“The bank didn’t notice because it looks like they cashed them in different places around the state. You can see how they were cashed on the back. Since it’s a certified check, they’re pretty much guaranteed their money back.” Thatcher was proud of himself for figuring that out. “If you look, I’m betting that they have a list of places that they’d cashed these checks so as not to go back there a second time. This is, I have to admit, brilliant on someone’s part.”
The next checks they investigated were those of the funeral home. The only one being paid there was Parker, and he was making a killing off this. All he had to do was bring all the bodies in and let them go. He had no overhead at all, and was making about twenty grand on each person that was brought to his establishment.
“So, how do we prove this?” Dad had a good question. Thatcher didn’t know the answer, but he was sure that he could get some help from someone. Asking Rogen if she could join them, he could see that she did not look happy about being interrupted.
“I have shit I’m doing. Why do you all look like you’ve had a nice tasty meal? What did you do?” Thatcher showed her what they’d figured out between them, then told her what they needed. “We can’t prove anything for the moment. Since Junior was released this way, someone will figure out that their scam has been found out. They might not stop fucking around with the dead right away, but it will put them on alert, and that will fuck up your catch. As large as yours will be, it would be a shame not to get the cocksucker in prison right along with the inmates that they’d been feeding ground Joey to, or whoever they ground up to give them in the way of hamburger. Christ, that is really going to have a lot of people puking in their oats, don’t you think?”
The two arrests groups—or really three, Rogen told him—would have to be arrested at the same time or they’d lose out on some of them. The prison and the funeral home would have to be done first. If not, then they’d miss catching one. Then they could arrest Junior for his part in a great many things.
Rogen told them all she thought they’d done a fantastic job other than annoying the fuck out of her. When she walked away, Thatcher saw each of his brothers high five the other. Their first undercover job search, and they’d found shit out that he never, not in a million plus years, would have guessed. Rogen made about a dozen phone calls before she was ready to make the move on the two places. There were other elements involved in this capture and arrest, things that he wouldn’t be a part of, but he so did love watching her work. She was professional, loud, and cursed like someone who might have written the books on it. But Thatcher loved her with all his body and soul.
The FBI would need to be involved, as well as a lot of other agencies, she told him, simply because they were all going to want a piece of what was going on. Rogen also told him that no one could know that they’d been a part of it.
“They’ll believe that you guys might have known all along. Not so much about the people getting out, but the fact that they were using humans as their supper. Cannibalism is going to have a great many people protesting things that have nothing to do with what you unearthed.” He asked her what. “For instance, there will be a lot of prisoners that demand to be released because of this. As much as I hate to admit it, there might be a few that get out. Then there is the backlash about the funerals that were legitimate. Like my father’s, for instance. Did they really do what they were supposed to? Shit like that.”
“It might even tarnish the name of Parker Williams’s father.” Rogen nodded. “There is nothing we can do to keep that from happening, is there?”
“I can do a little on the side, but people will do what they do best. Take a story and make it all about them and how something hurt them. I would expect to see a lot of lawsuits about all of this. Not just the funeral home, but also the prison. Then there are the people that were eaten. We might not ever be able to figure that out.” He asked her if she thought no one would want to do this. “Oh, they’ll do this all right. It’s exposure. Another thing people like to see is when someone is handed their ass. A lot of people will be too. Not just the men you found, but I’m betting that there will be a lot more named in all this. It’s going to open and close a great many cases.”
“Christ, I never thought of that. Wives and children of these men involved; they’re going to be blamed for being in on it as well.” Rogen said that they more than likely knew something was going on, just not the details. “Right. I wouldn’t want to know either. A lot of shit is going to hit the fan, isn’t it?”
“Yes, but don’t ever think this was a bad thing, Thatcher. You and your family did a great job of not only keeping people from continuing to be released without reason, but you’ve also found the money and where it was going, and you know to the dollar how much was paid out by each person that wanted them released. That, to me, is the best. A lot of heads are going to be chopped off with this one.” He nodded, but could only think how this was going to affect a lot of innocents. “This is why I don’t like names when I’m to take out a target. It’s much easier to just simply think of them as scum or trash. I sleep better at nights.”
By midnight, his house was full of men and women with letters on their jackets or vests. They were being brought with logos on their vans or cars as painters, gardeners, as well as caterers. Rogen said that they’d need to have a large outdoor picnic for the town later that would make the people being here now more plausible. So no one in town would ever think why they were going to such extremes for no reason.
Thatcher told his mom what he needed her to do for him. She, of course, thought it was a splendid idea. Not the arrests, but that she could plan a party big enough to treat the town, and on the government’s dime. The rest, he was glad to know, she wanted nothing to do with.
Wondering what she’d want to serve as meat, he decided that for a little while, he was going to eat only greens—salads and such. Thatcher wasn’t sure that his belly could take much meat at the moment. All of this was just too fresh to him.
~*~
Morgan had to admit that he was nervous about his part in all this. He might not have agreed at all except for the people that were going to be at the cemetery where the money was hidden. Being able to communicate with Rogen and Thatcher about where he was taking Moron, his new name for Junior, made it so much easier for them to get there before he pulled in. He did think it was horrible that they’d actually used their own mother’s gravesite for a place to hide the money. Moron was singing to the radio when Morgan reached over and turned it off.
“Hey, I was listening at that.” Morgan, with his car bugged all over with camera and microphones, had to remind himself not to talk loudly. “What’s up your ass anyway? Didn’t I tell you that you could count out your share before we even leave there?”
“Yes, you did. Several times. I have a question for you. But don’t strain your head in trying to figure out a lie. I’ll know. I can smell it when you do.” He could, but with Moron, he couldn’t get past the smell of his unwashed body. “You never said to me how much my cut was going to be.”
That was something that Rogen and crew wanted to know before he and Moron got there. It would narrow down for them all which bank robbery Moron was talking about. So far as he knew there was only one. But they had four unsolved bank robberies, and they wanted to know which one to pin on them.
“Millions.” Morgan didn’t even glance at him. “Whenever we’d get us a good haul, like a bank or some fucking shit, we’d take it to the cemetery when we didn’t get caught and hide it right there where Momma was buried. After a while, Daddy decided that if we left it there until things cooled off, then they’d not be able to pin them on us.”
“What happened that it’s still there? Nothing came up for you?” Moron said that was exactly the issuance, like that even made sense. Then he told him. “So, you never really got to spend much of it because you were never allowed to go and pick up the cash
on your own. One of you were always in prison for something else.”
“Yeah, that’s it. If we was caught there by the others then they’d be allowed to murder us off. We made us a package, you see. We sticked our self to it to no matter how much we wanted to just take a little biddy bit of it.” Morgan asked if they trusted each other. “I didn’t trust any of them but Daddy. And I knew that he’d bring down a world of hurts on me that I might wish to die from.”
Morgan knew that everyone was listening in on this, and right now were more than likely setting up to take the man in. This was the first step to take down a bunch of thieves, as well as murderers. After this, he’d be out of the circle of things that were going to happen later today.
It was decided that Moron would have to be taken in first. Then later, before anyone got wind of what was going on, they’d hit both the prison and Parker Williams’s home and place of business at the same time. Neither place was close to each other. The prison was upstate, and the funeral home was about fifty miles from where they all lived. Morgan knew that Anna was sitting at home with his mom, and that she was scared that he was going to get hurt in some way. He was too, but he’d put on a brave face for her before leaving the house. Anna hadn’t believed it for a minute.
“You be careful, or so help me, Morgan, I will hunt you down and rip you a new ass. I kid you not on this.” He kissed her on the nose. “You’re not going to get away with that either. I want you to promise me that you’re not going to be hurt. I can’t stand the thought of you out there with that idiot.”
“I love you to pieces, Anna, but I can’t promise you that. What if I get knocked down when they arrest him? I fall on a piece of sharp—I don’t know, grass or something, and cut myself. You’ll hurt me if I make a promise and then break it.” She said she was going to hit him. “That reminds me of a question that I had for you. Do you have any idea why Rogen hits people when she’s talking to them?”
“They’re morons?” He said that he didn’t think his dad was. “It’s to get his attention away from whatever he was thinking about at the time. Mostly she does it because she can, I think. But really, it’s to draw a person’s attention to her and not whatever shitty thoughts they’re having. It’s violent, yes it is, but it also works. Don’t change the subject. You know how nervous I am about this.”
“I do. I promise you that I do.” He held her to him and felt from her all the love that a man could ever want. “I can promise you that I won’t die out there. Not unless I really do fall and hit my head on the headstone. I have enough hardware on my person that I think I weigh at least forty more pounds than I did this morning. I love you, Anna, and I will try my very best not to get harmed while I’m working with these men.”
She told him that was the best she could hope for, then kissed him again. Now here he was, in the car with one of the biggest idiots that he’d ever had to be around. He knew that Moron had a gun, something that he hadn’t told Anna on purpose. However, it wasn’t loaded. Not to mention, Moron also didn’t know that you needed silver to kill a shifter. Morgan tried very hard not to think of him shooting him in the head.
When they pulled into the cemetery, the little mic in his ear spoke to him. Nearly screaming at Rogen to not do that again, he listened while she told him what was going on around him.
“There are two funerals going on around you. One about half a football field away to your right. The other one is just about four headstones away from you. Both are fake, and are there to keep your ass from getting hurt.” He thanked her. “I have to tell you, your fucking wife came in here and threatened me about ten minutes ago. Morgan, I’m going to convince her to work with me if it’s the last thing I do. Damn, but she’s ballsy. I like her more than you, and I like you a great deal. All right, listen up. Just walk to the grave as if you know what the fuck you’re doing.”
I haven’t any idea what the fuck I’m doing. Or how the hell you talked me into this. She said that she’d not had to. No, you sent my brother after me. That is playing unfairly.
“A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do. Can you see the headstone yet?” He said he was near it. “Don’t dig the grave if you can help it. Tell dumbass that you drove or some shit like that.”
That was just what he told Moron when he insisted that he dig up the money. “I’ve been carting your ass around since I picked you up this morning. Taking you all over town to get supplies. I would have thought you’d have everything you needed before I got you.” Moron grumbled about how he was older than him. “I don’t give two shits if you’re geriatric. I’m not digging that up.”
“What the hell does that mean?” Counting to ten first, Morgan told him that it was someone over eighty. “Why the hell don’t you just say that instead of using big fancy words all the time? Your momma must be pissed off at you all the time for making her feel stupid. Are you showing off to me? You don’t gotta. I’m not impressed by you anymore than you are me. I’ll dig it, but I’m charging you for this. It comes out of your part.”
Not even bothering to answer him, Morgan sat down on the grass to wait. Moron had to pull the money out of the grave or it was all for naught. As he waited, he looked around, wondering if there were any spaces left in this cemetery.
It had been around longer than he had been. His great grandmother was around here somewhere, he thought. He’d have to look it up. Morgan decided that he was going to ask Anna if she would help him pick out a place for them so that someday he’d not have to leave this burden to his children.
The responsibility had gone to his parents when Mom’s parents had passed away. They’d had no money back then, only an idea of how much it would cost. No one expected it to be as expensive as it was. At least that was what he’d overheard his parents telling Mom’s brother, Jake, when he’d asked her how come she’d not gone all out for the funeral.
“Because we’re going to have to make payments for as long as we live as it is now. Where is your part in all this?” Jake had asked Mom what she meant by that. “She was your mother too, the last time that I looked. How much are you going to pay me a month to have made all these arrangements for this?”
“You made the arrangements without asking me. You pay for it. What I asked you, and don’t think that I didn’t notice that you didn’t answer, was how come you only got a single day of showing and then burial. Why cheap out on Mom?” She told him that she couldn’t afford it. “Whatever. Do you know when they’re going to read the will? I’d like to get my share of the money and get out of town. If she left us both the house, you can buy me out. I don’t want anything to do with anything that isn’t hard cold cash.”
Mom was pissed off at him for the rest of the day. How the hell was she supposed to buy him out of anything? As it turned out, not only did Mom get everything in the will, but the house as well. Which, sadly, they had to sell in order to pay off the funeral, as making another monthly payment wouldn’t have been very easy for them at the time. There was a letter with the will for Uncle Jake that Mom was to hand to him if he stirred up any trouble.
Uncle Jake sued Mom a few days after the will was read. As his name was not mentioned in the will, he’d not been notified when it had been read. At the courthouse, Mom had handed the letter to her attorney, who in turn made copies for everyone involved. Jake had been so angry that his own mother had kept an accounting of all the things that he’d stolen off her, as well as all the money that he’d borrowed and never repaid, that he had yet to come around again. Good riddance to him.
“Woo hoo, here it is.” Morgan was dragged from his memories when Moron spoke. “Just where it’s supposed to be, right here on top of Mom’s grave. Dad said it was the perfect place to keep it on account ‘a she couldn’t spend it. And she would have too.”
The money was in bank bags, four of them, with the names of the banks that were robbed blazed right across the front of them. Just as Moron was pulling ou
t his gun, to no doubt kill his partner, the agencies that were there to arrest him jumped in and saved him from having to explain to Anna how he’d gotten shot.
“There will be a gag put on him, and he’ll be kept in an undisclosed location. That way, no one will hear about it until we’re ready for them to.” Donaldson, Rogen’s direct report, shook Morgan’s hand. “You did well, Morgan. Your family should be very proud of you. Rogen said that this was all your idea too. Thank you for that. A lot of insurance companies will be settled up now that we’ve been able to catch the Hayes men. This will have repercussions on the rest of them in the prison system too.”
“I’m just glad that I was able to help you all.” Donaldson thanked him again.
As he was making his way to the car, he watched Moron being read his rights and then cuffed. He was screaming the entire time that he’d been bear trapped. Whatever the hell that meant.
Chapter 8
Meggie rocked Renee until she was asleep. The little girl had bumped her head when trying her best to climb up the coffee table. While she’d been comforting her little granddaughter, Thatch had been talking about how they had to child proof the house. Meggie agreed with him—there was a lot of things out that a little child could get harmed on. Especially the coffee table.
“I never did like that thing anyway.” She said that it had come with the end tables, and they both had liked them. “Yeah, I do like them for a cup of tea or something, but that table, it’s been bumped one too many times now. I say we either pad it with something or get another one. Whatcha think, honey?”
“I’m thinking that we could use a whole new set of living room things. I only just realized that this couch set is about twenty years old. And I don’t need to remind you that it has one of those nasty springs in the middle seat.” Thatch remembered by rubbing his bottom. “What if you got on our computer and found us some nicer things, Thatch? I just love the set that Morgan has in his home now. It’s so plush that when you sit in it, it’s difficult to stay awake.”
Morgan: Robinson Destruction – Paranormal Tiger Shifter Romance Page 9
