Grumpy, Sam and Sammy: A Murder Mystery and Thriller

by Anthony Newman

  This did not jive with what she saw as she drove up and pointed at more danger.

  “What can I do to help you?”

  “Let’s get him bandaged and out of the mine and then we’ll drop the body in the shaft. I’ll tear up my shirt and use it for a bandage. Come on.”

  He walked towards the shaft and she followed him into the shaft when he suddenly turned and said, “I forgot something and have to go back to the car. Go ahead and see how he is doing.”

  The tunnel was poorly lit, but she saw him grab for his gun, but he was too slow for she already had hers drawn and aimed at him. She shot three times and he fell to the floor.

  She walked up, kicked the gun out of his hand and said, “I guess that you were just tying up loose ends. I assume he is at the bottom of the shaft with Mr. Cole. Well I can’t be too mad at you because I was thinking the same thing. A powerful man like Collins didn’t get where he is by leaving loose ends lying around.”

  He smiled at her and his eyes closed for the last time.

  She dragged him to the shaft and pushed him over the edge and thought, “Damn, why couldn’t he have waited until we dropped Richards into the shaft?”

  She dropped Richards into the shaft and then cleaned up the area around the mouth of the shaft. Then she drove George’s car to the mouth of the shaft, put it into neutral and gave it a push. The tunnel was large enough that it bounced against the walls and finally came to a stop about 50 feet away from the entrance. She got in his SUV and saw that someone had tried to hot wire the vehicle, but had botched the job. She quickly found the right combination of wires, started the SUV and drove it to the mouth of the mine. She retrieved a bag from her Tahoe, opened it to see the C4 and set the timer to go off in 10 minutes. She placed it in the back seat. She started the vehicle and jammed a rock against the gas pedal, pushed the brake down and yanked the gearshift to drive and jumped out of the way. The SUV leaped into the tunnel and crashed into the other car.

  Jane calmly got into her Tahoe, drove out to the road and waited for the explosion. After a few minutes, she heard the blast and a rumble that shook the ground. She drove off towards Louisville knowing that she only had a few hours to prepare to disappear. Her mind raced going over everything from what to take from her apartment to how to move her money to safer accounts. Most of her money was in an off shore account in another name so it would be safe. She wanted to get her guns, jewelry and some clothes before heading out. She would not make it easy on Collins to finish tying up loose ends.

  She was on a plane at 6:00 a.m. heading to Miami and then on another to Brazil. She had bogus identification and a passport. She was confident that Collins would never find her. She retired that day.

  ***

  “Mary, I don’t like this. Those same guys passed us while I was talking to Walt. Mary, load those other magazines. Sam, please open those bags, get the gun out of the case and load it. Load all of the magazines that you can find. I may be wrong, but if I can run from these guys, we may have to fight them.”

  Mary and Sam quickly loaded the guns and magazines while Grumpy picked up speed. He looked back and the gang was gaining on them. They ran another car off the road trying to pass Grumpy. Another pulled beside Grumpy and hit the back window with a club shattering the window. Grumpy swerved towards him and knocked the man off the bike and it crashed into a tree. One bike pulled off to check on his buddy while the others swarmed on Grumpy’s car. They were pounding on the car with chains and clubs. Grumpy started swerving left to right and knocked another off his bike.

  “Dad, that guy has a gun.”

  There was a blast and glass blew in on all of them. They all received cuts and pieces of glass stuck to their necks.

  Grumpy poked his .45 out the window and shot the closest biker. Mary shot three times and knocked another off. Both bikers went cartwheeling down the road tumbling to a stop. The remaining five speeded up and all were shooting at the car. One got off a lucky shot that blew the back tire. Grumpy thought all was lost when several explosions went off in the back seat then several more. Sam emptied one magazine and then another into the five bikers. Two fell off and their bikes exploded when they hit the guardrail. She reloaded and started firing again. The last three dropped back and left as quickly as possible. He pulled the car to the side of the road.

  “Sam, stop firing. They are either dead or high tailing it out of Dodge. Mary, call 911. Let’s get on to the hospital. Tell them who we are and that we are heading to the hospital. Are y’all hurt?”

  Mary said, “I think I wet my pants, but I only have some cuts and glass sticking in my neck. Nothing too bad. Sam, how are you?”

  Sam was shaking and trying not to show how scared that she was.

  She replied, “I’m okay and have the same cuts and glass. Sammy is hiding in the floorboard. What was that gun and I want one just like it.”

  They were all shaken up and talking a mile a minute when Sammy uttered a low growl and climbed on Sam’s lap. He suddenly jumped out the window barking all the way. They heard a scream and cursing then a shot. Grumpy jumped out in time to see one of the bikers was trying to shake Sammy off his arm. Grumpy shot the thug twice in the chest and he fell to the ground. Grumpy stooped down and picked Sammy up.

  The biker looked at Grumpy and said, “That’s one mean dog.”

  “You got that right you piece of crap. You are dying and a little Shih Tzu ate your lunch. Go to hell.”

  The biker’s eyes closed and he stopped breathing.

  Grumpy looked at Sammy and said, “Good boy. We owe you our lives again. You will get as many burgers and fries as you want from now on. Mary, you and Sam come out here and watch for the bad guys while I change the tire. Let’s get out of here before they come back.”

  Grumpy changed the tire while thinking about what he had said to the biker.

  “Mary, I said some mean things to that boy as he was dying. I need to talk with the pastor about that.”

  Sam spoke up, “Dad, that guy was trying to kill all of us. Any God that I want to know would want you to protect your family. He came looking for us. We didn’t go try to cause him trouble. You are my hero.”

  He got the spare on and they took off for the hospital.

  Grumpy thought for a minute and said, “Sam, please wipe your finger prints off the gun and give it to Mary. Never mention your role in this attack. You were hiding on the floor with Sammy and didn’t see anything after the shotgun blast. I know you won’t like this, but I don’t want them taking you away from us. A kid killing thugs in a gun fight won’t impress CHFS.”

  “Darn, I shot four and don’t get any credit for offing the them.”

  Mary reacted with, “Sam, those men were bad, but they have families and mothers who care about them.”

  “Okay Mom. Dad, I won’t say anything as long as you get me a gun like that one. My lips are sealed.”

  Sam acted very brave, but was still shaking on the inside.

  They arrived at the hospital and several doctors and orderlies greeted them at the door. All three were placed in wheel chairs and wheeled into emergency rooms for treatment. Mary noticed that they were making a much bigger deal about their small cuts and scratches than was warranted.

  She stopped a nurse and asked, “What’s going on? Y’all are all over us and we only have a few scratches.”

  “Mrs. Jones, Grumpy and Sam are heroes here. Sorry, Mr. Jones and Sam, but everyone calls him Grumpy. They killed the guy who stabbed a guard and killed an orderly here at the hospital. They are special people. We will take good care of all of you.”

  Mary told Bill what the nurse said and Grumpy got a big smile on his face.

  Mary saw his face and said, “Now don’t get a big head. I might have to bop you on your head with a pan.”

  They finished working on Grumpy first and several KSP investigators were waiting on him.

  “Mr. Jones, I hope that you and your family are okay.

  “I don’t think a
ny one was hurt too badly. How are the scumbag bikers?”

  “Well, they didn’t do as well as you three. Four are dead and we think another five or six are wounded. They took the walking wounded with them. There were four bodies and two severely wounded when we arrived on the scene. What happened and who attacked them?”

  “What do you mean by who attacked them?”

  “We assumed that you drove up into an ongoing gunfight.”

  Grumpy laughed and said, “Those bikers attacked us. They tried to run us off the road and then shot at us. I tried outrunning them, but when they started shooting, we fired back. Those idiots couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn. Mary got most of them since I had to drive.”

  “Wait a minute, you mean that you and your wife fought off 6-8 gang members and only got scratches.”

  “It was 10-12 to start with and they targeted us. They were following us an hour before and got scared off when we stopped to talk with Walt, a Newton policeman on the side of the road. This was a planned attack on my family.”

  “Now Mr. Jones this is pretty farfetched. It still looks like you wandered into a turf war.”

  “Check their bodies, you will find slugs from my two .45s and my wife’s 9mm and nothing else. You have our guns; perform a ballistics test. Where is Joe Richards? I need to talk with him. He can help you understand the situation.”

  The two KSP officers quickly left the room and came back after a minute.

  “So you know Joe?”

  “Yes, I met him through Andy Cox, the Newton sheriff who died in a suspicious accident a couple of weeks ago.”

  “We need to talk with you. Can you come down to the office now? We need to find out what you know about Andy and Joe.”

  “Look, my wife, daughter and I were just attacked by a biker gang. We need some time to rest and get ourselves calmed down.”

  “Mr. Jones, we must have your help. Joe didn’t show up for his poker game and we found his burned out car about 40 miles east of here.”

  “Damn. Joe is a good man. I hope that they didn’t get him.”

  “Who are they?”

  “Wait a minute and let me say goodbye to my family. Hey, can y’all take them home and post a guard on them until I get back home?”

  “We were planning on that anyway.”

  Sam had been standing behind Grumpy and heard the discussion.

  She walked up to him and said, “Go with them, Mom and I will be okay.”

  “Okay Sam, take good care of your Mom.”

  He then whispered in her ear, “Tell your Mom to break out the hardware and be ready to dive into the safe room. Pick a gun for yourself and be ready. They might come again.”

  ***

  Sam and Mary got in the police car and rode home. They didn’t talk much.

  Sam checked her phone and heard, “Sam, this is Kathy. My Mom and Dad didn’t come home. I’m scared. Call me. Please."

  THE END -----but please, continue reading. The first chapter of the next book in the Grumpy, Sam and Sammy series follows.

  Power Can be Deadly!

  A Mystery Novel

  Featuring:

  Grumpy, Sam and Sammy

  By

  A J Newman

  ✼

  Power Can be Deadly!

  Chapter 1

  Grumpy was at the KSP headquarters for several hours being questioned about what he knew about Andy’s death and Joe’s disappearance. There were the two KSP officers that had met him at the hospital after the biker gang tried to kill him and his family and another guy in a suit who just listened. He told them about Jack Collins abusing his foster child, Sam, and her kidnapping. They all knew about the kidnapping and that Jack Collins Jr. was shot to death trying to kill Grumpy and Sam. Her dog Sammy saved them by attacking Jack and giving Grumpy enough time to hit Jack with a shovel.

  The senior officer asked, “Bill, I hear that you go by Grumpy. Do you want to be called Bill or Grumpy?"

  “Bill will be fine. I’m just getting used to the Grumpy name. That’s what people called me at work behind my back. I must have been a grouch back then.”

  “Okay Bill, tell us more about how Joe and Andy fit in to this.”

  “I think Andy and Joe were killed because they were investigating Jack Collins Jr. and that led them to something that Jack Collins Sr. did not want discovered.”

  The guy in the suit spoke up, “Do you know that Joe is dead? We have no proof that he is dead. Jack Collins Sr. is a pillar of the community, so be careful throwing his name around.”

  Grumpy got red in the face and said, “Are you on Collin’s payroll? That sounded like a threat and not an unbiased statement.”

  “I’m sorry if it sounded that way. Collins has lawyers and contacts all over the state of Kentucky. He will sue anyone who says anything bad about him.”

  “Well you won’t solve these two murders if you don’t dig in his sandbox. Andy, Joe and I have been followed by professionals. They looked like FBI types and Joe had to have his KSP buddies help him shake their tail car several times. I think they killed both Joe and Andy and are behind the gang who attacked my family.”

  “Do you know Nathan and Gail Cole?”

  Grumpy replied, “No, those names don’t ring a bell. Wait a minute. Are they black and have a daughter named Kathy?”

  The officer looked in a file and replied, “Yes, they do. How do you know them?”

  “I never met them, but a Kathy Cole is my daughter Sam’s best friend. Why do you ask about them?"

  “They were attacked and kidnapped earlier tonight. There was a lot of blood at the scene. Do you think this could be related to Jack Collins and the attacks on you and Sam?”

  “This is just too much to be a coincidence. Usually the simplest answer is the correct answer. Does Kathy know?”

  “While she must have noticed that they did not come home on time, she doesn’t know what happened. We picked her up a few minutes ago along with a CHFS caseworker. A Janitor at the college saw the attack from half a mile away. He called it in, but by the time the campus police got there, the perp and the Collins were long gone.”

  “What are you going to do with Kathy?”

  “Well, we normally turn children over to CHFS to take care of until we contact their families.”

  “My wife and I will be glad to keep her until her parents come back or family steps forward to care for her. Here is Greg Hope’s home number. He is the Regional Director of CHFS for this area. He will okay it.”

  Grumpy gave him Greg’s card and he called Greg and received approval for Grumpy to take Kathy home with him.

  Grumpy was taken to a waiting room where Kathy was talking with a lady. He walked in with the KSP officer and introduced himself to the CHFS caseworker.

  “Hello, I am Bill Jones and I know Kathy.”

  Kathy saw Bill, ran to him and hugged him.

  “Mr. Jones, mom and dad didn’t come home tonight and now the police came and got me and brought me here and I don’t know what is going on. Where are my mom and dad?”

  “Kathy, I just got here to take you home to stay with us until we figure this out. I don’t know any more than you do. Come on with me and we will get you home and in bed. It’s midnight.”

  The KSP officer told the caseworker that they had obtained approval from Greg Hope and she gave Grumpy a bag with Kathy’s clothes and left the room.

  Kathy and Grumpy were taken to Grumpy’s home by one of the officers, since Grumpy’s car had been shot up during the biker gang attack earlier that day.

  ***

  “Mary, wake up. There is a car pulling up into the driveway. It looks like a police car.”

  Mary woke up, grabbed her pistol and went to the window. She saw Grumpy getting out of the car and then saw Kathy with him.

  She opened the door and said, “Hello Kathy come on in. What are you doing out so late?”

  Kathy started crying and said, “My mom and dad didn’t come home.”

&nb
sp; Sam hugged Kathy and said, “You are welcome in our home anytime. Come on in and I’ll get us some ice cream.”

  Mary said, “Boy that sounds good, I’ll help.”

  They ate the ice cream and turned in for the night. Kathy, Sam and Sammy slept in Sam’s room and talked for an hour before going to sleep. Sammy licked Kathy’s face and sat in her lap until they went to bed for the night.

  ***

  “Ray, what the hell do you mean that things didn’t go as planned? I paid you too much to allow things not to go as planned. What happened?”

  “Sir, two of the targets were abducted and have disappeared. There was a failed attack on the family that resulted in a slaughter of the attackers and only minor injuries to the targets."

  "Clean this mess up and deal with your team that failed.”

  “Mr. Collins, My team has disappeared. They did not come back for the other half of their money so I can only assume that they were eliminated.”

  “Ray, that makes no sense. One side or the other should have showed back up.”

  “Sir, I think that the two targets were eliminated, but when my senior contact tried to eliminate his team things backfired on him.”

  “Is there any chance any of this crap will fall on my doorstep?”

  “No sir, there is no connection to you at all.”

  “Dismissed!”

  Jack Collins Sr. left the meeting thinking that Ray was wrong about there being no connections back to him. He made a call to sever that connection.

  “Jerry, you said that if I ever needed your services to call you at this number.”

  “Jack, it’s good to hear from you. I guess that I should be sorry that you have to call me, but even I have to make a living. Meet me at the lobby of the Radisson at 3:00 p.m. Don’t worry about cash; I know that you are good for it."