We are miners
Hard rock miners
To the shaft house
We must go
Pour your bottles
On our shoulders
We are marching to the slow
On the line, boys
Freedom of religious worship and expression.
Drill your holes and stand in line
And his lack of political experience. Soldiers ready...
His positions on crime, immigration and gay marriage...
have earned him the endorsement of several Christian and family values organizations.
Can't you feel the rock dust
In your lungs
It'll cut down a miner
When he is still young
Two years and the silicosis
Takes hold
Freedom from the cultural tyranny...
and the new-age demagogues.
- I do mean citizen. - Yes, I feel like I'm dying
From mining for gold
What I'm talking about comes down to that precious word "freedom."
Richard Pilager cares about Colorado.
I always turn to nature...
when I need to sort things out in my mind...
to make sense of the world.
But our environment is under siege...
Under siege? Under fire? Under attack?
It's not under anything, Dickie. It's endangered.
I always turn to nature when...
Okay. Okay. All right. Look. No, no!
We'll buy 10 of the 20-second spots...
and you'll put a hold on the next 12.
All right. No, I'm here! I'm here!
I'm shooting the bucolic fishing thing...
and the press is gonna be here in about an hour...
and we're gonna have to give them a photo op and position quotes.
So have the helicopter ready on my signal.
If they get really pushy, I'll whisk him away.
Can't you find something less garish? Look at this!
- It looks like a French tickler. - It's supposed to attract the big ones.
We're trying to attract voters, okay? Not fish.
Folks. Let's set up for rehearsal.
Director guy, the trout are gonna spit this thing out.
No, Dickie, we just want you to go through the action, okay?
Nice and smooth, so we can get the camera movement down.
- We'll deal with the props later. - Let me get out of your way.
Okay. Let's start in nice and tight on the hands, move up to his face...
and then go around to the front.
Okay, here we go! We're rehearsing!
Roll sound.
Action!
You know, I've always turned back to nature...
to sort things out in my mind, to make sense of the world...
but our environment...
Damn it.
Our environment is endangered.
I'm hung up on something here.
- Here, let me get that for you. - No, I can get it.
Think I hooked a Russian submarine!
Dang, it's a whopper, whatever it is.
Oh, God.
Put that down. Turn that off. Now!
Turn it off, now!
Donna, we're scrambling here.
- What is the backup location for this? - Wilson's Creek.
Donna, we're gonna change location to Wilson's Creek.
Notify the press people and get the chopper in here immediately.
Dickie, you're on the chopper. Go!
- Somebody's screwing with us, Chuck. - I'll deal with it.
Find out who it is and cut him off at the knees!
I'm on top of it. Just go.
All right. People?
We're gonna relocate, and I want you all to follow Leslie...
to Wilson's Creek, okay?
Hey.
Come here. Come here.
Come on. Hold this. Hold it.
There you go.
Leslie, I don't want any of these people to leave...
before I debrief them.
- Should I call the police? - No. I'll do that.
- Sir? - Yeah?
What do you want me to do with this?
You don't reel it in, and you don't let it get away.
Boy's been through the wringer.
You understand how much we appreciate a low profile here, Sheriff?
I've already spoken to Captain Fox at the State Patrol.
You have, have you?
You do your job...
and I am certain that you're very good at it...
and I'm just doing mine.
Sheriff, I found something!
I don't think that's what killed him, Davis! Keep looking.
Enthusiastic kid. Just hired him.
Do you have any idea, any guess as to what this might be?
Henry does all the guesswork on the cold ones.
These people insist on floating to the surface on my day off.
Henry.
Chuck Raven. We met at the fund-raiser for Clark Hodges.
Right. You're Dickie...
We were just about to shoot an environmental spot...
beautiful setting, beautiful day...
then this happens.
I'm surprised you caught anything with this lure.
Kermit, my man! What's shakin'?
You might want to run the Dustbuster over him while you're at it, Lupe.
Boss wants to see you.
Just filling out my time sheet.
She told me to let her know the minute you come in.
What'd I fuck up this time?
Danny boy! My favorite snoop.
Mort, how's the real estate moving?
Got a big one on the hook, Danny. Just gotta land her.
Later, folks!
Mort the mogul. He's had a big one on the hook since the day I met him.
Danny?
I have a client in my office...
who's brought a lot of business to this firm over the years...
and I need you to be on your best behavior.
Obviously, we at the campaign...
don't want to seem too interested.
We don't want to be associated in the public mind with...
Why don't you just walk away from it?
That's exactly what I intend to do.
These things tend to stick in the public mind.
People get distracted from the message.
Gerald Ford falling down that flight of stairs.
And Carter whacking that little rabbit with his paddle.
I don't want my candidate remembered as...
As the guy who hooked a stiff in Arapaho Lake.
Exactly.
There's also the remote possibility that this is not a coincidence.
I don't think I'm being paranoid...
when I consider the possibility...
that one of our opponents had something to do with it.
You mean somebody put a dead body in the lake as a prank?
I'm not accusing the other side.
I'm saying that when you play this game to win...
you're bound to step on a few toes.
There are a few loose cannons on this deck...
people who hold grudges.
Who'd hold a grudge against Dickie Pilager?
Unless it was some hazing incident from his fraternity days.
I am the best at what I do because I have the best intelligence.
Here are three names.
These are people who I consider to be...
unstable enough or vindictive enough...
And you want them investigated?
I want them confronted.
Let them know they're being watched.
Don't be subtle.
A good, stiff warning.
Nothing actionable.
And, of course, the press is not to hear a whisper of this.
Totally confidential.
I'll expect a progress report by... next Thursday.
Happy hunting.
I ought to put a muzzle on you.
Sorry.
Okay, you're off jury prep. You're on this.
Don't worry about overtime or expenses.
I really appreciate your confidence, Grace.
Don't.
Peters is still in Grand Rapids chasing the trust fund kid...
and Kelly's stuck in court for the next two weeks.
What I want to know is, can I trust you?
I always pictured you in some smoky hole in the wall, hunched over your computer...
spewing your bile at the military industrial complex.
Yeah, well, it is a hole in the wall...
but I'm surrounded by a bunch of anti-tobacco fascists.
I think we call 'em pro-oxygen these days.
A bunch of vegans and computer nerds.
Half of'em don't know dick.
But they at least don't buy the official story.
You're some kind of investigator now, aren't you?
Yeah. Some kind.
Maybe you can do a little snooping for me for the Web site.
- What's it pay? - What do you think?
- Bupkes. - Yeah.
I don't really do politics anymore.
Debbie always said it was bad for my mental health.
Nothing I can do about it anyway.
Listen.
I'd like to run some names by you.
Cliff Castleton. Neo-fascist radio crackpot.
I've listened to Mr. Castleton.
Very big with the crowd that thinks our form of capital punishment...
isn't painful enough.
Casey Lyle.
He was a big cheese in one of the health and safety agencies...
couple of administrations back.
- Unstable personality? - What, compared to you?
- Thanks. - Speaking of unstable personalities...
Madeleine Pilager.
Nympho nutcase sister.
What is this you're working on?
Something that if one detail of it ends up here on Kill-The-Rich. Com...
I get fired.
You're no fun anymore.
Your Web site... for you, this is a natural progression.
You never wanted to be a mainstream news guy.
- Neither did you. - Of course I did.
If you hadn't talked me into pushing that fucking kickback story on Jerry Skaggs...
We were set up.
You could have triple-checked the information.
You're working for them now, aren't you?
- Them? - Them that run the whole deal.
Listen...
what do you know about the Pilager family?
Jeremiah Pilager, who comes here in 1870...
sells dry goods at cutthroat prices to the pickers and panners.
He accepts a land deed as payment from one poor sourdough...
which becomes the Pilager Seam.
So the lone wolf prospector legend?
It's a crock. Boomtown money, big mansions, extravagant lifestyles.
But when the silver bubble bursts in 1893...
Pilager's already diversified, and he comes out richer than ever.
These days, the family fortune has switched from mines to...
cow pies.
More than you can possibly imagine.
If someone doesn't dispose of this stuff from time to time...
the stock would be up to its sirloin in shit.
- The family business. - The flagship, so to speak.
The real money comes from their association with this gentleman.
You know the name Wes Benteen?
As in Benteen Ranch?
Benteen Realty, Benteen Medical Associates...
Gold Mine Communications, BENagra...
which produces the poo-poo the Pilagers clean up...
Bentel Stadium.
So he's the Bentel Corporation.
- Founder and CEO. - Big money guy.
- Mega. - And a real piece of work.
During the Iran-Contra thing, he sent Oliver North's boys a set of cargo planes.
He used blacks and Chicanos to bust the unions in slaughterhouses...
and then he fired half of them and brought in migrants without papers.
He's never once been hit on by the Immigration Service.
And he and the senator?
When Richard, the son, who is fondly referred to...
by his frat mates as "Dim Dickie"...
sinks his inheritance into Silver City, a ghost town with an abandoned mine...
which turns out to be abandoned for a good reason...
guess who bails him out by paying six million dollars over its original value.
Wes Benteen. A personal favor.
One contributor putting up over half the money for a senate run.
- Looks kind of fishy. - Unless it comes from within the family.
So, Dickie Pilager.
Not a public official yet.
Serves as a front to Benteen, bankrolling his father's campaign.
Benteen is in real estate. He's in cattle.
He's in publishing, media, mining...
utilities, waste disposal.
How much federal regulation do you think that entails?
When Benteen wanted to end health and safety inspections...
at his meat processing plant, SenatorJud led the charge.
So he wants his own man in the governor's mansion, someone corruptible.
There is not a corrupt bone in Dickie Pilager's body. He's just... What?
He's user-friendly.
Wes Benteen, Chuck Raven just say whatever they think will get them what they want.
Dickie Pilager is a true believer.
These are the guys you're working for, pal.
I wasn't even born when most of this happened, and it still pisses me off.
It's not like I'm helping them get elected or anything.
You're just trying to pay the rent like everybody else, right?
- Any dirt you can spare though. - Come on, Mitch.
I've got... professional ethics.
Chickenshit.
Seen Nora lately?
Nora?
No. I see her byline.
I hear she's engaged to some guy.
Terrific.
With the amount of federal money coming to the state decreasing...
I'm not raising taxes.
What about the shortfall in social programs?
I repeat, I'm not raising taxes.
We can't just keep throwing the taxpayer's hard-earned money at these perceived...
some of them, I admit, are real... so-called social problems.
We have to get our priorities straight.
Education is a priority. Health care is a priority.
Our economy is a priority.
The environmental...
The whole environmental, uh, arena...
that's a priority, big priority.
Building new roads and maintaining the present...
keeping the infrastructure in place, where it belongs... that's a priority.
What isn't a priority, sir?
- What's not a priority? - Yeah.
Is those matters which are less of a...
not that they're not important, but...
If you're gonna have a front burner...
which is where you want your priorities...
It's like cooking. There needs to be something sitting on the back one.
That's where your other organizations...
your church people and your organizations...
formed to help these things...
will be happy to pitch in if only government would get out of their way.
No, no. Press conference is at 2:00, people.
It's no fair trying to kidnap the candidate when we're late for a meeting.
One more question, sir.
- Where were you? - Gridlock.
Don't ever let yourself get caught out in the open like that again.
Who's that chick in the red? She's on me again.
- The newswoman? - Yeah, whatever.
That's Nora Allardyce. She writes for the Defender.
She was on my DWI's. All that stuff from 10 years ago.
Give it a rest.
She'll back off.
I got something in the works.
Debbie?
Debbie.
Rocky Mountains that I love so much...
are part of our national heritage.
They're something we must keep safe for future generations.
Debbie?
We have to stimulate the economy.
We have to encourage investment...
to get America working again.
Richard Pilager cares about the elderly.
Our senior citizens are the ones...
There used to be a couch here.
"D-Day."
"Call movers."
She's been planning this for fucking weeks.
"Sorry, but I had to do this.
Don't try to find me.
I'll call you when you calm down."
Modern life challenges the nuclear family.
I want to nurture that family...
to protect and promote those traditional values...
which are the backbone of our American...
I'm extremely calm.
Paid for by Citizens for Responsible Government.
So, officially, you're not here.
- Yeah, the candidate... - I got the message from his people.
This guy's seriously dead.
Smells of... What?
- Apricots. - Yeah.
CBI sent a pathologist out, took some tissue samples.
"Cause of death:
Deceased suffered multiple fractures including trauma to the skull...
crushed rib cage and damage to internal organs consistent with a fall."
- Fall from what? - That's manner of death.
I left that blank so far.
Pathologist faxed me this.
- "A residue of cyanide... - He was poisoned too?
Was present on hair and skin...
but none was present in lungs, stomach or liver."
Like he'd been dipped in the stuff. What else?
- "Chlorine in the lungs." - Like from a swimming pool, chlorine?
Your guess is as good as mine. I'm just a county coroner with a law degree.
Any idea who he is? Was.
Hispanic male, late 20s, early 30s.
- He's dark, but how do you get Hispanic? - Check out the dental work.
See, that kind of gold, we're talking Mexico, maybe Guatemala.
Probably a manual laborer.
There's heavy callousing on the hands.
Here's where the fish hook snagged him.
Any I D on his clothes?
Bought his shoes at Wal-Mart.
Other than that, he's just anotherJuan Doe.
This is his only distinguishing feature.
Can I take a photograph of that?
Have one of mine.
You!
You're the one working for the Pilagers.
I'm not here officially.
I'm supposed to keep you in the loop on this.
Danny O'Brien.
You used to write for the Mountain Monitor.
When it existed, yeah.
- And you are? - Timberline County SheriffJoe Skaggs.
I used to know a Jerry Skaggs.
- My brother. - How's he doing?
He died a year ago of colon cancer.
- I'm sorry to hear that. - No, you're not.
This should be totally routine...
so don't go making it complicated.
I wouldn't think of it. You know who he is?
CBI has nothing on his fingerprints.
The falls we get...
it's usually one of our many climbing enthusiasts up from Boulder.
They wander off the trail to admire the view, you know.
Have you checked the stomach for granola?
Sorry.
He's got that...
crossed-the-border-crammed-in-a-car-trunk look to him.
We find a lot of those boys out in the bush.
We never do get an I D.
If you do stumble on anything that pertains to this case...
what's the first call you're gonna make?
Timberline Sheriff' s Department.
If anything goes public before I know about it...
I'm coming after your ass.
See you, Henry.
I don't think he likes you.
Russell, I can sense your frustration. But what's your point?
Okay, we go run their dictators out of the country...
and suddenly it's our responsibility to pay for reconstruction?
If I have Terminix come over to get rid of some vermin...
they hand me the bill, not the other way around.
I'm with you a hundred percent, my friend.
It's the price of democracy, and it's only fair they're the ones to pay it.
Listen, we're out of time, but I appreciate all your calls today...
especially that wing nut from Boulder.
Eat some red meat, buddy. Your brain needs the protein. This is Cliff Castleton.
You've been listening to The Hot Seat on KQRY...
the free voice... of the American Rockies.
- Mr. Castleton. - Talk to me.
Danny O'Brien. I'm here sort of on behalf of the Pilager campaign.
Dickie didn't send you over. His little pit bull did.
- That would be? - Chuck Raven.
You know Mr. Raven.
Chucky and I go back to campus politics.
You know the American Students' League?
The information tables at the airport?
Something about nuking Jane Fonda.
God, we miss her.
So you and Mr. Raven were college buddies?
I was in line to be national president of the ASL.
The right wing answer to Abbie Hoffman.
There was going to be an orderly succession...
strict adherence to parliamentary procedures...
when we start hearing about credential challenges at the regional chapters.
- And behind this is? - Chuck Raven.
Mr. If You Can't Win The Game, Just Change The Rules.
We come to the convention, we've got two sets of delegates fighting over the seats.
Bedlam. We have to kick it up to the party for a ruling.
Totally humiliating. This is when the Democrats were riding high.
So we become this embarrassment.
- And who's the man to make the decision? - I have no...
- Judson Pilager. - The senator.
Who Chuck Raven has been carefully cultivating, knowing this would come up.
He wrote his damn thesis on the senator, went to picnics with the family.
I'm not only screwed in the election.
From that moment on, I'm persona non grata with the party.
So you tell Chucky whatever he wants, he can go fuck himself.
You're being watched.
What?
He wants you to know you're being watched.
There's a perception that you might have it in for the candidate.
There's more than a perception.
I let the little snot have it with both barrels at least once a broadcast.
They think they can get me to back down by investigating me?
He's wishy-washy on right to life.
He's got no plans for dealing with this alien invasion we're in the midst of.
You go to Pueblo, English is the second language, if not the third.
He's a draft dodger and a mama's boy and a dimwit.
If he wasn't running against a known communist, I'd run him out of the state.
What I'm saying is...
if you were to do anything illegal to embarrass the candidate...
If I were to paste you one in the mouth right now, would that be illegal?
I don't think that'll be necessary.
You come into my studio with threats and intimidation.
- Thank you for your time. - Tell Chuck Raven I'm not afraid of him!
I'll convey your sentiments. Best luck with your show.
He wants a piece of me, he knows where to find me!
Little prick wouldn't last 30 seconds on the air with me!
I want them dead in the water!
Listen to me. Lf, when we are finished here...
if he can still show his face in the state of Colorado...
we will have failed our mission!
Okay?
Just do it.
Okay.
So how did it go with our friends from Cherry Hills?
I think they get it. They can finance the attack campaign...
Public information outreach.
As long as it's limited to phone calls and print material...
financed directly through the educational committee they set up.
And we provide them with...
Advise them.
Advise them on which agency to hire on the content of the print material...
and the text for the phone messages.
We give them voter lists, home and work numbers...
Stephanie, getJim Wilkinson at The Defender...
and when my call from Washington comes through, get it to me right away.
When will these ads get here?
- Where the hell is he? - He's in with his spiritual advisor.
Oh, Jesus Christ!
He may be in there too.
We're talking about murder.
The murder of innocents.
There's a limit to what I can do on this, Billy.
It's the kind of issue that attracts a lot of people to the polls...
who wouldn't ordinarily vote.
If you were to take leadership on the issue...
throw the full force of your office behind it...
If you can get it on a referendum.
I honestly don't think it would pass...
not in the secular climate we live in.
But when Moses found the children of Israel...
prostrate before the golden calf, did he call for a referendum?
No, he did not.
Excuse me, Reverend Tubbs.
- We need him. - We're discussing the children of Israel.
We must obey the 11 th Commandment:
"Thou shalt not keep the press waiting."
With a planned community, you know what you're getting.
People own their houses, they own shares in the amenities...
but the corporation calls the shots.
This whole section here will be assisted living.
The lake is a nice attraction.
The lake is the key.
Half these people, they don't fish, they don't boat...
they can't climb a flight of stairs, much less a mountain...
but knowing it's there just around the bend...
- Live in the Rockies. - We're selling a dream.
Now, of course, a few regulations need to be...
The Development Association would be happy...
Which I pay into.
The association has to concentrate on some general legislation right now.
Any individual cases would be...
- You talk to Chuck Raven. - On a daily basis, yeah.
After all, he's the brains behind our future governor.
You need examples, specific instances...
for your general legislation, right?
Silver City would be a perfect model.
That wouldn't be fair to the other members of the association.
Showing favoritism would compromise my position.
But if you were to retain my services...
as a lobbyist on an individual case...
there's no reason I couldn't honestly serve both clients equally...
during my talks with the future governor and his staff.
Retaining.
So much of my cash is tied up with the acquisition of the land.
I could probably work on a commission basis.
You mean, like, a piece of the action?
Mort, the regulatory legislation that the governor is going to bat for?
I'm writing it.
What, do you think the association pays me to suck up to these people?
We're only that far from qualifying for an economic initiative subsidy.
Timberline County is on the ropes.
And if the State was to relax the soil standards just a fraction...
There's no reason we couldn't...
raise the river and lower the bridge at the same time.
How big a piece of the action would this be?
In the case of capital offenses...
I am absolutely in favor of the death penalty.
You hear stories about frontier justice.
You can bet that the wrongdoers...
the folks who couldn't play by the rules...
they had some respect for that.
And there was no...
Taxpayers didn't pay any...
If they had had taxpayers back then...
Those were the good old days, I suppose.
All you needed was a good, strong rope...
and a tree to hang it from.
So you support mandatory sentencing?
My message to the criminals is this:
You straighten up or get out.
There's no place for you in our state.
You do the crime and, by God...
you're gonna have to face your lumps.
But the majority of those serving time for drug possession are...
You want to change a behavior?
Stiffen the consequences.
There have been reports, Mr. Pilager...
that before you entered politics, you had considerable experience...
Look, if you're up in a helicopter, airplane...
you know, something that flies...
you don't want your pilot intoxicated with drugs, do you?
It's that way with our schoolchildren.
Junior can't read if he's high on crack.
Yeah, the air is thin enough up here. Yes.
The question you have to ask yourself is...
do you want your county to be thought of as one big Superfund site?
We've got Carbonville.
Or one big migrant labor camp? No offense intended.
Or do you want Silver City...
emerging like a shining phoenix from the ashes?
The land.
Bentel Corporation had no further use for it.
And, of course, it's been classified as a degraded habitat.
Meaning?
Meaning the environmental folks won't be breathing down our necks...
once we get this project rolling.
But the soil is still full of heavy metals. If you dig a well...
We're not digging any wells. We've got some folks downstate...
I'm pretty sure will be happy to sell us their water rights.
Why would they do that?
Let's say you grow your crop out on an arid plain.
Gotta irrigate the hell out of the land.
Gotta rely on federal price supports.
Now, you pull that price support out of the equation...
well, there's a bunch of farmers who'd be thrilled to cash in their chips...
for a healthy, onetime water settlement.
- How do you know that's gonna happen? - The price support is a line item...
pushed into the federal budget every year by our senator, Jud Pilager.
He told you that...
Chuck. Hot on the campaign trail.
- How's it going? - Good, good.
- You know our man here? - Governor.
Don't jump the gun.
You're 15 up in the polls.
Hey, I'd like to introduce you...
to some of your supporters out in the trenches.
This is the Timberline County Commission.
Please, don't stand up.
This is Phil, Ellie, Freddy Mondragón.
It's such a pleasure.
Hey, where's your electric train?
This is Silver City.
Really.
I owned a patch of land out where that used to be.
Pretty near lost my sh...
Mort is spearheading the development...
of some of the property in that part of the state.
Nice to see private sector taking a little initiative.
- Thank you. - Right.
You folks in Timberline could use a shot in the arm, and he...
Mort.
Mort is the fella that could do it for you.
- Have a nice lunch. - Thank you. You too.
Terrific guy, Dickie. He'll make a hell of a governor.
Still writing in restaurants?
Hi. Sorry.
So this is where all the politicians hang out.
And the humble reporters who cover them.
How's... Debbie?
She moved out... from where she was living, with me.
- Oh. Sorry. - Took the furniture.
I should have been suspicious when she bought all those boxes from Staples.
- So you were having problems. - Apparently.
We weren't...
Maybe she wanted somebody more predictable.
You're totally predictable, Danny.
You get involved in something positive, then find a way to fuck it up.
And you're...
I'm... fine.
Fine. They have me assigned to the governor's race, so...
- Listen, there's a work thing. - Are you still a private eye?
- Investigator, yeah. - Yeah.
Your friend who worked in health care with the migrants?
- Rebecca Zeller. - Zeller. Right.
- She still in town? - In the phone book.
- Sorry I'm late. - Hey.
Just greasing the rusty wheels of government. Hi.
Chan, this is Danny, who I told you about. Danny, Chandler Tyson.
- Danny... Ex-boyfriend from hell Danny? - Yes!
Hi.
I know you.
Really? I don't think so.
Yeah, on TV.
That was a while ago. The public statements I was making...
on behalf of the industry.
- You're a tobacco lobbyist. - One of our clients, yes.
You said there was no scientific evidence that smoking can cause cancer.
I see myself as sort of a champion of the underdog.
Every point of view, no matter how politically incorrect...
deserves an advocate in the court of public opinion.
I heard that you were with somebody new, but, hey, a champion of the underdog.
- Great. - It was nice to see you, Danny.
- Yeah. Right. - Rebecca Zeller.
Yes.
Keep up the good fight.
Thanks.
Of course, getting dentists to see Medicaid patients was never any picnic.
And then the migrants...
they'd rather chew aspirin for the rest of their lives...
than risk getting the I NS involved.
- Who hires undocumented workers then? - Who doesn't?
Nice, cheap labor who can't complain to the authorities...
if they're ripped off or mistreated.
Just continue around straight, Mr. Scarpa. That's it.
Do you have a list of employers?
Six months old.
A lot of these characters, these little construction outfits and whatnot...
they move around.
It's a place for me to start.
You really blew it, you know?
- With Nora. - Tell me about it.
She was devastated after she left you.
She seems pretty happy with this Chandler guy.
- Mercenary little prick. - You've met him.
I'm working for... this is strictly confidential, by the way...
a close friend of your employer.
The Pilager family?
Look, I only want to know if any of your workers are missing.
What, these guys? They're all missing. They don't exist, right?
Illegal.
Undocumented.
Whatever.
Look, this is a prep crew. The foundation, the frame and the roof.
I don't get into citizens until the plumbing and wiring go in.
- This is standard practice? - If you want to stay competitive, it is.
Look, I'm a subcontractor.
Bentel hires someone, who hires me...
and I hire a guy to go out and find these "trabajeros" on a job-to-job basis.
I ask him no questions.
If somebody doesn't show up for work?
My labor contractor makes sure there's somebody ready to take his place.
I don't know the language. I don't even learn their names.
It's like, "Yo, amigo," and you show 'em what you want.
The Immigration?
You know, the funny thing, working for Bentel...
we don't seem to have too much trouble from them.
Right.
- Corona. - It's conoce.
You don't say "sabe"when you're asking about a person.
It's...
It's not "el mano"?
It's irregular.
Like a gringo coming to this bar asking questions.
Irregular.
Right.
So what's his name, this tipo you're looking for?
I don't know.
Tough to find somebody, you don't know his name.
He has this on... la mano.
There's a reward for this information?
- There could be. - How much?
$100...
to whoever can put the name to this tattoo.
Tony Guerra.
That's the name.
- Who's Tony Guerra? - Speaking.
I'll take 20s if you got 'em.
What do you want with me? I gotta warn you.
I'm a citizen. I don't have to take no shit.
It's not you.
- How do you know that? - You're still breathing.
Where'd you get the tattoo?
Me and the lavaplatos from my kitchen...
we went out one night, I got a little borracho.
- You're a cook? - I'm a chef, por favor.
Up in Vail, with the ski bunnies.
We're talking blue corn polenta with mango-chipotle salsa...
free-range sage hens stuffed with chestnuts.
The tattoos.
I saw it on a wall in this place we went, liked the way it looked.
I asked the dude, "Lay it on me."
I keep my own records, you know, if you can call it that.
I have them sign when they come in.
I check their I D if they look underage.
Redeye Stinger. "Tony Guerra."
- He was pretty drunk, that guy. - No, not him.
Try earlier.
I only done one other stinger this year.
Do you remember anything about him? The other one.
Another Mexican. I think. I get so many bean-eaters in here.
I was probably just glad it wasn't her again.
I could do that tat with my eyes closed.
So, is this like a cop thing?
I imagine they'll get around to you pretty soon.
There he is. Lázaro Huerta.
And the caterer will be here very, very early.
I get up with the sun. How's my...
How's the candidate holding up?
Give it to me straight.
He doesn't have your head for policy.
I'd like to see him plowing his way through the appropriations bill.
He's never been much of a reader.
Well, we break it down and feed it to him bite-sized.
He's impatient. He's always been impatient.
He's knuckling down. You have every reason to be proud of him.
Publicly...
He's a fucking disaster when he's off the script.
I don't think we have to worry so much about him straying that far.
I mean, as long as nothing comes flying in from left field.
And what would that be?
In Carbonville...
right next to Everything For A Buck store.
I've looked up 18 Huertas in the phone book.
I've called them all.
Shit!
I seem to be missing a microwave oven.
If anything else comes up, I'll make sure to get back to you, Sheriff.
Okay.
She takes the broom, leaves the dustpan.
Story of my life.
Hello?
- Yes, hi, it's... - Danny?
Yeah. It was great to see you the other day.
You looked really good, Danny.
Hey, if this is about me and Chandler...
No, no. This is business.
I'm doing a little background on the Pilager family...
and since you're covering the...
I'm actually going to a function at the senator's house tomorrow...
a thank-you for their big fund-raisers.
If you promise to be on your best behavior...
That would be great. Chandler won't mind, will he?
It's a fund-raising thing. Why would he mind?
Nora, I've been thinking a lot about you lately.
Even before Debbie left, l...
Danny, stop.
It's too late, all right?
It's really sweet of you, but we've both moved on, haven't we?
Yeah. Right.
We're yesterday's news.
Sorry to bother you at this hour.
Good night.
Good night, Danny.
Richard Pilager cares about the family.
So, what did you see in him?
He was intense.
You know, he cared about things.
Oh, my God. He used to...
He used to write on the walls.
- Like graffiti? - In the house.
He'd be working on a story, and he'd get so wrapped up in it...
that he'd, like, get a Magic Marker...
and write all the names and important facts all over the living room wall...
and then he'd try to connect the dots.
So you had to live with it.
The landlord wasn't thrilled about it...
but Danny always painted over it.
You know, he thought...
This was when we were still at the Monitor, when it was still political.
He thought that journalists should change things...
you know, not just report.
He wanted to be the referee and not just the scorekeeper.
I guess.
When I was a press liaison for Fred Loomis...
we had a slogan on the wall.
It said, "You don't tell us how to stage the news...
and we won't tell you how to report it."
Terrific.
Power is a locomotive, babe.
You either hop on board, or it runs right over you.
Sounds like he laid down on the tracks.
See ya.
- Dinner at La Fonda? - Yeah.
He was the love of my life.
It rains like the dickens in these mountains...
but you won't see any streams running down them.
So where does the water go?
What you're looking at is honeycombed with hundreds...
maybe thousands of mine shafts.
When you stop pumping the water out...
over time those holes fill up top to bottom...
till there's nowhere else for it to go.
A huge pressure builds up looking for an outlet.
In 1943...
four miners broke a pick hole...
in a wall to an adjacent area...
that hadn't been worked in 20 years.
Water exploded out of that wall...
drove those four fellas and their equipment...
back through the shaft they'd dug, out into the main tunnel...
that Newhouse had built to service the mine...
blasted through an opening...
and blew the water clear across the river to the other side.
For three days, water blasted out of that mountain...
timber, tracks, loose rocks, half-ton ore cars...
flying through the air like they were toys.
You know, we think we can wound this planet.
We think we can cut costs and stick the money in our pockets...
and just walk away with it.
But someday the bill comes due.
This ore you're looking at...
assays out at about an ounce and a half a ton...
which can be worth your while...
depending on how much it costs you to get it out of the ground.
You gotta knock it down with dynamite...
throw it on one of those carts up there...
and then upstairs, run it through all the crushers...
and chemicals separate out the valuable stuff from the tailings.
Yeah. Now, if you want to move up ahead to under that stope...
and look off to the left...
you'll see what every miner was hoping for...
a vein of almost pure yellow stuff.
You can all fit in. I'll join you in a minute.
So you were a miner?
Mining engineer...
until I went to work for the feds.
Got interested in how to do the job...
better and safer.
That was under Carter. He put some teeth in the rules.
What's your beef with Dickie Pilager?
You're not here just for the tour, are you?
I have to inform you you're being watched.
Is that so?
There was an incident on the campaign trail the other day...
and your name came up as a potential...
- Perpetrator? - Something like that.
It's the old man whose guts I hate.
- The senator. - Him and his pal Benteen.
Take a good look, Dickie.
What do you see?
Mountains?
I see a big sign that says, "No Americans allowed."
You do?
You look at a map, they got half the West under lock and key.
They?
Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service...
national parks, the State.
Right. Right.
It's like a treasure chest waiting to be opened...
only there's a 500-pound bureaucrat sitting on it.
I'm a small government man.
That's why we chose you, son.
Of course, the people...
The people gotta be grabbed by the horns and dragged to what's good for 'em.
The people. You remember the shale oil?
Over in Parachute.
The big oil companies say they were gonna squeeze oil out of rock.
The people come flocking like a damn herd of sheep.
Thought they were all gonna get rich quick...
like with every other mineral strike in the history of this state.
But who's left holding the shiny stuff after all the dust clears?
Who?
- The folks that see the big picture. - Right.
That's me and you, son.
We're looking at it right now, all around us.
Right.
Couple of weeks, I'm gonna have to call you Governor.
You know what the big picture is, don't you, Dickie?
It's...
Privatization.
The land was meant for the citizens...
not them damn pencil pushers in Washington.
Like this Silver City deal?
Just a pile of mine debris I'm trying to unload.
Son, we got resources here you wouldn't believe.
Untapped resources.
You and your dad are the point men in the fight to liberate those resources...
for the American people.
Aspen, Vail.
That ain't shit compared to what I could build...
if they opened this up to somebody with some ideas...
with some know-how.
I understand.
And the people won't get it done...
not by a long sight.
They get distracted worrying about some postcard idea of the Rockies...
some black-footed ferret or endangered tumbleweed.
But if a man of vision were to come along...
I can see it.
How's that saddle feeling?
It's coming along.
We'll make a cowboy out of you yet.
We'd done so well with that one...
I took on the second biggest hazard in the state...
the Silver City mining operation.
Owned by Dickie Pilager.
He owned the land, but Benteen was leasing the mineral rights.
They go hand in glove, you know...
the Benteens and the Pilagers.
- They were still digging. - They had acres and acres of tailings...
piled up from the Silver City glory days.
Looked like a pile of trash rock...
but if you could process it on a large enough scale...
I'm talking about bulldozers the size of battleships...
you could make a fortune.
Providing jobs for the economically depressed.
A few, sure.
But then we started getting nasty pH readings...
from the watershed all around them.
Started getting fish die-off...
heavy metal residue.
The company said it was from the old mine shafts in these mountains around them.
There was nothing they could do about it.
Not true?
They were concentrating the gold in these huge leach piles...
and then dumping cyanide solution on them.
- They used cyanide? - Sodium cyanide.
It's a lixiviate.
Basic chemistry.
Smells like apricots for miles around.
I had an informant inside.
Or I thought I did.
Esparza... that was his name.
Vincent Esparza.
He told me they were pushing all the contaminants to one side.
No treatment, no containment.
Just leaving it out there for the elements.
And that was what's getting into our water system.
He even helped me plan my surprise inspection.
But when I got there...
nothing but a bunch of empty pits...
and a workforce with their lips buttoned.
I felt like an idiot.
I'd brought the press, photographers.
And your inside man, Esparza?
Gone with the wind. They said he'd been fired months earlier.
You got sandbagged.
Benteen, he doesn't take any prisoners.
He had his friend, Senator Pilager...
appoint a new man at the top...
whose only mission was to castrate the agency.
And who do you think got fired first?
Then they started allegations of misuse of funds.
There were even public hints about a drinking problem.
And when I tried to go back to work as a mining engineer...
I found out soon enough I was all but unhireable in the industry.
Yeah.
And then I figured, well...
since they accused me of having a drinking problem...
I just might as well develop one.
And even with all that, you still wouldn't...
They don't have to worry about me, the Pilagers.
I know when I'm licked.
If there's one thing I know all of you good folks have in common...
it's that you know a good investment when you see one.
A big part of our agenda is up and rolling on a federal level...
but it's high time we had somebody running this state...
who's a hundred percent behind the program.
Hear! Hear!
This has required a great commitment of time and finances...
from each and every one of you.
And despite the attack on our rights by Proposition 27...
you folks went out and you shook the money tree like never before.
So I'm here to present our next governor...
a young man who...
well, who's almost as good-looking as his father.
Richard Pilager!
I know none of you came here to listen to another speech.
But I'd just like to say how much I appreciate...
your support in this... effort we've got going...
to bring sober, responsive government back to this great state.
And you might as well pledge some money...
to my daddy's next campaign while you're here.
Thank you.
So, Mr. Benteen.
How's it look for the Prospectors this year?
- You a fan? - Sure.
Why?
They're fun to watch.
More fun when they win than when they lose.
- Sure. - Nothing to be ashamed of.
It's basic human behavior.
You can always pull for the underdog.
Americans don't have the patience for underdogs they used to.
They don't?
A coach goes three seasons without a ring, he's out on his ass...
as he should be.
Hendrickson has been off for how long now?
Hendrickson isn't coming back.
People want to back a winner.
They need to feel a part of something bigger than they are.
They used to advertise the quality of a product...
tastes great, whitens your teeth...
shaves close, rides like a dream.
Now what do they push?
America's number one soft drink.
Best-selling mid-sized utility vehicle.
It isn't "buy the product." It's "join the club."
You make people feel part of a winner, they'll follow you anywhere.
You a winner, son?
I like to think so.
Good boy.
You know, Dickie is not really a fine print kind of guy.
He's more intuitive.
My people have whittled the regs down pretty much to where we want them to be.
It's fairly simple stuff.
"Environmental Heritage Initiative."
Yeah, we thought it sounded better than "Developers' Bill Of Rights."
You breathe the word "deregulation," certain parties get a little uppity.
- What is he doing here? - You know him?
His agency is looking into something for us.
Really? Good luck.
What does that mean?
He used to be a reporter. O'Brien.
Till he screwed the pooch and bankrupted his paper.
Grace Seymour hired him on the rebound.
And when was all this?
I'm surprised you could find me. You must be some kind of detective.
So this Lázaro could have worked in a kitchen?
They bus them up from Carbonville every day.
Resort towns run on frijole power, man.
The richer the Anglos are...
the more of mis hermanos del sur they got working for 'em.
- Your restaurant caters too? - I'm moonlighting, man.
They're doing a big renovation. I got two weeks off starting tomorrow.
I figured I go up to Black Hawk...
hit the casinos before my ex-wife gets ahold of my paycheck.
How would you like to work for me?
You know who most of the labor contractors are.
What's it pay?
Whatever you make a day at the restaurant, plus 20.
- Private eye, huh? - Looks good on the résumé.
I'm thinking about the chicks, man.
In the movies, those cabrones make out like crazy.
You speak the language. You know how to get around.
So what happened to this Lázaro Huerta that he's not breathing no more?
Multiple fractures, busted skull, punctured lung.
Still want the job?
Thanks. Why did she dump you?
- Debbie? - Yeah.
Maybe she figured out I was always gonna treat her like the consolation prize.
I mean, after you, I kind of retired, emotionally.
We were... I don't know.
Incompatible?
We had our issues.
She seemed way too structured for someone like you.
Why did you dump me?
You were so down on yourself...
so convinced that you were a loser...
that I started to agree with you.
- I was a loser. - You lost a job.
You were moving up, and I was moving down.
And I didn't quit the paper when you were fired. That wasn't loyal.
- I deserved to be fired. - You were set up.
And I was ambitious.
So, are you marrying this guy?
Seems like the mature thing to do, yeah.
- That sounds exciting. - Come on, Danny.
It's not earth-shaking between us, but...
Romance is for kids.
We like to ski. We like to travel.
He's a corporate mouthpiece.
And I'm a part of the entertainment business.
What else do you think is out there?
Look, I hope you're happy with it.
No, you don't.
Come on up. There's somebody here I'd like you to meet.
- Stay in touch. Okay? - Yeah.