Chapter 17: The Surprise

Restless, Marie turned on the radio to Radio Station KOA out of Denver. A news report, blared loud as Marie grabbed the volume control. The announcer began, "A further update on the FBI sting operation has just come in over the wires. The assistant Special Agent In Charge of the local FBI office here in Denver announced the results of the secret yearlong joint operation with the United States Drug Enforcement Agency.

"Special Agent Stroud stated they were able to spring the complicated trap because of assistance from a local rancher. Well over twenty prisoners were taken into custody, including two very high placed members of the Mexican drug family alleged to be headed by Pablo Gutierrez. Now back to our regular programming."

"How dare they?" Marie demanded. "We caught those animals, we shot them and you almost got killed by them. How dare they say we assisted them?"

"See, this is what I have been talking about. You are getting yourself all worked up over nothing. Our grateful FBI did give us this fine vehicle. Now what would you rather have, a year old SUV or a pat on the head? Think hard before answering."

"Both," she answered in a sulky voice.

"Babe, we can't spend, eat or ride around in a pat on the head. Let's accept the car and relax." He reached over and squeezed her inner thigh.

Still grumpy she told him, "Well, the FBI always tries to hog the lion's share of the good publicity and avoid the bad. Daddy told me about the way the FBI operated. He worked with them and the CIA on one job."

Jesse laughed, "It's called running between the raindrops. Honey, the FBI gets most its funding and then some extras only so long as they look good. Otherwise the congress gives their budget to another agency. In the end it's all about money, not glory."

"Well, I still don't like it." She changed to the Boulder station.

"Special Agent In Charge Stroud will see you now," the going into her mid thirties woman dressed in an expensive Saks power suit told them. She looked at Jesse's somewhat unkempt appearance and then stared down her nose at Marie's plain attire. She was purposely obvious in her dislike of the "common people" as a matter of course.

"Don't worry, honey, Marie told the woman in a folksy way, "I scraped the cow manure off my boots before we came in here."

"Jesse, Marie, come in," Orville Stroud called from the inner office door.

"You just interrupted the cat fight of the year," Jesse laughed as he stood aside to let Marie enter first.

"I heard," Stroud answered. "I listened to Madam Frosty Butt try to shine you on. She is a hold over from the previous SAC here and she is not a happy camper. When my predecessor was given a lateral promotion, outward but not upward, he did not take her along. He took one of the younger ones instead."

"Oh well, that's life in the fast lane," Jesse opined. "Now, we are here, let's get things finalized. Marie wants to go shopping."

"What have you told her about today's appointment with me?" Stroud asked.

"Why nothing, of course," Jesse told him. "Hell, why worry her pretty little head about a man's business?"

"Jesse Morgan, don't you dare try to pull that stuff on me." Marie glared at him and added, "You either tell me what is going on or you try the couch when we get home.

"Oh hell, Marie, don't be so fussy. Just sign where Orville says and we can go shopping." Jesse held out his hand and the FBI man placed a file folder in it.

"Jesse," she warned as her face began to turn dark red. "I mean it. Now stop this ... this ... this bullshit."

"Look, if you don't want to sign, we'll leave and go Christmas shopping." Jesse shrugged his indifference.

"Sign what?" she asked in a suspicious way.

"Oh, just a paper," he told her as he stretched things out a little bit more.

"Jesse," she warned.

Acting very put out Jesse told her, "I just need your signature on this piece of paper that says you understand we must share as equal partners in the reward. Don't worry, just sign. You don't need to worry your pretty little head about it."

"What's the damned reward?" she shouted.

"Oh hell, it's not much, just that dinky little ranch to the south of us. We get to buy it for a hundred thousand dollars on a Farm Home Low Interest Loan. They won't let us have the airplane though, only the ranch and the buildings and any stock and equipment left behind. I sort of wanted that big old airplane. Our neighbors would have been so jealous." He laughed as her expression turned from mad to glad to ecstatic.

She looked back and forth between Jesse and Orville. "Oh migod! Jesse! Oh migod!" she shrieked.

The door to the outer office slammed open. "What's going on in here?" the receptionist demanded.

"Not a thing," Agent Stroud said. "The lady was just told what her main Christmas present will be. She is overwhelmed. Everything is fine." Disappointed no one was suffering the receptionist frowned as she closed the door behind her.

"Well, where do we sign?" Jesse asked. "I still have to take her Christmas shopping."

Jesse looked down at the papers Stroud placed on his desk. Stroud handed him a pen and said, "Sign on the line over your name and date it." Jesse urged Marie to come forward and sign first. Then he followed.

Jesse asked the FBI man, "How did you get the powers that be to go along with this? Let's face it, the FBI is not noted for its generosity."

"Many things came into play here." Stroud looked at the pair, "For one thing you two kept showing up ahead of us almost as if you had a script to follow. Then you further proved yourselves to be quite resourceful in staying alive under adverse conditions. Of course you handed us the whole thing on a silver platter when you, ah how do I phrase this, informed us of your the ex policemen's association with your neighbors to the south.

"Your reward, if you elected to apply for it would have been quite substantial for the recover of twenty-one thousand pounds of pure uncut cocaine. I pointed out the ranch would be small change and could be kept off the books if you attended a prequalified forced auction." He smiled at them and added, "You did great."

"Also, if you were able to write the script your agency gets all the credit for the biggest drug bust in history so long as two local ranchers keep their mouths shut," Marie added in a sarcastic voice.

Agent Stroud pursed his lips in a small smile and admitted, "Well, there is that too. Look at it this way though, we all win with this scenario."

He gathered up all the papers and slipped them back into a manila envelope. "Your copies will be mailed to you along with all the necessary documents."

"What about the mineral rights?" Jesse asked. "More specifically, what about the oil rights and the water rights? I almost forgot to ask. Are they a part of the deal?"

Stroud looked surprised as he answered, "I assume the water rights are conveyed with the deed. As for the other, I'll look into it. You do pose some hard questions."

"Not good enough," Jesse told him. "We'll stay in town another two days while you look into things. That land is worth next to nothing if I can't irrigate it. Also, I do not want either any mining or oil exploration outfits able to come in there and foul the land."

"Jesse, can't we get that straightened out later?" Marie asked anxiously.

"No, Babe, it needs to be addressed right now. There are two oil companies, Exxon and Shell, ready to get into a bidding war because of some forged drilling records. Remember? Those people are like lice. Either we get that land free and clear of all encumbrances except for the mortgage or we do not get it at all. There are surface indications indicating there might be oil in the ground. But I am positive the oil is over a mile down."

Marie's voice became harsh and raspy as she told him, "Jesse, I want that land."

"Fine," he answered, "Tear up the papers with my signature on them. When you conclude your business here I'll be downstairs in the car waiting." He turned and left.

Just as he left Stroud's office he turned around, reentered and handed her the keys to the SUV. He also gave her a handful of cash from his inside coat pocket. "I'll take the bus back."

Marie stared at his retreating back. Tears formed in her eyes. "Why can't he understand?" she asked.

"Marie, that man operates on a different wavelength than most people. He is the most honest man I ever met." Stroud smiled and added, "in his own way."

"What should I do with these?" he asked as he pointed at the papers.

"Burn them," she answered and walked out of the office. She walked to the parking lot where the SUV was parked and got in. She asked directions to the nearest gas station, topped off the tanks and asked directions to the bus station.

Jesse sat by himself, all alone completely at rest, waiting for the next bus to Steamboat Springs. She sat down on the bench next to him. "Jesse, I'm sorry. Are you mad at me?" she asked in a soft voice.

"No Marie, just a little disappointed. When you get that greed bug biting you there is no way I can reason with you. Can't you understand that whole land deal from our grateful government was merely part of another scam? Someone somewhere wanted us to take the land and then we would be forced to sell it in a year or less for nowhere near its potential true value. Between the IRS and the locals, we might get enough to pay the taxes owed and due. Then we would find we were next-door neighbors to some big outfit that would immediately start making moves to get our property.

"Come get in the car and let's go home, Jesse," she told him in a soft voice. "I'm tired."

"I got a better idea, let's go to the Brown Derby and check in." He stood and helped her up. "After all, the main reason we came to town was to do some Christmas shopping. At least I thought it was," he told her as he escorted her outside.