“We’re well past that stage.”
“Take care of your brother. Make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid.”
Lee couldn’t tell her, and he didn’t want to lie. That was something he didn’t do with her, unless it involved some girl, or some fight, or something he learned about his father. He was very protective of her because of all the lies his father had made her live with. But this time, there was no choice.
“We’re just talking to some people about a deal. I’ve got some money saved up and—”
“No. Lee, I don’t want you dumping your savings into this place and losing it all. And that’s what will happen. I don’t want that.”
“Mom, I understand. Look, we’re just puttin’ out some feelers about how to maybe get this place refinanced. We’ll figure something out. Stop worrying. We’re grown men. We’ll do what needs to be done.”
“A mother never stops worrying, especially with boys like the two of you. Both of you got a little of the Wild West in your blood.”
He smiled. “Maybe that’s your doing. Stop fretting. We’ll take care of this. Me and Jeremy be going out tonight, meet some people. We’ll be home pretty late, so don’t stay up for us. And don’t get all wound up with worrying.”
She touched his arm and gave a gentle squeeze, one like he’d known all his life from his mother. In spite of all the miseries, battles, and betrayals, he and Jeremy knew she never wavered from her love for her sons, nor they for their love of her. And now they were going to kill a guy to save her ranch. It was an incredible notion, one Lee had a hard time processing. It was like he’d been pulled into a very strong current and couldn’t get out.
Later than evening, the heat of day barely retreating, they got their equipment ready. Jeremy had bolt cutters in case they needed them, the sap, and the sedatives for the dogs. They had latex gloves and latex booties they kept for various things, including when they had foals coming.
Jeremy showed Lee a .32 Colt snubnosed revolver. “Just in case we have to get control of him first.”
Jeremy got a call, walked off, and spoke to someone for a moment, then came back and said, “Just checking on our boy. He’s in his favorite watering hole tying one on.”
They left the ranch at eleven.
Jeremy turned onto the highway and headed north. He said, “You good?”
“Given we’re going to kill a guy, I guess I’m good as I’m gonna be,” Lee said.
“We’re not going to kill just anybody,” Jeremy said. “We’re going to kill a bad Superman. Be like we’re killing an imposter.”
“Speaking of bad dudes, when’s the last time you saw the old man?”
“When he showed up a year ago,” Jeremy said. “He wanted to see how I was doing. Where you were. I think he wanted to see Mom, but she refused to even talk to him. Not that I blame her.”
They left the highway and headed up the mountain on a rising dirt road that curled through the woods. Jeremy pulled onto a small feeder road and then parked, turning off the lights.
“Mandy used to come down here and meet me. We’d go out on the hillside where we could see any traffic might be coming up the mountain this way. Never was. Frank uses the Pigeon Road coming up the other way. He’s got a top-of-the-line Range Rover. Fine car. He’ll come in drunk around one or two in the morning. We’ll be waiting. Take care of business. They’ll find him in a couple days or so, see how he fell, that’ll be that.”
“Maybe he’ll come back with a woman or something?”
“Not likely.”
They sat in the truck for an hour talking about the good times and the bad growing up with the old man running the ranch. Jeremy told Lee about what happened to this or that person they’d run with in school.
“Better get on up there,” Jeremy said, grabbing his backpack.
They left the truck and headed up through the trees. When they came to a barbed-wire fence, the dogs came running down from the house like a pair of wolves.
Jeremy pulled his pack around. “Got something for you boys.”
Unlike little yapper dogs, these boys were big and quiet. They looked like they could tear you apart real quick.
Jeremy tossed the treats over. “Those boys are nasty when they don’t know you. They could bring down a fucking bear.”
“I believe it,” Lee said.
They waited about five minutes before the dogs sat, became lethargic, then sank to the ground.
Jeremy led Lee up to the barn behind the main house, where he got a ladder. They went around to the side of the massive stucco, Western-style, two-story house.
Jeremy climbed up to the open bathroom window and Lee followed, then Jeremy pulled the ladder up and laid it on the roof so it wouldn’t be seen from where Frank would pull in. Once inside, they made their way down to the first floor using penlights. It was a fine house with tile floors, high-beam ceilings.
Jeremy first went to the front. He knew the alarm system code and turned it off. When he returned, they left the main living room and went into an attached room that looked like it was an addition, then through wooden double doors into a room with high ceilings, stone walls around a walk-in fireplace, dark beams, hardwood floors, and no exterior-looking windows. All very Spanish.
There was a small door, and it had a massive padlock. Jeremy took out the bolt cutters and snapped off the lock. He put the lock in his backpack. “Make sure we leave no evidence we were here.” He held up another lock. “I’ll put this on and leave the key in the kitchen. People that come in to visit him, or clean, might remember a lock.”
Lee followed him inside.
“There you are,” Jeremy said. “Those glass bookcases hold much of the collection.”
Lee walked along the cases, shining his tiny penlight in to see shelf after shelf full of comics. “This looks like a serious collection.”
“I told you,” Jeremy said. “Worth a fortune. This room is fireproof. It was added specifically to house the collection.”
The room had, besides the wall-to-wall comics behind glass, movie and comic posters framed and hung between bookcases. In the corner was a jewelry case like you’d find in some upscale mall. It held a coin collection.
“Come here,” Jeremy said. “Look at these beauties.”
There was a collection of what looked like Samurai swords, a couple of those big curved blades like the kind Arabs used, and half a dozen Bowie knives in a glass case.
“These are collectors’ items as well. Too bad we can’t get some of them.”
“Where are the first editions that we can take?” Lee asked.
“Behind these,” Jeremy said. He felt along the bookcase in the back. “Behold.” He pushed something and the bookcase then released. Jeremy pulled it out, and behind it was a shelf with a metal box. He took the box out and brought it over to a table.
Jeremy again used the bolt cutters. He cut the lock on the lockbox and opened it. “This is the mother lode.”
“I don’t know comics,” Lee said.
His brother carefully pulled out the individually plastic-covered comics from the box. “This is a gold mine. These puppies are worth a ton of money.”
He held up a comic. “This is one of those. It’s a big deal. He got like a million plus for the one he sold. Detective number twenty-seven. Came out with the debut of Batman himself in thirty-nine.”
Lee held the comic up and shined his light on it. Batman winging in toward a building top, two guys, one with a gun. May 1939. It advertised 64 pages of action.
“Here’s one of the first Superman editions. That they command that kind of money is nuts. Collectors would kill to get ahold of this box. You could buy the whole fucking valley with what’s inside. Create the greatest horse ranch in the Midwest.”
He put the thin metal box in his knapsack, then pushed the bookcase back against the wall. It locked with a click.
They went out into the main room, and Jeremy took out the padlock he’d brought to replace the one he
cut. They were moving away, toward the front rooms when Jeremy stopped and grabbed Lee by the arm.
“Listen. You hear that?”
“What? Frank coming?”
“No. Something else.” Jeremy went over to the back wall. He listened. “Lee, come here. Put your ear to the wall.
Lee put his ear against the wall. He heard faint pounding. “What the hell’s that?”
Jeremy listened again and then said, “I know there’s some kind of cellar. It sounds like somebody’s down there. There’s an old cold cellar, I think.”
Lee listened and there was definitely somebody. Now he heard a very faint voice. Female. “Man, what the hell is this?”
Jeremy put the penlight on the floor and walked back and forth, very agitated. “Mandy said there was a trap door or something. Help me move this cabinet.”
They slid the heavy cabinet to the side, and there was a trapdoor that had a heavy metal ring. Jeremy pulled it up. “Jesus, this is heavy.”
“Hello?” Jeremy said.
“Oh my God,” came a female voice. “Jeremy!”
“Baby, what the hell!”
A girl came up the ladder that led down into the cellar. Jeremy pulled her up the last couple of steps and they hugged and kissed.
“Lee, this is my Mandy.” He turned to Mandy. “My brother Lee.”
Lee shook the girl’s hand. In the limited penlights he saw mostly her eyes. And he was a little stunned. She did have, as Jeremy had said, incredible eyes, catlike, dark, full of intelligence. What was also amazing was how cool she was about her captivity.
Jeremy said, “What the hell is going on? I thought you were in Mexico? How long have you been down there?”
“He lets me up when he’s home because he knows I won’t leave. He’ll sick those damn dogs on me. I wouldn’t make it very far. But when he goes, the bastard locks me down there. He’s insane. That psychopath threatened to kill me like he killed my mother if I didn’t behave. Took my phone and laptop. We don’t have a landline. I couldn’t call you.”
“He’s not killing or imprisoning anyone anymore,” Jeremy said.
“Why are you here?” she asked. “Did you think he was holding me captive?”
“Lee, keep an eye out up front. It’s getting late. He could be back any time now. I want to talk to Mandy.”
They went off arm-in-arm into an adjoining room. Lee wondered if this would change everything. He saw them hug and kiss as they disappeared in the dark of the room. He wanted to go check the cellar, see what the conditions were down there, but he heard something and moved instead up to the front of the house.
Car lights snaked through the trees and then stopped at a gate. The gate opened and the car came in.
“Somebody’s coming!” Lee yelled.
Jeremy and his girl joined him in the kitchen.” First thing he’ll do is come back and let me out,” Mandy said.
“We wait in the next room,” Jeremy said. “Take him when he comes in for her.”
Lee fixed a hard look on his brother. “Is she—”
“I’m good,” Mandy said. “We’re doing this.”
Headlights swept across the high, narrow, stained-glass window in the front room. Frank’s SUV swung wildly up the last turn and down the feeder road to the house.
“Party time,” Jeremy said in calm voice. He had the sap in his hand, tapping it gently in the palm of his other hand. She had her hands on his arm, snuggling up.
Lee said, “Maybe we should hold him for the police. He’s been keeping her prisoner. That’s—”
“No,” Mandy said. “That’s not going to happen. The police are his friends.”
“Stick with the plan,” Jeremy said.
“Your brother’s right about that,” Mandy said. “Nobody will believe us if it’s our word against his.”
Lee stared at them. A cute couple. He felt he was missing something. But it was too late.
6
A car door slammed. Lights stayed on for a time and then went out. They heard Frank yelling for his dogs, sounding really drunk and angry.
When he got no response he said, “Goddamn mutts. What the hell kind of watchdogs are you? Maybe I’ll replace you bastards with a couple little yappers.”
“Drunk out of his ass,” Jeremy said. “Perfect.” He slapped the sap in his hand.
Lee had a lot of questions about his brother and his brother’s girlfriend, but no time to ask them. If this was going down, it had to be done right. It was what it was.
“When he comes in,” Lee said, “you can’t let him see you. He puts up any kind of fight, it’ll leave evidence of a struggle.”
“Mandy,” Jeremy said, “go on into the other room.” He turned to Lee. “Get behind the table and hunker down. He’ll come in, won’t see me behind the flowerpot. You say something so he stops and looks your way. I’ll take him then.”
Lee moved across the doorway, glancing outside the kitchen windows.
They waited. Frank stayed outside for a time railing at his missing dogs, cursing then laughing. He kicked something, then mounted the porch, fumbled with keys, cursed, and then finally got the door open. He mumbled some numbers, which meant he was trying to turn off the alarm system.
They heard him in the kitchen, pans slamming against something. He was talking some crazy stuff about politicians, whores, fools. He was on some kind of rage, a jag against humanity, yet he was laughing.
Then he yelled. “Hey, girl! I’m home.”
He stumbled against a table, swore, and then came straight into the room where they were. “Mandy, goddamnit … leave shit all over the fucking place.”
Lee, in the corner in the dark, said, “How you doin’ there, Superman?”
“What? Who the hell—”
When he turned toward Lee, Jeremy came behind the big man and hit him across the side of the head with the homemade sap. Lead against skull. Frank made a sound like the air had been violently sucked out of him. He fell to his knees. Jeremy cracked him again, harder this time, in the same spot, and the sound of cracking skull had a definiteness about it, reminding Lee of a horse that had kicked and broke a board in its stall when Lee was about ten.
“Don’t let blood get on the floor,” Mandy said, rushing forward. She helped Jeremy turn Frank Speers on his side.
This is a serious couple, Lee thought.
“Lee,” Jeremy said, “grab his legs. The bastard is heavy.”
“Check and see if he’s alive.”
“He’s dead,” Mandy said, her fingers on Frank’s carotid artery. “The miserable son of a bitch finally got what’s coming to him. Nice job, hun.” Mandy, holding Frank’s shoulder, stretched over and kissed Jeremy on the mouth.
Lee joined in to help carry the dead man to the porch. He had blood, but it was matted in his hair, and the side of skull looked bashed in pretty good.
“Let’s get this right,” Jeremy said. He looked at the porch, the five steps, the statues on either side.
“He falls from here, hits the corner of the stone.”
They needed to carry the dead man down to the statue base, and he was at least 300 or more pounds of dead weight. It was no easy task.
“We’re saving the taxpayers a lot of money down the road,” Jeremy said.
“My mother is somewhere up there smiling finally,” Mandy said.
But when they got him in position, Lee holding the front of the man, Jeremy grasping him around the waist, Mandy grabbed his head, pulled it up, and smashed it on the corner of the base with some serious force powered by hatred. They then let the body slump to the ground beside the base with its lion.
“Good,” Mandy said. “Perfect. You guys get out of here. I’ll call the police in the morning. I wake up, come out here, and there he is.”
“You going to tell them he kept you down in the cellar?” Lee asked.
“No need for that,” Jeremy said. “Just cause more poking around. Then they’ll want to know how you got out. And if he let you ou
t, how come you didn’t know he fell, you know, like right off?”
“They don’t need to know anything,” Mandy said. “Go on. You said you knocked the dogs out for a couple hours. Best be gone before they wake up.”
“Nice,” Jeremy said. “You did good, babe.”
The adorable couple hugged and kissed. Then Jeremy said, “I gotta put the ladder back. Lee, I’ll meet you out back.”
Mandy and Jeremy went into the house, and Lee went around to where they’d climbed in. Minutes later, Jeremy came out the bathroom window, grabbed the ladder, fed it down to the ground, then climbed down.
Mandy was watching. She waved before closing the window.
They put the ladder back in the barn and took off down across the meadow, through the fence and into the woods. The dogs were starting to awaken but drowsy and up to doing anything but watching them pass by and through the fence.
“I hit that bastard hard the first time,” Jeremy said. “The guy’s skull had to be thick as a bull’s.”
“She gonna be okay?”
“Don’t worry about Mandy,” Jeremy said. “She’s smart as hell. She’ll be fine. Sheriff won’t doubt a word.”
“She finds out you took the comics, how will she be with that?”
Jeremy shook his head. “Lee, you worry more than Mom does. Everything’s cool. Relax. Soon as this calms down, Mandy and I are going over to Vegas to get married, and you, brother-oh-mine, are going to be the best man.”
Jeremy proved to be right on all counts. There was no serious investigation. Frank Speers died of an accidental fall while drunk, and that was appreciated by most people as the just reward for a man who probably murdered his wife and was buying up the valley.
Two weeks after Frank’s funeral, Jeremy and Mandy were married in Vegas at a wedding chapel, and Lee was best man. Then the newlyweds, after a few days of honeymooning in Vegas, returned to take over. They moved into Mandy’s house and started making deals, spreading the wealth, returning some properties to their previous owners, keeping only the ones that expanded their ranch. They were now the power couple. The debts to the ranch were paid off.
The Murder Option 2 Page 9
