Chapter 23
The next morning Brenda was in the kitchen with Kate sipping coffee when Bob walked into the kitchen. Kate poured him a cup of coffee and he sat down at the table next to Brenda.
"Look, when you go to the tack shop today, get what you need. You won't be doing either yourself or me a favor if you buy cheap gear or only buy half of what you need. What time is Todd going to be here?"
Brenda was animated, "I told him that I wanted him here early so that I can get some time with Miss Betty. I can't believe that you really bought that horse for me."
"It's a bargain if you enjoy having the horse."
Ann walked into the kitchen with a bathrobe over her pajamas, "Don't you people ever sleep?"
Brenda saw a car coming into the driveway and her face lit up, "Here's Todd now. Does he know where the tack shop is?"
Bob assured her that he did and Brenda ran out to his car to greet him without putting a coat on.
Bob saw Ann's concern on her face, "She'll be Ok. Todd's a very fine young man.
Bob told Kate that they would get sandwiches for lunch and that she wouldn't have to be in the kitchen until it was time to fix dinner. Kate smiled and left the kitchen and started toward her own house.
Brenda came running back into the house, "Todd asked me to go to a concert with him tonight. I'll be staying at his house tonight."
A look of concern came to Ann's face again, "Brenda do you think..."
"Mom, his mother and father are going to be at the house. Do you think they would allow what you're thinking to happen right under their noses?"
Ann gave her daughter a weak smile and Brenda got her coat and ran out to the car and got in. Todd turned the car around and they pulled out of the driveway.
"I guess that I was acting like a mother again," Ann said, "I have to remind myself that she's in college now and she's nineteen."
"Don't go beating yourself again. You're a very good mother."
Bob saw tears come to Ann's eyes, "I'm sorry Ann. Did I say something wrong?"
Ann shook her head and tried to hide her tears, "I just always wanted a family. I told you what happened to me. They weren't too gentle. About a year after I left Ray I started having some problems. The doctor told me that I can't have children anymore."
Ann looked up and tried to smile, "At this stage of my life I wouldn't want to be pregnant anyway."
Bob stood up and pulled Ann out of the kitchen chair and hugged her. Ann put her head on his chest and put her hand around his waist.
After a minute or two she looked up at him, "Enough of this. I thought that you wanted to decorate this house. Where are the lights and ornaments?"
"I'll help you get the decorations out of the shed. You can look through what I have and if they're still usable. I've got about two hours work to do in my office and then we'll get busy decorating the house."
Bob took Ann out to the shed where he stored all of the Christmas decorations and loaded them in the car and transported them to the house. Soon Ann had the whole living room floor filled with boxes of light strings and decorations. Bob excused himself and went to his office and closed the door.
Bob logged onto his server at work through the Internet. He first pulled up Lexus-Nexus and searched for what he was looking for. He had to get about the date and it took quite a while before he was successful. He found the newspaper article that had the account of the two men being charged with the death of Ray Simmons. The article listed the full names of the men. A quick check of the other databases that his company used pulled up the criminal record for the two men. Bob printed out the mug shots and the complete criminal record for both men. Using the databases that his company had access to, it wasn't long before he had the address of the two men.
Bob leaned back and read the criminal records of the two men. Both men had never been convicted of a crime although they had been charged many times. They were the suspects in several murders other than the murder of Ray Simmons. Both men had also been charged with the rape of a fourteen year old girl whose father owed them money. The charges were dropped because the father and the rest of the family disappeared.
Bob dialed his phone. When the phone was answered Bob asked to speak to someone. It was a minute before that person came to the phone. Bob explained what he wanted and the person agreed to take the job after Bob read them the arrest record of the two men. Bob hung up the phone and glared at the papers on his desk. After several minutes he stood up and put each of the papers through the crosscut shredder next to his desk.
Ann was sitting on the floor trying to make some sense of the tangled mess of wires. She held a handful of wires up for him to see and Bob could see that a mouse had been chewing on the insulation. Ann held up another string of wires and it was in the same condition.
"Leave it," he said, "I'll have Hans clean up the mess and we'll go buy new stuff. I hope that you have some idea of what we need because I haven't a clue."
Ann started to protest and Bob reached down and grabbed her hand and pulled her off the floor, "Get your coat and we'll go replace this mess. I don't know why you let me put the decorations in the shed anyway."
Ann punched him in the arm, "And I thought you were so smart too."
They drove to the Lowes that was closest to them and picked up the decorations. Ann looked at the artificial trees and when she looked at Bob he was shaking his head. He told her it was going to be a real one or nothing. They stopped and got a real Christmas tree on the way home.
By the time that Brenda and Todd got back from the tack shop Bob and Ann had the lights strung on the front of the house. It started to rain so they had to stop working outside. Ann busied herself with decorating the inside. Brenda secured all of the riding gear that she had purchased in the tack room of the stable and came in the house. Brenda said that they were famished so Ann stopped and fixed them all sandwiches.
As they sat at the table a car pulled in the driveway. A woman in her late thirties got out of the car and ran on the porch and knocked on the door. Bob walked to the door and opened it and the woman walked in.
"Hi Bob. I see that you're starting to decorate."
"Hi Miriam, come on out to the kitchen. There's someone that I'd like you to meet."
Bob walked to the kitchen with the woman. As soon as the woman saw Ann and Brenda her face changed.
"Miriam, this is Ann and the young woman is Brenda, her daughter. They're helping me decorate the house this year."
"Oh, I'm pleased to meet you Ann."
Brenda noticed that the woman wanted to ignore her; she was sizing up Ann to see if she was going to be competition. The woman began to talk about different changes that were happening in the area and she made a point to question Ann on how she felt about the area and the farm. There was a definite chill in the air when she spoke. After about fifteen minutes the woman excused herself saying that she was on her way to the store and thought that she'd stop by and chat for a minute.
"It was nice meeting you Ann," Miriam said; not really meaning it.
She left by the kitchen door and got in her car and pulled out of the driveway a bit fast.
Ann smiled and looked at Bob, "Hmmm, girl friend, ex-girlfriend?"
Bob laughed, "Neither, although she'd like it to be. It will never happen though."
"I thought we were going to have to turn up the thermostat. It was getting right frosty in here," Brenda laughed.
"Miriam has one goal in life. That's to marry some man that will give her enough money in the divorce settlement to support her in the manner to which she would like to become accustomed. She just got rid of husband number two and she's set her sights on me as husband number three. As I said; it will never happen. She's persistent though. Hell, I've never even gone out with her. I don't even like her. She grates on my nerves; but she never stops trying."
"Why was she so frosty to me?" Ann asked.
"You're competition. She's so insecure that she's already sized you up as an opponent."
Brenda turned to Todd, "Why don't you go home and get ready and pick me up here later. We can either take your car or mine. I'll be ready by the time you get back."
Todd left and Brenda rushed upstairs to get ready for the concert. Two hours later Todd was back at the house.
Bob smiled at Todd, "You might as well have a seat. Brenda will be a while."
Todd looked at his watch and Bob laughed, "You might as well forget that watch when you're waiting for a woman to get ready for a night out. It's something that a man will never understand."
About an hour later Brenda came downstairs. She kissed Ann and then told her mother goodbye; then she and Todd left for the concert.
Bob and Ann continued decorating the house. Bob sat down and let Ann
take over the decorating of the tree. Her long experience in the flower
shop served her well. The Christmas tree was thing of beauty when she
was done. While Ann was decorating the tree Bob went to the kitchen and
fixed them sandwiches. Bob thought to himself that Ann really seemed to
be enjoying herself. She had really thrown herself into the decorating.