Page 9 of Wrangler

“I’m afraid that’s not going to work.” She rolled her eyes at him, and he grinned. “The lot and the surrounding lots there belong to me. My father purchased it about fifty years ago, and when he died, it was left to me to do with what I wanted. It’s not possible for you to sell anything that you don’t own either.”

“You’ll have to take that up with the mayor then. He’s hell-bent for leather to get it taken care of so that it’s not an eyesore anymore. Why haven’t you done anything to it if you own it? It’s a mess down there.” He said that he was going to take care of it in the morning. “Famous last words. Your mother wanted it torn down, too. You should just allow the city to do what they want with it out of respect for your mother. The income off of the meters that are going to be put in place will add a nice chunk of change to the coffers.”

“I never respected my mother in the first place and if doing this is something that she wanted done, I’m going to do the exact opposite.” She called him a bad son. “Thank you. You couldn’t have said anything better to get me going. I’ll do this and have fun with it.”

That had been yesterday. Today, he was standing in the mayor’s office waiting for his appointment time to see the man. The bulldozers had shown up at ten, and he had told them that the land wasn’t to be touched. Calling on Larry and the rest of the police squad to keep them from doing it was fun, too.

“You say you own that piece? I don’t believe you. You Sheppard boys would say anything to get out of trouble.” He showed the man who seemed to be in charge of the project, Mayor George Hathaway, the deed that had his name on it. “That don’t mean anything. You could have gotten that from online. Just sit right there and let me make some phone calls.”

Reaching into his mind, Weston was able to figure out why the rush was in taking down the play area. He knew that his family owned the land and was hurrying it along so that it would be too late for them to do anything. Not only would the meters bring in some money but it was going to be lining the pockets of the mayor as well. Then there were the people coming into town to open up some shops. He didn’t understand that. The town was about on its last legs as it was now. Putting shops in the empty buildings in the downtown area wouldn’t help at all with the income of a great many people.

“I’m going to go and get me a certified copy to make sure that you kids aren’t trying to pull a fast one on me. You did that kind of stuff to your mother and grandfather. Good people they were, and you six have done nothing at all to memorize them.” Weston asked him what he was going to do with the paperwork that he had forged with Gerald Hathaway, his name on it rather than his own name. “Never you mind about that. I’ll have you know that I’m going to knock your heads together on some things now that things have come to my attention. Or you could just do what I tell you. Like you need to put in a new football stadium for the kids around here. Then call it the LouCinda and Archibald Sheppard Stadium. Yeah, that’s what you should be doing. Your mother would have loved that. Iknow that your grandda, he loved football.”

“Really? My mother hated football and said that the stadium was a waste of space that could be better used for a lecture hall. As for my grandfather, the only sport that he enjoyed was doing my mother’s bidding and knocking us around a great deal—which usually was the same thing. In fact, I think he wore a helmet when he was using a bat on us so we’d not get our blood on him.” Mayor Hathaway said that he was a liar, that he knew for a fact that their mother would have wanted the stadium. “I believe that I knew her a good deal better than you did. Also, you do anything to that land there, and I will own your ass. Understand me?”

“You bastard. You fucking bastard. Don’t you know what a prime piece of land you have in that? What are you going to do with it? Huh? Nothing, that’s what. I’ll make sure that you never get a permit to do anything there. How about that, you little shit for brains. And the other buildings that you supposedly own, I’m going to put my name on them, and you’re not going to say a word about it. I’m god to these stupid people, and the sooner that I get them out of town, I’m going to be rolling in the cash.” Weston stood up and smiled. “And what do you find so fucking funny? You’re all little bastards, all six of you boys. You treated your saintly mother like garbage, and I’m going to make sure that her work will be remembered forever. And if you even think that I’m going to allow you to bring in any businesses that I don’t approve of, then you’re going to be shit out of luck with that too. This town doesn’t deserve anything. The sooner everyone moves out, the faster I can bring in every new business that will be greasing my palms. Oh, you have no idea the links that I’m going to go to in order to ruin the bastard Sheppard boys. I think that your momma should have beat you more if you were to ask me.”

“Thank you for that.” The mayor looked confused. “I read your plaque on the way in here. It says that you’re going to be recorded and that it will be a public record for anyone who wants to view it. So I had my little brother, one of the bastards you called us, dig into the camera system and had made sure that what you just said to me is all over the news outlet. You did want to tell the people what was going on, didn’t you? I mean, I think people would want to know that their own mayor is a thief and a liar. I know that I do.”

Hathaway came up out of the chair, no easy feat for a man his size and lunged at him. Only having to step away and out of his reach, Weston snatched up the paperwork that was for the part of town that he owned and told the camera that the mayor was going to be arrested for falsifying county records.

“You are brilliant, big brother. I’m glad that you asked me to help out with this. How did you know that was what he was going to do?”He said that the only thing that he had been sure of was the falsifying records. Beau laughed.“Well, it’s out there now and I’m going to go around town asking people what they thought about the news. Also, before I forget, the company that refurbishes hard drives is coming to town in a couple of days. If they build, it’ll be fifty more jobs than we had before.”

“Great. Sunny has been talking to a couple of people that she knows as well, and they’re bringing a warehouse to this area that will employ as many as a hundred people to start then more when they’re established. Also, Archie is talking to two different car manufacturing companies that want to deal with us in building parts. One of them seats material the other steering wheels for their cars. That will be another five hundred people working.”

Weston was thrilled by the amount of employment that was happening right now. They had been talking to a guy who made mattresses as well as a person who had a large pottery production company. The employment to the latter wouldn’t be all that much, but it would be someplace to work for the town to get on board with.

By the time he was back at his apartment, he’d been stopped by no less than ten people asking about the mayor’s position. They were going to run Hathaway out of town with his stingy wife and kids. He hadn’t cared for the mayor in the first place and was happy that he was going to be gone. They’d be able to get more work done if there was someone in the office who actually cared about the town and the people living there.

“Are you going to run for the position, Weston?” He asked which one that was. “The police are at the mayor’s home now. They’re finding all kinds of things that are going to get him in trouble with the Feds. From what I’m to understand, they’re on their way here to look into fraud and other things that he’s been up to.”

“That was quick.” He hadn’t realized that people would already be coming around to arrest the man. Weston only wanted what was his with the things that his dad had left him. The very idea that Hathaway had thought he could get by with his wrongdoings boggled his mind. He decided that he might be better off going home rather than walking around the town to see people’s reactions. He didn’t want to be caught up in a words war with anyone but especially the former mayor, what it was looking like to him, anyway.

Hurrying home, Weston had contacted the local pack and was having them start on the clean up around the area that was going to be what it had always been. A basketball court along with a tennis area. The baseball field, for now, was only going to be good for practice until the lawns could be redone and the people put in place to make the area a place for the kids to play in the spring and summer. He thought that he’d enjoy that most of all.

Weston hadn’t been allowed to play ball that wasn’t marked as gym classes. He’d enjoyed the crap out of it when he got the chance and decided that if he had to use all his money, he was going to make sure that the kids in the neighborhood would be able to have a good game, whether it be just a pick-up game or the world series.

They’d need uniforms as well, he realized and was going to see if there were a few places that were coming to town that would like to sponsor the little leaguers so they’d be dressed in colors that they wanted. He was heady with the ideas that were going around in his mind.

He thought that he might well run for the open seat for the mayor’s position. He might well be able to get a lot of things finished up by not having to wait in line to see the man in charge. He also knew that once he was in office, he’d be able to make sure that things were running right. With the support of his brothers, he thought that they’d get a great deal finished up and make the town a good deal more livable. But first, he decided that he was going to go to the football stadium and have a look around.

“It’s worse than I thought here.” Archie had played a little bit of ball, not enough to hear his brother talk about it but he did understand more than he did about the game. “These fields will have to be pulled up and redone. I mean all the way down and then resod it, too. The bleachers will also need to be replaced as most of them are dangerous with the rust on them. I never realized that it had gone to shit until today.”

They started out making notes on what needed to be done and decided that it would be easier to just yank everything down to the barest of bottoms and begin again. That’s what he’d do if they were to try and fix what was there. In a few more years, they would be redoing it again when the things that had been all right were no longer safe to sit on.

Weston had several projects to work on when he got home, and he was as excited as he’d ever been about having something to do with the town. Some of the people might still believe that they treated their mother and grandfather terribly, but he knew better. Maybe they’d come around, too, he thought.

Chapter 5

Wrangler had had enough of phone calls from the jail to his home. How they’d gotten their cell phone numbers as well was a mystery, but he was going to figure that out while he was there. Someone was going to have their heads roll, especially if it was one of the cops on duty.

He couldn’t stand to see Amber crying herself to sleep at night or even during the day when she was called to answer. Yesterday he’d yanked out all the phones and the wiring, along with calling the phone company to have them come out and remove all the wiring that would annoy the shit out of him.

Being taken back to the cells where William was first, he sat down in the chair he’d brought with him and told him who he was. Why he was there didn’t seem to be a question in his mind, but he wanted him to understand who he was. William launched into a tirade that pissed him off more than he’d ever been upset with anyone, with the exception of his mother.

“That’s another thing too. I want to know why you’re keeping my kids from coming in here and bringing us snacks and better blankets? We see others coming in and bringing things like candy bars and shit. Why are you keeping them from doing the same for the two of us? We’re their parents, you know.” Wrangler told the older man that he wasn’t keeping them from anything. “Then why ain’t they coming in here and seeing us. I have me a list of things that I want them to bring to me. One of them being a cell phone. I can’t make any deals without one of them, and I’m sick of having to walk all the way to the phone hanging on the wall there. You tell them to get their asses in gear, or it won’t go good for them.”

“No.” William sputtered around a little bit about how he didn’t like that word and that he wasn’t to use it on him again when Wrangler told him no again. “I’m not going to tell them to do anything for you. For that matter, I might tell them that they can come and see you and bring you treats, but it’s doubtful that either one of them would go out of their way to do that for you two. You’ve been terrible parents, and I can’t believe that you think that they’d want to do anything kind for you. I know that I wouldn’t.”

---