by Dale Mayer
“I ran through the cash pretty damn fast. It wasn’t much anyway. Maybe five grand.”
“Likely two to three times that. Pete should know. That sixty grand came from somewhere. Thirty of it came from Pete’s pension account. So you sure as hell don’t get to keep any of that,” she said, a cool note entering her voice. “If we find any of the rest of it is Pete’s inheritance from his granddad …” She let her words hang as she looked at Pierce to see him already sending a message on his phone. She figured it was probably to Pete, who likely would face even more shocks. She spun to look at Ross. “Is the rest of that money from stripping out the house and selling everything you could? Ignoring that the stuff really mattered to Pete because it was the stuff that would bring in the most money?”
“It’s just garbage,” Ross said, throwing up his hands. “Who gives a shit about a table and chairs anyway?”
“Pete did,” Pierce said, holding up his phone. “That’s a piece he loved, and apparently he’s more than pissed at you. And he wants to know how much and where you sold that, so he can go buy it back.”
“There’s no way. It’s already been sold,” he said. “I made a deal with a guy in town.”
“Which guy?” Hedi said, crossing her arms and staring at him with loathing. She turned to look at Pierce. “Any way to check if he’s got other bank accounts too? Seems like one might be too simple for him.”
Ross just shook his head. “Jesus Christ. You’ll make sure I have nothing left by the time you’re done,” he snapped.
“You mean, like your brother?” she asked.
“But the government will take care of him until he dies,” Ross roared. “Don’t you guys see how unfair that is? He doesn’t have to worry about nothing. He gets his medical coverage. He gets enough money every month to pay for all his needs. He never has to work again.”
“It’s not free,” Pierce said. “He was over there fighting for his country while you were sitting here drinking beer. Now he’s done his time and paid the price with heavy injuries, and you’re sitting here, in his house, like a jealous little schoolboy, wanting what he had without having to go through the work and pain he went through.”
“Whatever,” Ross said as he looked at the groceries behind them. “Since you’ve locked up all my money”—his was voice full of sarcasm—“any chance I can have a bit of that sandwich? I haven’t eaten all day.”
Hedi picked up the other quarter of her half and handed it to him. “I want to make sure you don’t take anything else from this place. Pierce said he will go through this next load of yours just as well as he did the others.”
Ross glared at her. “It’s my place too, you know?”
“No, it’s not,” Pierce said cheerfully. “The deed is in Pete’s name. You may have tried to get him to sell, but it’s his and his alone. And it’s also paid for. So, if nothing else, Pete has a place to live for the rest of his life.”
“Which is more than I have,” Ross said bitterly.
“You could have,” Hedi said. “You could have made arrangements to put a mobile home here or to build a small house or to even share this with him. But instead all you’ve done is take from him. Good riddance to you when you walk out that door.”
Ross shook his head, shoving the sandwich in his mouth, bite after bite after bite. And, when it was finally gone, he gave a heavy sigh. “At least I’ve got a full stomach.” He walked to the front door where his duffel bag was. “I don’t think you guys realize what you’ve brought down on your heads.”
“Why is that?” Pierce said. “What did you have to offer these guys so that they’ll be pissed off that Pete’s back at home?”
“It’s not about Pete,” he said. “Well, it is, but not really. I let them have access to the property for their moonshine, and, for that, they turn a blind eye when I move stuff out.” He grinned and shook his head again. “Jed doesn’t need an excuse. He’s just got blood in his eyes, and, for any reason, it’s an outlet for that anger of his,” Ross added. “I kind of wish Vicky would get the hell away from him. She doesn’t deserve it.”
“What about the Billy boys?” Hedi said. “They’re Jed’s buddies too.”
“Oh, yeah, they are, and you better watch yourselves. They’re twins, and, when Jed says, Jump, they ask, How high? They’ll be coming here tonight. Don’t you worry. Why the hell do you think I’m getting all my shit out of here? I want out before this place goes up in smoke.” He walked to the front door.
Pierce grabbed the duffel bag, took it to the couch where he dropped it, opening it up. He removed all the electronics that had been stacked up. “No way you’re taking Pete’s laptop or tablet. And this is a monitor. Stuffing it in here is hardly a good way to treat it. We’ll be lucky if you didn’t damage it. And where the hell is the desktop?”
“I don’t think it works anymore,” he said resentfully. “I need a laptop too, you know? I gotta find work now. How the hell am I supposed to do that?”
“You can try your phone,” she said in a conversational tone. “Which is probably Pete’s, considering it’s a brand-new iPhone.”
Ross shoved the phone in his pocket. “It’s mine,” he snapped. “You can’t take that from me too.”
“Guess that’s more to ask Pete about, isn’t it?” Pierce stepped off to the side, lifted his phone to his head and called Pete again.
Hedi smiled at Ross, who sagged on the couch. “You really have done it to yourself, haven’t you? Not only is everybody here pissed at you, but everybody in town, once they hear what you did to your own brother, will be too.” She shook her head.
There was a loud sound outside. Ross straightened up and said, “Shit, shit, shit. I’ve got to go.” He pulled the rest of his stuff into the duffel bag and closed it up, racing to the front door. As he approached it, a bullet went right through the solid wood, just missing him. He hit the ground, crying out, “Shit! Look what you’ve done.”
“Oh, yeah, I’m watching all right,” Hedi said from behind the window. Sure enough, there was Jed and the Billy boys. “You didn’t get out fast enough. You were too greedy. Now you’re here. You know they’ll make you take a side, and, if it isn’t their side, they’ll put a bullet in your head.” The trouble was, she knew she was right. That was exactly what they would do. She pulled out her phone and sent her dad a text message. You better come, and bring some firepower. Jed and the Billy boys are here, and they’re on a rampage.
Pierce barely managed to get connected to Pete when the bullet came through the door. From the corner of the living room, he stared at the three men outside.
Pete called out, “What am I hearing?”
“Someone just shot through your door,” Pierce said, “barely missed your brother. He was trying to run out with another duffel bag full of electronics, like your laptop and your monitor.”
Pete started swearing again. “That’ll be Jed,” he warned. “Something is wrong with him in the head. You better watch yourself. Somehow you’ll have to disarm him, but he’s got a houseful of guns.”
“Yeah, well, it’s not like any law enforcement will be of much help around here. Hedi is here, but she’s just one against three,” he said. He didn’t want to discount Hedi’s help, but Jed wouldn’t listen to her any more today than he did the last time. Jed didn’t respect authority, and he certainly didn’t respect women, so Hedi was a double target.
“And he’ll shoot you if he sees you,” Pete said. “Hedi’s dad needs to come.”
“Maybe. Call the current sheriff please,” Pierce asked.
“I will, but it won’t do no good,” Pete said. “That sheriff is useless.”
“Okay, but you and I both need to call regardless.” He hung up the phone from Pete and made a 9-1-1 call to dispatch, telling them exactly what was happening. “If that lousy sheriff of yours doesn’t get down here with his deputies, at least this recorded call will be produced when the higher-ups appear, investigating why he didn’t do anything. And he’ll ge
t charged with manslaughter himself for not stepping in.”
The dispatcher gasped. “I don’t know who you are, but the sheriff will obviously find out.”
“Go ahead and tell him. And your dispatch call had better be recorded. If it’s not, you can bet there’ll be hell to pay.” And he hung up.
He sent Badger a message, letting him know what was going down. This was getting ugly, and it was getting ugly very, very quickly. There was a short and hard response. Something about you do what you need to do. This needs to hit the news stations. And not a bad idea at that. He pocketed his phone and walked to the front door, opened it a crack and called out, “Well, Jed, here we are again, huh?” He shoved the door open and motioned for Ross to step out.
“I’m not walking out there. Jed will shoot me,” Ross cried out.
“Jed, Ross wants to leave. You going to let him?”
“Sure enough,” Jed said. “Ross, come on out here.”
But Ross shook his head. “Don’t make me go out there. I tell you that he’ll kill me.”
“What do I care?” Pierce said. “It’ll save us a whole pile of legal fees.”
Ross just looked at him, then walked to the couch and sat down. “I’m not leaving,” he said. “Outside is crazy land. Inside you guys might be crazy too, but you just might live through this. Out there, there’s no way I will.”
“Sorry about that, Jed,” Pierce yelled. “Ross has decided you guys are crazy, and he wants to stay inside with us.”
There was a heavy snort, and a couple guns were fired in the air as Pierce watched Jed and his two buddies pull together. They were talking.
Pierce took that moment to step out on the front veranda, freeing his revolver, holding it up. “Not one of you three are welcome here,” he said.
Jed saw him with the handgun and snorted. “What the hell will you do with that little peewee gun?” He raised his rifle, level with Pierce’s chest, and fired.
Pierce shot him and dodged left. He knew exactly where he hit him, and, when Jed started to scream, he knew the other two boys would shoot back. But he had already lined up his second shot and warned them, “I don’t care which one of you I shoot, but the next guy I’ll kill. That first shot of mine was a deliberate attempt to stop Jed from doing anything really stupid. But now I’ll take you down.”
The two men glared at him, viciousness in their eyes. They were obviously twins, both bald, pug-faced, portly, and packing a hell of a lot of firearms.
They stared at him, and one said, “You know your days are done.”
“He shot at me,” Pierce said calmly. “It was self-defense. He won’t be using that hand ever again though.”
The two men went to Jed, who was kneeling on the ground, holding his hand. Pierce knew the bullet had gone up through the bones and pretty well shattered them, blowing apart all the tiny little finger bones. Pierce didn’t feel much sympathy. The man was nothing but a renegade. He’d come here with murder on his mind.
The two brothers glared at him. “We will be back,” one said, as they all headed to the twins’ truck. With the current state of Jed’s hand, he shouldn’t be driving.
Pierce nodded. “Not a problem. Just knock and come on in. We’ll be waiting for you anytime.” And he turned his back on them, walking inside, shutting the door.
Chapter 8
Hedi was stunned at how Pierce had taken control of the confrontation. Certainly he’d had full right to shoot Jed, considering Jed was trying to kill him. She’d really like to see Jed thrown in jail for a good twenty years, until he sobered up, until his kids were grown and could safely lead normal lives. It will take them all so long to get over his abuse.
She stepped forward as Pierce closed the door behind him. “Was that wise?” she asked in a low voice.
He stared at her calmly. “I know you don’t know me well. But I’ve seen more than my fair share of assholes like Jed. The type of work I did in the military, we came up against insurgents who would just as soon kill you flat before they even said hello. And, of course, that’s the way the world is during war times. But it’s not just like war, it’s just like bullies. And you get your fair share of those everywhere. You can’t back down. Jed won’t go away. He’ll have to be stopped. This is a setback for them, but now the Billy boys will want justice for Jed. They need to take Jed to the hospital so somebody can attempt to fix his hand. But I highly doubt he’ll allow that to happen. He’ll grab a bottle and pour some on top of his wound, scream blue murder, feed his own anger and fury, drink the rest of the bottle, and then he’ll come back here, firing with his left hand.”
“You’re right,” she said. “That’s who Jed is. He won’t go down easy.”
“You realize that not only has his blood been shed but likely somebody will die tonight, right?”
She pinched the bridge of her nose. “This is well past what I can handle on my job. We need backup.”
“Then call it in,” he said as he gazed out the kitchen window.
She followed his gaze and saw the dog on the deck, watching them from the open doorway.
“Hello, Salem.” His tone was modulated. Salem just looked at him.
“Is she dangerous?” Hedi asked quietly. She took two steps toward Salem. The shepherd’s gaze shifted from Pierce to Hedi. “This is really bad timing to bring her into the fold. She’s likely to get shot herself,” Hedi warned. “Jed will see her, and that’ll just spike his temper again.”
“Jed has really got a problem with life, doesn’t he?”
“He does in a big way,” Hedi agreed, studying this man who stepped into this mess yet appeared to handle it easily, as if creating chaos was handling it. “But you could see that right off the bat.”
“He’s a bully who’s been pushing this town around, and the sheriff not only has let him, he’s supported him in doing so. I still don’t understand why.”
“They’re family, cousins,” Ross snapped. “Are you trying to get me killed?”
Pierce turned a lazy eye toward him.
Hedi almost smiled. “Nobody’s trying to get you killed, Ross. You had every right to walk out there at any point in the last couple hours, except when we were going through the material you were trying to steal,” she said quietly. “Feel free to go. You can still leave.”
“Even if they’ve left,” Ross said nervously, “they’ll be looking for me.”
“Of course they are. They’re looking for supporters, and you’re one of them, so they’ll be looking at you to stand on their side with a weapon in your hand and to shoot at us.” Pierce leaned against doorjamb, his gun still in his hand. “How do you think I’ll take that?”
Resentfully Ross just stared at him. “I think you’re all crazy. Life was just fine before you got here. Why don’t you pack up your goddamn bags and leave again?”
“Life was only fine because you were stealing from your brother, living on his land, and taking advantage of somebody who needed your help and support. Instead all you did was kick him while he was down and grind him into the dirt, taking everything he had, hoping he’d die soon.”
Hedi took a step forward, realizing she had a blood war going on here in her community too. “Just stop, both of you. Ross, you know perfectly well you’re capable of leaving anytime. Jed won’t shoot you. They might want you to join them, but, if you took off and didn’t come back, you know they couldn’t find you.”
He shot her another resentful look. “Who made you boss? The sheriff says you’re useless, just a pair of tits on a badge.”
“You mean a badge on a pair of tits?” she said. “Do you think I haven’t heard that before? Do you see the sheriff here putting a stop to this? No, of course not. He won’t get involved. He’ll come afterward and look at all the dead bodies, bring out a backhoe and dig a hole. You know he won’t put any more effort into it than that.” She smiled at him, seeing the nervousness as he understood just how much trouble he was in. “And you also know, if you’re part of that di
tch full of bodies, you’ll get the exact same treatment. He won’t go to any trouble to make sure your sorry ass is saved. As far as he’s concerned, he wants it all to go away, whatever’s the fastest and easiest method.”
“Jed will come back here, and he’ll light a fire to this place. I heard him talking about it before. He’s got gas at his place.”
“That’s an interesting thing to say,” Pierce said. “Because, of course, that’s the last thing I’ll allow.”
“Yeah? And how will you stop it?” Ross said.
“I’ve got a couple options. For one, I can drain all the gas on his place.”
Ross stared at him, his jaw dropping. “You’re going to his place? Are you nuts?”
Pierce drew his brows together at the insult. “If I just sit here and wait for the fight to come to me, I’m just sitting here helpless. I’m not into being helpless.” He turned to look at Hedi, studied her carefully for a moment while she stared calmly back at him.
“I know what you’ll say,” she said. “The answer is yes, but it’s dangerous.”
“You got any better ideas?”
She shook her head. “You’ll never find it all. Anything that can cause a fire like that, hell, it doesn’t take much. You can just light a match. Pete’s place is pretty old, and it’s wood.”
“And, of course, you don’t have any fire trucks here in this part of the county, do you?”
“There’s a volunteer fire department,” she said, “but they’ll be at least half an hour, if not forty-five minutes away.”
“In that case, we need to stop Jed. I should have shot out his kneecaps then.” He put his hands on his hips and turned around slowly in a circle.
She could see the ideas percolating as he tried to find the best solution.
His gaze landed on Salem yet again. She had dropped into a lying position across the doorway. He smiled at her. “You’re doing much better. You’re half inside now.”
He looked at the subs, opened the second pack, cut it in four pieces and picked up an end piece, working on it while he stood ten feet away from Salem and just talked to her.