Unwelcome

"So far we're fine."

"By the way, those brick columns with the lights on top at the end of the driveway look very nice. Very upscale."

"Thanks, but none of the wiring is in place. It's going to take a lot of time to put this all back together again."

"Time and money does fix a lot of things."

"Say Buddy, what happened to the farm equipment from this farm?"

"Farm equipment? Well shit...sorry Ellie. Why didn't I pick up on that right off? I don't know where it went, but there had to be some."

"Somebody used something heavy to dig the trench that the bodies and all of that stuff was buried in. I'm surprised that I didn't think of that right off."

"You may be surprised, but I'm embarrassed and none too happy that nobody else mentioned that to me right off. Give me a couple of days or so before you mention this to anybody. I'm not sure how to go about this just now, but I need some time to poke around."

"I'll say this much. The more things are learned about this farm and the former owners, the more we discover we don't know. I feel like we're running full speed, only were going sideways or backward."

"We understand that you can't tell us things, but damn Buddy, if you learn anything new, tell us what you can okay? We don't know what to think or do."

"Were I in your shoes, I'd be alert to new or out of place sights or sounds."

"We are doing that, and I will have a security system in place next week."

"Smart move. Did you two know that you're in the Knoxville News Sentinel?"

"We are?" Ellie asked him.

"Yep. Well you and the farm. Your long deceased relatives stirred up a good story for them. I'm surprised they haven't been down here with cameras and talking heads to interview you two. Okay, gotta get on the road, but you'll be hearin' from me. Remember, you just wanted to talk to me about your visit from the state boys. Oh, and thanks for sharing the information with me."

"See you Buddy, and thanks for stopping."

Chapter Fourteen

The next week was totally uneventful. No news from Buddy or anybody else, and I didn't even talk to Collin until mid-day Friday. "Just an update Ben. Security company is done, so if you can get here before six they can meet you here and talk to you about that. We're putting the finishing touches on the other security measures, so one day next week you'll need to talk to that installer about how to operate that part. The front of the house is now sub sided and the porch roof is roughed in."

"What about the barn?"

Collin laughed and said, "I think you'd be happier if your bedroom were out there. Okay, the wiring is all in place. That went very quickly actually. The plumber is working on the bathrooms, and by mid week next week we'll be able to get into them and do our thing. Still much to do, but it's going very well. The drain lines aren't connected, but the trench is dug and that should be done by mid week as well. Remember, none of the house interior is even started because we put extra effort on the barn. We still have to paint the front of the barn, do everything on the inside of the house, build the two bathrooms and do the driveway."

"As you said, a lot still to be done. Okay, I'll be there by about five, and if you would, tell the security company I'll stay through Monday morning, but then I have to get my ass back to the office and put in some serious hours."

"Check. Okay, see you Monday then and we'll go over things in more detail."

"Great."

Little by little I was acquiring and moving different things to the farm until I could just head there from the office. But this time I stopped at the house and picked up a couple of things, changed and was soon speeding east on Interstate forty.

Ellie was at the house by the time I got there and I told her, "Damn it's good to see you here hon. I've missed you."

"I've missed you too. I talked to Collin for a few minutes before he left. He said they're building the bar off site and it's coming along just fine."

"Is it a secret or will you tell me about it?"

"It's going to be a surprise. Oh, and here's another one. Collin said he can't promise just yet, but he thinks they'll be done before Halloween. Wait, I'm forgetting something important. He thinks you should insulate the barn. He's come up with a way to do that and still have it look rustic and not affect the completion date. He said the barn could get very hot and dusty if it isn't sealed and insulated. Of course that isn't free, but it's something to consider."

"Damn. I wondered about that, but I was trying to cheap out. Okay, I'll see him Monday morning so I'll talk to him about that. Now I have something very important to tell you, but I have to stop at the car and then we have to go to the barn."

We didn't even make it to the car before somebody pulled in and I said, "Oh shit." It was emblazoned on the side of the car, WBIR and NBC. "I thought we were past this possibility."

"We're old news now, so why..."

"Must be slow going in Knoxville right now." I had to admit the woman that slipped out of the car looked good. Makeup perfect, nice legs under her average skirt and a diamond bright smile.

"Mr. Whitehead?"

"That's me." I didn't even see the camera guy until he was pointing his camera at me.

"I'm Angie Kalin from WBIR."

"Yes, the side of your car kind of gave me a hint where you are from."

She smiled and didn't miss a beat. I'd like to talk to you about the murders and video the area."

"I'll talk to you for a minute, but no videos beyond this point. The police have enough trouble to deal with so I don't want to do anything that might in any minor way complicate what they are doing."

"They were your relatives that were murdered is that correct?"

"Distant relatives, but technically correct."

"And what are the police telling you?"

"Things like, sorry for your loss. Sorry if I'm being flippant, but they aren't about to share anything with me that they won't share with you. What I know, you know. Two dead for reasons unknown, by people unknown and by methods unknown, or at least that's where it stands right now."

"And you miss.."

Ellie smiled nicely and said, "I'm just a visitor, so I can't help you."

"Angie right?" I asked her.

"That's right."

"Well Angie, I'll do whatever I can to make life easy for you, but I will do nothing that might in any way impinge on the investigation. I appreciate what you do, and I can only hope that some of your viewers come forward with information to share with the police. For now, all we can do here is try to get on with our lives as best we can."

The last few questions were no more than filler as far as I was concerned, and I knew that they weren't excited about the interview. Ellie and I watched them leave and then we turned to each other and smiled. "Ellie, you are a whole lot more than just a visitor, but that was the perfect answer for them."

"You were great too. Perhaps bordering on hostile, but you were smooth and just eloquent enough."

"I didn't want to come off as friendly. Maybe they'll think twice before they bother us again. Now my love, I was about to share something with you."

"Yes you were."

I pulled a small throw pillow from the car and that's when she saw my pistol. "Oh god Ben, what's that for?"

"For me and for us for here. I should have had it here right from the beginning. I sure as hell don't need it at home."

"Do you really think you might need it?"

"I have no idea hon, but to need it and not have would be would be very bad, but to have it and not need it doesn't hurt anything or anybody."

"That's a good point."

"Do guns bother you?"

"They don't scare me, but I'm not well versed in the use of them."

I wanted to get past the pistol so I kissed her and said, "On to more pleasant matters." We had our arms around each other as we walked and I said, "Let's go to our barn."

"Your barn honey."

"In my mind it's our barn. We're creating this together."

We went up the steps and looked around before I pointed and said, "The outlets are in and like Collin said, the wiring is done. There is a central control area for the lighting. You know dimmers, switches and so forth. A lot of the lights are still missing, but it's coming together. Ready for surprise number one?"

"There's more than one?"

"There is. Now down at the far wall to the right there will be a seventy two inch TV with..."

"Oh my god, that's huge."

"Oh they come bigger, but the image quality isn't as good, or that's what I was told. Now in front of the TV will be leather theater seating with the back row of four higher than the front row of four. I'm going to have Collin put them on a low platform so they can be rolled to the side of the room if we want more floor space. It's amazing what you can find in Nashville, especially if you do some digging."

"But...I mean the money isn't my business, but you must be spending a lot."

"I am, and a lot more than I planned at the beginning, but I've changed my thoughts on this. The object is to make money. Well going halfway isn't going to pull in people with enough cash to want to indulge themselves. But by spending another twenty thousand or so, we can reach out to the ones with serious money. Like from Knoxville or Nashville or even well beyond. Anybody that wants to do something different and to get away, this will have a huge appeal. Once things settle down I'm going to put a little more into the house so it won't look out of scale to our fun barn. We could easily come away with over two hundred thousand in profit."

"My god, that's a lot of money."

"Now that's that, but let's move on." I took her hand and led her over to the throne and she sat down. I knelt in front of her and looked up at her as I smiled and slipped her shoes off before I put the pillow under her feet. Then I knelt in front of her and took her hands in mine and told her, "I told you the last time something to the effect that I care for you so very much, but I wasn't being very truthful to you or honest with myself. I don't care for you honey. I worship you. I love you Ellie. I love you so very much." I really didn't expect her to cry, because I didn't see her as one that would do that, but she sat there with tears slipping down her cheeks and a smile blooming on her face as she pulled my hands.

I stood up and we came together in a firm embrace and I kissed her neck as she told me, "I love you too Ben." I moved back so she could see my smile and then we sealed our proclamation with a long tender kiss.

Her eyes were dancing and my heart was racing as I grinned like a fool, but this was our moment. There was no world beyond the two of us.

"Ben," she finally said, "That was so sweet and so hokey and I loved every second of it."

"I knew that chair had a very important role to play in our lives. Now I'm going to have Collin build a fancy platform to raise the chair up, and below it will be a low attached kneeling bench. I just have to come up with a crown to hang on the chair and a scepter with a fancy head piece."

"But the chair is leather. Okay so a large swathe of red velvet draped on the chair."

"Yes, perfect. Damn it's fun working with you honey. We can find all of those things on line."

She hugged me again and said, "My head has been spinning since the day I met you."

"I hope you don't crash when things settle down to something approaching a normal life."

"I can't wait for that to happen."

Chapter Fifteen

The next week was full of stress. Busy as hell at work and I had a lot on my mind about the farm. I found the scepter and crown and somebody to sew a simple oversized lap throw of red velvet for the throne. But seemingly little things like those items were eating at my days. It was now past the first of October, but Collin was confident that as long as I didn't add more things for him to do, he'd be done by the twentieth. Buddy called me late Friday and said, "I have a couple of things to share with you if you're headed this way."

"I'm about half an hour out, can I meet you there?"

"I'm on my way back to the office myself to sign out for the day. Meet you there as soon as I can make it."

"Great, thanks Buddy."

Once again Ellie was waiting for me and she met me outside. Come with me honey," and before I could say anything she was pulling me toward the barn. "I was going to wait for you to go look, but I didn't quite make it."

As soon as we hit the top steps I saw it. "Oh damn the TV and seating came."

"About three according to Collin. It's huge isn't it."

"It is, but now I have to get satellite installed so we can see it in action."

"I did that for us honey. I called Monday and they were here yesterday. I had to bring my small TV from home so they could test it."

"You are so awesome baby. Oh, and Buddy will be here any minute. He says he has a little information for us."

"I hope it's good because nothing seems to be changing at all about the murders. We'll have to wait until later to test the seating and the TV." The sound of Buddy pulling in filtered up to us through the open barn door so we went down to meet him.

Ellie and I waved and she told Buddy, "Let's go inside and I'll get us something cold to drink."

"Thanks Ellie, but I can't stay but a minute. It's best if I'm not around here too much right now. Okay, first I've found the farm equipment."

"So soon?" I asked him.

"I got lucky I guess. I tried to think where it might be. Sold and hauled off after they went missing? That would have been pretty risky. So where? It was farming equipment, so nobody but a farmer would want to risk having all of that stuff. Well the nearest farmer would be Noah so I went to see him, and I made sure he saw my squad car and of course I was in uniform. We chatted for a minute and then I asked him straight up what he knew about the missing farm machinery. Damn did his face turn red. He mumbled and stuttered and then said he was storing it in his back barn and he'd forgotten all about it. Well his story about just storing it didn't hold water at all. I'm still working on how he came to get it in the first place. I told him that if he'd keep quiet and not talk about it even to Ennis, I'd cut him some slack, but before long all of that had to come back here and I'd be in touch with him. Well needless to say, I got his attention. Okay, that's the good news. Now the bad is, there's a chance that not all the drugs have been found."

"Oh no," Ellie said and her hand went to her mouth. "So what happens now?"

"I'm not sure Ellie. I was lucky to come by that information. There is more information, but I really can't share that part. I'm not even supposed to know anything about that."

"But will somebody come back for the other drugs?"

"Can't say. Depends on what it is, how much there is and what it's worth. If it's worth a lot you can bet that somebody that knows about it will try to get it. Just keep your doors locked and your alarm set."

"We'll do that," I told him and then added, "Just between us and you Buddy, I carry a nine millimeter, and yes I'm licensed and know how to use it."

"For self defense only Ben or you'll be in a whole peck of trouble."

"I know, but thanks anyway. I couldn't care less about the drugs, but if for any reason I feel either of us is threatened, I won't hesitate to use it."

"I can appreciate that. This whole thing is just going from bad to worse, and depending on how the investigators handle all of this, things could start to move faster pretty soon."

Ellie tipped her head back and closed her eyes as she said, "Damn it, I just want all of this over with."

I put my arm around her and pulled her to me as I said, "Thanks for trusting us Buddy. If we learn of anything we'll get to you right away."

"Appreciate that."

"You know, I just remembered that Detective Unger said he'd get back to us about what they found in that trench and he never did. If you were just happen to talk to him, ask him to contact me."

Buddy smiled and said, "I just might do that, even as early as tomorrow. Ya 'all take care now."

Buddy took a lot of the fire out of us with his news. We were both curious about the new TV arrangement in the loft, but not enough to go back out there right then. I'd forgotten about the security system guy, so he was the next one to pop into our lives for half an hour. By then we were starved, so we drove into Sparta and bought dinner at Wendy's and went back to the house to eat.

We were both worn out from long days at work and from the stress of everything that was going on in our lives, both good and bad. As had become our routine, we headed down the hall to go to bed, but when she stopped at her room I put my arm around her and pulled her toward my bedroom. "Oh honey I..."

I kissed her and said, "I want to talk to you and just be next to you. We're both tired."

She did smile as she said, "Neither of us is so tired that we would behave, and we could talk tomorrow."

"It seems that I remember that time with us lying next to each other for some time and just talking."

"I remember too, but..." and then she put her arm around me before she stepped toward my bedroom. As soon as we were near the bed I reached for her top and her hands went to mine. We smiled at each other and she said, "I don't need to be undressed for us to talk honey."

"But what if we fall asleep? We don't want to sleep in our clothes. Besides, watch this," and I closed my eyes. "I won't even look," and I found the bottom of her pullover with ease and started to pull it up. I felt no hands to stop me so I continued and pulled it over her head and then reached for her shorts.

"Are you looking?"

"My eyes are closed," and to prove it I fumbled with the hook and zipper before I could coax them down over her hips and I felt them drop to the floor. I could picture here standing there in her bra and panties and it was too much. As I reached around her to unfasten her bra I opened my eyes just as I kissed her. We melted into each other's arms. I did manage to get her bra off and explore her breasts as our kiss continued. Everything after that happened much faster. I helped her out of her panties and she undressed me.

What talking we did for the next period of time consisted of words of love and flattery and words of encouragement, but when Ellie spoke she simply said, "Liar."

"What?"

"You said we would talk."

"And we are and we will. But what we just shared was far more important and it was far too long in coming."

"Yeah, well neither of us were too long in coming."

I laughed and said, "You surprise me."

"Good. I don't want you to get too comfortable or complacent. I have to keep you on your toes. Now what did you want to talk about, or was that just to get me in your bed?"

"In our bed honey. Don't you think it's time for you to claim your half of our bed?"

"Yes I do."

"Okay so I'd like you to think about moving out here as soon as we think it's safe enough for you."

"I assume you mean as in permanently."

"That's right. Then you can use the money you pay for your place and buy me nice presents."

She laughed and said, "You are unbelievable. You just screwed my brains out and you want a present too?"

"It was just a thought. Each time you come out, you bring things that you don't have to have at your place. Then when it's time for you to move it will be very easy to do."

"You're pretty clever, but then you are a con man. Okay hustler, I'll start moving my non essentials out here little by little."

Chapter Sixteen

I fully expected the next week to be uneventful because that seemed to be the new pattern of my life. But Monday morning while I was having coffee, Hugh called me. "Holy shit Ben, you were on the news here."

"You must be joking."