The Shack: An Implacable Man

"I never wanted your name, asshole. I never wanted anything from you. I never fucking heard of you until this."

"That's immaterial, Miss Dawes, the potential was there. It would be tabloid fodder. It would make a mockery of what I've built here, of what I intend for Jason to achieve."

I saw the corner of Delaney's mouth twitch upward. I chuckled, and Delaney shook her head trying not to laugh. "So it was all for nothing."

He stared at us, puzzled, until I pulled the sheaf of papers out of my back pocket and tossed it in front of him.

"What is this?"

"A DNA test. You can buy the kits at any corner drug store these days. We had to do this one a little more... unconventionally." I'd had to scrape bits of Jason Bradley Calloway off of the remains of his car.

"And...?"

Delaney rolled her eyes. "Jesus. Even I can understand that test. It says I'm not related to Junior and that means I can't be related to you." She shuddered "Thank God. That'd be fucking awful." She stopped suddenly. "This is like that bird movie!"

"Bird movie?" I had no idea what the hell she was talking about.

"Yeah." She nodded. "The one with the trench coat guy, the creepy guy, and that old fat guy..."

"The Maltese Falcon?"

She squinted thoughtfully. "That sounds right. I'm like that bird statue everyone was after. All that shit happened, people died and nobody even bothered to check if it was real."

Obviously irritated, the old man picked up the papers and looked at them carefully. "If this is accurate, then I have no further interest in you." He sat back, apparently convinced he had dismissed us.

I looked at Delaney. "You think we should tell him?"

"Oh yeah, I want to see his face."

I looked at the old man. "You haven't heard from your son in a few days, have you?"

"That's not unusual, he's his own man. He travels a great deal for his racing and other sports."

"Junior won't be continuing your Legacy or anything else. He appears to have had a fatal accident." He stiffened up abruptly, face darkening, but I cut him off before he could speak. "It seems he was concerned over Delaney's potential, but it was more centered on whether or not she was going to get some of your money than your Legacy. Delaney figured out that it was either him or her, and that just didn't end well for him. Darwin, you understand. Survival of the fittest."

He studied Delaney for a moment, and from her bitter-proud expression, he knew I'd spoken the truth. I could see the shock etched on his, suddenly, much older face. "I..." He couldn't complete whatever he wanted to say.

"You can send somebody else after us, of course. Hire better people, make it interesting for us. But we'll be ready for them, and I promise you won't survive it, next time. I will burn everything you've ever built to the ground." I pulled a thumb drive out of my pocket and tossed it on his desk." And you might want to look at that before you make any decisions. Signed affidavits from a number of people regarding the way the men of your firm behave. Tara was more than a little put out by the plans you assholes made for her. There's even a couple videos on there. I'd appreciate if you would look at those in private after we leave. I don't want to expose my daughter to that shit."

Charlotte hadn't wanted to, but Tara and Tiffany were coldly relentless. With her help, and the passkey to her thumb drives, they found four more women and two young men, then convinced them that their only real hope for protection was to work with us. One of the men had managed to video one of the parties.

The shock had turned Calloway pale, but he was a hard old man and he rallied quickly. "That would child's play to defeat in court."

I chuckled. "Probably. I'm not a fucking lawyer, but you're probably right. Hell, I'll even take your word for it. So it won't be in court. It'll be in public. You'd make all the late-night talk shows. The firm you built, your name, would be just punchlines in off-color jokes. You'd be a laughingstock. A sad dirty little joke."

He studied me grimly. He knew I'd found his weakness.

"It's a failsafe. Anything happens to any of us, or to anyone who helped us, it goes to a thousand different news outlets. You couldn't suppress them all. So I'd suggest spending the money searching to see if Junior left any little bastards laying around that you could turn into your heir. He'd have slept with a snake if the snake had low enough standards, so there's a chance there are a few little Calloways slithering around."

That seemed to catch his interest. I had no doubt chasing some possible heir sounded like a much better choice than reaching his hand into the badger's den again. From everything Tara had said, he hadn't even really liked Junior; he just wanted that Legacy that was so godawful important to him.

As we headed out, I hoped that Jason Bradley Calloway, Esquire, hadn't fathered any living spawn.

Delaney looked down at her feet as we walked back towards Sally. She seemed more than a little down, so I elbowed her. "So you're the Maltese Falcon?"

A smile quirked the corner of her mouth. "Yeah, I guess I am, aren't I? We ought to watch that again; tonight is Movie Night, you know."

"You know what the makes you?"

She looked up a touch puzzled. "What?"

"The stuff dreams are made of, kid. The stuff dreams are made of." My terrible Bogie impression didn't bother her at all, she shot me a grin.

She couldn't quite shake the foot dragging mood. "What the hell is wrong with me, anyway? Everybody keeps trying to kill me."

"The bigger question is what the hell is wrong with me?"

"Why?"

"I'm the only father you've had that hasn't tried to kill you. Yet."

"Yet?"

"Just keep leaving that power sander out on the bench instead of putting it back, Thugbunny. See what happens."

*****

Three weeks later

The Sheriff was sitting on the stairs to the office when we pulled in. "You guys seem awful relaxed all of a sudden. By an odd coincidence, there was a report that a carload of Gold Shield Security boys and their employer managed to fall off a cliff somehow in West Virginia. Looks like it happened a few weeks ago."

"Good to hear. Sounds like they shoulda been more careful."

He nodded. "They friends of Stein?"

"Actually, no. They were all doing their own thing."

He sighed. "Jesus, you guys attract trouble."

Delaney looked indignant. "That whole Mooky thing wasn't about us." She popped open the right side toolbox on the roll back and began pulling out tools.

"And yet you still managed to step in it. Which brings me to the point of the visit. We had a visit by a couple of corporate security types. We got a lot of State Department pressure to let them have whatever they wanted. Big European pharmaceutical company."

"Hackmann?"

"Sounds right. Germans, I think. They weren't particularly friendly. They didn't seem to give a damn about the two dead guys, but they sure as hell wanted to look that car over."

"Wouldn't do them much good."

"No, but I told them that one of the bodies had the remains of a package melted into their clothing. The security guys didn't seem unhappy that it had burned up after I explained that it tested positive for marijuana." He got up with a sigh. "None of that shit makes sense. None of it. Two people dead, Hyatt's going to be on convalescent leave for six months. Over marijuana."

I shrugged. "Doesn't make any sense to me either."

He started to walk to his Tahoe. "I'll get your guns back to you in a couple days." He paused looking back. "The coroner's report on the two dead guys is a little vague on just who shot them, if you read it wrong, it almost sounds like Hyatt put them down. I'd rather not have these pharmaceutical guys interested in you. Our damn morgue isn't big enough."

"I appreciate it. Hyatt deserves some kind of commendation. She chased them after they hit her and she still tried to take them down."

He nodded. "I was kind of thinking that." He climbed into his Tahoe. "You two stay out of trouble."

Delaney watched him pull out of the yard, then put the last breaker-bar to the side and looked into the tool case with dismay. "Ugh. Dried mouse shit."

"Serves you right, you left the tacos in there, you clean it up."

"Blech." Delaney wrinkled her nose in disgust and started to reach in with the whisk broom. "Huh. Look at that."

I peered over her shoulder and we stood there silently for a moment. "You know... it is Tuesday."

She looked up at me with a grin. "Twelve Amazing Tacos!"

*****

Mooky looked up from the register as we walked in. He managed to turn even paler and stiffened up.

"Welcome to Taco Grande. May I take your order?"

I looked at him for a long moment. His hair had been cut down to almost a crew cut and the bruises covering the left half of his face were edged with dull yellow, slowly healing. A muscle twitched in his jaw. I nodded. "Yeah, we'll take a Big Taco Sampler and two large Cokes."

"Yes, sir." He tapped on his register. "That will be eleven dollars and 92 cents, please."

I fished out twelve bucks and watched while he carefully made change and handed it back to me with the receipt.

He turned with the slow care of someone sporting more than a few aches and pains, carefully counted the twelve tacos into a bag for us, then slid the bag across the counter to us with two cups. "Will that be all, sir?"

I looked at Delaney and nodded to her then looked up at him. "No. One more thing."

Delaney slid her envelope across the counter to him. "It's all we could find. This spilled out in the tool box after the mice chewed it open."

He looked at it in amazement and I picked up where Delaney had left off. "It's only about half an ounce of seed, you're not going to get rich anytime soon off of it, but it's something."

His lower lip trembled a little. "They burned my place. All of it. You saw it."

Delaney elbowed me. I sighed. "I've got a used trailer for sale, I'll drop it right where your old one was next Saturday."

"I don't have any money..."

I held up the change in my hand. "This looks like enough." He just stared at me in amazement. "It's probably all bullshit, you know. There's no way it cures cancer. I doubt if it's any different than any of the other shit people are smoking. But somebody was willing to kill over it, so, just in case, I'd like to think somebody out there besides Hackmann Pharmaceuticals was growing some. Just make sure you give away some of the seed, get it out there."

He nodded, slowly and uncertainly as we picked up our bag and walked out.

Delaney glanced back at Mooky through the window. "You really think he'll do anything with it?"

"I think so. Hell, he may be the best choice. He doesn't really want to be rich or powerful, he just wants to grow some good weed. He'll grow it and give a bunch out. Anybody else would try to get rich selling it to a big company."

She wrinkled her nose. "Kinda hard to picture him as a hero."

I chuckled. "Imagine his statue in front of the CDC. 'Mooky, Hero and Healer'."

"I hope they have the Taco Grande hat on the statue."

"I can't fuckin' imagine it without."

Delaney snickered. "You owe a dollar."

"Dammit."

Post Production Notes:

This series is about as much fun to write as anyone could expect. Thanks again to everyone; editors and beta readers. I really appreciate the support and encouragement I get from the readers here, and I don't say that lightly at all, it's just beyond belief.

I have to mention The Missus again, she's always a part of these, and never more so than with Needles and Delaney. We work on the threads of the story together. She's always happy to hop out of the car with me to go look at a tow truck or whatever is necessary to try to make the story work.