Bad Day at Black Rock Page #2

This ain't no information bureau.

That's one thing about Black Rock:

Everybody is polite.

That makes for very gracious living.

- Nobody asked you here.

- How do you know?

- What about Adobe Flat?

- I'm looking for a man named Komako.

- Almost a disaster.

- Yeah, a fate worse than death.

You move fast for a crip...

For a big man.

How about Komako?

If there are no further questions...

Greetings.

That's the first pleasant word I've heard

since I got here.

My name is Smith.

I own the Three-Bar Ranch.

I want to apologize

for some of the people in town.

They act like they are sitting on a keg.

A keg? Of what?

I don't know:

Diamonds, gunpowder.

It's nothing like that.

We're suspicious of strangers is all.

Hangover from the old days. The Old West.

I thought the tradition of the Old West

was hospitality.

I'm trying to be hospitable, Mr. Macreedy.

- You going to be around long?

- Could be.

How'd you like to go hunting tomorrow?

I'd be proud to have you as my guest.

Thanks. I'm afraid I can't.

Because of your arm, I suppose.

I knew a man who lost his arm once

in a threshing accident.

He used to hunt all the time.

He was quite a man. He...

Sorry. If there's anything I can do

while you're around...

No, I was just looking for...

No, it doesn't matter.

You were looking for what, Mr. Macreedy?

I was looking for a man named Komako.

Komako. Sure, I remember him.

Japanese farmer. Never had a chance.

Got here in '41, just before Pearl Harbor.

Three months later, they shipped him off

to a relocation center.

Tough.

You don't happen to remember

which one they sent him to, do you?

Who knows?

Why don't you try writing him?

Glad to help you out.

I'm afraid you'd be wasting your time.

I've already written...

but they don't forward my letters.

They keep sending them back.

They do?

- Need any help?

- I can manage.

Well, I need a little help.

I'd like to rent your jeep.

That'll be $2 an hour. Gas extra.

- $10 for my time.

- Why not ask him where he wants to go?

He wants to go to Adobe Flat.

Is the road marked well?

Yeah, it's about six or seven miles down.

Fine, then I won't need your time.

- I thought you might need a little help.

- Oh, no.

I'll get along fine, thank you.

Liz, do you have a license to hire cars?

You might get into trouble.

I won't say a word to the sheriff.

You shouldn't have done that.

Thought it would be better if he went and

got done with it. What can he find out?

I wouldn't do anything to hurt you, Reno.

You know that.

This is liable to be the hardest $10

you ever earned in your life.

- What do you want?

- He asked about Komako.

- Do you think he'll kick up a storm?

- A storm?

- What about?

- I don't know.

All I know is that

I don't want no more trouble around here.

Never again, trouble.

You don't know anything about Komako,

do you?

I do not. That's the point.

The point is, what you don't know

won't hurt you.

Maybe there's something I ought to know.

Maybe there's something

I ought to ask you...

before the stranger returns

and starts breathing down my neck.

Tim, you're just a lost ball

in the high weeds.

I told you a long time ago,

nothing happened for you to worry about.

The thing is, I do worry.

Maybe I ain't much else,

but I'm sure a worrier.

And I'm still the law.

Then do your job, Tim.

What is my job, Mr. Smith?

I'd better find out

before Macreedy does it for me.

Macreedy will do nothing.

And neither will you, Tim.

- Suppose I decide to try.

- That might be dangerous.

You got the body of a hippo

but the brain of a rabbit. Don't overtax it.

Yes, Mr. Smith.

Tim, buy you a cup of coffee?

- From LA?

- Yeah, from that private detective.

What does he say?

Who is this guy, anyway?

Never heard of him, that's what he says.

He checked. There's no John J. Macreedy.

No listing, no record,

no information, nothing.

Where does that leave us?

I'll tell you where it leaves us.

I'm sick and...

Now, Coley.

- I think Macreedy's a nothing. A nobody.

- Is he?

- So there's nothing to worry about.

- Isn't there?

You got brains, you have.

What can he find out? That Komako...

Suppose he finds out.

A nobody like Macreedy

can raise a pretty big stink.

The point is,

who'd miss a nobody like Macreedy...

if he just, say, disappeared?

Who, Coley?

- Why don't we wait?

- Wait for what?

I mean, maybe he won't find anything.

Maybe he'll just go away.

Not Macreedy. I know those maimed guys.

Their minds get twisted.

They put on hair shirts

and act like martyrs.

All of them are do-gooders,

freaks, troublemakers.

Let's wait and see. There's no danger yet.

"No danger," he says.

This guy is like a carrier of smallpox.

Since he's arrived, this town has a fever.

An infection.

And it's spreading.

Hastings in a sick sweat,

running around, shooting off his face.

Doc getting snotty with me

for the first time in four years.

- And Liz, your sister, acts like a fool.

- She's only a kid.

Kid? She must have strained

every muscle in her head...

to get so stupid, renting him a jeep.

Tim the rumdum...

suddenly decides

he's got to act like a sheriff.

And he says there's no danger.

Of course,

if you want to take the chance...

- Not me.

- All right, then.

You're mighty quick to kill.

He's not an animal.

Well, listen to the little spitfire.

You miserable little toad.

I'm saving your neck.

- Lf I don't, who will? Tim? Doc?

- All l...

Your sister with the rocks in her head?

There's one thing about her.

She's got twice the guts you have.

- You're only fit for running away.

- And it's too late for that.

He's in this, and he ain't running no place.

All right, then.

Let Smith find himself a new boy.

I can't take it another day.

If you're a sheriff, they gotta respect you.

Otherwise you can't do your job.

They just laugh.

I don't laugh, Tim.

- Why don't you?

- Cut it out, Tim.

You should.

In the name of well-adjusted manhood,

get a hold of yourself.

Snap out of it. You're gonna have

a complex or something.

Four years ago, if I'd have done my job...

if I'd checked up

and found out what happened...

But I didn't. It was just like Smith figured.

What did you find out? They told you

a story, you had to believe it.

Would you believe it?

I don't know.

I live a quiet, contemplative life.

Me, I didn't even try to find out.

Don't you understand?

When you wear this badge, you're the law.

When someone does something

against the law...

then you're supposed to

do something about it.

Me, I did nothing.

That's what's eating me.

What kind of prescription you got for that?

I don't know.

Haven't found one for myself.

But there's one thing, Tim: Don't quit!

Why not?

Because maybe this fellow Macreedy's

got the prescription.

Well, if it's not Macreedy...

the world's champion road hog.

- Yeah, it's a small world.

- But such an unfriendly one.

Why'd you wanna crowd me off the road?

I'm sorry if I incurred your displeasure.

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