“I don’t understand what the big deal is.Just tell the public what happened and be done with it.They certainly wouldn’t have to have all this extra intrigue or anything.Just post signs saying that there was no trespassing, and that would be the end of it.”Rosie told him he was being naïve.
“People would want to go in and see for themselves what a drug ring looked like.They might even steal something, like I know McGee did, to make it so that the case is never solved.Then what do you do if someone gets hurt trespassing?It could happen, and they’d sue them for not having enough barriers up, even though they’d been told to stay out.I know people.They’re okay when they’re alone, but get a group of them together, and Armageddon will come around.”
He could see that.His grannie used to say something like that all the time when she’d been alive.That one person was smart, and that a group of smart people suddenly became stupid.He never really believed it until today.
Since she knew that McGee was gone for the day, she wanted him to drop her off at the stationhouse.She didn’t think she’d get any more information than her snitch was telling her, but she said it was worth a try.What pissed her off the most was that had she waited one more day to retire, she would have been in charge of the operation, and the number of things that she’d done differently would have had the case solved by now.Not really, but he wanted to think that she could solve anything given enough information.
After dropping her off, he went home.They were expecting a delivery today, and he would have to sign for it.It was some of the kitchen aides that they decided they needed, but not right away.Ordering through an online store got it to them in a couple of days instead of having to travel all the way to Columbus again.He loved ordering online.
No crowds of people.No driving.He was even happy to pay for shipping because he knew that he’d spend more than that on gas.There wasn’t even any kind of hassle when he had to return it for some reason.Just print out a label and take it to another store, and there it was.Done and done.He would even get his refund back before he left the parking lot on some days.Since he relied on reviews, he always left one so that the next person would know what sort of issues or not that he’d had.
~*~
Rosie didn’t get any information from the stationhouse, but she did have fun.They’d missed her they told her, and her ways of doing things.She did notice that a couple of people asked her when she was coming back to work, had she found retirement just too boring.She told them that she was enjoying her new life and couldn’t wait until the holidays so that she could get into them more than she had any other year before.
She’d only been gone a few days, but it did seem longer to her.Not having to get up every day was nice and wearing the bulky uniform wasn’t something that she was going to miss either.For now, she was enjoying her lazy days off and deciding on the nursery things they had to sort through online.
Getting ready to leave when they were called out on a call, she was asked if she knew anything about the Golden Sheep.Shaking her head no, because she couldn’t say anything different, she told them that she’d tried to go out that way to get some things from Columbus and had had to turn around and go back.
“I guess it’s a big to-do out there.We’re kept in the dark, too, about it.The only thing we know for sure is that McGee goes out there daily to have a look around.We don’t know what he’s looking for, but he seems to think they can’t run the thing without his input.”The officer laughed.“Are you sure you don’t want to come out of retirement for us?I sure do miss you being behind the desk.As it is now, we have to call him on the cell phone, and he sometimes doesn’t answer.Too busy, I guess.”
“I know that the place was blown up.”He said that they heard that only a small portion of it had caught fire, and there were dead people still lying about up there.“I doubt that much.I mean, they would have had to have done a mortem on them by now, don’t you think?”
“I thought of that too.”She asked him why he hadn’t asked McGee.“He said that we were on a need-to-know basis and that we didn’t need to know until he told us.I don’t know.It sounds to me like it’s a drug deal that went bad.Why have all those Feds out there if there is nothing but a murder going on?That’s what we’ve put together anyway.That it was some kind of murder that had killed a few people, and they’re making a Federal case out of it for some reason.”
She went home feeling more frustrated than she had this morning when she’d left to follow McGee.She didn’t know how he expected his officers to help him if he was keeping them in the dark, too.Itching to know more, she laid down on the couch at home to wait for Wylie to get home.He wasn’t due until four o’clock this afternoon, after traveling back and forth to help her out.
He’d been working for Meggie for the past few days.He told her that he didn’t know what he was doing, but would try to sort out some information for her since she was paying him to do that.He was currently on a farm in Tennessee that was looking to expand their cattle.While he knew about cattle on some level, he didn’t know a great deal about land deals.This was a sort of learn as he went situation.She remembered the conversation from last night before going to bed.
“She wants to know if there is enough land for them to have as many cattle as they want.I did a search on it and found out how many heads you should have per acre.After that, it’s a simple thing to multiply the number of acres you have by the number of cattle you can have on each part.He’s way over the limit now for the well-being of the cattle that he has.”She asked him if he told Meggie.“I did, and the man.He seems to think that the amount is all screwed up somehow and that he knows better than anyone else.”
“What did Meggie say?”He told her that she wasn’t going to lend him the money unless he bought more land.And it was available for him to purchase around where he lived.“That’s good.I’m glad that she’s taking what I told her seriously.I’d hate to think what would happen to the cattle if they’re crowded too much.There wouldn’t be enough land to graze on for them, and that could cause starvation.”
He had left for Meggie’s office after dropping her off at the station house, and she was looking forward to what else she had to say about the farm and the cattle.She’d do her own research, too, but it was nice having someone who worked for her to have insider knowledge on the way things worked.Even if he did have to look it up to know for sure.
She dozed off and on while lying there.Getting up at around noon to have lunch, she was back on the couch lying down.She wasn’t lazy, she didn’t think, but she’d been working for so long and hard at it that she felt like her body was catching up on what it had missed out on for so many years.
Waking up at around two, she got up to go to the bathroom.After washing her hands, she decided that she’d rested long enough and went to her makeshift office to work on the things that Meggie had her doing.It wasn’t much more than just going over the notes on her security team, but it was enough to keep her busy and her mind working.As soon as she turned off the computer and wandered around the house for a bit, she knew that she was going to have to find herself something to do, or she was going to be resting all day and never get anything done.
Pulling up the want ads in the newspaper, she found that they were hiring at the pizza shop in town.She thought that she might enjoy that a couple of days a week and decided to apply.They were holding open interviews today, and she got dressed to go and see if she could work there.It would be a great way to stay connected with the town and keep her from sitting around the house all day like acouch potato.
There wasn’t anyone there when she arrived, and she thought that was odd.There seemed to be a lot of people out of work around town, and she thought that they’d jump at the opportunity to have a job.She didn’t need the money, but she did need something to do while she was retired from the police force.
While she was waiting for the manager for her interview, she watched the people behind the lines.There was one girl there who seemed to be too shy to interact with people, but she seemed to be good at her job.As she watched her making a pizza, she wondered how many of the pizzas that they’d had over the past month that she’d made for them.
The interview went well, and it didn’t surprise her at all that the manager, Kyle, asked her if she could work tomorrow’s lunchtime shift.He said that it was busy, but it was a good time to start to see if she was going to like it or not.She didn’t think she’d have any trouble, so she was glad that she was going to be able to start so soon.Working somewhere was better than not, and she was happy for the opportunity to have a job that worked with her schedule.
She told Wylie all about her job when he got home, and he was happy for her.Explaining to him about how she didn’t want to stay at home all day, he agreed with her.He said that he’d been having the same trouble too and that he thought being wealthy had its drawbacks.Like having nothing to do was big on his list, too.
After dinner, the two of them watched some preseason football.It wasn’t the same without his family around, but they yelled at the referees as much as they did the players.It was a fun evening, and by ten o’clock, they were both ready for bed.As they were headed up to their bedroom, she told him about her job and what it would entail, and he asked her if she got a discount.
“I didn’t ask.I would think so, but now when we all get together.I’d hate for them to lose money on hiring me.”Wylie said he’d been kidding, and they both laughed.“I’ll find out tomorrow.I’m excited to be able to work during such a busy time for them.It’ll make the day go by so much faster than sitting around here all day with nothing to do.Did I tell you about the stationhouse?”
Telling him about the officers who had worked for her made her feel so good about wanting her to come back that she got a little teary-eyed.She wasn’t as touchy as Meggie had been about things, but sometimes when it hit her really hard, at times, she couldn’t help but cry.It was her emotions all over the place that exhausted her.She thought that having a baby was hard on a woman and wondered why people had them.Then she’d remember that it was Wylie’s baby, and that made everything worthwhile to her.
Getting up the next morning, she was ready to go by ten-thirty.She was told to wear jeans and a T-shirt, and they’d give her a shirt when she got there.She was going to watch for the first few days in order to see how they made their food.Excited to be able to be out of the house, she paid attention to what was going on and enjoyed watching the food come together.She thought that she could work here full-time and never get bored.
By three o’clock, she was wondering about her life choices.Standing on her feet all day had taken its toll on her lower back, and her feet hurt.She’d had fun, that was sure, and she’d been greeted by a lot of people that she’d worked with, and that had been nice.
