After the Win Pt. 05

Stephen asked about the cowboys and farm hands and was told that all but two of them were real cowboys and salt of the earth types but the other two, one of which was the driver of the pickup with the rifle were dirty as they could be and into about everything possible.

Stephen took a minute to call Mike and to quickly bring him up to speed on what he had found out. He also asked if they would be able to keep the planes if drugs were found on them or residue from drugs even. Mike told him that it might be a gray area but as the family were the new owners and had no knowledge of the past use of those planes they should be able to as the family was the ones that informed the authorities. Besides, it helped that Stephen had called the sheriff who was a dear friend of both of them instead of the feds so maybe it would work out alright for them.

About that time the first deputy's car showed up and he got out with his hand resting on his pistol as Stephen also got out and walked towards him and told the deputy to call the sheriff as there was going to be a major case break here and the sheriff needed the publicity to ensure his reelection next month. The deputy smiled and got on his cell phone and not his radio and talked for a minute before coming back to Stephen and Jim. When he got back to them he asked where everyone was and Jim said that the one jet with the two dirty pilots was away but due back in about 3 hours and the other two pilots were at home or someplace on stand down but the mechanic (also quite dirty it seems) was in the hanger working on one of the planes or sleeping off a drunk. The rest of the cowboys were far back up the canyons rounding up cattle for market and would not be back in for a couple of days or so as they had a cook and camp setup with them. Jim assured Stephen that all but the one young cowboy out there was clean and were good people.

Stephen took this opportunity to ask about a ranch manager and was told that the last one had simply disappeared a few months back and no one knew anything about him. Stephen had an idea and asked Jim about his training and education as he seemed to be a little sharper than most cowboys he had talked with before.

Jim told him that his dad used to have a cattle ranch but lost it due to some bad investments and a couple of bad years. He also said he had a BS from the TCU school of Ranch Management with a minor in Agroecomonics. Stephen asked him if he thought he could run this ranch and make it profitable and Jim said he sure could, after a few changes of course. Steve asked what if the ranch was 10 times bigger and Jim Sever said he would just have to hire more people and set up crews to service the different areas of the ranch. Good answer Steve thought.

Stephen told him to go home and pack up and move into the ranch managers house as he was now the top dog for the ranch and that he wanted only top hands working for them as he would pay top pay with benefits and that he also owned another 55,000 acres adjoining this place and that there were currently no employees on the two places and that he had no idea if there were any cattle on them or not.

Jim said that they could get the clean pilot and then take the Cessna out and fly over the two other places and get an idea of what they had, then give Steve a tour of this place to familiarize him with it, which sounded like a very good idea to Stephen. Stephen also told Jim to stop by the Ford dealership on his way home and pick out a crew cab F250 four-wheel drive pickup for himself to drive and that Stephen would call them and set it up in just a few minutes. Jim told him how happy he was and that his wife would be overjoyed at the news and would probably hug his neck and name their as yet unborn first child after him if it was a boy. This did Stephen proud.

Stephen had noticed the other pickup start and move away but the deputy blocked his escape with his car and told the driver to sit tight until further notice. Stephen could hear sirens in the distance and could see some dust clouds forming from traffic on the gravel roads. Looked like a paving job was in order to keep the dust down. Or maybe not as it was a long way from the main road to the main ranch buildings. He wondered how much the concrete runway had cost Robert.

About that time the first deputies started arriving and right behind them William, Mike and the girls all showed up and Stephen asked about their new cousin in laws and was told to not ask questions right then and smiled wickedly. So did Stephen then. About time he thought.

The Sheriff asked Stephen to bring him up to date and then talked to Jim Severs to confirm what Stephen had told him and then arrested the driver of the truck and sent someone to the hanger for the mechanic. The one cowboy would be gone as soon as they came back to the headquarters area. The sheriff had had the deputy's cars hidden in the hanger and the barns so the pilots could not see them and then got the drug sniffing dog out of his car and let him start his search of the area, finding only trace amounts in the hanger area but did locate 3 one kilo bags of cocaine in one of the pilot's cars and a single bag in the other ones.

Residue, but not enough to warrant an arrest was found in the truck belonging to the driver who had held the rifle on Stephen so he was released and told to move far away from that county that very day. He left the ranch in a hurry like he believed the sheriff.

Christie came and hugged Stephen and gave him a kiss and asked if he was scared when the man held a gun on him. Stephen told her he was deathly afraid but she somehow doubted that.

Soon someone noticed the bright light in the sky signaling the approach of the jet back to the ranch. Everyone was in place hiding and awaiting the planes arrival and shutdown. Until it was shut down, it was both dangerous and also a quick way for the pilots to escape if they got wind of the impending arrests. Quickly the plane landed and taxied up to the hanger and it spooled down and all was quiet. The door to the cabin was lowered and two men got out of the plane and were quickly taken into custody by the sheriff's deputies. A quick search of the plane found almost 6 million dollars' worth of cocaine in suitcases aboard the plane. Mike and Stephen used this knowledge to badger the sheriff into saying the family could keep the plane as they did not find drugs in the plane, only in a suitcase on the ground (Okay, the truth was stretched a bit but they were happy for the bust and the positive publicity this would generate for the sheriff.

And now the family had the two corporate jets Stephen had told the lady at the bank about, plus a very nice twin engine Cessna as well. All in all, a good day for the family.

After the Sheriff had left when his investigators were finished and the criminals taken away, the family looked around at the surroundings and asked themselves out loud if they really needed two corporate jets (or even one for that matter although one might not be a bad idea and the twin engine Cessna was also a fairly good idea to keep around). Upon reflection, it was decided to keep both jets for now at least due to the wide areas of their new holdings and companies, and quick transportation was always preferable.

"Stephen?" said Mike quietly. "Can you take care of 105,000 acres of land plus cattle and horses and still serve the three or more boards you will be sitting on?"

"I certainly think so, Mike. That and more if we can get it. I think I have a good ranch manager here in Jim Severs and he will appoint several ramrods, one for each place along with a couple of hands and we can move them about as needed. I don't think that we should ever need more than maybe a dozen but could be wrong as this place is really spread out and is very diverse in its makeup. I think I want to look at some possible farming of cash crops such as soybeans and wheat. I think this area is too dry for corn but I am going to do some research on local cash crops. We would have to buy some expensive equipment but it has to pay for itself as they sure do sell a lot of it. Cattle looks good, especially for the foreseeable future, as there Is adequate moisture predicted and we are not in a drought right now so we should have plenty of our own hay and not have to buy any. If we could find enough water and irrigate we could make a killing raising alfalfa hay and selling it. We could probably get five or maybe even six good cuttings a year with enough water. Of course again, we would need more equipment and some more people, but this could be a real money maker for us plus we would have some for our own use. And if we could get enough water to irrigate a little we could raise our own corn for our animals and save another ton of money over what we have to pay every year for cracked and rolled corn. I don't think we should ever consider planting human food crops but this area should grow good cotton with a bit of irrigation. I will check into these cash crops with the county soil conservation people or agriculture department, whichever has the answers I want. I do know that water is the key to everything in this environment and climate. Maybe we can drill wells as needed. Something to think about. Really a lot of potential return for a relatively minimal investment."

"Look into it and do a bit of soils research and check the water tables and go for it if you think it has a good chance of success" said Mike.

"As far as my boards go, two are scheduled to meet every six months and one every three months and one small one meets the 2^nd of each month for a short while to take care of business and approve expenses for that month. So I don't see a problem right now. How about all of you? How are your areas doing?"

"So far everything is going fine. The court has put a stop to lots of the countersuits by Dad and has already awarded the family possession of much of his property already." Explained William. One thing I am concerned about is the fact that there is close to three billion dollars unaccounted for and I can guess that it is hidden in the Caribbean in some bank drawing no interest except to the bank. I need to either talk to dad's accountant or else do a major search and find those accounts and the passwords. If we can get hold of them, we can reverse steal the money back by withdrawing it and moving it around down there a few times to lose the paper and electronic trails and then bring it back onshore as soon as we can. One way I think would be to form a corporation off shore and then invest in real estate like major buildings and shopping malls and such and then sell and pocket the money paying taxes on it like good little people. Not 100% legal, but done all the time and Uncle Sam still gets a good portion of it, way more than he would get if it just stayed hidden.

"I think I will talk privately with the accountant. There is nothing I can or will do to keep him out of jail for whatever crimes he has committed, but as a family man, he might allow us to take care of his family and send his kids to college as a thank you for turning over certain information or documents that simply do not need to be made public nor draw the attention of our government. After all, this is our family money we are talking about. We are just moving it and putting it back into circulation so it can do the family and our country some good. Right?"

William left saying he was going to drive over to see his father's accountant and see what might be worked out privately as he knew that the government had not gotten any information from him about hidden money. He was playing it smart by playing dumb and keeping his mouth closed.

Stephen asked the group if any further thought about an HR manager had taken place as yet and was told that the word had gone out and there had been a couple of possibilities had called already so that situation might be handled. He said good as they would need people really quick, including at least one more pilot with multiple ratings, probably another two very shortly.

Stephen told them about the feed store and what he had been told about the checks for the bills being rather erratic in their arrival and what he had told the mill. He would need to stay in good graces with the mill as they would be buying lots of feed and farm supplies and he wanted Anne to contact them and see if they could handle a normal 30-45 pay cycle or if their account might to be too large for a small firm to carry the note that long and if so, what if they billed every two weeks then they could get paid every two seeks. Anne thought that was a great idea but wanted Christie to go and talk with them with her as she was the one that was supposed to turn into a cowgirl/lady rancher in case anyone forgot.

Christie informed them that her appointed instructor had been quite busy of late but that she had hopes that things might slow down so the total education process could begin in earnest.

"Total Education???" This from Mike with a bit of a snicker.

"Yes, total... Now change the subject please. Smart Ass."

That evening the family got together and William informed them that he had made a deal with Robert's accountant and confidant much as he had suggested and that in exchange for certain information and data that the family would more or less adopt a grieving woman and her three children and would guarantee them that they would never want for anything ever again.

Somehow, the family was able to "come up with" close to three billion dollars and used it to make an absolute fortune in real-estate investments, plus they grew their ranchland considerably and when deep pockets of natural gas were found under the ranch, the money came in by the car load it seemed. Way faster than it could be counted. Again, kind of like the national debt clock in reverse.

Epilog:

Things went well for the whole family and they founded many charitable foundations. Many people, especially students and the unemployed or under employed that needed a college education to get ahead in life were the recipients of those scholarships as were many of the underprivileged but worthy students. No one ever found out who supported or funded these charities.

Jim Severs wife did have a son and his name is Stephen.

Stephen and Christie had two babies of their own, even though Christie was a bit beyond her "best by date" for childbirth. Twin girls that are the spitting image of their mother. Stephen was and is over the top happy and proud and figures he is going to have a lot of headaches if those girls take after their mother, which definitely would not be a bad thing. Not at all.

Mike and his wife also had two children, a boy and a girl and they are taking after their parents in so many ways.

The Judge and Linda are happily married and Linda gave birth to a baby girl much to the surprise of almost everyone but her. The judge is very happy and proud.

William and his wife are the extremely proud grandparents of these babies and both have a wall full of photos in their offices.

The office building had one large suite converted to a daycare and nursery for all the woman who work there. A full time trained child care professional was hired to oversee this center. School age children that lived in the area could ride the school bus to the office after school instead of going home to an empty house. The employees loved and greatly appreciated this perk.

Robert was not found guilty of murder as there was no hard evidence but was found guilty of wrongful death and a healthy judgement against him was issued. He did lose all his lawsuits and is now totally penniless, but that is alright as he does not need money while he is serving two life terms in prison for the multitude of crimes he committed. He did wind up using a pro bono and a court appointed attorney for his criminal cases.

All this happened after the win.