Options Are Good (14 page)

“Boots was all for it,” Junior said. “Seems he was one of the ones that was always having to move and hide things over and over.”

It was only seconds after Junior spoke when the gate annunciator sounded, making everyone jump, including Bandy.

“Who could that possibly be?” Angus asked, moving over to the monitor so he could both hear and see the person at the gate. “Anyone recognize him?”

He was pressing the talk button. “Who are you and what do you want?”

“I’m Boots McKinnley. I know Junior. I need some help. Let me in, please.”

“That’s not…” Junior was saying, studying the image on the screen. “Oh. I guess it is, too. It looks like he’s been in a wreck or something. There is dried blood all over him.”

“Come on, Junior!” came Boots’ voice, much more loudly. “I know you’re in there! I need help! Colin is going to kill me!”

Junior looked at Angus. Angus and the others looked at Bandy. Junior turned his eyes to Bandy, too. “What do we do?” Angus asked.

“I suggest you to just let him rant and rave all he wants. I suspect it is a trap.”

“What if he is telling the truth?” Junior asked. “Maybe he can help us get Colin!”

Angus looked hopeful, but all eyes turned back to the screen and they listened as Boots began yelling. “Come on, Junior! He blames me for letting you guys get most of our stuff! He’ll kill me! He beat me up already, Junior!”

“Hawkins?” Angus asked.

“It is a trap.” Bandy was adamant.

Boots was visibly crying, shaking the gate.

“I’ll tell him he has to leave,” Junior said, sounding sick.

“No, son. That is my job,” Angus said. Angus pressed the talk button. “Go away, boy. You got yourself into this. If you are telling the truth. I’m sorry. If you aren’t, be thankful we are turning you away. You’d be the first to die in an attack if we let you in.”

The tears were suddenly gone. Everyone in the shelter saw Boots turn around and lift a hand held radio to his face. The young man had no idea how sensitive the microphone and camera were. “They aren’t buying it, Colin. What do you want me to do?”

Not only did Boots have the volume on the radio up, Colin was obviously shouting into his own radio. “You stay right there! We’ll try something else, when I get there.”

Again, all eyes in the shelter went to Bandy. “It was a trap,” Desiree said softly.

Bandy nodded his arms across his chest. Ana-Bella was standing next to him, their sides almost touching.

The eyes went back to the monitor when Colin’s pickup truck came sliding to a stop, its engine and exhaust so loud that Desiree put her hands over her ears.

But the sound didn’t last long. Colin turned off the engine and climbed down out of the truck. He looked around, as if looking for the camera. “I know you can see me up there in that fancy shelter, Longhammer!” his voice nearly a screech.

“I’m giving you one last chance to come out of there and turn it over to me! You don’t do it right now and your family will pay a terrible price when I do get in!” It was almost a scream, now.

There was silence for a few moments. Then Colin did, in fact, scream wildly. “You don’t think I’ll do it? You don’t think I’ll kill your whole family? But make them suffer first? You don’t believe me? Well, you just watch this!”

Colin backhanded Boots viciously with the pistol he held. Boots was caught totally unawares and staggered. He went down. Before he could scramble away, Colin kicked him.

Boots began to scream as three of Colin’s men joined Colin in kicking and stomping the helpless young man.

Of the women in the shelter, only Ana-Bella watched to the end, when Colin finally waved his men away and leaned forward over Boots’ limp body. His pistol came up and he fired three rounds into Boots’ head.

Colin screamed again, facing the house. “You just signed your family’s death warrant, Longhammer! Just like this punk that talked me into giving you my stuff. And that boy of yours will get the same thing! You hear me! The same thing for talking him into it! But that girl of yours! I’ve got special plans for her! Yes, I do! She’ll live a long time, while you watch what I do to her! Only then will you die. Nice and slow, too.”

Pointing the pistol toward the house, even though it was out of sight, Colin emptied the magazine of 9mmP rounds in that direction.

Angus, Bob, Junior, Bandy, and Ana-Bella watched the monitor as Colin marched toward his truck, his men scurrying before him. Colin paused only once, to swing another kick at the dead Boots, before getting into the truck, firing it up, and pulling away, his men holding on tightly in the back of the truck.

“He’s gone totally over the edge,” Ana-Bella managed to whisper, struggling to hold back the bile that was trying to rise in her throat.

“And no telling what he might do next,” Angus said. “What if he does that to someone else?” He was looking at Junior. “Out of spite for what I’ve done?”

Junior murmured a shaken “Excuse me,” and ran for a bathroom to throw up. The other’s heard the retching before the door swung closed.

“You can’t blame yourself for Colin’s actions,” Bandy said.

“He’s right, Angus.” Bob added his words to Bandy’s, trying to get Angus to put the thought that he was responsible for what had happened, or might happen to others. “That man is totally nuts. There is no telling what he will do. But you can’t let yourself take on the responsibility of what he might do. It will drive you nuts.”

“Or,” Bandy said softly, “cause you to do something that will endanger your family or others in trying to avoid that guilt. It isn’t your fault. Colin would have found someone to do what he wanted.

“Someone not as capable as you and your family to see and understand what he was and is and prevent him from doing the worst he could do. It could be ten times worse right now if he had snookered someone else into doing what he tried to get you to do.”

June, Magdalene and Desiree came back into the main room of the shelter. Desiree was still shaking as if she was cold. Angus moved over and put an arm around her. “Is it over?” Desiree whispered.

“Yes,” Ana-Bella said gently. “Why don’t you and I go get something ready for supper?”

“I’m not very hungry,” Desiree said.

“Nor am I,” a pale faced Junior added as he stepped back into the room, too.

“Perhaps not, but doing something is better than not doing anything,” June said. “We all need to be doing something right now. Not dwelling on what happened.”

“Yeah,” Junior said. “I think I’ll try to do some homework. I don’t want to get too far behind on my studies.”

“I’ll help you with that,” June said. She’d started the two youngest members of the group on a home schooling program early on in the shelter stay.

“And I think I’ll help in the kitchen,” Magdalene added as the group began to break up.

“If you will excuse me,” said Bandy, “I’m going to see what else I can find out on the Amateur bands.”

Angus and Bob eyed one another. “I think we need to discuss a few things,” Bob said quietly. The two moved over to one corner of the room and sat down, almost knee to knee, while Bandy took a seat at the Longhammer shelter communications desk.

The first thing Bandy did was warn the employees at the Sheridan Ranch that Colin might be out and about, with murder on his mind. Bob had put Brewster Amhurst in charge of the place for whenever the family was not there to take command of any situation that came up.

Amhurst was ex-US military. Retired as a Captain in the Quartermaster Corps, after years of front line combat duties, and an acknowledged expert on working horses, Brewster pretty much ran the place for Bob, anyway. But Bob did oversee everything with a close eye.

Easy going most of the time, those that worked at the Sheridan Ranch knew that Amhurst could exhibit the hard nose command abilities required when needed, and respected him for that. And he was a major part of the reason almost all of the employees continued to work for the Ranch. Not only was he a good boss, but he knew what was needed to handle the current situation, using the personnel at the Ranch to the best of their abilities.

So Bandy was secure in the knowledge that if Colin did show up at the Sheridan Ranch the way he had here at the Longhammer’s, that things would be handled well.

Bandy was still trying to gather information from the Amateur Network that was operating when Bob came over, with Angus, and told Bandy, “Bandy, Magdalene, Ana-Bella, and I are headed back over to the Ranch. What are your plans?”

Bandy waivered for a moment. He felt a responsibility to Angus and the Longhammer family. But Colin had already been here, and the Longhammer’s were well ensconced in the shelter. As long as they stayed where they were, they would be all right.

It wasn’t all that far between the two ranches, but with Colin in the mood he was in, Bandy wasn’t going to take a chance on the Sheridan’s being ambushed on the way home.

He caught the relieved look on Bob’s face when Bandy said, “I’m going to escort you guys over. Then I’ll decide what to do after that. I’m thinking…” He let his words trail off when the others joined the three of them.

“Well, I’m not sure about what I’ll do, but we can get going any time you’re ready, Bob.” Bandy caught the look that Ana-Bella gave him. She, like her father, looked a bit relieved, but it was tempered with some anxiety, as well. For him, not herself or her family.

“I will check the monitors while you all get ready,” Angus said, moving over to the chair that Bandy had just left.

Bandy looked at Ana-Bella for a moment, then over at Bob. “I’m going out to scout around and get my truck ready.”

Ana-Bella was about to protest, but Junior asked, “What do you have to do to get your truck ready? It’s even parked on the garage apron, headed down the drive.”

The others all saw the look that went over Bandy’s face for a fraction of a second. It was a look that Angus had seen before. A feral look.

Bandy didn’t go into details, but did respond to Junior’s question, more to make sure none of the families every tried to use his truck for something without making arrangements with him, first. “I have a few surprises for anyone trying anything with the truck. It does take me a minute or so to disarm… well, deactivate what is activated and reactivate what is inactivated.”

Junior obviously wanted to know more. And Ana-Bella was curious. But Bandy was already over at the inner blast door of the shelter. “I will radio when I’m ready.” He looked over at Angus.

“Looks all clear, Hawkins,” Angus said. “But I am discovering a couple of holes in the surveillance we need to address.”

“Okay,” Bandy said. He un-dogged the blast door and went through. As they’d all been taught, Junior immediately closed and dogged it shut again before Bandy opened the outer blast door.

Ana-Bella hurriedly got her things together and went over to stand behind Angus to watch the security monitors. She could see Bandy almost the entire time he was moving around the house, checking things out. She wished he would draw his gun and have it ready, but he was simply moving cautiously, obviously ready to draw if needed.

Then Bandy disappeared. He left the view of one camera and didn’t show up on the next in line.

“I think he found one of the holes,” Angus said quietly.

“Where is he?” Ana-Bella asked, leaning forward now, studying each monitor in turn.

“Well, if he stayed in the blind spot, he’s right here,” Angus said, pointing to a spot on the map of the grounds that was on the wall over the monitors with all the cameras and sensors marked on it.

“Wait! There he is! How did he get over there?” Ana-Bella asked.