by Dale Mayer
Walton shrugged and headed into the passenger seat of the truck.
“What’s going on here?” Hailey asked as they walked into the kitchen.
“I’m under fire,” the sheriff said, “and I’d appreciate it if you’d stop sending potshots my way. My job’s tough enough right now. The Longfellows run this town, and the Longfellows make life difficult. The circuit court judge is also on their payroll.”
“So much of the older generation is at an age where they will soon be gone.”
“There’s a gap, yes. I’m not exactly sure how it started. A couple different accidents? The thirty-year-olds seem to be rumbling for power. We’ve still got the fifty to sixty-year-olds fighting them, like Manfred, but they’re not winning. I think we’ll have a real problem when the old ones pass on.”
“I’m pretty sure that problem has already started,” she said, “because this property dispute here was never a problem before, not while Donnie lived beside us for seventeen years.”
The sheriff nodded. “Until Manfred moved in with his sons. Did you know Slim and Burgess are living over there too?”
“I didn’t know that. That would explain a lot,” Hailey said with a sigh. “What can we do? Obviously you’re in trouble yourself.”
Raleigh cast a glance where his deputy was seated. “It’s a little worse than that. I think my office and the entire department is bugged.”
At that, Hailey heard Carter suck in his breath. “Wow. That takes a lot of gall. Can you change the circuit judge or bring this up with somebody above you?”
“I’ve sent out a call for help,” he said. “I’m waiting for a group to come down. The trouble is, it’s not that easy.”
“No, it’s never that easy,” Carter said. “But I will stop harassing you if we can see it’s not a case of you being on the wrong side of the law. Because I won’t tolerate that.”
“I’m being slammed to the wall every day. I’m almost afraid my own house has been bugged.”
“Speaking of bugs, we can check your offices,” Carter said. “I had some equipment flown in.”
The sheriff looked at him and narrowed his gaze. “Go ahead and check out mine tomorrow. If you find anything then we can check out my house. Discreetly, if you can. If I try to get that kind of equipment, it’ll cause comments and further reactions.”
“True enough,” Carter said. “How many do we actually think might be involved in the takeover?”
“Like you mentioned earlier, I doubt it is the oldest Longfellow generation. Now that Fred is gone, we have the grandparents, the two brothers, Donnie and David Longfellow,” the sheriff said, “and their three younger sisters, but one has passed on, one is battling cancer, while the third is pretty amicable. I don’t think they’re involved, but each of them has several daughters and sons. That middle generation doesn’t worry me either. I think we’re in trouble with the three grandsons.”
“So, that’s Slim, Walton, and who?” Carter asked. “Burgess?”
Raleigh shook his head. “He’s an unsupervised teen. He’s a problem, but he’s his own separate problem. He’s working alone.”
“I agree. So Andy is the older grandson,” Hailey said to Carter, but she faced the sheriff again. “We can’t be sure that the women are completely out of this. But it is definitely a Slim and Walton kind of thing to do. Walton would get Donnie’s farm because Donnie is his grandpa. Their father, Manfred, doesn’t care about the land. Donnie hasn’t been the same since his wife passed away.”
“I think that’s when Walton started to get too big for his britches,” the sheriff said. Walton honked the horn in their vehicle, and the sheriff glared in that direction. “That’s the kind of shit I have to put up with.”
“What’s the threat his father is holding over you?” Carter asked.
“Not his father,” he said. “It’s still Donnie, David, and Brenda who keep things in town peaceful. Fred played a huge peacekeeping part too, but he’s gone now, so it’s down to the other three. Not for long though, I think. Once they’re gone, it falls to the next generation, but they aren’t the immediate problem. These younger guys think they’re big enough to take care of business themselves. And, in a way, they are, but they’re rash and impulsive. They’ll cross the line. There’s a lot of brutality among them.”
“Like the Burgess kid who beat up Diego’s granddaughter,” Carter said pointedly.
“If she’d come and talked to me, I could have done something about that. But she didn’t.” The sheriff glowered at Carter.
“Burgess isn’t already on your radar?” Carter asked.
“Good Lord. He’s just plain trouble but has always skirted the line.”
“Yeah, he’s a good decade-plus younger than Slim.”
The sheriff nodded. “I can talk to Donnie and David. I’m not sure it’ll do any good though.”
“But they must have some hold on you,” Carter repeated. “And that’s the reason for all this.”
“The hold is the fact that the Longfellows basically own the town, and they don’t care if they just shut everything down, putting everybody out of work. We can’t survive if that happens.”
“The Longfellows own everything?”
“It seems like it,” the sheriff said sadly. “What we need is some interjection of new money. We need the Longfellows to sell some of their business holdings so we can broaden the horizon of the town’s ownership.”
“What happens if you pick up all the grandsons and charge them all with the crimes they’ve committed?”
“The three eldest Longfellows—David, Donnie, and Brenda—have said they would just shut everything down. I heard that a couple years ago, but I doubt they’ve changed their minds. They planned to close all businesses from one day to the next. They’re old, so they don’t care. They must have money saved, so don’t need the property management income. They’re dying eventually, and, if their grandkids aren’t sticking around town, I don’t think they’ll consider the town necessarily something they want to keep fighting for.”
Hailey shook her head. “We have to get to the middle generation because they’re the ones who have to realize it’s all their loved ones who will suffer.”
“I know that,” the sheriff said. “But, in the meantime, I need somebody who can give me a hand dealing with this. I need to bring in all five Longfellow boys, counting Burgess. He’s nothing but a piece of shit. But I need to investigate that accusation by Diego and his granddaughter, but she doesn’t want to talk. At the same time, I need to contact the middle generation and see if they’ll do anything about the older generation’s threat to shut down the town. I’m not sure Manfred and the rest of them have any more pull with the older generation than they do with the younger generation.”
“How close is the older generation to making good on their threat?” Carter asked.
“I don’t know,” the sheriff said. “Too damn close as far as I know. I think these grandkids are all quite happy to have their protection right now, but …”
“What does any of this have to do with Phil’s and Fred’s deaths?” Hailey interrupted.
Raleigh turned to look behind him and then lowered his voice. “I heard Walton on the phone with Slim. It seems like they didn’t know you would inherit the company.”
She stared at him. “Who did they think would?”
“They thought their family would. Don’t forget Fred. He’s one of the old guys. He was the third brother—technically, he married into the family, so he was their brother-in-law. Anyway, Donnie and David Longfellow must have thought Fred’s finance company would be left to the family—to Slim in particular.”
“Why would that happen?” Hailey asked, frowning. “We have a partnership agreement that says otherwise.”
“Because Fred apparently told Slim it would.”
Hailey shook her head. “No, he wouldn’t say that. But Slim might have dreamed up that fantasy.”
“I don’t know,” the sheriff said, �
�but I’m pretty damn sure it’s all related.”
“Shit,” Carter snapped. “Do you really think that generation is so bad that they killed Fred to get the company? Potentially killing Phil and Betty too?”
The sheriff took a deep breath, then slowly nodded. “The trouble is, all my deputies are Longfellows.”
“When are the reinforcements coming in?”
“Later today,” Raleigh said. “So, I’m more or less here to give you a warning. I need you guys to stay out of sight. Things could get bad.”
Just then came a hard voice behind them. “What did you just say?”
Raleigh stiffened, then turned to see Walton by the doorway. “I told you to stay in the truck.”
“You’re not giving the orders here anymore, old man,” Walton said. “I’m taking over as sheriff. Hand over your badge. You’re done.”
The sheriff shook his head. “Boy, you’re so damn wet behind the ears you don’t even know which way is up.”
Walton pulled his weapon and pointed it at the sheriff. “Did you hear me?”
Matzuka stood outside on the porch, standing very still, waiting for the hand signal from Carter. Once received, Matzuka took one look at Walton, but, instead of jumping forward, he went right for his ankle and bit down hard. Then pulled up and back. The movement was so fast it sent Walton toppling forward and out of control. The sheriff lunged and grabbed the gun, then handcuffed Walton on the ground.
He swore from top to bottom while he did so. “Stupid damn kid,” Raleigh said. “That’s enough of that shit.”
“You need to take a moment here,” Hailey said quietly to the sheriff, “and find out who else is involved in this.”
Carter turned to Walton. “What’s this all about?”
Walton sneered at all of them before speaking to the sheriff. “It doesn’t matter, old man. When you think you’re safe, you won’t be. We’re all against you. Not one damn deputy in that department you can count on. Every one of them knows you’re done.”
“Thanks for that,” the sheriff said quietly. He took the deputy badge off Walton’s pocket and pinned it on Carter’s pocket. “You’re now deputized, whether you like it or not.”
Walton started cussing. “You can’t do that. We’ll take him out in the back alley and pop him one if you do this.”
“Just like you did Phil and his wife?” Hailey asked.
“Old Phil and his wife were pieces of shit. They were supposed to leave all their shares to their foster daughter,” he said. “Instead it all went to this Hailey bitch. Like, what kind of bullshit is that? Family first.”
Hailey gasped. “Angela? Your ex-girlfriend?”
“She’s not really my ex as we never broke up,” he said. “We’ve been seeing each other steadily since we got together the first time.”
“And the only reason you stayed friendly with her was because you thought she would get all those shares of the company? And then what? You’d marry her and kill her?”
He shrugged. “If that is the fastest way to move up in life, sure. I have no problem with that.”
“Is that how the old ones did it? Donnie, David, and Fred—is that what they did?” Carter asked, his voice harsh. “Step on everyone and take out the ones in their way, then just buy up whatever was left for pennies?”
“Sure, that’s what they all did—it was the way back then. Fred just became soft in his old age. Comes from not having a family of his own. And then all our parents got soft. They like the easy life. They just sat there and ran a bunch of businesses and lived off the income. No expectations of getting bigger. They were more than happy to start selling their stores so they had less to look after. Which just means less income for us. Like, how will that be of any benefit to me?”
“I see,” Carter said. “So, instead of letting your parents retire—did you know that’s what old folks do? They actually retire—you were all about looking at where your future money would come from. But not from a job of course.”
“Of course I was expecting money from them,” Walton said with half a gasp. “What do you think I am, a fool? Of course I’m looking after myself. That’s all anybody ever looks after.” Walton shook his shoulders and his handcuffed hands, then smiled. “Don’t worry. This is nothing because I’ll be out of these in no time. Dear Grandpa will fix this.”
“I wonder,” the sheriff said. “We’ll have to put it to the test, won’t we?”
Chapter 13
Hailey watched as the sheriff and Carter loaded Walton up into his truck. Carter, in his own vehicle, with Matzuka in the front passenger seat, took off behind the sheriff. Now Hailey was stuck at home doing a ton of ranch chores, but she also needed to get to the hospital to talk to her brother. The email Carter had sent her was a bombshell. She was still processing the information. That the creative bookkeeping was someone from her own company defied belief. She needed to talk to Gordon about the mess too. She pulled out her phone and called Debbie. “How’s Gordon?” Hailey asked.
“He’s sleeping again,” she said. “I’ve got a cot in here now. I’ll stay beside him the whole time.”
“Are you guys okay?”
“Yes,” Debbie answered in a happy voice. “We are.”
“Good,” Hailey said, “but look. Shit’s happening down here. I’ll run out and do the chores, and then I’m not sure what my next job is.” She filled in Debbie on what had happened with Walton and the sheriff. Then what Carter’s next plan entailed.
“What?” Debbie cried out. “Seriously, can you do that?”
“Obviously we’ve got a Longfellow uprising coming, and the sheriff is about to be deposed, and we need to stop whatever we can.”
“Carter has been deputized now?” Debbie said with a note of amusement. “You know what? That’s a perfect job for him.”
“I don’t know about that,” Hailey said. “He seems to be pretty damn good at a lot of things. He’s helping me find whoever has been cheating the company. I think it’s Andy and Slim together. Maybe more of them, I’m not sure yet. According to what Carter found one account is missing sixty grand and our ranch accounts were devalued. As if a takeover was going to be attempted.”
“Oh, my gosh, I didn’t know about that either,” Debbie said. “You didn’t tell me.”
“I haven’t exactly had time,” Hailey said. “We’re still working on some of it.”
“But somebody has definitely been embezzling from the company?”
“Let’s say, they’ve been fixing the books and making it look like things have done better than they have—or done worse, as the case may be. And maybe it’s to inflate the company’s worth too. I don’t know how far back this has gone, but I’ve got to get to the bottom of it. It won’t be easy.”
“Are you keeping the company?”
“According to Walton, Phil’s portion was supposed to go to his foster daughter, Angela.”
“But I thought you said it wasn’t. It was supposed to go to the other partners.”
“Yeah, the partners all signed contracts to that end. But maybe Angela was under the impression she would get it because she was the only family Phil had.”
“Well, good thoughts and all that …”
“Exactly,” Hailey said. “According to the lawyers, the company’s mine. But I’ve got a hell of a mess to clean up. A lot of hard feelings and a lot of suspicious looks. I’m sure an awful lot of bad attitudes go with the rest. So, it’ll be fun getting it straightened out.” Then Hailey paused. “But, right now, I have to make sure the ranch is safe and everybody’s fed. And I need to watch my back. I’m all alone here, except for one volunteer cop who has been watching the disputed fence line. The ranch hands are out in the pastures. I have no way to contact him so I’m not sure if he’s even still here. Anyway, I just wanted to make sure you weren’t heading home, and you were staying with Gordon.”
“Don’t you worry,” Debbie said, her voice firm. “We’ve still got a cop on guard duty here too. Nobody wi
ll get to Gordon again. He’ll have to go through that officer and me.”
“That’s what I’m warning you about,” Hailey said. She dropped her voice. “They will go through you to get to him. So please be on guard and don’t get hurt.”
Then she hung up. As soon as she did, she loaded her two shotguns she kept on the ranch and in her bedroom, separate from Gordon’s stash locked in the front room. Just in case she couldn’t get to those when needed. Then, carrying one of them outside, the ranch dogs accompanying her, she checked on the other animals. There were always chores when you ran a ranch. No days off. She never shirked her part of it, but she left the Monday-to-Friday stuff to Gordon because she had to work in town. The amount of work that needed to be done on a daily basis at the ranch was always hours’ worth.
As soon as she was done with the regular chores, she walked over to Smokey, her appaloosa gelding, and hopped on. With the shotgun riding across her knees, she took a slow and careful walk through the pastures, some of the ranch dogs coming along. From where she stood, hidden in the copse, she could see where they had found Gordon’s body. No sign of anyone was around, and the dogs didn’t appear to be too concerned with anything either.
The only difference between now and then was she wasn’t out in the open, and Gordon had been. The shooter had been in the trees where she was now. She slowly surveyed the area, but she found nothing here. Turning the horse around, she cantered most of the way home. After that, she took off the halter and the saddle, brushed Smokey, gave him a few oats and a slap on the neck, then headed toward the house.
She had had no phone calls since the sheriff’s visit. At the porch, she was wondering about him and Carter as she took the first couple steps, then tripped on the next step, slamming her knee into the next riser. When the wood splintered beside her head, she dove inside the doorway, dragging the shotgun with her. She swore softly and then stopped. That was close. The wood had splintered right beside her.
The dogs came crowding in after her, and she managed to slam the door just as they got in. Then she sat inside, her back against the front door. Now she swore out loud as she phoned Carter. He answered on the first ring. “Somebody’s shooting at me at the ranch. Almost caught me too,” she said.