“Let’s go back over the hospital staffing,” Agent Korey said. “Angelica, you said that one of the nurses there was basically conscripted using…” he flipped through his notes, “Children’s Services?”
Angelica sighed, and they went through the same details again. Rob knew the agents weren’t there to arrest them, but their interrogation techniques didn’t differ. He wondered what their end game was, since they were going against the orders they’d been given. Or so they said.
Goldie knew the way to win the agents over, and it involved more than giving them the truth. While the agents were busy, Luis and Harry had snuck into the underground freezer and pulled out three chickens and a rack of ribs. She could hear most of the conversation they were having, because Angelica had kept her radio on and was broadcasting. The entire group listened in while the last hour of the market was wrapping up.
The food had all been sold, bartered, or given away. Even the massive amount of salad greens and spinach had gone. That usually sold out by the end of the day, but the end of the day came early as the vendors ran out of supplies to sell. The folks who had set up tables there to barter goods for goods weren’t happy, because many of them were still wanting to wheel and deal, but with no customers left, they too packed up.
“I didn’t think I’d enjoy seeing the day end early,” Andrea told Curt, heading to their egg stand.
“Me either. It’s what, three in the afternoon? We might get done early today.” Curt gave her a playful push with his hip.
“You two, not in public. We still have virgin eyes here,” Kerry called from the front, waiting for the rest of the vendors to pack up and vacate the area.
“Oh, don’t worry, it’ll be kept PG-13 inside these two fences,” Andrea told her. “For now, anyways.”
“Virgin eyes?” Dante called. “I bet—”
His breath left him in an ‘ooof’ sound as Leah elbowed him in the stomach.
“We almost done and wrapped up here?” Anna called. Steven had his arms over her shoulders, holding her loosely.
“I think so,” Kerry called. “Just one more.”
“Hey, Steven,” Goldie’s voice came over the radio, “can you fire up that big grill for me? And ask if Kerry and Jeff want to stay over for supper.”
“Sure thing,” Steven said to her, then turned to Anna. “You want to ask Kerry and I’ll go fire up the big grill?”
“Sure thing,” Anna turned and kissed him on the cheek, then skipped over to Kerry.
Steven got on one of the UTVs and fired it up. Curt and Andrea flagged him down before he could take off and climbed on. “We’ll help,” Curt called.
“They got the rest?” Steven asked.
“We’re good,” Dante said. “As long as Leah didn’t bust my ribs.”
“Don’t listen to him, he’s a sissy,” Leah called over the radio.
They all chuckled and headed to the workshop. Using the ball on the back of the UTV, they hitched the small trailer up and pulled it from beside the building to in front of the overhead doors. After unhitching it, Steven got two bags of charcoal from the pallet just inside the door, then hesitated.
“Steven for Goldie, what are we throwing on the grill?”
“A side of ribs and three chickens. Luis is helping me make the egg noodles and pasta salad. We’re teaching the FBI boys and Bailey how we cook in the south. Oh, and can somebody get me a jar of Dewey’s special vintage?”
“Um, with federales here?” Luis asked, obviously not near her anymore.
“Si,” Goldie said with a cackle.
“Rob, your mother will be the death of me,” Luis called.
“Jeff and Kerry said yes, I’m going to have them pull their vehicles inside the gates,” Leah said. “Everybody meeting at the big house, or should we grab some picnic tables?”
“Let’s eat outside while we still can,” Goldie said.
They all split up and started going to work. Steven pulled the trailer out in front of the workshop with one of the UTVs, while Anna went about raiding the beer fridge. She grabbed two cases and dumped them into a big white Coleman cooler and dragged it to the front of the workshop. She debated adding a third case, but that would mean heading into the basement from the secret lift. While they had strangers here, she didn’t want to do that.
Andrea and Curt went inside to help Goldie. She directed the procession with the wooden spoon as a pointing (threatening) device, while Curt slit the side of ribs up and made the cuts to her liking. Goldie figured that the man had to learn sometime. Andrea was put into service helping making sides.
“What can I do?” Harry asked.
“Do you want to walk up to the greenhouses and tell the agents and ladies that we’re going to be having an early dinner?”
“All by myself?” Harry asked.
“It’s not like you haven’t explored almost all of this farm with your father already. Actually, take the mutts with you. They’re getting under my feet and they could use the exercise.”
“Ok,” Harry said and slid off the stool where he’d sat to stay out of the way.
“Come on Ranger, Roscoe,” he said, patting his leg.
Roscoe walked up to the boy, who was almost eye level with the dog, and licked his face. Harry squealed and started wiping his arm as the big dog kept giving his little packmate a bath.
“If you don’t stop that Roscoe, I’m going to schwack you!”
“Come on,” Harry said running for the door.
Roscoe gave up trying to give him a bath and was looking at the older human with his head tilted. She had the stick. He liked sticks and had wanted to steal that one from her and chew on it; he bet since it was the human’s favorite stick that it tasted extra good. Like those ninja tree rats that lived in the tall sticks in the rocky place where he liked to chase deer. Then his little littermate went out the front door, and Ranger gave Roscoe a playful bark, reminding him they had a job to do. Roscoe knew that, but he watched the stick the old lady was waving a moment longer, before reluctantly following his pack.
The BBQ came together quickly. By the time the agents left the greenhouses, where they had gotten more information than they were comfortable with, they could smell it. The grill had been fired up and cleaned with an onion that had been sliced in half. Curt had walked out a large steel platter with cuts of meat. Then the dogs showed up.
“Holy shit,” Korey said, startled as Roscoe plopped himself down in front of them and let out a big woof.
“Don’t move, he looks hungry,” Gorman whispered back.
“Where’s your boy?” Rob asked, following the agents outside.
Ranger had stopped further back and looked over his shoulder. Rob followed his gaze and saw the little man walking up the hill.
“They wouldn’t slow down,” Harry complained.
“They were excited to get some energy out,” Angelica said. “Well, Ranger was,” she noted as Roscoe laid down in the dirt and rolled on his side.
“Did he just fall asleep?” Gorman asked, surprised.
“They do that,” Bailey told them. “Is that BBQ I smell?” she asked, a hopeful note in her voice.
“Yes ma’am,” Harry said huffing as he made it to his parents’ sides. “Grandma said we’re all having a big early dinner. Aunt Kerry and Uncle Jeff are coming. She’s got her big spoon out.”
The last of that was said in nearly a whisper, and Angelica smirked. “Your grandma would never use that on your behind.”
“I know, she said it was for Daddy’s head. She said it was so thick she was worried he wouldn’t feel anything else.”
Korey looked at the little boy and then up at his father. The boy was the spitting image of his father, but built more along the lines of his mother, Angelica. He didn’t have the heavy bone structure that made Rob almost look like a neanderthal. Angelica saw him looking back and forth a second, then she knelt and gave Ranger a hug.
“You’re both invited for dinner. We can eat and talk more
,” she told them.
“I’m not sure—”
“Listen, you didn’t arrest us, and you’ve gone off the reservation. I don’t think having dinner and some beers with the family is going to get you in any more trouble, do you?”
With that logic laid at their feet, the agents agreed. After all, whatever was on the grill was smelling awfully good.
Thirty-Four
Kerry and Jeff had accepted the invite, and had planned on staying for dinner when he’d gotten a text message from one of his officers that they were being called up for highway patrol duty. He sighed and gave Kerry a kiss goodbye. Kerry was disappointed, but she understood that his time wasn’t always his.
Agents Korey and Gorman were having a hard time following the raucous conversation, but they had come with their appetites. Korey saw the Little boy, Harry, leaning over and looked where he was feeding the big German shepherd bits of corn bread. The boy caught Korey looking and smiled back shyly, shrugging his shoulders.
“So, then everyone grabbed old soup cans, coffee cans and empty paint buckets and started tossing the rancid shit on the agents,” Luis said, his words slurring on the second telling of the story.
“Then came the feathers,” Gorman said, nodding.
“You’re right.” Then he rattled something off in Spanish so fast that Goldie cocked her head to the side. She responded, and Luis looked up, chastised.
“Sorry, I don’t drink much. My mouth gets away from me,” he said simply.
“If I had been mixing moonshine with coke, my mouth might get ahead of my ass too,” Anna told him, smiling.
“Little ears dammit,” Goldie said. smacking the spoon on the table hard, making everyone jump.
Kerry just laughed. She knew how these things went. Her big sis was getting grouchy in her old age. Several there were fluent in Spanish, but Kerry wasn’t. She made out a few words like “...if you don’t cut it out…” and more threatening phrases from Goldie before Luis could get himself in more trouble.
“Yeah, nobody will mess with her when she’s got that spoon nearby,” Rob said loudly.
“It’s like her witch’s wand,” Angelica piped up.
“Witches… wand?” Goldie said, turning to her daughter in law, eyebrows raised almost to her hairline.
“Don’t you test me Momma, I ain’t getting spanked with that spoon.”
Rob whispered something to her, and Angelica burst into giggles. Goldie’s face turned crimson when Angelica replied, “Maybe later then?”
“This is uh…” Gorman started.
“Yeah, uh… oh fuck it,” Korey said and leaned over and grabbed two beers from the cooler and put one in front of each of them.
“A toast!” Anna said suddenly. She’d had a few beers and, despite being tequila buddies with Angelica, she didn’t hold her alcohol well either.
“To good friends, new acquaintances and future allies!”
“Cheers,” several of them called immediately.
“Are we considered new acquaintances or allies?” Korey tried to whisper to Gorman, but he wasn’t as quiet as he’d hoped.
“Both, I think,” Curt said, holding up his bottle. “To Agents Gorman and Korey, may they find the truth of the conspiracy before it consumes us all!”
“I’ll drink to that,” Dante agreed.
“And Andrea and I are now on seltzer water. This is so not fair.” Leah sniffed.
“You’re both pregnant,” Dante scolded.
“I know Doctor McHottyPants,” Leah said, then leaned over and put her head on his shoulder.
“I’ll drink for the both of you,” Anna called from across the table.
“Maybe you should slow down,” Steven said, then winced as Goldie whacked the table again with the spoon.
“Never tell a woman how much she can—”
“Roscoe, fetch stick,” Anna shouted.
The big dog jumped up and snatched the spoon right from Goldie’s hands as she was gesturing. The mutt took off at a dead run, surprisingly fast for his size, and was out of earshot before Goldie’s sputtering and Anna’s cackles tapered off. Crunching sounds came from the direction of the dog as he chewed up the cooking implement.
“You guys do this all the time?” Gorman asked, trying to change the subject because he could tell the older woman was furious.
“We eat together all the time, but we don’t break out the beer and ‘shine unless we’ve got guests or are celebrating something. We figured we could win you over after you saw us unscripted working with the community around here and what we’re really like. What do you think; were we wrong?” Luis asked them both.
“We usually don’t take sides,” Korey said, looking at Gorman who nodded at him, “but the orders you gave us a copy of, and how our superiors are acting, have us more than a little concerned. This Doctor Khamenei and his group… I’d love to talk to them. If they work for the government and aren’t some sort of contracted black ops group, they are operating in the USA illegally. If they were abroad, the rules are different, but here…”
“We don’t like taking sides,” Gorman picked up where Korey left off, “but sometimes there’s only two sides. Right and wrong. We both come from a long line of police and law enforcement. We’ve always liked to believe that we’re working on the side of the light.”
“I’m glad to hear that. Maybe you can send up a prayer for Anna though,” Goldie said.
“Why?” Anna asked her, puzzled, as the older woman got up.
“I’m going to get the big spoon.”
“Oh shit, she has one bigger?” Dante asked Curt.
“Fuck if I know, I thought that was the big one.”
“Babe, you better run,” Steven told his wife, deadpan.
“I’ll come with,” Angelica said, popping up out of her seat.
“Where she goes, I go,” Bailey said, then she grabbed two fresh beers in one big hand and her plate of food in the other.
The group watched and snickered as the three ladies fled to the cabin where Steven and Anna lived. Rob just shook his head, grinning, as the front door to the big house slammed closed. They could all hear Goldie murmuring curses and using Anna’s and Roscoe’s names.
“So, boys,” Leah leaned forward, “you’re on our side, right?”
“If you’ve been 100% transparent and forthcoming, I don’t see how we couldn’t be,” Korey said simply.
“See,” Andrea leaned forward as well, “I have a hard time believing authority figures, especially politically-driven law enforcement. I’m glad you say you’re on our side, but it’s going to take me a little bit to trust all y'all.”
“I completely understand, Doctor Mallory,” Gorman said. “What happened to you was fucked up. I hate to hear one officer ate his gun over it, but what they did was wrong. They should all be prosecuted.”
“Except that Winters lady is already dead,” Korey told them.
“But who was giving her the orders? The DA? Somebody else?” Dante asked.
Steven leaned forward, sensing the shift in the conversation.
“Who says she wasn’t doing this on her own, to save her own ass?” Curt asked, trying to play the devil’s advocate.
“She probably was,” Leah said. “But the sheriff was investigating the men in black and Winters’ death, and he wound up murdered. They even tried to make it look like one of us did it.”
“So, wait, you think ADA Winters had somebody talking in her ear and giving her suggestions or directions, and that she caused the massacre here, then later the firebombing and the death of the sheriff?”
“Why not? Doesn’t it all fit with the big conspiracy theory we’ve been handed?” Andrea asked.
“I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle,” Curt told her. “The sheriff was his own man, and wasn’t going to be pushed around by the feds, no offense,” he told the agents. “He was in the way. Agent Winters probably did a lot of this to cover her own ass. If she was the one who decided to press charge
s against Andrea, and then instructed the cops to lose the evidence, the blame is on her.”
“But what if there’s a common thread that ties all of it together?” Korey asked, curious now at the turn of the conversation.
“Or the story of the bones. We still haven’t found the last box,” Rob said as the front door of the big house banged open.
Goldie walked out with a wooden spoon that was nearly two feet long, the spindle as thick as Rob’s thumb.
“She takes her spoons seriously,” Gorman noted.
“You have no idea, Senor,” Luis said so dryly that, when everybody cracked up, he just sat there confused.
Steven leaned over and explained it quietly. Luis turned red in the face, then he too was laughing so hard tears were running down his cheeks.
“You should go play Xbox little man,” Rob told Harry. “I’ll be in with your mother soon.”
“Yes sir,” Harry said, grabbing his coke. Rob nodded in approval, so Harry took off as fast as he could without spilling it.
“The fuck is everybody looking at? You slack jawed asswipes? You all let that fucking dog eat my spoon! Wait, where is Anna?”
“I think she went to check the front gate,” Luis lied smoothly.
Goldie started swearing so inventively that Korey actually got out a notebook and started making notes. Neither agent had ever had a dinner like this one in their entire lives and one way or another, it was a night that neither would forget. Korey also made a note at the bottom of the sheet to check out the details of Winters’ death, and if she had made any phone calls they could trace and see if the NSA had any details of who she had talked with, or any recordings of the conversation.
He circled that last bit, then put his notebook back in his pocket. The ribs were good, the beer was cold, and the company was amusing. The blonde woman with the wild curls caught his eye and she tilted her beer bottle his way in cheers. He clinked his with hers. He thought it was Rob’s big sister, or maybe aunt? He couldn’t remember. The day was turning into night and he, for the first time in the last few years, was having fun.
Behind The Curve-The Farm | Book 3 | The Farm Page 22
