CHAPTER 3 (Weds. Aug. 13, 1997)

        The members of REEK were feisty, but I found it hard to believe that one of them was a murderer. They knew removing Tim wasn’t going to stop the hogs. High-Country Pork, Limited would just send in someone else.

Tim deceived the citizens of Coyote County. His job description required it. Our job necessitated countering his ruse with facts and educating the public about the authentic impacts of corporate farming.

HCP’s parent company in China, Future Foods International, expected results and spared no expense to get the anticipated outcome.

HCP bought plenty of advertising in the local Grainville Silo so the newspaper never wrote derogatory stories or published letters to the editor that took a hard line against the company. When a particularly contentious meeting occurred, the Silo failed to report anything.

REEK members countered the local paper by peaking the interest of state and region-wide newspapers and radio stations. When these stories chronicled tales from other communities invaded by factory farms, Tim proved willing to mitigate issues. Perhaps he feared a national press article would alert FFI to call him and express displeasure.

I considered what I knew about Tim as a person. An average looking guy, maybe five feet ten, light brown hair, and hazel eyes. His usual attire included jeans and polo shirts, but he loved his expensive cowboy boots. He belonged to the country club and played golf with some of the other businessmen in town as well as one of the county commissioners. He claimed to be an environmentalist because he belonged to the local Trout Unlimited Club.

A single man, he flirted with and often complimented the ladies, even those who gave him so much extra work to do by fighting his operation.

He owned a place out near HCP’s farrowing site, raised a few cattle and gave the impression of a ’gentleman rancher’; one of those people who buy up the land and run some livestock to make it look pretty. He didn’t worry about the price of beef, whether the winter was bad, or whether the grass was good this year.

HCP sponsored a local Little League team and men and women’s softball teams. Tim attended most of the games decked out in an HCP t-shirt, featuring a cute little pig telling everyone, "I bring home the bacon." The company spent a lot of money to promote High-Country Pork.

Now Tim was dead. And dead in a manner I wouldn’t wish even on him.