“Leave the windows open. The only other thing I want you to do is listen for gunshots.”
“Gunshots?”
“Yes. Point east for me.”
She pointed to the east.
“Very good. You’d be amazed at how many people don’t know their directions. We’ve got two deputies out on horseback making their rounds. Their instructions are to fire two quick shots at any sign of trouble. If you hear two quick shots, use the ham radio and call for me immediately. And tell me whether they came from the east or the west.”
“Yes, sir. Anything else?”
“Nope. That’s about it. I mean, this office hasn’t been used in over a year. It’s in sad shape. I’m sure that if you get bored between visitors you can find something to keep you busy. Are you one of those type of people who will get offended if I ask them to straighten things up or sweep a floor occasionally?”
“No sir. I’m the type of person who will straighten up or sweep a floor before you have to ask.”
He smiled. He liked that answer. This girl was smart as a whip, and eager to work.
They’d get along just fine.
-48-
“Hey, whoever’s on the desk. This is Tom. Can somebody let me in?”
“Ten four, Tom. How far away are you?”
“I’m out front now.”
Jordan was in the feed barn repairing a sagging door.
“I copied, Hannah. I’m heading that way.”
Jordan dragged the mesquite tree out of the way and Tom drove his old Ford into the yard.
“Hello, Tom. I missed you when you left this morning. I wanted to share some coffee with you so you could tell me all about your sheriff adventures.”
“Oh, hell, boy. I ain’t had any yet.”
“Then where’d you get off to so early in the morning?”
“I was going through old complaints, trying to make some sense of them. Some of them are more than a year old, filled out by people who are dead now. Or they were complaining about outlaws who are dead now. I had to throw away eight reports, for example, that were filled out about the Tony Pike gang.”
“If they’re old, why not toss them all?”
“Because some of them are still valid. Some of them name some pretty bad characters and tell of pretty bad things they did. In some cases the bad guys are still out there, and they need to be brought in to answer the charges and face the judge.”
“I thought we didn’t have a judge.”
“The city council is trying to talk Judge John Hardy into coming out of retirement. He’s one of the biggest landowners in the county, so he don’t need any more acreage. They’re trying to appeal to his sense of civic duty to get him to come back to the bench for a year or two.”
“Isn’t he the one you said was feeble?”
“Yes. In a lot of ways he is. But he knows the law. And even if he can’t remember how to tie his shoes some days, as long as he knows the law he’s good to go.”
“So what happens if they hire him?”
“Then I’ll give him the complaints that are still valid. Meaning, the ones where both the complainant and the accused are still alive and still in the county, and the ones where it appears a crime has been committed.
“He’ll look at them, decide which ones have legal standing, and he’ll issue arrest warrants for those cases. We’ll pick up the accused, and he’ll hold summary trials at the county courthouse.”
“What’s a summary trial?”
“Well, I ain’t no lawyer. But the way they explained it to me is that’s when the accused is brought before the judge and makes his plea. He can have an attorney present if he wants, but he’s not required to. The complainant can attend if he or she wants to present evidence, but that’s not required. There is no prosecutor or court reporter or any of that fancy stuff. Just the judge reviewing the evidence and rendering his judgment.”
“That sounds kind of… informal. Especially for a murder case.”
“These aren’t murder cases. Those will have to wait until the county hires public defenders and prosecutors, which they’re working on but say might take awhile. Not enough qualified people still alive, I guess. No, these are cases like petty theft, larceny, horse thieving, minor assault, that kind of stuff.
“When we arrest somebody accused of murder, we’re gonna just throw ‘em in the jail and let ‘em stew for awhile.”
“Interesting. Are you going back out?”
“Yes. I’m going to grab an early lunch first and talk to your mom and see if I can talk her into letting Zachary spend the rest of the day with me.”
“Mom, letting Zach go into town with you? Yeah, good luck with that.”
“Thanks. I’ll probably need it.”
Linda shook her head. She was obviously concerned.
“Tom, he’s only a boy. And he hasn’t been outside these gates in a year.”
“I know that, dear. But while you weren’t paying attention, your boy has done a lot of growing. Heck, he’s more a man than he is a boy. And it’s a lot safer out there now than it was when he first came in here.”
“But why do you need his help?”
“I don’t need his help. I can do it just as easy without him. But like I said, he’s growing up, and he’s been wanting to prove himself. He asked me awhile back to teach him some of the stuff I know about cars, so he knows how to get them running again. Well, it just so happens that’s what I’m going to be working on the next few days. So this is a great opportunity to let him try out his new man legs and get away from here for awhile.”
“What if you have to go out on a call, on some sort of shootout or something?”
“Then I’ll drop him off at the office first. There’s a pretty young girl we just hired to run the office. Her name is Dawn and she’s as sweet as sugar. Zach will enjoy being around her, I reckon.”
“What if he gets hungry, Tom, or frightened? He’s just a boy.”
“Oh, for crying out loud. He’ll always be ‘just a boy’ until you give him the chance to prove he’s more than that. And I think he’s ready to do just that.”
Zachary joined the conversation from the doorway.
“So do I.”
It wasn’t that he was eavesdropping, necessarily. It was just that Jordan, coming back into the house after replacing the mesquite tree, gave his little brother a high five and said he was proud of him. Zach had asked him why, then went off to find Tom to see if Jordan was pulling his leg.
Linda drew a breath. She’d have preferred that Zachary hadn’t injected himself into the conversation. But it was what it was. It was too late to change it. So she decided to hear him out.
“Mom, you all have been bragging about Jordan becoming a man, and taking more responsibility around here. Well, I’m not even three years behind him. And I’m capable of doing more than I’ve been allowed to do. All I want is a chance to show you guys that.”
“But Zachary, you’re my baby.”
“That’s just it, Mom. I’m not a baby. I haven’t been for a long time. And I don’t want you holding me back. I want to show you that I can do much more than you and Dad have let me do so far.”
The argument was over. She lost. All three of them knew it. She would place Zachary in Tom’s capable hands, and trust him to bring her youngest son back safely.
And she’d hold her breath until he did.
“Promise me you’ll be careful. And at the first sign of trouble, you’ll get him the hell out of there.”
Tom went to her and held her.
“I love this boy too. I’m not going to let anything happen to him. I promise.”
-49-
“Hello in the building! Kerr County Sheriff! We come in peace. We mean you no harm. If you’re in the building come out now so nobody gets hurt!”
Tom couldn’t help thinking that maybe it was a good thing Zachary was along for the ride. If he hadn’t been, Tom probably would have barged right into the abandoned farm implement company. Wouldn’t ha
ve asked if anyone had taken up residence there. Might have walked in on somebody and startled them, and been shot for his efforts.
Maybe having Zachary along would be ensure he’d be cautious and take no unnecessary chances.
In any event, it was an unnecessary precaution. No one came out of the building. It was deserted.
As they looked through the place, it was apparent it had been ransacked at least once, and maybe multiple times.
The cash register was on the floor, shattered into pieces. Probably done just after the crisis, before looters realized that money no longer had any value.
On the end of the sales counter, empty racks advertised Lay’s Potato Chips and Hostess Snacks, yet none were anywhere in sight. In the corner of the room, a soda machine lay on its side, its door pried open and all its drinks long gone.
“Okay, Zach, what we’re looking for is batteries. Great big ones. They’ll look like car batteries almost. They may be in boxes, so read the labels. You search this room and I’ll search the other one.”
Tom moved into the back room of the place, which was actually the service bay. Two tractors were still in the bay, having been worked on when the power went out and then forever abandoned.
He didn’t find anything he could use, and was headed back to Zachary when he heard the boy cry out, “Jackpot!”
Zachary was beaming when Tom returned. On a bottom shelf he found four white boxes, with the words “Imperial Batteries Inc.” in royal blue letters.
He’d already opened up one box and taken the battery out of it.
“At least I guess these are the ones we need,” he said. “They look kind of funny, but I can’t figure out why.”
Tom smiled. He was happy as a clam.
“Yes, sir, little buddy, You’ve done good. The reason they look funny is because they have removable caps. Right now they’re dry on the inside, and that’s what saved them from being shorted out. Once we add some acid and water, they’ll work just fine.”
“So, how come tractors use a different kind of battery than cars?”
“I don’t know, son. Once upon a time, all batteries looked like this. Even the batteries in cars. You had to take the caps off occasionally and add a little water to them to make them last longer.
“Somewhere down the road, they started making sealed batteries for cars. Batteries you couldn’t get into. I don’t know why, but I suspect the government wrote some kind of regulation that told the battery manufacturers they had to do it that way.
“You have to remember, Zach, that the government ain’t happy unless they’re screwing something up. They’ll take something that’s working perfectly fine, and try to fix it, and break it so it doesn’t work so good. Then they all pat each other on the back for the good job they’re doing.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard my mom and dad say kinda the same thing.”
“Something else about laws and government regulations, though, is that there are always exceptions.”
Tom put great emphasis on the word “always.”
“What happens is that big government lobbyists will say, ‘Hey, that new law doesn’t apply to me, right?’
“And they’ll give the congressmen or senators lots of money. And lo and behold, they’ll add a stipulation to the law that says it doesn’t apply to so and so.
“I suspect that the farmers and agricultural groups got together and said, ‘We don’t want your stinkin’ sealed batteries,’ and made some campaign contributions to some lawmakers and got their exemption. And in the end, it worked out great for us.”
“Yep. What else do you need?”
“I need several things, but you won’t know which kind to look for. Why don’t you find a dolly and take these batteries out to the car? Put them in the trunk, and then come back in and look for more of them. Remember, if they don’t have removable caps, they’re no good to us.”
Zach smiled and rendered a military salute that would make a U.S. Marine proud.
“Sir, yes sir!”
Half an hour later they got in the old Ford and drove away. In the trunk, next to the four batteries Zachary had found, were several gallons of sulfuric acid, several tractor ignition switches, wiring and fuses.
“We made a pretty good haul,” Tom said. “But we still have one more stop to make.”
“Where’s that?”
“The NAPA store on Interstate 10. I got most of what I need, but farm equipment companies don’t stock starters and solenoids for 2012 Crown Victorias.”
“So, what happens when we get all the parts we need?”
“Then we go back to town and start work on one of the old cruisers. We’ll install a new ignition switch and replace the solenoid and battery. We’ll check the starter to see if it’s damaged, but hopefully it’ll be okay. The one in this car wasn’t damaged at all. The power surge fried the solenoid, but that’s as far as it went.”
“And then it’ll start?”
“Then we’ll cross our fingers and hope it starts. If it doesn’t, we’ll have to figure out why. We may have to replace some wiring and fuses and stuff. But hopefully, God willing, one of my deputies will be driving it home tonight.”
“Are you going to let me help?”
“Well, that’s the whole reason I brought you along, little buddy. Why?”
“Dad sometimes let me help him do things, but I wound up mostly watching while he did them himself.”
“It’s a common thing fathers do with their boys. My father was the same way. And to be honest, there will be some things I will do myself, but it’s important that you watch closely how I do it.”
“How come?”
“Because when we do the second car, you’re gonna do the work. All I’m gonna do is supervise.”
-50-
The pair spent most of the afternoon, working first under the hood, then under the dash. The last thing they did was jack up the car and put it on blocks, so they could crawl underneath and get access to the starter.
“I saved this part for last, because it’s the dirtiest,” Tom told him. It’s a lot easier doing the wiring when you don’t have grease and grime all over your hands.”
“So, how do you tell if the starter is bad?”
“You don’t, really. Not until you try to start it. What we’ll do is replace the solenoid, and this melted wire here, and hope she starts. If she doesn’t, we’ll crawl back under here and pull the starter.
“In your lifetime, son, I hope the world returns to the way it was. If it does, and if you work on your own cars some day, remember this rule of thumb. Always check the easy things first. And don’t ever replace parts you don’t have to.”
“Got it.”
Tom was removing the burned out solenoid when his wrench slipped and be banged his knuckles against the oil pan.
He cursed a blue streak.
Zach asked, “Do you want me to learn those new words too?”
“No, you mom would probably beat me bloody if you did.”
Zach laughed.
“Actually, I’ve heard all those words before, and even worse ones, on the playgrounds at school. I even use them myself sometimes when I’m with my friends. Or at least I used to. In the old days.”
“I hope you don’t use ‘em around your mom and dad.”
“Nope. I’m not crazy. I just look that way.”
Tom held out his hand, to show Zachary his bloody knuckles.
“Here’s something else I want you to remember, little buddy. There ain’t nothing shameful about leaving a little bit of blood, or even a little skin, behind when you work on a job such as this. My grandfather was an old farmer. He did all his own repairs, on his vehicles as well as his plows and other implements. He could fix anything, and he had the most gnarly hands of anybody I ever saw. His hands were covered with the scars of all the nicks and cuts he’d gotten over the years.
“He used to tell me, Tom, if you don’t cut yourself once a day, you just ain’t working hard enough.”
“Yes sir, little buddy. Now, run a line of the red wire from the battery down here, along the fender well. Leave plenty of slack, but don’t hook it up to anything yet.”
“Yes, sir.”
Tom attached the wires onto the new solenoid and then added, “Okay, Zach. You saw me take it off. Now you come down here and put it back on. Try not to bang your knuckles while you’re doing it.”
Deputy Paul rode up on a chestnut quarter horse as they were crawling out from under the car.
“Well, I’ll be darned,” he said. “It looks like the council hired not only a new sheriff, but a mechanic as well.”
Tom said, “Well, that’s only true if it works.”
He introduced Paul to Zachary, and told Zach to crawl into the car.
“Once I’m done with that last wire I want you to cross your fingers and try to start it.”
While he was working, he asked Paul, “So how did it go out there?”
“It went pretty well. Everybody in the county, it seems, has their own horror stories to tell about looters and outlaws. At least half of them have been robbed at least once. I told them to come into town and do reports so we can mete out some justice. Some said they’d come in, some said they won’t. A few of them said they’re just glad the violence appears to be over.
“And a couple of them already took their own brand of justice. Even showed me where they buried the outlaws.”
“How much ground did you cover?”
“Not a lot. The ranches are spread far apart in the hill country. It’s gonna take awhile.”
Tom called out to Zachary.
“Okay, Zach. Give it a try.”
Zachary held his breath and turned the key.
The car only hesitated for a brief moment before roaring to life.
Tom looked back to his deputy.
“Take this one home with you tonight. It’s your squad car now. It should help you get around a lot quicker.”
“Great. But how about Dave? He’s gonna be pissed that I have wheels and he doesn’t.”
An Undeclared War (Countdown to Armageddon Book 4) Page 18