. Wolfe,” she said, pointing at the typing man. “And this other gentleman is Mr. Bobbet. And you and I are now in the abstract business.”

“What?” I asked.

“We just bought Bobbet Abstract and Title Company. I think I’ll change the name to Deltex Abstract. How does that sound to you?”

Before I could answer, she patted the typewriter man on the shoulder, and said, “We’ll also need papers of incorporation for an outfit named Deltex Petroleum. But you can do those tonight.”

He nodded and kept typing. She looked up at me. “Is Deltex all right with you? We could put your name on it too, if you’d like.”

“Oh, no you don’t,” I said. “What is he exactly?” I asked pointing to Wolfe. “And where did you find him?”

“He’s an attorney, and I found him three doors down. He tells me he’s a hungry attorney.”

Wolfe looked up at me for the first time, his dark eyes sad. “Very hungry,” he said. “I should never have come back here.”

“Why not?” I blurted.

“Because this is a terrible town for Jews.”

“I’m hiring his girlfriend,” Della informed me. “She’s a stenographer.”

“She worked for me for a while but I had to let her go,” Wolfe said over the mad clatter of his typewriter.

“I want you to examine this deed when he gets finished with it,” Della told me.

I nodded dumbly. Bobbet looked dazed and I probably did too. When Wolfe finished the paper, he whipped it from the machine and handed it to me with a flourish. It was a simple warranty deed transferring to Della and me each a half interest in Bobbet Abstract Company. The building was not part of the deal. It was rented, so for the grand sum of four thousand dollars we were getting some decrepit office furniture and a room full of battered filing cabinets that contained summaries of the land records for the entire county. Bobbet was just signing his name when the front door opened and a tiny, dark-haired girl in a black dress entered, a notary seal in her hand.

“Mona, how kind of you to come here on such short notice,” Wolfe said.

The deed was quickly notarized, Della gave Bobbet his check for four thousand dollars, and the place was ours. The young lawyer introduced Mona as his fiancée.

“Can you work late tonight?” Della asked her.

“Until I get some bills paid, I can work around the clock if that’s what you need,” the girl replied earnestly.

“How much do I owe you for the deed?” Della asked Wolfe.

“Is fifteen dollars too much?”

She produced her checkbook. “Not at all. And if I were to give you a retainer of a hundred dollars, would you promise that for the next few days you’ll drop whatever you’re doing and come running when I need you?”

Wolfe laughed and shrugged. “Drop what I’m doing? How can one drop nothing?”

“I take it that you mean yes?”

“You give me a hundred dollars and I will kill for you.”

As soon as the young lawyer was paid and out the door, Della poked me gently in the ribs, and asked, “Would you please go get me a hamburger and then vanish?”

“Sure. Vanish till when?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know. It may be late tonight so I’ll just take a cab home. Get a burger for Mona too.”

I went a few doors down to a hardware store and bought a coffeepot and a half dozen big mugs for the office. Stopping in at a grocery I picked up a carton of cold Cokes and a pound of coffee, then got them each a hamburger. I went back to the office, deposited it all on Della’s desk and then left as she’d asked.

*   *   *

It was a little after nine that evening when I heard her key in the lock. She piled her purse and an armful of papers on the bed and stood facing me with one of her infrequent smiles on her face. “Did you know there’s another well being drilled out there in the basin?” she asked.

“No, I had no idea.”

“Look at this.” She spread out a map and pointed with a pencil she pulled out from behind her ear. “It’s a mile or more west of the Smith well. And look here.”

She opened another map and pointed to where she’d shaded in several areas around the maiden well with a colored pencil. Just west of it lay a single large tract that hadn’t been shaded.

“All this land that I’ve colored in is under lease,” she said. “But this isn’t,” she said, pointing at the unshaded area. “It’s the Havel farm. Almost nine hundred acres. Its east property line is only about a thousand yards west of the Smith gusher.”

“And it’s right between the two wells,” I said.

“Yes, it is. And I want you to go out there early tomorrow morning and grab it.”

“For how much?”

“Whatever it takes.”

“Why is all this land around the Smith well already under lease?” I asked. “I thought nobody had ever believed that there was oil in this area.”

“Oh, they think it’s here, all right,” she said. “But until today they thought it was too deep to drill for it at current prices. Humble Oil Company has been doodling around with the east end of the basin for years. Back in 1939 they drilled one well, and it turned out to be a dry hole. But it was out of the basin and a mile and a half east of Coby Smith’s well.”

“How did you find out all this stuff so quickly?” I asked.

“A lot of it is in the records, and I know who to ask.”

“Well, how much an acre should I offer?” I asked.

“Humble got all this for ten an acre, but it’s going to be higher since the strike came in. Start at twenty and give him a two-week draft. But get it no matter what you have to do.”

One of the few things I knew about the oil business was that drafts were the normal way of paying for leases. By giving a draft rather than a check, the landman had ten days or two weeks to research the title and make sure it was good before the draft was paid by the bank. “What time do you want me to be out there tomorrow?” I asked.

“He’s a farmer, so that means he’s an early riser. Try six A.M.”

“It can’t be that early. I don’t have any draft forms.”

She gave me a quick smile. “I’m ahead of you,” she said as she opened her purse. “I went by the bank. And I had Andy go ahead and draw up the lease. All you have to do is cut the deal and get him to sign.”

“Andy who?”

“Andy Wolfe. The young attorney,” she replied.

“Where in the world did you find that guy?”

“Like I said, three doors down. I just asked Mr. Bobbet where I could find the nearest lawyer.”

“And you got a secretary thrown in on the deal.” I laughed.

“Did I ever. And she’s going to be worth her weight in gold. The girl has a natural instinct for running a chain of title.”

“I wonder why she hasn’t been working,” I said.

“She was helping Andy for a while, but he couldn’t pay her, and then she couldn’t find another job. They’ve been desperately trying to get enough money together to get married.”

“A marriage license is only a couple of bucks,” I pointed out.

She looked at me like I’d grown a second head. “A girl her age wants a real wedding, silly. Especially in Jewish culture. It’s all very traditional. I’m going to help her plan it.”

I could have told her that her long-thwarted maternal instincts were obviously at work. I could have told her that, but wisely I didn’t. “By the way,” I said instead, “that was a slick move you pulled down at the bank today, putting me in a position where I’d have to guarantee your check.”

She gave me a cold little laugh. “If you ever had notions of getting rid of me you should have made me take that mad money that night up in Vicksburg, because as it stands now you’re stuck with me.”

“How’s that?” I asked.

“When that check clears I’ll have less than a hundred dollars left in the bank in Memphis.”

I shook my head in wonder. “When you plunge, you plunge deep, don’t you?”

“Damn right I do. By the way, I went ahead and advanced Mona a hundred dollars against her salary. She works like a plow mule. I did myself a real favor when I hired her.”

“Why tell me?” I asked.

“We’re partners and I think you need to know what I’m doing. Now let’s find someplace to have some dinner before this whole town closes up for the night, and then get to bed early. We’ve both got a big day tomorrow.”