by Tj Reeder
Jody asked Jim what the fall out was going to be over his being involved in the arrest but he just smiled and said well I figure the Sheriffs gonna fire me in a fit of anger and I’ll file a big law suit five minutes later and file to run against him 6 minutes later coz I need a job! We all laughed and Jody handed him the card for the Law Firm in Dallas and said he would call them about somebody to handle the law suit and they would contact him.
It sure seemed like a good nights work and we all headed back home except for John who lived in the gun shop.
When I got home I expected a full out war from Jade but she and Mary were sitting up with fresh coffee and some pie, we told them what happened and that was that, when I asked why she had not blown a gasket she said because Jody had made a tribal hand sign to her that meant possible danger and to stay back, I couldn’t believe she would obey that but she did, it came from childhood training. I wanted to know some of this hand signing myself!
Morning came and we were on the porch having breakfast when Jim drove into the yard, Jade was up and gone and back with a plate of food by the time he came inside the screened porch, he looked at the food and the three of us and said ya know I could get used to this!
He said he was now unemployed by the county and needed a job and said he had called the law firm first thing and they had already called in a firm to handle his suit and with the report from the DPS and the video from us it would blow the mess sky high.
Jim said well I don’t want any money from the county, things are bad enough as it is with those crooks stealing the place blind, and besides, I figure if I win the suit and refuse to take the money I’m a shoo in for Sheriff !! which got a laugh from us all?
Jody said he thought that with the lame break in and the crooks being Special deputy’s it would make the whole county take over much more simple and that was a good thing! And he proved to be right.
In less then 30 days the full story was out and the books were examined and found to be millions short, and with the IRS and FBI tracking things the hidden bank accounts were located, and locked down, the County commissioners and the Sheriff and his cronies were all in jail with 3 million dollars bond each and all their property had liens placed on it by the IRS, meaning they couldn’t use it for bail and no bail bondsman in the state trusted them to stay put for the trial.
Jim Daniels was elected by land slide in a special election, this all went so fast none of use could believe it, we had been prepared for a battle of months and yet one stupid arrogant old man too long in power and believing he was bullet proof had brought the whole mess down, and most of them were talking as fast as they could to try to cut their charges by helping, so far the prosecutors didn’t feel the need to deal.
The first thing Jim did was ask several of the young guys in the gun club to sign up as special deputies, he trained them on the fly, not all of the older deputies were rotten, most had just kept their mouths shut and waited to retire, Jim offered them places in the new department if they wanted or they could move on. They all accepted his offer gladly and started training the younger guys in the job.
Jim explained that he had an idea he took from a news story from the 80’s about a small county that needed several deputies but couldn’t afford them so the newly elected Sheriff just built a reserve department using a local retired FBI agent as the Capt. And a couple of older retired LEO’s as training officers, when it was done the county had only one paid full time officer and that was the Sheriff, the rest were local citizens who were willing to put on the uniform and work for their county for free and did so knowing their families were better protected then ever plus the money saved in wages bought a bunch of new patrol rigs and equipment for the troops it was a win -win situation for all concerned and Jim wanted to repeat it here, he said he could train and field enough troopers to cover the whole county 24/7 at great savings.
This turned out to be a very good idea as the volunteers numbered over 150 and after weeding out the ones just not able to handle it there was still 110 men willing to train and work a few shifts a month or when needed at no cost except for their uniforms and equipment.
All this in such a short time, the people were astounded at all the money that was recovered from hidden bank accounts, for the first time there was money to do all the public works programs that needed doing throughout the county, Another by product of the whole mess was finding out which contractors were honest and which were not! Contractors who worked with the old crowd would never work for the county again, things were looking good!
The old screen door squeaked and then squeaked shut announcing the entry of another hungry customer at the Early Bird café.
Around what was now called the “conference table” sat Jody, Jade, Doc Ellen, and of course me , John and Bob and Sally were running late because they were the business folks.
The man who had come in was a stranger to all of us but not for long, he came right to the table and one look told you all you need know, there is always something about Texas Rangers, they just always seem to all be tall and calm and sure of themselves. And this one was no exception to the rule, he removed his Stetson and acknowledged the ladies then looked at each of us in turn, noted how we were sitting and smiled , then said his name was Capt. William Slade , Texas Rangers , he nodded at an empty chair and asked if he might sit a spell, Jody said why sure Mr. Slade ,but the Ranger held up his hand and said “nope son, just call me Bill, my Dad’s Mr. Slade, he then shook hands with all of us and being a polite well brought up gent waited for the ladies to offer their hands first, I kinda liked that about him, most folks today don’t know a lady always offers her hand first if she’s of a mind to shake with a man.
Miss Ellie came over with the coffee pot and poured then said well howdy Bill, long time since you stopped in here, how’s Mr. Bill and your Mother doing these days? Bill stood up and just stepped over and hugged Ellie and said that was from mom, he then kissed her cheek and said that was from Dad, then he kissed the other cheek and said that’s from me Miss Ellie, and they are both fine Dad hates retirement, mom loves it and spends all her time dragging him to garage sales and such, he’s not a happy camper he finished with a laugh which Ellie joined in on. She said I can not see that man at a garage sale!
She then told the us that she had known this big galoot since he was still in diapers and his dad was the Ranger in charge of this part of Texas, after she left to start getting our orders Bill sat back down and looked around the table a bit then singled out Jody and said , Well sir I figure you’re the head dog in this pack so I’ll just address my words to you if you don’t mind, Jody just sat with a little smile and nodded.
The Ranger sat a moment collecting his thoughts then said, I’m here on my own, not as a Ranger at the moment and I don’t want to be here as a Ranger at all, so let’s cut to the chase ok? Jody still smiling, nodded again, Bill looked around the table and said I wasn’t born yesterday, and I do have a bit of a brain regardless of what my wife and Mom say, and after strolling thru the stores that have sprung up here and I must say I really like the gun shop and I like the prices on everything I saw, I just have to ask, what in the hell are you folks planning for?
Well that little bomb hit the floor like a cow flop, nobody said a word for a bit until Jody spoke up and said well sir, how about you tell me just what you see here that makes you think we have any plans of any kind.
It was Bill’s turn to smile and nod and then he said well lets see, the gas prices at the station are cheaper then any place for 30 miles in any direction if not the whole state, same for the food prices in the store and the gun shop is a shooters dream as far as prices go, I heard enough shooting going on back in the trees to know you built a range back there but you don’t have a sign advertising it, so I must assume it’s private or by invite only, adding all this to the demise of the old political machine in this county and the way things are being handled in the Sheriffs Dept along with County Government I’d have to say it looks like
somebody’s built a small Kingdom, benevolent of course , but still a very tightly run Kingdom, am I wrong ? these were his last words before sitting back and smiling at all of us around the table.
Jody sat smiling and then said well I’d have to say you’re pretty close to the truth.
The Ranger made a come on motion with his hand and Jody thought a moment and said well how about we eat first then we will drive to the ranch and talk sorta in private how’s that sound? Bill nodded and said fine with me and I’m hungry, so we made small talk while the food came and we all ate.
Sitting on the porch and drinking iced tea, Jody told Bill everything there was to tell, he left nothing out and then said come on we will drive around the ranch and look it all over, the three of us loaded into Jade’s Jeep with her driving and me giving her warning looks and she was a complete lady, which scared the crap out of me because I knew there was going to be a price to pay for this, I hoped I could afford it.
Everywhere we went Jody showed, explained, and discussed with Bill what he was looking at, what he didn’t show was the underground storage and other things that were hidden, on the surface it was a very well done “ Green Project” with most everything sustainable for life.
We drove to the ranges and showed Bill everything there and watched several young men and ladies shooting a course of fire set up as a firefight in a small set of buildings, one after the other they ran the course with shotguns and pistols, then in pairs and then as teams of four, all worked hard but safely and looked like a well drilled swat team, Bill just observed a while then asked who these folks were, Jody got the attention of a man acting as range officer and motioned him over, he blew a whistle and said take 5 !!
He trotted over and was introduced to Bill as the Charlie Smith, training officer of the County special deputies , when asked what it was that we were watching he told Bill it was just a normal training day for the kids as he called them, Bill commented that they looked as good as some of the big city swat teams, Charlie said well Bill we prefer “Emergency React Teams” because they are trained in a lot more then shooting, every one of them spends time with Doc Ellen at her clinic helping with minor injuries, EMT skills, some have even delivered babies as part of their training, of course the ladies giving birth have to agree with it and Doc. Ellen is right there every second, all in all I’d say we have the best trained department just about anyplace, these kids can move from a car wreck to dealing with a drunk to a full out firefight and never blink, all are volunteers, all have real jobs and are here because of a sense of duty to their families and neighbors.
Bill just stood looking at the whole thing, taking it all in and asked how many Special Deputies there was? Charlie looked up a moment and then with a squint said well I believe counting these kids we have about 90 reserves trained and another 30 or 40 waiting to get started but we do lose several who drop out for one reason or another.
Now that got Bills attention and a raised eyebrow but he never said a word, then stuck his hand out for Charlie and said well sir, you’re doing one hell of a job and I wish a lot of other counties would follow suit.
Charlie nodded to him then to Jody and trotted back to his troops, Bill said well is there any more cold tea?
After we were settled down and refreshed a bit Bill looked at all of us and said well I must admit this is much more then I had heard and much more then I even thought it might be, but as I see it your only doing what most folks should be doing to face some real hard times that are coming, maybe sooner then we know.
Jody asked what Bill had heard about us and it seemed that a couple of the men we caught breaking into the gun shop were trying to peddle information about us for reduced sentences and Bill had told his boss that he was heading over here anyway and would look into it, he smiled and said, well I looked into it and saw nothing worth a worry, you folks are all good for the town, the county and as far as I can see the State. He added that he was going to recommend to his boss that maybe the other counties should take time to look at how our county was running and learn something.
As he was about to leave Jade came back on to the porch and said dinner was ready and Bill was welcome to stay, he seemed a bit shocked but said he would be honored to stay, I had also noticed that he never once in the whole day looked shocked at Jades tat’s nor did he mention them which I found refreshing as did Jade.
Dinner was served on the back porch which was covered of course as were most porch’s in this part of Texas unless you liked bugs with your food, the meal was served by 2 of Jades girl friends who wanted to be more modern and were paid for their time, Bill did look at them and their tat’s but still never said anything, the meal was Wild pork, fresh yams and assorted veggies from our gardens which were attended by the tribal women who besides the gardens growing out in the open had many more small gardens growing back in the woods in small clearings, I assumed because that’s how they always did it.
After the last of the food was eaten and the girls were clearing away the dishes Bill spoke up and said thank you, but it was in the clans native tongue which cause the girls to almost drop the dish’s and to make a reply then trot off giggling.
This got raised eyebrows all around the table, Bill just smiled and said ya know, I may be a Texas hick and untraveled compared to some , but we do have several small groups of your people scattered around Texas, brought in after the war and many since then, and some of the boys are involved in gang stuff so we do have dealings with the communities which for the most part are very willing to help us control these young lads, and a feller can get further if he at least tries to learn a few polite words, Jade smiled at him and said something but Bill said he had no idea what she said, that he was lucky to say thank you and hello before getting down to business.
Jody , Jade and I walked Bill to his car where he stood a moment and then said, I’d like to come back if you don’t mind, again on my own time, and bring my Mom and Dad to see Miss Ellie, and with that he headed out leaving us all wondering just what Ranger Bill had in mind, I was sure we would fine out soon enough but we did all agree that we liked him and if Miss Ellie said he was ok then that was good nuff for us!
Time seems to speed up when your really busy and we had been running our butts off for over a year now, all the things we set out to do were done or getting done, we were so very lucky in that we had the money to do what we did, we would never have got it done if we had been trying to hold down a job and care for our family’s, we still had a long list of things we wanted to do but nothing that would cause us to fail if they didn’t get done, which wasn’t really true as John pointed out during our weekly meeting, he told us that while we were really set for most anything we were not ready as far as fighting off a hoard of MZBG’s which covered anybody who might think what we had was theirs for the taking, human or otherwise.
Doc. Ellen who had become a close member of our family and looked to become even closer , even if she had to put Jody under and marry him while he was sleeping, Jody wasn’t blind to it all but seemed to have a hang up on the age difference thing, the rest of us knew she was going to win , Jody just hadn’t figured it out yet, I digress, anyway, Doc Ellen said come on girls they are getting the gun thing going, see the flared nostrils and the swollen necks?? Laughing they all loaded up and went to Miss Ellie’s for pie which made it much quieter but not so good smelling !
Jody asked John and Bob what they had in mind as to an armory, John said they had talked it over and had decided that we could build a really big one if we stuck to “simple” and nothing was more simple then the AK 47, made for illiterate peasants it was about the best battle rifle for the kind of area we were in here on the ranch and in this entire part of the state, close range and not inclined to give out when it got a bit dirty, also ammo was running less then 223.
Bob spoke up and said that if we kept to one battle rifle and one type handgun and shotgun it would make everything more user friendly and that besides the AK they wanted the men at
least armed with 1911’s in 45 acp of course ,but those could be fitted to the user, small hands could use the stock grip ok, big hands could opt for the wide body units with hi-cap magazines, again ammo would be standard that way, as for the shotguns, the best for our needs if it came down to real combat fighting the 870 was the best choice, not to put down other brands but the 870 was the most common. Nothing fancy, just extended mags and a good front hanging assault type sling, slug sights would be a thought but would add to the overall cost and really weren’t needed for the normal use of a short barreled shotgun, 12 ga. of course
By sticking to this plan we could use the KISS principal to the max, Jody asked about full auto, both the men shook their heads no, to hard to train folks to stay off the trigger and burns up way more ammo then the hit to miss ratio could handle, BUT! John said, I believe we should have something for use on the vehicles and in bunkers around the ranch for defense if needed, gun crews could be trained. I asked about the cost of these belt fed machine guns and John said he was working on a deal that would work since he had gotten the FFL multi class licenses which would cover all bases for the project, after talking about it a bit more Jody and I gave them the go ahead which made them act like two little boys let loose in a candy store!