The Beginning (Whispering Pines Book 1)

by Charles Wells

  ***

  Fifteen minutes later, they were back at the police car, standing on the hard clay road surface about to get in. Jacobs said, “We’ll need to stop and gas up before we leave town.”

  A voice yelled from the shadows. “I wouldn’t be in such a hurry if I were you.”

  All eyes turned quickly. Jacobs’ hand moved to the gun holster on the back of his belt. “Don’t try it, Jacobs. I’d kill you before you cleared leather.”

  Chuck felt the world closing in quickly. All this could be wasted unless help arrived fast. The voice from the dark gave a shrill whistle and a set of headlights snapped on from several hundred feet down the road. An engine roared to life and a dark blue pick‑up truck pulled closer. In the light’s reflections, they saw Thompson standing on the edge of the road holding a heavy carbine rifle leveled at Blake’s stomach.

  The truck pulled up beside him, stopped, and Anderson climbed out of the cab also clutching a rifle mounted with a high power scope.

  Thompson, feeling more confident by Anderson’s arrival, relaxed slightly and smiled. “Looks like we caught all our chickens at the same time, doesn’t it? Now get their guns Anderson and check the car. We’ll take us a little ride.”

  Chuck snapped, “Thompson? The whole town is going to be crawling with the FBI any minute now. You can forget it. It’s over.”

  “Let’s not get in too big of a hurry now, Mr. Veal or I might decide to kill you here and now instead of waiting.”

  “Waiting for what, your little puppeteer to pull one of your strings?”

  Thompson’s smile faded quickly. “I said, shut up. One more word out of you and I’ll blow your head off.”

  Anderson took Bill’s pistol, checked the others for weapons including the women, and then found Matt’s rifle on the front seat of the car where Chuck had placed it earlier. Thompson pointed at the car and said, “Get in, all of you. Miss Pary and I will ride up front with the good deputy.”

  Edie hissed, “I’d rather ride with a rattlesnake...”

  “You must have misunderstood me, Miss Pary. I said you and I were riding up front and you are much more the snake than I am. After all, you are the snake who turned against your own brother. Now let’s all get along nice and get in the car like I told you.”

  Chuck, Gail, Blake, Catfish and Meadows scrunched together into the back of the patrol car. They were crowded so much that Gail had to sit in Chuck’s lap to make enough room. Thompson had little to worry about from the rear seat passengers. There was no way to open the back doors of a police cruiser from the inside. A thick, wire mesh partition separated the front and rear seats of the police unit as well.

  Anderson followed them for a few miles then turned off on another road. Thompson watched the truck disappear and said, “He’s gone to get Sheriff Brooks.”

  Jacobs felt lost and helpless yet a glimmer of hope still lurked in the back of his mind. Thompson was too confident and if he made any mistakes, Jacobs would have to be ready.

  When the patrol car pulled up to the intersection with the highway, Bill looked at Thompson and asked, “Which way, where are we going?”

  Thompson motioned left with the barrel of Jacob's pistol and snapped, “Head for the Veal Timber mill.”

  Chuck shouted from the back seat. “Do what? Why are we going there, Thompson?”

  “Cause that’s where I say we’re going. Now get this thing moving, Jacobs.”

  He spun the wheel left and pressed the gas heavily. The motion sent Thompson crashing against the passenger door but the gun held steadily pointed at Edie, hardly wavered. “You try that again, Deputy, and I’m liable to shoot the lady here. At this close range, that bullet is going to come out her other side and get you too.”

  “You wouldn’t hurt her, Thompson. Max would kill you for even thinking about it.”

  In the rearview mirror, Meadows caught Bill's eye and nodded his head slightly. Jacobs knew it meant that Anderson had not found the hidden ankle gun during his search. That gun might be their only hope to stay alive.

  The patrol car moved quickly along the dark highway. Chuck leaned forward in the back seat and asked, “Thompson, how did you kill Matt?”

  The man laughed but ignored the statement. Chuck pushed harder. “Did Max Pary order you to kill my brother?”

  Thompson turned to Edie beside him and snapped, “And to think that you were running around with a bunch like this. They think your brother killed Matt. Don’t you have any family pride at all?”

  Edie returned Thompson’s stare and said, “I don’t think my brother killed Matt, but I know he paid somebody else to do it but not you. You’re too stupid and a coward.”

  Thompson almost hit her but stopped. “Well you’re wrong, sister. Your brother didn’t kill anybody and neither did I? But you’re right about one thing. Matt Veal is dead.”

  Chuck, pushing his finger tips through the screen partition, snapped, “The only way you could know that is to have been there when Matt was killed. You did it, didn’t you Thompson? You pulled the trigger on my brother.”

  Thompson turned in the seat and pointed his gun in Chuck’s face. “Sit back in the seat or do you want me to kill you right here in front of these pretty ladies? I caught your stupid brother snooping around the airstrip. Our friends gave him a free ride out of town on an airplane and you can rest assured it was a one-way ticket. Now shut up.”

  They rode the rest of the way in silence. Chuck knew if what Thompson said were true about Matt then there would be no body, no evidence of murder, making it almost impossible to nail Pary and Thompson for anything but nickel and dime drug running. Right now, the main problem was how to stall. Then, he also remembered the gun strapped around Meadow’s ankle.

  Pulling the car into the mill yard, Jacobs looked at Thompson who motioned him to drive to the office building. The lights were burning inside and a gray Corvette sat parked in front. It belonged to Max Pary.

  Jacobs stopped the car and Thompson ordered, “Cut the motor. We wait here while Miss Pary goes inside.”

  “What?” Edie cried.

  “Your brother wants to see you so get out.”

  She turned and looked at Chuck. Her face was rigid and frightened. Chuck nodded and attempted to smile. “Go ahead, Edie. Talk to him.”

  Thompson opened the car door and stepped out. Edie glanced back at Chuck and Gail, and then slid out of the car.

  “He’s in there. Go ahead.” Thompson said pointing.

  She stepped to the office porch and stopped, afraid to go any further. The realization that Max was a cold-blooded killer made her nauseous and ill. My brother has gone insane!

  The office door snapped open and Max Pary stood in the opening, glaring out at his sister. He pulled the door open wide and said, “Get in here, Edie.”

  She took a deep breath and stepped through the doorway. He motioned at a nearby chair, closed the door, and barked, “Are you crazy or something? Why do you keep getting mixed up in these things? “

  Edie stared at her brother and asked, “Why are you mixed up in murder?”

  He raised a hand to slap her but stopped. She didn’t flinch or draw away; she simply stared back at him, almost daring him to hit her, glaring into his eyes with something he had never seen before coming from his sister. Hate.

  “Go ahead, dear brother. Slap away but you’re not going to stop me from telling the FBI about all your little schemes, especially about having Matt killed.”

  His hand wavered in mid air and then slowly lowered back to his side. “Edie don’t you understand? I’m doing this for all of us; the Beaver Dam project and protecting Aunt Abatha, everything.”

  She hissed, “So you had Matt killed to keep the family secret quiet or was it to protect your little side business with the drug runners? If not all that then maybe you were out to steal Matt’s property to help finance your precious real estate scheme?”

  “Shut up, Edie. Nobody knows the family secret but you and me and that has
little to do with what’s happening tonight.”

  “What about Aunt Abatha and what about those people outside? Are you going to kill them all too? They have our Mother’s diary now, Max. They know everything. Did you also know that Ed Barton is an undercover FBI agent?”

  Max shrugged, “It doesn’t matter because all of them have to go. They know too much and could wreck everything I’ve worked so hard for in the last three years.”

  Her eyes widened in disbelief. “Why, max? Why do you have to be a part of murder? Is the family money and prestige that important to you?”

  His eyes narrowed to slits and his face became a mask of darkness. Through clenched teeth he hissed, “Matt Veal was going to expose and destroy us. If nothing else, he was going to take us to court to try to take Whispering Pines away. We don’t have the money or time to fight something like that right now. You knew that yourself because you were helping him.”

  She could see that Max had lost it mentally. He had snapped. Now all she could try to do was stall for time, praying the FBI would arrive soon.

  Sooth him, cool him down. Make him ease up and relax.

  She chose her next words carefully. “Max? You’re my brother and I love you.”

  “I don’t want to hear all that right now, Edie. I don’t have a choice. I have to get rid of them all, tonight. As you said, the cops are on the way and if I’m not here later this week to receive another drug shipment then I’m a dead man anyway, so there’s nothing you can do to stop me. It has to be done.”

  “Then you’ll have to kill me too, Max. I’m not going to sit quietly by while you murder my friends outside.”

  He stepped back leaning against the desk and spread his hands wide, pleading. “Edie they’re not your friends. Aunt Abatha has been broke for over a year now and I’ve managed to keep it hidden from her. All our money, everything I could scrape together is tied up in the real estate project. I ran out of cash and needed more to keep us solvent until the lake front property starts selling. The farm is broke too, Edie. I had to make deals with certain people to distribute their drug shipments in exchange for hard cash. I had to bribe bankers here in town to launder their money.”

  Edie snapped, “How could you deal with such scum of the earth? You should know that once they get their hooks in you, they never let go, Max. They’ll kill you first.”

  Pary shook his head. “No. They promised I could get out any time I wanted and this project at Beaver Creek will let me cut loose and go back to an honest living.”

  “Max?” Edie cried. “Nothing justifies murder. Did you kill Matt for drugs or was it because he knew about the diary.”

  She slowly rose to her feet, “Or maybe it was because you knew I was in love with him?”

  “I knew all of that, Edie, and yes. He was close to taking Whispering Pines Plantation away from us and with how I’ve got it tied in with the project; he would have taken the land around the lake as well. He was going to ruin us, put us out on the streets flat broke and homeless, including Aunt Abatha. Is that what you want? Why in God’s name didn’t Aunt Abatha burn our mother’s diary?”

  Edie shouted, “Don’t you realize that Aunt Abatha murdered her own sister...our mother? She forged all those papers that gave us title to Whispering Pines. She never owned it legally. You, Matt Veal, and I owned it and she stole it like everything else you are trying to steal right now. Give it up, Max. It’s all over.”

  He jumped to his feet and shouted harshly, “We don’t have to give it up. The only proof is destroyed. We burned our mother’s old diary. Remember?”

  She shook her head. “No, we burned a fake copy I made. The real one I kept and gave it to Matt. It’s in her handwriting and proves everything. It’s legal and will hold up in court.”

  He sighed heavily. “Edie the money from my business associates is going to put the project back on track and make us rich again. Can’t you understand that? The only people stopping us are those outside so we have to get rid of them.”

  She stood silent. He finally waved his hands in disgust and shouted, “I can’t even make payroll beyond the next six weeks unless I receive that shipment this week. When Thompson caught Veal at the airstrip, I realized I could kill three birds with one stone. Getting him out of the way would save Whispering Pines, it would save the Beaver Dam project, and most important of all, it would save our life and lively hood, our only source of income. Would you rather I took a job at one of the timber mills as a lumber stacker or something?”

  She stood, turned her back and whispered, “I’ll have no part of murder. We can survive without killing to do it and stacking lumber is at least an honest way to make a living.”

  Spinning quickly, she added, “Only now you’ve destroyed any chance we had of doing that and killed the man I loved and wanted to marry in the process.”

  “I am not going to explain it to you again, Edie. Matt was the key to saving us and he had to go. “