Tortoise Soup Read Online Free PDF Page A

pass. There was no reason to go. Nobody would have thought of living there.
    “I’m Rachel Porter,” I said. “I didn’t catch your name.”
    His good eye blinked. “That’s because I damn well didn’t give it.”
    He quickly looked around in all directions, hunching his shoulders up to what had at one time been his ears, before moving in closer. I saw that his fingernails were as hard and horned as tortoiseshell, and what few teeth he had were dark, like small lumps of coal.
    “They call me Cammo Dude. You ain’t one of those government stooges, are you?” he asked suspiciously.
    I could tell I was about to step on a land mine. “I work for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.”
    “So you’re one of those no-good, jackbooted thugs who wants to take away our land and uses any eight-eyed, range-munching, rock-climbing, pseudo-endangered critter to do it?”
    The Dude was close to foaming at what was left of his mouth.
    I pointed down at my sneakers. “No jackboots here. I also don’t know of any critter like the one you’ve described, but I’d sure like to see it. And finally, did you say that you live in the pass? I didn’t think there were any private landholdings there.”
    The Dude backed off immediately. “What are you planning to do? Come in with some group of Rambos and kick me outta my home?”
    Bingo. Cammo was living illegally on public land. I decided to throw him some rope.
    “No. I don’t believe in that. I think as long as you’re not harming the land, it’s nobody’s business where you live. This is wide open space that belongs to the public,” I told him.
    Cammo hesitated, studying me intently with his one eye. Then he nodded in agreement. “You’re damn right it does.”
    I gave the lasso a tug. “But not everyone feels the same way. So I’ll make you a deal. You tell me whatever you hear about those tortoises, and we’ll keep where you live a secret.”
    I was hoping to add Cammo to a small list of locals I could turn to for information. Hermits living in the desert have a knack for knowing about poaching and everything else that goes on.
    Cammo thought for a moment. “You got a deal if you get rid of those damn helicopters you government stooges have got flying around here all night. A man can’t get his sleep.”
    “I’ll look into it.” I figured the ’copters had to be part of a training mission at nearby Nellis Air Force Base that would probably end in a matter of days.
    Having struck a deal, the Dude headed back to his corner table and I got up to leave. But before I was out the door, Ruby pulled me aside. The smell of her cologne almost knocked me over.
    “Listen, sugar. You want to find out what’s going on in these parts? You head over to see old Annie McCarthy,” she said, shoving a paper bag into my hand.
    I already knew what the package contained. Ruby had studied my eating habits over the past three months. Horrified, she’d become determined to save me.
    “The woman’s been here forever and is into every darn thing you can think of,” Ruby continued. “Word has it she’s dealing in reptiles, too. If something’s going on, you can bet your buns Annie’s gotten wind of it.”
    I trusted Ruby on this. She was my Information Central. If the tortoises weren’t part of a deal that Annie McCarthy was involved in, there was always the chance that she might decide to squeal on any upstart competition.
    “If she’s not at the ranch, she’s probably out checking her claims,” Ruby added.
    I had a hard time imagining an old woman out prospecting. “She’s a miner?” I asked, glancing inside the bag.
    A ham and cheese sandwich was accompanied by a shiny red apple. I looked up at Ruby and smiled.
    She pulled a lace hankie from her breast pocket and gave it a squirt of cologne. “Annie’s a crazy old coot who stakes a claim on every piece of land she can. She must have at least eighty of them in the area. She’s probably got a damn fortune in gold