#34
"Ben, did you read this?" Lainey asked in a hushed whisper, waving the two sheets of folded paper. The many creases making the words difficult to read, the message enough to chill her heart. "What's this other language, it looks like a garble of French with German words thrown in?"
The English was plain, simple and direct. The order was to dispose of anyone connected to the Hanson's. The French, Benny couldn't decipher but he knew Inga could. A little wiggle of unease squiggled down his spine and Ben grabbed Lainey by the hand and they sped down the street to the clinic.
The back door was open. Ben drew his gun and motioned for Lainey to hide herself in the rickety old garage. Efficiently he swept the rooms, not finding Inga. Dread filled his heart as he ran upstairs and found no one. Finally he called for her, yelling her name over and over. Identifying himself he shouted three more times. From the master bedroom closet came a rustle and Inga unfolded herself from a small top of the closet shelf.
Ben had no idea how she got up there but he was glad to see her; but not as overjoyed as Inga was, that he was not the murdering Stan. Inga was white as a sheet and weak kneed to the point of being unable to walk. Ben finally picked her up so she wouldn't fall down the stairs. Lainey was standing in the doorway when they entered the kitchen, the shotgun in her hand.
"Wow Inga, was he here?" Lainey went to the sink for a dishtowel wrung out with cold water. "Are you OK?"
All Inga could do was nod that she was alright, words were sticking in her throat.
Lainey brought her a glass of cold water, and then had to help her hold the glass so she could drink.
"Dear God," Inga finally rasped. "He intended to kill me. Ben, he,...he was sent here to kill all of us. Stan was ranting and raving about Gunnar and how they were finally going to have their revenge on Pete." she sobbed a little and then jumped up out of the chair.
"We've got to get the family together at Grandma's. Now, tonight, before Stan finds us. We have to be safe." as she spoke her voice got higher and higher as her nerves and panic took over.
"Inga!" Ben barked loudly in her face, subsiding the overwrought emotion Inga was working up. "He's dead, I came to see if you could read the papers Stan had in his pocket."
"I want to go home," Inga said tearfully. "No way am I staying here tonight, not ever again will I stay here." she might have been sobbing, but Inga was definite. She was done with the clinic.
Ben closed the doors and helped both ladies into the Sheriff's SUV. The lights were still on at Grandma's, the welcoming smell of stew and biscuits wafting through the broken window as they stepped on the porch.
"Grandma, it's us," Ben had the sense to call out, as the shotgun barrels withdrew from the cover of the door curtain.
"Come in," Evie invited, gasping as she got a good look at the wild eyed, high strung Inga and the gun toting Lainey. "Good heavens, what has happened?"
Wayne stepped into the room, wiping shaving cream from his face, waving his gun, ready for action. "Hey man, you wanna get shot?" he scolded harshly, fixing Ben with a fierce glare.
"Where's Sandy," Ben ignored the implied threat. "Would you go get her, we need to have a family meeting, right now!" he emphasized.
"Over at Ev's, I'll go fetch," Wayne threw the gooey hand towel on the counter and it landed foam and whiskers side down, smearing down the drawer fronts as it slid to the floor.
Wayne was half shaved and a comical sight as he loped across the pasture to the Wilson's. Sandy made him identify himself before she would open the door and let Wayne in. She burst out laughing, her sense of humor tickled pink by the sight of the half and half shaved man.
"Hey, com'on," Wayne urged rapidly. "You gotta come home right away. Family meeting," he grabbed at her hand and tugged her toward the door.
"Hold on, hold on," Sandy scolded. "I want my coat and have to let Ev and Cheryl know I'm going."
"The whole town could have heard," Ev complained as he came from Christy's room where he had just tucked his sleepy daughter in bed.
"Get him out of here," Ev ordered with a grin. "He's wild enough looking to scare the devil."
"Dare ya," Wayne taunted, stroking the shaved side of his face to indicate that Ev should shave and scare the devil himself.
The family meeting commenced with grace and bowls of stew and biscuits with jam. Ben by the right of being Sheriff started talking first.
"I had to kill Stan," he announced with out preamble. "He was gunning for Inga, and tried to knife Lainey. Now," he paused for maximum effect, "we have a letter that may help us make heads or tails of this whole mess."
He gave Inga the letter and asked her to read it aloud. The English was stark and harsh. Kill the family, was written several times.
The disjointed mixture of French and German was more difficult, but Inga read on.
Gunnar had concocted up a plan to smuggle diamonds into the country in Inga's trophies. Pete was his contact on this side, where the brother was supposed to help remove the diamonds and send them on to the proper 'friends.'
Then...Gunnar found out Pete was the scum that had loved and left his triplet sisters with multiple children. Pete had been trying to find the trophies, Gunnar had been trying to find Pete and Tammy had been recruited to enforce of bit of 'justice' over all.
Tammy had defaulted against Gunnar and sold out her information to a interested cadre of very polite Oriental gentleman. She took in a great deal of cash from both sources. They wanted the diamonds, and eliminated Tammy when she couldn't produce. Davis had been an after thought, and she had no idea why he was there with a rifle.
Inghram had spent two years in France with a young Gunnar in a snooty boarding school, the little transmitters were Doc's contributions to the elaborate scheme. The only problem was, it was never explained how and who controlled the small inciter's. That small, pertinent piece of information forgotten in the mêlée. It was not a good thing it had been overlooked.
Why Doc had shared such information with Wright was still a puzzle, unless as Ben conjectured, he let his conscience get the better of him and alerted the authorities. The fact that Wright and Doc had been killed by Ron was pure coincidence. Or so he hoped.
Stan was an unwitting pawn in the scheme; his little transmitter had malfunctioned and it took many months to build up the dead certain urge to destroy all the Hanson's.
Evie fanned herself with her napkin, "Phew, I can't believe all of this is real. How in the world did we get mixed up in all this intrigue and murders."
"Just lucky, I guess," Clora deadpanned, bringing a nervous chuckle from around the table.
"Yeah," the kids agreed together.
The moment was interrupted by a scratch at the door. Wayne stretched over to turn the knob and in pranced the trio, Inky, Ruby and Junior. They were caked in mud and muck, having had a swell time all afternoon playing with a group of piglets in a odoriferous mud wallow. All three shook vigorously, spraying the inside of Evie's spotlessly clean kitchen and the people there in with stinky hog manure.
The end. The end of ........With my heart.
There is a final chapter, but it has to wait until the work load eases this fall. Mr Pac and I thank you for the good wishes, prayers and encouragement you all have sent our way. Thank you for reading and feeding my writing urge.