Chapter 24

I had almost finished writing when the coroner arrived. I didn't go over to where he and the sheriff were, just waited at the car. He had sent a deputy to the house to get the girls' statements. The deputy was walking back with a sandwich in his hand and a smile on his face. Leave it to Myrna, I thought, feed them and make them her friends forever.

I started thinking about what the sheriff had told me about the new DA and wondered if he was friends with the Runt too. I would give Jerry a call before I went to town with Kat later. I also had to make arrangements to get some kind of transportation, since I had no doubt mine would be towed. I hadn't looked to see how much damage I had done to it, but with the brush guard on the front, it shouldn't take too much to have it fixed. The only real damage, that I remembered, was the holes in the front glass where the one man had tried to shoot me through it. If there was one thing about this whole stupid situation that was good, it was that I hadn't fired a shot and I wouldn't lose my gun again. The sheriff had already checked both bodies and there were no bullets in either of them.

I was jarred from my thoughts by hearing my name called. I looked up and the sheriff was waving for me to come over to where he and the coroner were talking. I walked over and was introduced to him. He had a few choice words about the people getting tired of all the strangers on their land, but after that, he got in his van and left. I looked at the sheriff and he didn't have too much to say either.

"Jon, I have no reason to hold you, but I will have to tow your truck and keep it in impound for now. I will have my shooting team go over it then release it back to you in a few days. Other than a few dents and a bullet pocked windshield, there's not much damage to it. As far as I am concerned, you are free to go. Remember what I said about the new DA."

"Oh I remember, and I will call my attorney as soon as I get to the house. I will let him handle my end of it. The new DA can speak to him from this point on. Thanks sheriff, I appreciate the kindness shown toward me and my family."

"Don't thank me, young fella, I am just doing my job. I know you're a Fed, but next time give me and my men the chance to handle it. This is my county you know. I also want to tell you that neither of the men were carrying any identification. Until I can run their prints, I won't have any idea who they are or who might have sent them. Jon, you be careful from now on, will you? Seems like you have become someone's target, for some reason. Watch your back!"

I smiled and shook his hand, then started back to the house. The wrecker passed me about halfway back and the driver waved as he went by. When I got to the back door, Carver was standing there waiting for me.

"I told Pete I was going to stay a little closer to the house for awhile, since we are almost done with the fencing. I will keep an eye out around here, so don't worry about that. I don't know what that was all about, but from now on, I will be armed whenever I am wandering around, Jon."

"I don't have a problem with that, Carver. But remember, whoever these people are, they are playing for keeps. Don't take any chances. Myrna and Sally must be guarded at all times from now on, especially Sally. If they can get her to use against me, they will. So be warned, Carver."

"Jon, we don't know each other very well, but as long as I am standing, they won't touch a hair on Sally or Myrna. I give you my word on that."

"Good enough, Carver. I better go inside before they come looking for me. I figure I am going to catch hell from all of them as it is."

"Ha, I would almost be willing to bet on that. Myrna is madder than a wet hen. Why do you think I am out here instead of in the kitchen drinking coffee?"

When I walked inside, Sally was in my arms almost before the door closed. She kept asking if I was ok over and over. I finally got her settled down and assured her that I was fine. Kat had a grin on her face as she watched us. Myrna had her back to me doing something at the stove and I was waiting for her to blow up. To my surprise when she turned around I could see she had been crying. I went to her immediately and stood and held her for a few minutes. Then I asked if there was any fresh coffee.

"Oh, and Myrna? You better give Carver the all clear to come in. I got the impression he was afraid to come into the kitchen. Something about you being mad or something."

I watched with a smile as she put her hand over her mouth and rushed to the back door. She went out and I sat down next to Kat. Sally was sitting next to me like she was afraid to let me out of her sight. I knew one of them was going to ask, and I sat and sipped my coffee, waiting to see which one it was going to be. Sally was watching Kat, and Kat watched Sally, until I finally got tired of the silence and spoke up.

"Ok you two, it's all over so quit trying to talk to each other with your eyes. If you have a question, just ask."

I still hadn't caught on to the pecking order here, and to me, it looked like Sally was trying to get Kat to ask me something. As usual, I couldn't have been more wrong.

"Dad, can I go to town with you and Kat tonight? I really don't want to stay here all alone. Myrna has Carver to keep her company, and that leaves me in the house all by myself when you leave."

"I think Kat will be going back to town by herself tonight, unless she decides to stay over again. I don't have a truck, and I certainly am not going to leave you in this house by yourself. I'll tell you both what I'll do, I'll call Tiny. Then we can go out to supper in town, and come back here for the night, if that's ok with you, Kat."

"That's fine with me, Jon. All I want is to spend some more time with you before I have to go back to work. Besides, it's more fun here than at my place in town. Is it always this exciting around here?"

Ok, that did it. The floodgates broke, and she and Sally were jabbering a mile a minute. I got up and headed for my study to make some calls. I don't even think they noticed me leaving. At least if they did, the jabbering didn't slack off any.

I sat in my chair and pulled the cell off the charger. That's when I noticed the small crack on the side of the case. I looked at it a little closer, and realized that somebody had pried the case apart, and recently. There were a few other scratches around the seam. That raised the hair on my neck when I noticed them. I got on the phone and called Tiny, asking him to come out and bring Jimmy and his special case with him. He caught on to what I was saying immediately and said they would be there shortly. I leaned back in the chair, looking at the phone, trying to remember when it had been out of my possession. The only time I could think of was when I was in the hospital, or here in the house when I had left it on the charger while I went to Jeb's for my meeting. Aww no, I thought, Kat surely wouldn't do something like that. I had to admit to myself that she was the only stranger with run of the house that was here today. I thought about Carver for a minute, but dismissed that immediately. I knew his record, and I also knew he had been working all day. Man, I hated having these suspicions. I decided before I worried myself sick, I would wait until Jimmy had a chance to check it out again with his expertise. He, I knew, I could trust, because he and Tiny were like brothers in every sense of the word. Damn this electronic snooping age we were living in. I sat and impatiently waited for them to show up. When they came in, I motioned for Tiny to close the door.

"Jimmy, I want the house checked again. I also want you to check my and Sally's cell phones. Mine has been pried open recently for some reason, and I don't think it was for maintenance."

I got a big smile from Jimmy and then a chuckle. I gave him a dirty look and then he explained.

"I am the one who pried it apart, Jon, and I did the same to Sally's. Hers had a G.P.S. system in it. I disconnected it so she couldn't be traced by someone with a twenty dollar piece of electronics. Sorry, I forgot to tell you about it. If the crack bothers you, I can replace the cell with a newer one."

"I have a better idea, Jimmy, what are the chances of getting those satellite phones with the built in scrambler? I read an article about them and they sound like what I would like to have for us to use. I know they are a lot smaller now and although they are expensive, I think I would like you to look into it for me. Also, I want five or six of your little cameras for another project. If possible, I want the recorders for them too. They will need to be camouflaged for the woods. When they are ready, I will pay you to teach two men I have waiting how to install and set them up. The recorders will have to be battery operated also because of the location they are going into. Can you arrange that for me Jimmy?"

"The cameras won't be a problem, Jon. I haven't tried to hook the recorders up to run on batteries, although it does make a lot of sense to do it that way. Give me a couple of days and let me see what I can work out. Hell, I can sell them as a complete package when we go public with them. Jon, sometimes you have some good ideas that I hadn't thought of. Oh, why were all the cop cars out by the barn when we came in? I thought for a minute they weren't going to let us through. The deputy out front was pretty quiet about what happened."

I spent the next half hour or so explaining it to them before Jimmy blurted out; "If I had known taking that computer would cost someone their life, I would have left it alone."

"Jimmy, when they decided to come on my land without permission, they were trespassing and I would have arrested them for it. This way they got what they deserved. Remember, I didn't pull a gun and shoot at the owner, they did. By the way, what did you find inside of that computer anyway?"

"It had a G.P.S. tracker, just like I thought it would. They screwed up when they set it up and had it on the wrong frequency for the cameras, so that was blank. It did manage to catch about all the conversation the mics were close enough to pick up, including the phone conversations you and Sally had on your cells. I deleted them and everything else, then I did like you said, and reformatted the hard drive. The computer software was registered to some church I never heard of. They probably stole it, and after they did, decided to use it."