Who is Skink?

Clint “Skink” Tyree is a seventy-two year old hermit, environmentalist, slippery as a skink, living off roadkill and keeping to the wild in order to thwart poachers and polluters. A combat veteran in Vietnam and former governor of the State of Florida, Skink grew disenchanted with politics and disappeared. Now presumed dead thanks to a report filed at his request by his best friend, Jim Tile, Skink is now free to do as he wishes. He encounters Richard on the beach while seeking to stop a particular poacher, and later relies on Richard to help him escape the authorities when he knocks the poacher unconscious. Skink decides to find Malley as a way to avoid scrutiny over the poacher, and becomes a grandfather figure and moral guide to Richard, urging Richard to always do the right thing. Skink and Richard are successful in freeing Malley, after which time Skink disappears once more so that he can establish a memorial scholarship fund in the name of Earl Talbo Chock.