Characters in The Dune

• • • Anthony Wayland arrives at Beecher’s Pelican Point estate bang on seven o’clock p.m., just as promised. One thing the Judge has always appreciated—both in the courtroom and out of it—is punctuality, and the boy is punctual.

Harry Staines on Vamo Road’s a notary, and he’ll be glad to come over before he goes in to his office. He owes me a favor or six. You give that document to me, son. I’ll lock it in my safe.”

… are the words Last Will and Testament of HARVEY L. BEECHER. “You know, I’m kind of surprised you didn’t draft this document yourself. You’ve probably forgotten more Florida probate law than I’ve ever learned.” “That might be true,” the Judge says in his driest tone. “At my age, folks tend …

He remembers Jimmy Caslow of the Florida State Patrol telling him once that turkey buzzards didn’t just know where carrion was, but where carrion would be.

Once upon a time Mrs. Riley might have gotten nervous when he didn’t come out of the study for lunch, but now he hardly ever eats at noon (she calls him “nothing but a stuffed string,” although not to his face).

This time the name was Peter Alderson. It meant nothing to me until a few days later. It was my chore to go out to the end of the road and get the paper, and it was my habit to scan the front page while I walked back up the …

The boy’s actual name was Robert LaDoucette.” Again Wayland says, “All right . . .” The Judge thinks that sort of leading drawl could become annoying over time, but it isn’t a thing he’ll ever have to actually find out, so he lets it go.

Tommy Curtis, the caretaker, might notice him gone and come looking; more likely, he would just assume the Judge was locked up in his study, where he often spends whole days, supposedly working on his memoirs.