Chapter 23

The next morning Brenda was in the kitchen with Kate sipping coffee when Bob walked into the kitchen. Kate poured him a cup of coffee and he sat down at the table next to Brenda.

"Look, when you go to the tack shop today, get what you need. You won't be doing either yourself or me a favor if you buy cheap gear or only buy half of what you need. What time is Todd going to be here?"

Brenda was animated, "I told him that I wanted him here early so that I can get some time with Miss Betty. I can't believe that you really bought that horse for me."

"It's a bargain if you enjoy having the horse."

Ann walked into the kitchen with a bathrobe over her pajamas, "Don't you people ever sleep?"

Brenda saw a car coming into the driveway and her face lit up, "Here's Todd now. Does he know where the tack shop is?"

Bob assured her that he did and Brenda ran out to his car to greet him without putting a coat on.

Bob saw Ann's concern on her face, "She'll be Ok. Todd's a very fine young man.

Bob told Kate that they would get sandwiches for lunch and that she wouldn't have to be in the kitchen until it was time to fix dinner. Kate smiled and left the kitchen and started toward her own house.

Brenda came running back into the house, "Todd asked me to go to a concert with him tonight. I'll be staying at his house tonight."

A look of concern came to Ann's face again, "Brenda do you think..."

"Mom, his mother and father are going to be at the house. Do you think they would allow what you're thinking to happen right under their noses?"

Ann gave her daughter a weak smile and Brenda got her coat and ran out to the car and got in. Todd turned the car around and they pulled out of the driveway.

"I guess that I was acting like a mother again," Ann said, "I have to remind myself that she's in college now and she's nineteen."

"Don't go beating yourself again. You're a very good mother."

Bob saw tears come to Ann's eyes, "I'm sorry Ann. Did I say something wrong?"

Ann shook her head and tried to hide her tears, "I just always wanted a family. I told you what happened to me. They weren't too gentle. About a year after I left Ray I started having some problems. The doctor told me that I can't have children anymore."

Ann looked up and tried to smile, "At this stage of my life I wouldn't want to be pregnant anyway."

Bob stood up and pulled Ann out of the kitchen chair and hugged her. Ann put her head on his chest and put her hand around his waist.

After a minute or two she looked up at him, "Enough of this. I thought that you wanted to decorate this house. Where are the lights and ornaments?"

"I'll help you get the decorations out of the shed. You can look through what I have and if they're still usable. I've got about two hours work to do in my office and then we'll get busy decorating the house."

Bob took Ann out to the shed where he stored all of the Christmas decorations and loaded them in the car and transported them to the house. Soon Ann had the whole living room floor filled with boxes of light strings and decorations. Bob excused himself and went to his office and closed the door.

Bob logged onto his server at work through the Internet. He first pulled up Lexus-Nexus and searched for what he was looking for. He had to get about the date and it took quite a while before he was successful. He found the newspaper article that had the account of the two men being charged with the death of Ray Simmons. The article listed the full names of the men. A quick check of the other databases that his company used pulled up the criminal record for the two men. Bob printed out the mug shots and the complete criminal record for both men. Using the databases that his company had access to, it wasn't long before he had the address of the two men.

Bob leaned back and read the criminal records of the two men. Both men had never been convicted of a crime although they had been charged many times. They were the suspects in several murders other than the murder of Ray Simmons. Both men had also been charged with the rape of a fourteen year old girl whose father owed them money. The charges were dropped because the father and the rest of the family disappeared.

Bob dialed his phone. When the phone was answered Bob asked to speak to someone. It was a minute before that person came to the phone. Bob explained what he wanted and the person agreed to take the job after Bob read them the arrest record of the two men. Bob hung up the phone and glared at the papers on his desk. After several minutes he stood up and put each of the papers through the crosscut shredder next to his desk.