“Yes.” He didn’t know what to say after that. While he was thinking up another question, she spoke again. “My parents are both dead. It was a plane accident that took their lives, as well as those of a few other people. Your mother, Ruth, took me in when she was asked to watch over me while they went on this two day trip. Your father wouldn’t have ever found out, because he was doing ten years at the federal prison, so she did it. When the plane went down, Ruth decided that she’d keep me as her own.”
“I knew that.” She said that he didn’t. “Yes I did. Dad just told me all about it. I knew it a long time ago.”
“You just found out that he told you this a long time ago? As usual, Junior, you’re as stupid as they come.” Before he could draw back his fist far enough to hit her, she smiled at him. “You hit me, even to brush a little wind around my face, and I will tear you apart. I’m not joking either, you moron. I’m a tiger, while you’re nothing but a pile of shit on a warm day. You should also know that I could have had you arrested the moment that you made your way out of prison in a body bag, but I wanted you to come here.”
“Why? You gonna ask me for my forgiveness? I ain’t gonna give it to you. You will be hurting much before I’m done with you.” Anna said that she had no reason to ask him for shit. “What if I decided to come on into your house and make a mess of them little babies?”
“You’ll never get by the front gate. Trust me when I tell you, Junior, you are as good as dead as you stand here. I just want to see what sort of shit you can get yourself into before the Feds come down on your ass.” He asked her why they’d be doing that. “Murder. Robbery. Then there are the stolen cars, all nine of them. By the way, you left your prints all over each and every one of them. Did you ever hear of gloves?”
“They was too hot. And you lie.” She only stepped up to the ice cream window and ordered four sammiches, as well as fries and drinks. “I’m not going to eat with you, bitch.”
“No kidding. This is for my husband and me. We’re taking the kids that you were talking about out on a walk. It’s a lovely day for it, don’t you think?” Noah wanted to hit her and take all her food. “You have fun now.”
Noah was also starving. When he’d left the prison behind, he could only think of one thing—a creamy chicken sammich. Those, as far as he was concerned, were a national treasure chest. Damn, but they were good. And when Anna picked up her food, there were four of them suckers right there on the tray, with the biggest order of fries that he’d ever done seen. His belly made sure he knew that he was wanting one too.
Walking up to the window, he ordered himself three of them to eat all by himself. “I’m sorry, sir. Mrs. Robinson just took the last ones. I could make you a hamburger if you’d like.”
He wanted the fucking chicken sammich, damn it. He made his way to Anna to demand that she share hers with him.
~*~
Morgan stood up when Junior approached them. He was impressed that he had the balls to do that, come up on Anna knowing that she was a cat. Morgan had a feeling that he had no idea that he was one as well, and a pissed off cat as well. Anna just continued to feed the girls little bits of her sandwich as she ignored Junior.
“You will give me one of those sammiches right now. I’ve come here just to get me one of them.” Morgan simply told him no. “No? Do you have any idea who I am?”
“Junior Hayes. Not that it means a hell of a lot to me, but that’s who you are.” Junior said his name was Noah. “Not to me you’re not. Why don’t you go away and leave my family alone? Or better yet, why don’t you just walk in front of a truck or bus and be gone from our lives forever? That would thrill a great many people to death, I think.”
“You’re a big man, talking to me as if I’m nothing at all.” Morgan simply let enough of his cat go so that the man couldn’t help but see him. “A fucking tiger? You’re one of them there shifting things too? Holee Christ buttons. Am I the only normal person in the fucking world?”
“Normal? I doubt anyone would think of you as normal. You’re insane if you think that we’re going to put up with your shit now that we know who you are.” Morgan watched his face set into thinking. It was as if he was using every bit of his body to work out whatever was going on in his head. “Don’t hurt yourself. Just ask me.”
“How did she know that she wasn’t my sister when I didn’t even know? A man should know these things.” Morgan asked him why he wanted to know. “You done told me to ask you, didn’t you? Damn it, you can’t be changing the rules right in the middle of me asking.”
“My brother Dawson has come up with a program that can tell what a person’s lineage is. It’s for shifters that cannot use a human company to find out where they might be from. Once he found out that there wasn’t any way that Anna was born of your family, Rogen, my sister, looked to see how many tigers were born around your area. She found out that the Markell’s lived right next door to you up until their death in a plane crash. It took a little longer to figure out that they’d had a child. A child that they left in keeping with your mother when they went away on a trip. When the plane went down, your mom figured that no one would notice that she had a daughter that she hadn’t birthed. I think, up until your father murdered her, your mother was quite happy having a child around that didn’t beat on her or steal from her. I would have been, I believe.” Junior said that he’d not murdered her, she died later. “She was murdered by all of you—if only I were able to take you all to court over it. You used your poor mother as a punching back until she could no longer get better between beatings.”
“No, you got it all wrong. I just now talked at my daddy. He said that Momma brought that cat, Anna, to the house and he’d not approved of it. She died because she wasn’t healing right in the head. That had nothing to do with her dying. Sure, we all knocked her around, but she liked it. Momma learned her lesson right quick when we told her to shut up and she didn’t.” Morgan wasn’t the least bit surprised that this moron would think that his mom deserved what she got. “Anyhow. I just want one of them sammiches that Anna bought all up.”
Morgan turned and looked at Anna. She’d just fed the last few pieces to the girls, and by the looks of them, to their face, hair, and dresses too. Morgan could not believe how much he loved these kids. He looked back at Junior and told him that they were all gone.
“That just ain’t right, you know. I fucking wanted—” Morgan punched him in the face. Not hard, just enough to knock him back on his ass. “What the hell was that for, you fucking turd?”
“Turd? Well, it was for cursing around my children. I don’t condone that.” Junior looked confused again. “I don’t allow people to curse around them. That’s what condone means.”
“I knows that.” Sure he did. And he was a scholar of the highest degree too. “You could ‘a just said, ‘don’t be cussing around my kids.’ There weren’t no reason for you to be hitting me like that.”
“But my way was so much more fun.” Morgan put out his hand and laughed when Junior flinched from it. “I was offering you my hand to help you up.”
“I think I’ll just be staying here while we finish this up. You gots yourself some cash on you? I was thinking that you could spot me some until I can get the money that Dad stashed away for me.” Morgan told him no. “It’s not like it’s gonna hurt you none. I just have to be able to get me a meal or two and be sleeping in a real bed for a while. Just help me out. You should anyway. I could be helpful to you.”
“How do you figure that?” Junior told him of his plan. “I see. You want me to support you in a lifestyle that you wish while you hunt down the money that your father and your brothers stole from a bank with your help, and you’ll give me half of it. How is that going to set with the rest of your family?”
“You’ll have to deal with them, I’m a’ guessing. Besides, I’m thinking that after today, they’ll both not be getting out anytime soo
n. Not to mention, they ain’t nearly as smart as I am.” Morgan rolled his eyes. “You don’t believe that I’m smart? I am. I’m the only ones of us that finished up middle school.”
“Well, then, I guess you are pretty smart, aren’t you?” Morgan decided to find out what he could. “How the hell did you get out of prison? Did you have to pay someone to get your ass out when you were no way near your time to be released?”
“Nah, I got no money. But what I do gots is smarts.” Morgan asked him what he’d done again. “So I fixed it so that my roomie was nearly dead. He was getting on my last nerve anyhow. So I strangled him enough so that he’d have to go to the infirmary. After he gets himself there and keels over, I real casual like just slip in the bed that he was dead in and tossed his body in the pressure thing. It smashed his body up like he was nothing more than a coconut, I tell you. They think I’m dead now, so I just go out with the rest of the bodies. ‘Course, I had to lay real still, and when they dumped me in the back with the rest of the real dead ones, I didn’t make no noises when they roughed me up a bit.”
“How did they account for you not being in your bed?” Junior told him it didn’t matter none to him on account ‘a him being free. “I see. So you escaped prison because you murdered a man by crushing his body in a compactor.”
“Yeah, that’s the name of that thing. You sure know a lot of words. I bet you never have a lick of trouble with cross ways puzzles or nothing, do you?” Morgan said that he was a college professor. “Oh yeah? Well, I guess it takes all kinds. So, we gots a deal?”
“No, we gots nothing. First of all, you’re a criminal. Secondly, and I guess this shouldn’t surprise me, you escaped from prison and you have no idea where the money is. Am I right so far?” Junior said that he had himself a clue where it might be. “Then why aren’t you going to get it?”
“It’s a fair piece away from here.” Morgan wondered if he were to take the man to the money, would that give the police enough to take him back to prison. But he wasn’t sure who on the force had been in on Junior getting out, and Morgan wondered if they’d call about him escaping. But he was becoming a nuisance, and he wanted the fucker in prison now. “You take me out there and I’ll divide it up right then and there. You can even do some recounting if you’ve a mind to.”
He asked for time to think about it. When he was told that he could, Morgan went to sit down with his family. Anna was stressed, but when he winked at her, she smiled. It was tight, sure, but he’d take whatever she was willing to give him.
Are you all right? She nodded, then shook her head. Junior left them, laughing when he went on his way. When he was out of ear shot, Morgan spoke to Anna again. “I have an idea how we can get him back in prison. I know that you were made aware that we wanted him there without chance of parole. I think I might have it. I hope so anyway.”
“I just don’t understand why he wasn’t arrested when he killed that woman.” He told her that the cameras were not for public use, and it would get Rogen in trouble. “I know, she told me that too. But even standing up to him is getting harder and harder. I’m terrified for our kids.”
“He knows where the cash is.” Anna asked what cash. “The money from the bank robbery. They could never prove that the four of them were in on it, so they only got life. They’d been smart enough—probably took all four of them—to cut off the cameras. As it is, they could all get out with good behavior. Or worse yet, like Junior did. He even told me how he did that.”
“What does he want in return? I’m sure that he has some grand plan that is going to make you both rich.” Morgan smiled at her as he ate his ice cream. “You’re going to do whatever he wants? That’s not like you.”
“It’s not. But if it will get him off the streets, then I’m for anything it takes to get him out of your life.” She smiled at him. “Yes, you get it now, don’t you? We’re going to take him down.”
Chapter 7
Thatcher didn’t much care for Rogen and Anna being in on this one. There was too much at stake. While Rogen wouldn’t be there in actuality, she was still going to be commanding a bunch of people that might get Anna hurt. But since no one had asked him, he was being wise and not saying a word. While the ladies were making plans for their part in the capture and arrest of Noah Junior, he and his brothers were working on the set up with the funeral home that had released not just Junior, but it looked like forty other inmates.
“You’re drifting again.” Thatcher told Beckett he was sorry. “This is going to be epic; don’t you think? I mean, we’re finding out so much about this funeral home that I’m surprised no one has ever looked into it before. Might make a good story.”
“Only you would think that. And we’re not calling the newspaper at all. First of all, we can’t have Rogen’s location out there. Not to mention, we don’t want anyone getting any ideas on how to make this work for them and other funeral homes.” Beckett told him that he was aware of it. “I’m sorry. I’m just stressed a little. To think that this place has been in business since our dad was just a kid. Do we know yet how long they’ve been doing this?”
“Only since the son took over from his father about ten years ago.” He asked Jonas if they were sure it was just the son. “I am. About ten years before Mr. Williams died, he took out a loan on the place. Then about six months after his death, Parker Williams, his only son, pays off both mortgages, as well as has the place renovated. I was happy to help him out with that for the bank, but now I’m wondering how he was able to gather up the money. I thought it was insurance, but that doesn’t work out either. Who is paying him? Or a better question would be, how is he being paid? There is no influx of cash that I can find when I go over his books. Something isn’t right here.”
“Okay, so we know that the funeral home is in on this scam, or whatever we’re calling it. The list of things that we don’t know about this thing is much longer than what we do know.” Thatcher agreed with Houston when the rest of them did. “So we do this one step at a time. First of all, we know that someone on the inside is guilty as fuck too, simply because of the extra body that goes out when they’re collected. What I don’t understand is, why are they holding the dead until they get a bunch of them? For that matter, how are they holding them?”
“I found that.” He looked at Beckett. “You’re not going to like this any better than knowing that they do it. The only freezer they have is the one that they store the food in. And with that knowledge, I can about tell you when a body is going out. They cut back on the amount of meat and frozen things to make room for the bodies. When there is a large order for groceries placed, you know that they’re going to get rid of their storage of the dead.”
“That is the most disgusting thing that I’ve ever heard of.” Beckett said that there was more. “Do I want to know?”
“More than likely not. But it looks to me like some of these bodies that actually die for whatever reason might not be shipped out ever. In the last sixteen months, several men have come up missing, but were reported found after the state went in and did a surprise inspection of the place. What do you suppose they’re doing with the bodies?” Thatcher got it first, and he said there was no way in hell that was legal. “Of course it’s not. But feeding the inmates the dead is a perfect way to rid themselves of the extra...meat, I guess you could call it.”
“Christ, this is much worse than we ever thought.” Jonas said that would also cut the cost of having to feed them very much. Thatcher was a surgeon, but this sort of thing was making even him ill. “So how far up the ladder does this shit go? I mean, to the top, you figure?”
“I think so. At least the person who is doing the ordering would think that something is off. Then there are the people that would have to make sure that death certificates are filed on the living that leave. This thing is so complicated that it’s small wonder no one has figured it out.” Jonas had another point. “Are some of the
inmates in on this, you think?”
Thatcher asked what happened to the list of people working there. When he was handed it, he looked it over. He started putting numbers next to the people that worked in the kitchen, the infirmary, as well as the head of the prison.
“We need the bank records of all these men. Also, try and find out where the money might be going if it’s not in the local bank.” He divided up the list. “I’ll work on the list for the kitchen with Jonas. You four divide the list in two again and work on that. Banking first, or at least an influx of money at any time of the month.”
While they were starting on their list, he called for Rogen. She came into the room where they were working and showed them the password to get into the national banking system. After that, it was easy to go down the list and not only figure out who was in on this, but also the people that were shipping money to another country. Two hours after starting, they were all finished with their lists.
“All of them. Every person that works there has a part in this scam. I suppose they’d have to be. I mean, how would any one person or group of people be able to keep something like this on the quiet side?” Thatcher looked at this list again. “But who is—?”
“I got it.” They all turned to Dawson when he started to whoop it up. “I not only know who is paying them off, but how. Christ, this was just as simple as the last diagnosis I had when Mrs. Emery brought her daughter in. It’s not the family, like I first thought, but the groups that they worked for. Mobsters, as well as gangs that employed these men. Look at what I found on this check here. It’s from one of the biggest mobsters in our state. There are checks like this from all over the place, from different groups that need their hitmen back. Even checks from gangs that I’ve never heard of before.”
It was a certified check made out to one of the prison guards. After they knew how to look for that, they each looked over the accounts on their list and found the same sorts of checks. On each one of the checks, in the corner of it where memo was printed, it said “refund from a credit card.” There were at least ten of those on each and every account.
Morgan: Robinson Destruction – Paranormal Tiger Shifter Romance Page 8
