He worked there until he retired.
Bill was fifty-seven years old and in good health. He had the normal aches and pains, but both of his knees were injured playing football and still ached a lot in the winter. He was six foot tall with wavy black hair speckled with gray and gray sideburns. He was in good shape and only weighed two hundred pounds. He still jogged and lifted weights every other day. He only took the usual blood pressure and cholesterol medicine that most guys his age had to take.
He did a remarkable job hiding his bouts with depression because a man just had to tough the hard times out and keep on trucking. You never heard that John Wayne had to take pills to put him into a better mood. He would not see that damned grief counselor either for he felt it was a waste of time. People died every day and you just had to suck it up and get on with life. Bill did not hold it against Mary because she took the damned Xanax. Women weren’t as strong as men were; the counselor made sense for her.
Bill never argued with Mary anymore, he just sat in his chair, watching TV or was out in the garage working on one of his hobbies. He didn’t say much at all.
***
Mary Elizabeth Linton was the daughter of two working class people who had six children and never had much in the way of possessions, but their house was full of love. They were Southern Baptists who went to church on Sunday and lived life to its fullest. Her father was a regular at O’Tools Pub and needed a pint or two after work to settle his nerves before going home. He was a good man and provided a good, but poor living for his family. Her mom stayed at home and took care of the kids, house and her husband, who did not approve of a woman working outside of the home. She helped by taking in some laundry for some fancy people on the next block.
Mary was eight years younger than Bill and she adored him so much it hurt. They met in school and dated for a year or so before he popped the question. His father was devastated when they got married in the Baptist Church but even he knew that, “If Momma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.”
Mary was always happy and passed her enthusiasm for life onto everyone she contacted during her life. She had no time for gloom and doom and hated to watch bad news on TV. She was the one who would be the first to console friends or fellow church members who lost loved ones or fell on hard times.
Mary never worked outside their home and stayed busy managing the home and raising the kids. She had a large garden and enjoyed canning fruits and vegetables. Bill liked having Mary at home; she catered to him and the kids.
Their daughter was born a year later and was a Daddy’s girl from the first minute. Ann had him wrapped around her finger from day one. They did everything together and Bill could not wait to get home from work to play with his young daughter. Johnny was born the next year and Mary had complications with the birth and could not have any more children. Bill was okay with only two kids but Mary was grief stricken and took a couple of years to make peace with the hand that God had dealt her. She did not blame God and knew better than to question his judgment, but wondered what she had done wrong to be punished.
Bill and Mary never knew that Ann was in such pain and did not fit in at high school. She was a loner who would rather read a book than socialize with the girls. She took an overdose of sleeping pills when she was sixteen.
Bill and Mary were devastated, but kept themselves together for Johnny’s sake. Johnny was an all-American boy who excelled at everything. He was a star basketball and football player. He took both teams to the state championships twice and his teams won state in both sports his senior year. Every college in the country offered him a scholarship, but he surprised everyone by joining the Navy and qualifying for the Navy Seals.
Johnny died saving the lives of several of his best friends during a mission in Afghanistan. The government gave their son the Medal of Honor and a Purple Heart. Bill and Mary just wanted their son back in their arms. Bill insisted that his son’s body be in Newton instead of Arlington. Bill and Mary refused to go to the ceremony to accept the Medal of Honor from the President because they blamed the President and liberals for weakening the military.
Bill was a man so he had to be Mary’s rock and never allowed himself to grieve or cry over the kids. He just became angrier and angrier. People who loved him started avoiding him.
Mary was five feet six inches tall and had red hair with a matching Irish temper. She was forty-nine years old and felt a hundred. While still a stunning beauty, her will to live was just about gone. Her doctor had her on anti-depressants and several other pills to help her with the crying spells and depression. She loved Bill just as much as ever, but he was so damned grouchy.
She didn’t smile much anymore and struggled to get out of the house to go to church. She had stopped getting dressed most of the time except for church on Sunday. She still loved Bill but life was a struggle. She just could not believe that she had outlived her children and had no grandchildren.
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Chapter 4
The truck was just what the doctor ordered. Mary had told him for years that he needed a hobby working with his hands. He hated woodw0rking and had worked in maintenance for years at the stamping plant. Mechanical work came naturally to him. He had always performed the general maintenance on their cars and had built a dune buggy early on so the leap to restoring an old truck was an easy decision. The ’49 F1 Ford had seen better days but had a sound body and actually ran fairly well. It was what they called a survivor and was found in a local barn. One of Bill’s friends had told him about it on the day he retired. Bill coaxed Mary to take a Sunday drive in the country to look at the truck. They drove over to inspect the truck and found it to be perfect for Bill to restore. It had a sound body with all glass intact and all the parts. There was even a "parts" truck to make sure he had all the parts needed to restore the other truck.
They made a deal for $8,000 and the owner would deliver the trucks to Bill’s garage about twenty-two miles away. Bill was pleased with the deal and Mary thought that this would help get Grumpy in a better mood. He talked all of the way home about how he would put a high performance engine and running gear in the truck and all of the modern conveniences. Then he changed to getting a new interior and paint. Mary was starting to think she had created a monster, but she was pleased that for the first time in years Bill was happy and had a mission.
It was only three weeks since he had retired and Grumpy had dug into working on the trucks. He had decided to restore the parts truck as his big project since the body was almost as good as the one that ran. This way he could drive the one that ran while he worked on the other one. He would have a completely original 1949 F1 Ford pickup and a customized 1949 F1 Ford hotrod. He had been collecting catalogs that contained parts for trucks for years. He also found several good internet web sites where he could order parts.
He had built a 40’ x 60’ pole barn several years back and quickly cleaned it up and got ready to work on both trucks. After it was cleaned, he put a ceiling in, insulated the entire building and added a gas furnace so he could work in it during the winter. He added several fans in the ceiling to remove hot air and six fans in the walls to blow outside air into the garage in the summer. He had more tools and metal working equipment than most garages so he only needed the parts to start. He planned to have both trucks professionally painted and would send any parts to be chromed to a shop specializing in that work. He was going to rebuild the flat head V8 for the original truck and send the other running gear out to a shop to be rebuilt. The hotrod was a different matter. He wanted to buy a 460 V8 Ford truck motor, C6 automatic transmission and a heavy-duty rear end.
He thought that Mary and he could redo the interior of the original truck using a replacement set of seat covers and repaint the inside of the truck. The gauges were in good shape and just needed cleaning and paint. There were even replacement knobs for sale in these catalogs.
“Mary, I need you to help me with the truck. I need your help insta
lling the seat covers and I'd like your opinion on the interior paint.”
“You know I don’t want to go into that garage unless you cover up that car.”
“The car is covered and I’ll take you to that movie that you want to see if you’ll help me. Pretty please.”
“Throw in cleaning the grill and I will help you.”
She had not been in the garage since Johnny’s death. His Mustang was still under a tarp in the back corner. She told Grumpy that she did not want to see the car. Grumpy offered to sell it or store it in the barn behind the garage. She told him that she wanted it to stay safe, but didn't want him to take the tarp off while she was in the pole barn.
The seat covers for the original truck had arrived and Grumpy wanted Mary to help him install them. He had already removed the seat from the truck, removed the old seat cover and cushion material and repaired the springs. They just had to place the foam rubber on top of the springs and then stretch the new leather seat covers over the foam and apply the hog rings to secure them to the seats. Mary was a big help in holding the leather in place while he secured it with the hog rings. The work was not too tough, but tedious. They enjoyed each other’s company.
“Darling, you need to get a hobby that you enjoy. I love working on this truck and I think you need something to do in your spare time now that we have retired.”
Mary punched him in the arm.
He grabbed his arm and said, “What did I do this time? That hurt.”
Mary said, “Dummy, what am I retiring from? I still clean the house, wash and iron your clothes, cook your food and tend the garden. What am I not doing in retirement that I was doing before?”
“Oh crap, I didn’t think.”
She said, “I am used to that!” They laughed and finished the seat covers.
They talked about many things from their past while working, but never mentioned the kids. Grumpy caught his wife looking back at the car under the tarp several times but never mentioned it. He had helped Johnny build the Mustang from a plain shell to a high performance beauty that was fast, red and sexy. All of his high school friends were jealous of Johnny’s hot muscle car. They started on it when he was fourteen and finished right before his sixteenth birthday. Johnny took his mom and dad for a ride in the red Mustang and stopped at Wendy’s for his favorite meal. Johnny drove very responsibly and never caused them a bit of trouble. He had several girlfriends over the years but none that stayed around long. Johnny died four years later and the car had set under the tarp since. Every time Grumpy saw the car, he thought of Johnny and cried.
Later that night Mary said, “We have a car, three pickups and that Mustang. Isn't that a bit too many cars for two people? Can’t we sell of one of the trucks or the Mustang and use the money to fix the others up?”
“I didn’t think you’d ever sell Johnny’s car.”
“Well, I don’t want to, but it’s just going to waste setting in that garage. Some other boy would love to have it and drive around town with his girlfriend like our boy.”
“Let me think about it for a day or two.”
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Chapter 5
They had left church at about noon in a heavy rainstorm. May in Kentucky can bring snow or heavy rain, the weather changes every day. Traffic out of town was dead slow due to the pouring rain. This gave them time to talk about today’s sermon.
Grumpy said, “I’m thinking the preacher was talking about me today.” Mary looked over at him and punched him in the arm.
She replied, “You must have a guilty conscious. I thought he was aiming his sermon at me.”
He said, “I guess the sermon could fit a bunch of people in this town but the part about wasting your lives worrying about something out of your control hit me hard.”
“What did you think about what he said about placing your faith in God and turning all your troubles and worries over to him?”
Grumpy said, “I just don’t think that you can dump your problems on God and put a smile on your face and be happy.”
“Bill, did you hear the part about that this was the first step of several? You also need to be nice to people and find a purpose in life,” she replied.
Grumpy knew that he had been a sorry man since the kids' deaths, but how much could a man take? He had kept a smile on his face and acted cheerful on the outside but he was dying on the inside.
Grumpy grabbed his wife’s hand and promised, “I will start with being a better husband and being nice to you and our families. I can’t promise much more, but I’ll try.”
They were now about a mile out of town when suddenly a pickup pulled out of a driveway slinging gravel and fishtailing with the truck barely staying on the road.
“Slow down, that fool is going to wreck that truck and I don’t want to hit him.”
Grumpy immediately slowed down and watched the truck ahead of them, which was about one hundred feet ahead of them and still picking up speed. It appeared to be under control when the right tires dipped off the pavement into the soft muddy side of the road. The driver overcorrected and the vehicle shot over to the left side of the road and then suddenly back to the right side. This time the driver could not get the tires back on the road and began to drift down the hillside. The right side of the road dropped off about thirty feet to a flat spot just before ending at dense woods.
The driver should have turned down the hill and been satisfied with missing the trees and power poles. Instead, he tried to turn back up the hill. This caused the truck to flip and roll side over side down the hill and end up against a tree. Grumpy slid to a stop on the side of the road with Mary yelling for him to help the driver. The rain was still pouring down and Grumpy remembered thinking that it was great that it was late spring and not too cold. He slipped and fell several times before he got to the truck. It was upside down with the lights still on and the driver’s side door closed. He looked in and the truck was empty. He immediately ran to the other side of the truck.
***
Sam had stolen the truck to leave home and never come back. Being treated like crap was not Sam’s cup of tea. She would rather be dead then live with a mom who was drunk and taking drugs all of the time. Sam’s mom and her boyfriend making and selling drugs out of their garage did not make for a healthy home. There was barely any food and what clothes there were had been worn and patched long ago. Sam hated school. She was a very strong willed teenager and was very street smart. Sam’s mom had many boyfriends who disliked Sam and now the last one liked Sam too much. They had a knockdown drag out fight when Sam’s mom caught her boyfriend trying to pin Sam down in the back bedroom.
She went to the back yard, picked Sammy up and let him lick her face. They were best friends and Sam talked with Sammy as if he was a person.
“Sammy, I know that life has been miserable around here. I promise that I will find you a good home where you will be loved and have plenty to eat. No one will ever beat you again.”
Sammy looked at his best friend and began licking Sam’s face, trying to tell Sam how much he loved her.
Sam snuck back into the house found Jack’s keys and then found his baseball bat. Sam’s plan was to beat him to get even for what he had done to both of them. Sam walked up behind Jack and swung the bat at his head, but only landed a glancing blow, which knocked him down. Sam hit him several more times, then ran out of the house, grabbed Sammy and drove off. The plan was to find a good home for Sammy and then drive the truck off a cliff like in the movies. Sam did not care to die, but wanted Sammy to have a good life in a new home with people that loved and cared for him.
***
Mary slipped and fell several times trying to follow Bill down the steep hill. She turned her ankle during her last fall and knew that she wouldn’t be much help to Bill. She saw him go around behind the truck and disappear. A few minutes later, she saw a person covered with mud from head to toe dragging another smaller person from behind the truck and laying them dow
n about fifty feet from the truck. She thought that must be Bill but could not be for sure because the rain was so heavy. The other person was covered in mud but was much smaller than Bill. Both were a pitiful sight.
She saw the smaller of the two try to get up but the other pinned him down. The struggle stopped and they appeared to be talking. She was only about fifty feet away but could not hear over the rain. Her ankle hurt and she stopped trying to hobble towards the wreck. She sat down on a stump and watched for several minutes as several more cars stopped but only one person came down the hill to help. It was their pastor. He stopped and asked her if she was okay then headed on to help at the wreck.
***
Grumpy cleared the front of the truck and saw that the person was partially under the rolled over truck. He could smell a lot of gas and knew he had to get this guy clear of the truck quickly or they would both be barbeque.
Grumpy asked, “Are you okay?”
The reply was “Are you a dumbass? I’m stuck under this damn truck and I think it is going to catch on fire, so no, obviously I’m not okay!”
Grumpy thought this being nice to people may not be worth the effort, but continued to try to be nice. However, he could not keep his mouth shut.
“Look, asshole, I could leave you stuck under this truck but being a nice guy I’m going to get you out if it kills both of us,” replied Grumpy.
He then added, “Our pastor told us today to be nice to people and find some way to help people in order to serve God better and you are my first project.”
Grumpy, Sam and Sammy: A Murder Mystery and Thriller Page 2
