Chapter 9

Jack Rimes' phone call stirred up a hornets nest. Three hours later a small twin engine plane buzzed the ranch house, Jack went outside and watched as a bright orange streamer fell to earth. Attached to the streamer was a note asking him to pick them up at the highway where they were about to land. Since the ranch house was much closer to the highway than Scott's house Jack was back in less than forty minutes.

Jack along with his boss Capt. John White and two inspectors Jim Bailey from TSGRA, Texas Sheep and Goat Raisers Association, and Tom Post from the TSCRA, Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association. Jack handed Tom Post the drawings that Amber had made, "Who did these?" he asked.

Jack smiled pointed towards Amber who was sitting at the table sketching the scene out the sliding glass doors, "Amber, that beautiful red head over there." Jack winked at her and got an Amber smile in return.

Amber blushed as Tom walked over to the table where she sat, "Well Amber these will help a lot. Can I get your name and address in case you're needed in court?"

"My name is Amber McMichaels. I'm Don Phillip's fiancée. As for my address..." Amber looked around the room for Don, "you'll have to ask Don. We have just moved in and I don't know what the address is. Sorry." Don, Rose, Kiesha, Scott and Angie walked through the sliding glass doors of the patio, "Here's Don, ask him."

Tom turned to Don, "I need your address and phone number as well as the names and addresses of everyone that was out there today." Tom handed Don a legal pad and a pen.

"We've just moved into our new house and we haven't talked to the post office or the 911 people about a mailing or physical address and we haven't got the phone set up yet either. So I'll just put our names down and put Dad's address and phone number for contacting us.

"That's you and Amber?" Tom asked.

Don laughed and noticed his Dad's interest in how he was going to answer, "That's Amber, Missy, Kim, Kiesha, Rose and myself."

"These other girls live with you and your fiancée?" Tom asked although he was pretty sure he wasn't going to like the answer he got.

Don saw the look the man was giving him but he was not going try to cover up or skate around the question, "They are all my fiancées and yes we all live together." Amber had got up from the table and walked over to Don. Missy and Kim had seen and heard everything from the kitchen and they moved to go support their mates.

"You can't marry all of them, it's against the law: man's law and God's law. Three of those girls aren't white. Don't tell me you want to marry a nigger, spic, and a chink."

Don lunged at the cattle inspector and it was all Jack Rimes and Scott could do to stop him. Before Scott could say anything Angie spoke out, with hands on her hips and venom dripping from her voice, "Mister, you have exactly five seconds to get out of this house." She turned to Capt. White, "If he's not out of this house and on his way off this ranch in the next few minutes I'll see to it that you get painted with the same brush as this bigot." Capt White didn't even have to think about it. He grabbed Tom Post by the collar and started for the front door. Angie turned on the other inspector, "You got any racial remarks you want to make?"

Jim Bailey shook his head, "No ma'am, I'm not that stupid. I've heard him talk like that for years. I've told him that one of these days it would cost him his job, I won't repeat what he told me, he has been warned in the past and last year he had to go through a class on race relations."

"Doesn't sound like he learned much," Jack Phillips put in and then reached down and picked up Amber's drawings and handed them to Bailey, "Well it looks like you'll be doing the investigating for both associations."

Jim sighed, "Yeah, looks that way. Is there a phone I can use?" Scott pointed to the office just off the den. Jim turned to Don and the girls, "I want you know that I don't share his feelings. I just lost my wife of ten years to cancer. She was a Native American and that asshole made lots of comments about her all the time, just never to my face. If you guys love each other then that's all that matters, no matter what small minded people like Tom Post say." Jim went into the small office to call his boss.

Scott pulled Angie into a hug, "As soon as he's off the phone I'm calling TSCRA. If they keep Post I'm cancelling my membership."

Don's Dad walked over to the girls and pulled them into a hug along with his son, "Tell them the same goes for me and everyone I can convince.

Capt. White drove Scott's pickup back to where the plane was sitting. He started to say something to the man sitting beside him then stopped. He pulled out his satellite phone and called his brother in law. "Steve ... Yeah, it's John ... say that inspector of yours just stepped in it big time ... Try three racial slurs ... you're probably going to get some phone calls and I wouldn't be surprised if you lose the Miles Ranch, the Phillips Ranch and a bunch more ... He's sitting right beside me 'cos he's been thrown off the ranch." John handed the phone to Post.

"Hello..." Tom spoke into the phone, " ... What do you mean I'm fired?" He listened for a few more minutes and then handed the phone back to John. "Fucking niggers I hate them."

Tom looked up to see the phone pointed towards him, "Did you hear that?" John asked the man on the other end, "I'm taking him back to the plane and then I'll be going back to the ranch ... Yeah, I'll tell them but you people owe that Phillips boy and his girlfriends an apology and I don't think I'd do it over the phone ... Yeah, I'll do that. I'll see you when you get here." John ended the call and turned to Post, "You're flying back to Ft. Worth and if I was you I'd adjust my attitude and damn quick. I was told to remind you that you can be held responsible for any and all loses you cause the Association. The Phillips' have enough money to hire a lawyer just to make your life miserable." John pulled up beside the plane and stopped.

The pilot walked up, "What's up?"

"Take this knot head back to Ft. Worth and pick up the President of the Association and bring him back. It will be getting close to dark by then so land in Sanderson and have the Sheriff drive him out here." The pilot nodded his head and walked back to the plane. John watched the plane take off and circle back towards the northeast, he started up the truck and drove back to the ranch.

John White walked back into the den of the ranch house and saw Scott standing behind his wife who was sitting at the table with the other girls. "He's on his way back to Ft. Worth and he has already been fired."

Jack Rimes chuckled, "Did Post know who your brother in law was?"

John shook his head, "No, but he does now." Scott looked at the Ranger Captain and was about to ask when John added, "My brother in law is the president of the TSCRA and he'll be here tonight or in the morning to talk to you."

Angie turned and said, "So you'll be here for supper and a sleep over."

"Yes ma'am I guess so." John answered.

"Scott, is the guest house clean enough for the Capt. and Mr. Bailey to stay in?" Angie asked.

"I think that's where Magda and Sebie are right now, but you may want to check. Sebie may have been planning on putting the wildcats in there for the night." Scott looked around the table at five girls with the 'who me' smiles on their faces.

When Jack looked over at Kiesha he remembered something he had forgot to tell his Capt., "Cap this young lady here is the one I was telling you about."

John nodded his head and reached for her hand, "Glad to meet you. If you need anything you let us know. I see that all of you are carrying pistols. What are those?"

Kiesha stood up and walked around the table to the Ranger Captain. She pulled out the pistol, dropped out the magazine, cleared the chamber, and handed it to John, "That's the new Beretta PX4 Storm."

"How does it shoot?" he asked.

"It's the only pistol I've ever shot so I couldn't really tell you, but I like it and it sure seems easy to hit the target," Kiesha responded.

Jack Rimes cleared his throat, "At twenty five feet she was putting five shots in a inch and a half group, and at fifty feet she put a full clip, seventeen rounds all in the kill zone."

John's eye brow shot up, "Young lady have you given any thought about going into law enforcement when you get out of school?"

Kiesha shook her head, "I'd like to teach and be a coach, but I don't know what will happen. I plan to just wait and see."

Rose walked over to the stove and stirred the beans that Magda had asked her to watch she took a spoon from the drawer and snuck a taste. "Mmmmm ... I have to find out what all she put in here. Don come here and taste this." Don dutifully walked over to the stove followed closely by the others. Rose seeing that her sister/wives wanted a taste dipped up a small bowl. "Careful sweetie, they're hot." Rose warned.

Don put the spoon full of beans into his mouth and Rose watched the expression on his face as he chewed. She handed the spoon to Kim so she could try them. Don swallowed the sample he'd been given and watched sadly as Amber put the last spoonful into her mouth in spite of Don's best puppy dog look "You can't have any more till supper. Now shoo, here comes Magda and she's not going to want you loitering in her kitchen."

Don knew that no amount of sad looks or begging was going to work, but that didn't stop him from make a theatrical exit. Sebastiana turned the tables on him when she said, "Go to your room out there in the guest house, maybe tonight the wildcats will be far enough away to let the rest of us sleep."

Don's face turned bright red. Rose grabbed his hand, "Come on 'tom cat', let's go get our stuff out of the truck and go see where we're sleeping tonight."

Linc Jackson was having no end of problems. When the pregnant woman kicked him she had done more damage than just rupture the bag hanging on his left side, she had damaged the stoma, the opening that allowed his waste to get in the bag. He needed a doctor and he needed one bad. He pulled into the parking lot of the hospital in El Paso, Texas hoping that surely no one would be looking for him here. He could get in and get out before anyone figured out who he was. Lucky for him the old man had had a wad of cash on him, maybe the cash would speed him through the system. He walked into the ER bleeding and smelling like shit. His luck seemed to be improving, the waiting room was empty and the nurse put him in a room right away. The nurse turned to Jackson and said, "The doctor will be with you in just a few minutes."

She then walked to the nurse's station and picked up the phone, pulled the business card from her pocket and dialled the number on it. "Hello, this is Ann at County ER he's here ... trouble with his bag ... not a problem we don't do fast very well here." She hung up the phone and went to make sure security and the doctor wouldn't be showing up in treatment room #6. She couldn't help but smile, that had to be the easiest thousand dollars she would ever make.

Earlier a man had approached her and given her a hundred dollar bill with the promise of nine more if she called him should she see the face that matched the picture she had in her pocket. She had asked the man's name and what he'd done. That's when Ann found out what kind of person Linc Jackson really was. She had Googled the man's name to check out the man's story and after seeing that Jackson had done all of what the man had described and more there was no way her conscience was going to bother her no matter what happened to him after he left the hospital. If raping a five year old wasn't bad enough and in her mind it was plenty, beating a woman to death as she lay sick in the hospital certainly was. Going back to where Jackson sat waiting Ann knocked on the door, "Mr. Smith, someone will be with you here in just a little bit.

Pete Delay and Lucy Palmer walked in on supper and into a set of handcuffs. Stan's assessment of the man's inability to handle prison was dead on. As soon as Jack Rimes asked who the others were that were involved in the rustling the man told all. What's more he had kept a detailed diary with names, times, and places. He was going to make a great witness for the prosecution. As soon as he was through singing Jack and Capt. White started making phone calls and getting warrants drawn up.

Sitting in the back of the sheriff's deputy's Explorer Pete Delay reflected on what had just happened while they waited for the trip to the Terrell county jail. When he decided to sell the ranch it seemed like such a good idea. The ranch was in his name even though he hadn't paid for it. The money had come from the oil company Lucy worked for. They had padded invoices and even had ghost crews that they were collecting money off of. His soon to be ex wife didn't know where the money for the ranch had come from, in fact she didn't even know there was a ranch. His biggest fear now was that she'd find out and demand her half of the proceeds of the sale. It just wasn't fair he thought, his stupid wife had been the one to cause all the problems he was now in.

If she could have kept her mouth shut then the oil company wouldn't have found out about everything he and Lucy had done. Lucy would still have her job and he wouldn't have had to sell the ranch to that stupid cowboy.

Pete shook his head, he had told that Stan guy not to work those two pastures. If the damn truck hadn't broken down all those cattle, sheep, and goats would have been long gone. The only thing that had gone right had been the money transfer. As soon as he had got the money from cowboy's lawyer he had transferred all the money to his off shore accounts and if he and Lucy could just get out on bail they would be out of the country so fast it would make their heads spin. Pete looked at the dejected looking Lucy, "Don't worry. As soon as we make bail we are out of the country and sitting on the beach drinking beer and soaking up the sun. We have all that money from the rustlers that they thought I was laundering for them plus the money from the sale of the ranch. It will all be alright, just trust me."

Inside the house Jack Rimes and Jason Adams listened as Pete and Lucy talked in the back of the Jason's Explorer. Jason grinned as he heard the two talked about jumping bail, "That ought to do it. I don't think the judge is going to grant bail to two people who are planning on leaving the country." Jason couldn't believe how much suspects will say while sitting in a patrol car thinking they can't be heard. They'd play the tape to the judge in private and he would deny bail and unless the district attorney decided to use something on the tape Pete and Lucy would never know they had been listened to.

Just before dark Steve Johnson, the president of Cattlemen's Association, arrived with Dallas Jackson, the sheriff of Terrell County. After a brief conversation with Capt. White, his brother in law, Steve asked where Don and the girls were. Angie volunteered to go and get them but warned him it might take a little bit if they had already gone to bed, she had not been alone when she let slip a small giggle. Beth on the other hand blushed while Jack, as would most fathers, sat a little straighter, his pride on display for one and all.

When Angie arrived at the guest house Don and company had just started to get ready for bed. Since the only thing they had taken off had been their pistols they put them back on and then they followed Angie back up the main house. Don was going over in his mind exactly what he was going to say to the man that had insulted his family.

Once in the house Capt. White made the introductions. Steve Johnson started off, "Look I am very sorry for what Tom Post said to all of you. It was way out of line. I know that John has already told you this but I want to confirm that his employment has been terminated." Steve paused for a second waiting to hear what if anything Don would say.

"I understand from the Sheep and Goat Association man that this was not the first time this has happened. Is it the Association's policy to employ bigots?" Don was glaring at the man in front of him.

Steve Johnson visibly cringed when he heard that Don knew about Post's history, "You're right Mr. Phillips, he should have been dealt with long ago. There is no place for people with his attitude in today's business. Look we don't want this to be the end of our relationship."