Thor's Child ©
by K Pelle
Chapter 23
"Tor, don't even think about going down that ladder!" Tor's Aunt Hanna barked as she glared at him. "Instead I want you to go phone your buddy, the cop and tell him what we found. We're going to close this up for now and let the RCMP investigate whatever is down there."
"In all honesty, I really don't want to go down there either," Tor sighed. "I'm a bit leery of what I might find."
"Ollie, you and Nils need to close that trapdoor for now. It's stinking up the house and you can easily open it again once the RCMP get here," Tor's mom said sharply. "Tor, go make that phone call and get McDonald down here as quick as you can."
So Tor called Officer McDonald again and explained what they'd found.
"Well that explains why Cratz and Falconer were going in there with chainsaws," Officer McDonald said quietly. "You say you've closed it up again?"
"Yeah, it was stinking up the place. It smells sort of musty."
"No vile or rotten odours?"
"Nope, not really, and I'm curious about that, but I'd rather your lot were the first ones to go down there anyway."
"Hmph, it's probably a wine cellar or something that Burns did as a way of showing off. You know, something rigged up fancy to impress people from Hollywood. For all we know it might even have been something he had built to use in a movie. Anyway, we're almost ready to leave here, but we do have to stop at 'the Loops' along the way, still we should be there by three o'clock or so."
"Okay, Coach, and thanks," Tor sighed.
"No problem, Tor, but I do have to say one thing. Please, no more surprises today, okay?"
"Okay, Coach. I'll do my best to stay away from anything controversial. We'll see you when you get here."
"Right, so long for now," and Tor was suddenly listening to a dead phone line.
He turned to the room and saw all six faces looking at him, so he managed a weak grin. "Coach thinks that hole is either an unfinished wine cellar, or a prop for a movie. When I told him we didn't smell anything rotten down there, he seemed to lose interest in the whole thing."
"Well, that's good," Aunt Hanna managed a smile. "Now I can't show off the house the way I wanted to, but we can still look around, but Tor, please don't push any more hidden levers or anything like that."
"Da poykin undt I seen dis house from top ta bottom yesterday vhen vee vas helpin' da RCMP ta look fer anyting Burns mighta left behindt," Uncle Nils said quietly. "Aye don't know 'bout him, but Aye am going outsidte fer some sunshine undt fresh air."
"Well, we have some frozen meat and things in our truck that need to go down to Tor's house, so shouldn't we hold off on the tour of your house for now, Hanna?" Tor's mom asked quietly.
"Oh, I have some things in my car that need refrigeration too," Aunt Hanna frowned. "Well, we can still look this house over quickly, then we can move our groceries into the cabin kitchen. After that I want to see this house Tor is moving into as well."
"Okay, but we need to be back here before three o'clock to meet the RCMP," Tor added.
"Aye vill stay here, yust in case dhey get here early," Uncle Nils stated firmly. "Aye seen Tor's house yesterday anyhow, undt Aye tink it is nicer dhan de liddle cabin. It iss bigger undt it iss right vhere Tor needs to be, near da ranch undt vhere he can vurk vit da horses qvite eesily."
Tor noticed that Uncle Nils' comments brought a slight frown to Aunt Hanna's face and a touch of a smile to his mom's, but that didn't really concern him one way or the other. Instead he took Dori's hand and headed for Aunt Hanna's car, finding that the back seat was packed full.
"How much of this is yours?" he asked Dori.
"None of it, this is all your aunt and uncle's stuff. Mine is in your dad's truck with your things, like your saddle and riding gear, along with a bunch of other stuff. Oh and your dad insisted on bringing your dog even though your mom argued about the idea, but he said you used your dog for herding cattle and training horses so he said you'd need him."
"Yeah, I asked him to bring Ghost down. They have dogs here, but only hounds that they use them to hunt cougars and other predators in the winter. They don't have any cattle dogs. I figure that's a crying shame, since a trained dog makes herding or sorting cattle so much easier."
As they'd been talking, they'd each grabbed an armful of boxes and bags, then carried them inside and set them on the table in the little breakfast nook of the small cabin.
"I don't know where these things go, do you?" Tor asked.
"Nope, it was all in the car when Hanna got to our place, but by then we'd loaded all of my stuff in your dad's truck, so I just hopped in with her and we drove down," Dori grinned. "Mom insisted on riding with your folks, probably so they could talk about the two of us on the way."
"Probably," Tor winked at her, then they headed back to the car for a second load, but by the time they got there everyone else had loads as well, so there was nothing left to take inside.
Tor's dad came back outside right away and waved a come-on sign, so they piled into his pickup and headed over to the ranch.
"Nils tells me that you impressed the men who work on the ranch last night, Tor," he commented.
"I wasn't trying to, instead they should be impressed with the way Dawn has kept the ranch's records. She has everything on the computer, so I could see which animals were losing money at a glance. I thought getting rid of the cattle that weren't doing well and replacing them with polled Shorthorns made sense because they seem to do well here, so I suggested it," Tor chuckled. "I think that impressed them because they've wanted to do it for as long as Burns was here, but he didn't want them to make any changes."
"I can't understand that man. It just doesn't make any sense that he'd be so stubborn over something so simple. Why waste money on cattle that weren't doing well?"
"Dad, I haven't seen one thing that guy did that does make sense. Everything I've heard about him is just plain weird."
"Well if that hole in the floor of Hanna's new house is any example, I think I agree with you. Actually I was surprised that you gave in to Hanna so easily. I was expecting you to put up an argument and want to go down the hole to investigate."
"Oh, I did want to look down there in one way, but it's Aunt Hanna's house, not mine, so I'll go by her rules when I'm there. Besides, if there's anything down there that might convict that idiot, I want the cops to be the ones who find it."
"So you're keeping your nose clean with regard to Hanna's house, but what will you say if she or your mom try to throw their weight around at your new house?"
"Dad, I think you know the answer to that question without even asking," Tor said quietly. "So far I like things in that house just the way they are, but Dori may have different opinions and I'll willingly listen to her ideas. In other words we might make some changes, but it's going to be our mutual decision, not anyone else's whim."
"In other words you're declaring your ownership."
"Yep! I'll listen to reasonable suggestions, but if Dori and I don't agree with them, forget it!"
"Oh, I love it," his dad laughed softly.
"Don't get me wrong, Dad. I'm not turning down advice from the family, but I'm not about to be swayed by anyone's whimsical ideas, especially if they don't agree with what Dori and I want. Donald and Eric are going to be my primary advisors concerning the ranch and the stock, simply because they've been here so long and know the ranch inside and out. You and Uncle Nils come a close second for advice on that, just because both of you are so successful as ranchers and farmers, but the house is a different kettle of fish. Dori is my prime advisor on that score, simply because I think we're going to remain a couple for the long term, and because of that I'm regarding that house as ours. We have to agree on what we do to it, and we'll talk things over - if and when we decide that changes need to be made," Tor smiled at her as Dori grabbed his hand and squeezed it tightly.
"You're definitely that serious about each other, already?"
"Yes, Dad. We have yet to find anything we disagree on, at least not to the point of arguing about it. In fact we seem to think like each other in most ways, if you take into account that she's definitely female and I'm definitely not."
"Well, we're here, so let's have a look at this house of yours," his dad said as he pulled up near the gate to Tor's 'new' house.
"Yeah, I'll get Ghost out of his cage, but the door to the house is unlocked, Dori, so you can go right in and have a look around."
"You're not going to be long getting Ghost, so I'll wait," she winked at him. "By the way, is Ghost house trained? If he is, I don't mind having a dog in the house."
"I don't think that's a good idea," Tor shook his head, but grinned. "He's a working dog and he gets a little rank at times because he can't take off his coat and boots before he comes inside. Instead he'll have the run of our yard and he can sleep on the porch, just like he does at home."
"Well, we need to get some of the food inside, because there's some frozen stuff in two of the boxes," she paused at the back of the truck. "If you get Ghost and his carrier out of the way, I can get at the things I want to take inside first."
"I can help with that," Tor's dad offered.
It was a bit of a circus, but in only minutes the three humans were trooping into the house, while Ghost was exploring his new yard and marking it, as only a male dog will do. Tor watched Dori's face as she walked inside and was happy to see the smile on her face as she looked around. Her smile became a wide grin when she saw the kitchen.
"Oh, look at this!" her eyes danced from place to place. "I love this kitchen. And look, wainscotting on the walls by the kitchen table, with a chair rail, so there won't be any chair marks on the walls. I know that's old fashioned, but it's something I really like."
"I don't think Olga or Hanna will care for it much. I'll bet they say it's too old fashioned and try to talk you into changing it," Tor's dad winked at him.
"Tor already told you, this ain't their house," Dori grunted as she shifted a box to the counter near the fridge and opened the fridge door. "Hey, there's milk, cream and eggs in here already, and there's even meat in the freezer compartment."
"Well, this is a ranch, so we do produce food here," Tor teased, "I'll bet either Dawn or Tami brought that over, just so you'd have something to cook for our breakfast tomorrow. Now, you and Dad should go look over the rest of the house, and while you're doing that, I'll put the food away."
"Let me do that, Tor. You should show Dori the house," his dad winked at him.
Both Dori and Tor liked that idea, so Tor showed Dori the whole house. Other than rearranging some of the furniture and changing a few pictures on the walls, Dori loved the place. The decoration had an 'old fashioned, country' feel to it that she found comforting.
"It reminds me of our old house in California," she sighed softly as they stood in the living room. "Mom won't like it much, but Dad will love it."
"Well, here come our folks," Tor motioned toward the car pulling up behind his dad's pickup truck. "We'll find out what they think in a minute."
"Huh, I'll handle them," Dori headed for the door. "While I do that, why don't you and your dad unload more of our things out of the truck."
As a result Tor wasn't witness to the discussion which broke out as soon as the three older women entered the house. However when he did step inside with two boxes and a suitcase, his Mom caught his eye and winked at him, so he knew something had happened. He never said a word, just set his load down near the entrance and went back outside just in time to see Ghost greet Dawn as she came over.
"You might want to wait out here for a few minutes," he grinned at her. "Dori is inside, but she's dealing with my mom, my aunt and her mother. I suspect that she's establishing that this is our house, not theirs and that any changes to be made to it will be done to our wishes, not anyone else's."
"I see. Nice dog, by the way. What breed is he?" Dawn smiled at him as Ghost did his best to wash her arm while she was petting him.
"He's mostly a long-haired Weimaraner and I think the breed was intended to be some sort of hunting dog, but I've trained him to work with cattle and help me train horses."
"Excuse me, did you say he helps you to train horses?" she frowned at Tor.
"Unh huh, I did," Tor grinned. "He helps me to train colts to lead and he's also good at helping me when I'm training horses to neck-rein and work cattle. I can guide what he does with a whistle and he loves to work, which is why he's so good with both cattle and horses. Not only that, but he seldom barks, only when he feels he needs to get my attention for something important."
"Well, I did notice that he didn't come out of the yard to greet me when I came over, even though the gate was wide open."
"Oh, he obeys well. I led him inside the gate and walked him around a bit before letting him run free, then stopped him at the gate, so he knows this is his yard. If I wanted him to come to me when I was outside of the yard though, I'd just need to call or whistle. He can easily jump over that fence if he wants to, so it's only a barrier because of his training."
Just then Tor's dad came back out of the house with a wide grin on his face, but Tor never questioned that, instead he introduced Dawn and explained who they each were. Seconds later his mom and his aunt came out of the house, so Tor introduced Dawn to each of them. A moment later they scooped up the last of his and Dori's possessions and when everyone went inside, he was able to introduce Dawn to Dori and her mom as well. While all of the women congregated in the kitchen area for a chat, Tor looked at his dad, then motioned toward the door and they slipped outside.
"I think it's time to let the dust settle a little bit, Dad," Tor grinned. "Want to go for a brief tour of the corrals and barns?"
"Sure," his dad grinned. "From what I heard in there, the house could easily turn into a war zone for a while and I'd rather not be involved."
"Yeah, Dori and her mom are both opinionated. Usually they seem to get along fine, but right now they seem to be disagreeing about something to do with the house. I may have fuelled the fire by telling Dori her opinion was the only one I counted when it came to changes around the house," Tor sighed softly.
"Well, for what it's worth, I think you're darn smart to keep out of that discussion," His dad grinned and clapped a hand to his shoulder. "But, while they're busy, why don't you show me around? I'd like to see these animals you were talking about."
So Tor and his dad took Ghost along, then walked down to the barns and corrals to have a look around. By two in the afternoon they were back at house though and arrived just in time to have a coffee with the women of the family. After a leisurely break they all climbed back into the vehicles and headed back up the hill so they could be there when the police arrived.
When the police showed up, Officer McDonald asked everyone but Tor and his Uncle Nils to stay out of the main house for the time being, which didn't go over very well with Tor's Aunt Hanna. However when Officer McDonald explained that it was simply because he wanted to keep any noises to a minimum so the CSIS people could use some equipment that worked with sound, she grudgingly agreed to stay back. Actually Tor and his uncle were only inside long enough to show the police officers how to open the trap door before they were asked to step outside as well.
"Now, yust vait vun minute dhere," Uncle Nils protested. "Dhis iss my house undt Aye vant to see vhat is hid avay underneat it."
"Nils, right now we're worried that there might be a booby-trap, or something of that sort down there, but once we make sure it's safe, I promise I'll show you everything we find down there. Okay?" Officer McDonald said quietly.
Uncle Nils and Aunt Hanna argued about that, but Tor didn't. He wasn't sure why, but something about that gapping hole in the floor was creeping him out and he didn't want to have anything to do with it. As a result he was quite willing to go back down to his ranch and work around the buildings, corrals and pastures with his dad. Donald, Jimmy and Tommy were still hauling bales from the upper field, but Eric joined Tor and his dad down at the cattle pens. With the help of Ghost, they soon had the two dozen cattle that they were planning to sell separated from the seventeen they were keeping. Even then Tor looked at those they'd saved back and shook his head.
"Eric, I was wondering if you'd know which of the eight beef cows we kept back had calves last year?"
"Well, I'd have to check their tattoos to be certain, but I wouldn't say the other four wouldn't have had calves if we'd had a bull when they came into season."
"Yeah, I wondered about that. Some cows just don't take when you use AI."
"Well, it sure wasn't our first choice, but after we lost the bull, Happy Harry insisted we use AI since he didn't want to pay a decent amount for a bull."
"Pardon my asking, but how the heck did you lose a bull?" Tor's dad asked.
"Oh, we didn't lose him because the bull ran off or anything. We had to shoot the poor bloody animal after Happy Harry and his Hollywood yahoos decided to get drunk and try bull riding one night. You must have seen how Burns dresses like a dime-store cowboy, haven't you? Well early last year he had some other Hollywood cowboy pretenders visiting him, but the bunch of them got drunk, then staggered down here just before dark and tried to ride the bull. We'd finished chores and were inside eating when we heard the ruckus, but by the time we got out here it was too late.
"Now that bull was old and tame as hell, so even though there was one guy sitting on his back and a bunch of arseholes poking, and prodding, and yelling at him, he wasn't bucking. Then one smart ass walked up to the bull's hind end, lifted his tail and kicked him right in the knackers. That sure got him moving. He scattered that bunch like they were flies, then chased the whole bunch of them around the bullpen, flinging them around like they were little dolls. In the long run the bull put one of them in the hospital by running him into the fence, but he busted his front leg doing it, so Harry hauled out a .357 Magnum revolver and shot the bull. He didn't kill the bull, but the recoil of that monster gun busted his wrist. Not only that, but he ended up in trouble with the cops for having an illegal and unregistered weapon, as well as shooting it in an unsafe situation. He lost the pistol and we lost the bull, because his shot took out the bull's eye and lodged in his brain somewhere, which drove him nuts. Between that and the busted leg, we had to have the bull put down," Eric frowned deeply. "Then that stupid pipsqueak wouldn't buy another bull and told us to use AI, but we're so far from town that by the time we call the vet and he gets out here, the cow is often out of season. So we only had four cows catch after they were bred last year and those four calves are the result."
"What a dork!" Tor shook his head. "I suppose he even tried to blame you folks for the trouble he caused, didn't he?"
"Yeah, for five whole years we couldn't do one damn thing right," Eric nodded. "We survived him, but I don't know how much longer we'd have been able to take his bullshit. Both Donald and I were talking about moving on, until yesterday."
"Oh, please don't even think about moving on," Tor said quietly. "I'm counting on you folks, Eric. I need you and Donald and your families to help me get this ranch back on track."
He went on to explain that he wanted to develop a horse ranch that specialized in raising riding horses that would be sold after they were fully trained. At the same time he wanted the ranch to be as self-sufficient as possible, while attempting to keep profits relatively high and costs relatively low. He went on to praise them on what they had done to keep the ranch operating at a minor profit over the last few years, but explained that he'd be investing as much as he could to improve the situation.
"I've still got several years of schooling ahead of me and since I can't be here all the time, I'll need someone here who can do just what you folks have been doing, but with a little help," Tor said seriously. "I plan to do whatever I can to make it easy for all of us and I'll do my best not to be an asshole like Burns was."
He planned to say more about what he wanted to do, but Dori came running up to say that Hanna had called and told her that Tor and his dad were needed up at the log house. When they all got there, they found that Hanna was extremely angry, but they never had a chance to talk to her because Officer McDonald took Tor and his dad aside and explained the reason for her anger.
Harold Burns must have wanted to hide the modifications he'd made to the house, so he had rigged a timer to an incendiary device and had set it to burn the house down some time after he'd left. What he hadn't counted on was a hungry squirrel that had gotten into the basement under the house. The squirrel had gnawed through the wires leading to the timing device and had been electrocuted, but in the process he'd broken the circuit, interfered with the timer and saved the house.
"Why would Burns want to burn down the house?" Tor demanded.
"Well, amongst other things, Mr. Burns appears to have been a voyeur," Officer McDonald said quietly. "There is a room in the basement full of commercial video recorders and stacks of video tapes. The video recorders are connected by cables to video cameras that are hidden in the walls of all the bedrooms. If you look in the bedrooms you'll see that all the inner walls have a knotty pine trim board where the wall meets the ceiling. We assumed that the trim board was there because log walls gradually shrink and settle, so there has to be a shrinkage space allowed on the top of any of the regular walls. Only Burns hid video cameras inside the walls and disguised the lenses of the cameras and microphones behind the knots in the knotty pine boards."
"Okay, why is Aunt Hanna so angry? The house is still here and it isn't as if she's been video taped or anything. Heck. she hasn't even slept in any of the bedrooms."
"Well unfortunately, we're going to have to remove all of the cameras and recorders and so on, which is going to take a few days," Officer McDonald sighed. "Not only that, but we're going to have to go through the house with a fine tooth comb to see what else is hidden here, which means she can't move into the house for now."
"Well, can't she move into the smaller cabin while you're working on the main house?"
"Unfortunately there are video cameras and microphones hidden in the small cabin as well. We're going to need to pull off all those trim boards and get into all the walls to be sure we remove everything."
"Wait a minute!" Tor frowned. "I'd be willing to bet that the cameras aren't built into the walls because video cameras are still quite new and aren't all that reliable. They haven't been around long enough for the manufacturers to work out all the bugs that plague new equipment. There has to be an easy way to get at the cameras to replace any that break down, and in this case it would probably be from the attic."
"Oh, I never thought of that, but I think the tape recorders are commercial versions, so I'll bet the cameras are too. They'd be a lot more reliable."
"Well, haven't you looked at the cameras and seen where they're mounted?" Tor's dad frowned.
"We simply haven't had time for that yet."
"Now, just hold on!" Tor snorted. "You haven't even checked to see if you can get at the cameras without doing damage, yet you're chasing Aunt Hanna out of her new house? You sound almost as bad as those assholes who were here yesterday with their chainsaws."
"Have you even been up in the attic to see what you find there?" Tor's dad asked.
"Well, no. We've been concentrating on the cellar and the information that we found down there, but we do know we have views of all the bedrooms, multiple views for some of them."
"Well, if you tear out all the trim boards in Hanna's new house and she finds out you didn't have to do it, there will be hell to pay," Tor's dad pronounced in a firm tone. "She'll hire a lawyer and have him serve you with a lawsuit if you cause unnecessary damage."
"Well unfortunately we haven't been able to discover an access to the attic, so the only option we seem to have is to remove the trim strips near the ceilings in the bedrooms."
"Oh for crying in the sink! There's a ladder and a trapdoor in the ceiling of a closet in the upstairs hallway. It's inside the linen closet next to one of the bathrooms," Tor said in disgust. "One of the officers who was here yesterday pointed it out to me when we were moving furniture and carpets around for you."
"Would you show me that, if you don't mind?" McDonald wheeled and headed for the front door.
Tor and his dad followed him, then went up the stairs to the second floor and Tor opened a door in the hallway, then pointed to the ceiling of the closet. "There are shelves full of linens in the way now, but if you look at the upper part of the back wall, there's a ladder right there and if you look at the ceiling, you can see the trap door. There's even a switch on the wall up by the trap door, so I'll bet there are lights up in the attic to make it easier for you."
Officer McDonald just looked in the closet, then shook his head and headed back downstairs.
"Come on, you two might as well have a look at what we found in the cellar," he said over his shoulder. "This setup is just about unbelievable and we could use some help, so since you seem to have some idea of what to look for, you're drafted. I'm going to trust you not to do anything unless you're asked to help and don't spread word about any details of what you see to others. We know you'll have to tell your family about the general setup, but details are what we use to catch and convict criminals, so don't gossip about those, okay?"
Tor and his dad readily agreed to that, then followed him to the basement. The first thing Tor noticed was that the air no longer smelled musty.
"Well, you've sure improved the smell down here," he commented.
"Yeah, well we opened the back door first, then we got rid of the carcass of the dead squirrel and finally we turned on the ventilation system," McDonald shrugged.
"Back door? What back door?" Tor's dad asked.
"Oh, that was disguised as a set of shelves that appeared to be hung on the wall in the breezeway between the buildings. The whole set of shelves is just a doorway that swings aside and leaves an opening to a set of stairs coming down here," McDonald pointed down a hallway to a set of stairs leading upward. "The dead bolt that locked it from the outside was hidden behind a fake plugin."
"Holy cripes," Tor snorted in disbelief. "Talk about a 'Hollywood haunted house' setup, this takes the cake."
"Yeah, well don't throw any switches or pull any levers down here, please. We took out the dead squirrel and the firebomb, but we aren't positive that Burns didn't leave any other booby-traps behind when he bailed out. Actually we have one man still doing nothing else, but checking for hidden switches and booby-traps and he's been doing that ever since we came down here. Burns had that back door wired to the fire bomb, so if you'd found that hidden door and had come in that way, it would have exploded," McDonald frowned at Tor. "Now you might as well see the whole setup. First off, you'll notice that this hallway stretches from the stairs you found to the stairs that lead out to the breezeway and there are rooms off both sides of the hallway. You can look into this first room, but please don't go inside. The men in there have a system set up to pack up all the tapes we've found and I don't want to disturb their concentration."
Tor and his dad looked in the doorway and simply stared. The place looked like a recording studio or something of that sort. There were racks of video recorders, television screens and a huge switchboard along the wall facing them, then on the end walls and the wall on the hallway side, there were shelf after shelf of video tapes. Three men were carefully removing tapes from the shelves, checking individual labels, then packaging them in large cardboard boxes. A fourth man was sitting in a rolling chair in front of the big switchboard, watching a video screen and obviously controlling the various cameras that were spread throughout the two houses. He glanced up and scowled at Tor and his dad, but then he must have seen Officer McDonald behind them, because he quickly turned back to what he had been doing.
"I take it they're removing everything from this room then?" Tor's dad asked quietly.
"Yes, we'll take it all back to Eagles Bluff and go through everything to see what we can discover," McDonald answered, then as Tor turned to face him as well, he gestured to a doorway across the hallway. "That door leads to a full bathroom and the door down the hallway opens onto an apartment of sorts. We think that Burns must have had someone stay down here whenever he had guests in the house so that he could have tapes of everything that went on in both buildings."
"Why would he want to secretly tape what people were doing all the time? Do you think he was blackmailing them?" Tor asked.
"Could be, or maybe he's just a voyeur. Until we spend some time going over the video tapes, we won't know much. Whatever he was doing, he was breaking the law if he was making video tapes of people when they weren't aware of the fact that they were being filmed. Even though those people were in his house, they still have the right to privacy."
Just then the man who'd been fiddling with the big switchboard came to the door. "Excuse me, sir, but I've isolated all the camera leads from the smaller residence the way you asked. Do you want me to remove those leads from the switchboard now?"
"Do you have an approximate location for the cameras that give coverage of each room?" McDonald asked quickly.
"Yes sir, I've triangulated their locations on the floor plan and I'm certain that each of them is positioned in an area over either a closet or a bathroom. I checked ceiling heights too and there is an eight-inch discrepancy - closets and bathroom have ceilings which are lower than the rooms and hallways. All those ceilings appear to be solid though, so I think any access to the cameras must be from the attic, at least in the case of the smaller residence."
"Okay, in that case I'd like you to disconnect all the leads to the cameras in the smaller building and we'll go see if we can find an access to that attic. If possible, I'd like to remove the cameras from that second building as soon as possible. Perhaps we can defuse Mrs Eklund's anger if we allow her family to have access to that building by tonight."
Tor knew that might ease her anger, but he knew she wasn't really angry at the police for telling her she couldn't stay in her new house. Mainly her anger was with Harold Burns for having sold her the property, but then trying to arrange to burn it to the ground before she could take possession of the place. Tor wasn't happy about that himself.
Actually when he considered that several of his family members could have been killed in the resulting fire, he became furious, but it was a controlled fury. There was nothing he could do about it right at the moment, but what he could do was assist the police and try to either calm his family or at least redirect their anger where it could do some good. First of all he needed to talk to Aunt Hanna, so as soon as possible, he excused himself and went to find her.
"Well, what did you see down there?" Aunt Hanna asked as soon as he approached her.
"Mostly I saw evidence that Burns is insane!" he snapped. "There must be thirty or forty video recorders down in that basement and they're all rigged up to record anything happening in both houses. Who knows where all the cameras are hidden? The police are going to have to go through both buildings from top to bottom to find all the crap that sick bastard has hidden away in there. After hearing about the firebomb he left behind, I just hope none of the other things he has hidden away in there are booby-trapped so they don't get hurt trying to do their job. Right now I don't blame the cops for clearing us out, because once we got down the basement and saw what was there, I wasn't sure what I could touch or what I couldn't. What if that crazy bugger has another firebomb hidden away in there?"
"So you don't think it would be safe for us to stay in the smaller cabin tonight?" Aunt Hanna asked.
"You can if you feel brave, but I'm sleeping in my house tonight. I won't feel safe in your new house until the police have gone through the darn place from top to bottom and checked the whole thing for bombs and booby-traps."
"I agree with Tor," his dad said as he came up to them. "I'm going home tonight, but I'll be back tomorrow."
"Aye vill do da same, undt Aye tink mebee you shouldt come too, Hanna," Uncle Nils said quietly. "Aye tink da poleese needt us oudt uff dheir vay so dhey can do dheir yob."
Everyone, but Tor and Dori left not long after that, and even they started to walk back down to the ranch buildings. They hadn't gone far before Officer McDonald came outside and called out to them, so they walked back.
"Pardon me, Tor, but how did you get everyone to leave so soon?" he asked as he met them.
"He told them he thought Burns was a nut and that he might have left another surprise or two behind. I don't blame him either. If Burns would set up a firebomb and try to destroy the house, there's no telling what else he might have done," Dori snapped back. "I'm not happy with you right now, either. You encouraged Tor and his dad to go in there, even though I'll bet you're not absolutely certain that you've found all of Burns booby-traps, are you?"
"Not a hundred percent certain, no, but I'm almost sure we've found what he had planned to have happen," Officer McDonald smiled at her. "Then Tor showed us things our men had missed, so besides thanking him for getting his aunt off my back, I wanted to thank him for that."
"No problem," Tor shrugged his shoulders. "We're going to leave you and your men to it, but if you want us for any reason, Dori and I will be down at the ranch. Our house is the one off by itself, looking down onto the ranch buildings."
"Well, I doubt if we'll be able to finish this job tonight, but we don't have room in our vehicles to haul away all the volume of the items we'll be confiscating either, so we'll have to come back in the morning. Your aunt left us the makings for sandwiches and coffee, so we plan to stay late, but I'll be leaving a couple of men here as guards to be certain that there are no problems overnight," Officer McDonald sighed heavily. "Tomorrow is when the boring portion of the job starts. After we get all those tapes back to Eagles Bluff we'll have to go through each of them and see what we find. I have no idea what we'll discover, since it will take hundreds of hours to view all of them. Just from the secretive way this setup was done though, I'm fairly positive Burns was a voyeur, so pay dirt may not be that hard to find."
"Well, you might want to talk to Dawn McClure and the rest of her family about that. Dawn was saying Burns used to watch the family when they went swimming, but he used to stare at her little sister more than her. Since Dawn is seventeen and could model for Playboy, while Sami is only about ten years old, I find that extremely weird," Dori scowled. "If that doesn't tell you something about the guy you're after, I don't know what would."
"I will have to do talk to them eventually," McDonald frowned. "The more I find out about that guy the more I think we may be opening up a can of worms, but don't say anything about my opinion to anyone else. Right now I could probably charge him with attempted arson and I might even be able to make a case for attempted murder, but I'm not certain of that. We have to try to operate on proof of guilt, not suspicion, so that means we have to investigate in depth and that isn't going to make Mrs Eklund happy because it takes time and she's acting impatient."
"Just tell her the truth and give her a reason to be angry at Burns, not you," Tor shrugged. "If you explain what you have to do and why you have to do it, she'll be a lot more cooperative. I agree with Dori that you should talk to the people living here fairly soon. The McClures and the Nordahls have lived here since before Burns bought the place, so they can give you a lot of background on the property and some info on Burns as well. Just ask them about their bull and what Burns did to it, because I understand the police got involved in that one."
"Yes, it might be an idea if I talk to them today," McDonald nodded. "Why don't I give you a ride down there right now, then you can introduce me to them and I'll take it from there?"
So Tor and Dori introduced Officer McDonald to the McClure and Nordahl families, then excused themselves and headed for their new house to put away all their possessions that had been brought there that day. Other than Ghost, who greeted them like long lost buddies, they never saw anyone else that evening, but they didn't mind that at all. After putting things away, then eating a meal that Dori prepared, they soon found other things to occupy their minds, as well as their bodies. As a result they thoroughly enjoyed being left alone that evening.
One outcome of that evenings activities that neither Tor nor Dori had anticipated was that their minds would join more completely than ever, especially during acts of intimacy. That gave each of them a much more thorough understanding of the other's views, but it didn't automatically mean they agreed on all issues. For instance they discovered that their mutually enthusiastic and energetic desires far outstripped both of their athletic abilities, but to Tor's chagrin, Dori recovered far sooner than he did. Then she delighted in goading him into further activities that left both of them mutually satisfied, but physically debilitated. Eventually however, sheer exhaustion lulled them both into somnolence, lethargy and finally = exhausted slumber.
Another instance of those physical disparities became quite clear the next morning, since Tor woke much earlier than Dori and couldn't resist the temptation of fondling Dori's gentle curves.
"Hi lover, what are you planning to do this morning?" he teased her awake as his hands caressed her soft form.
"You Fink, I was asleep," she complained, then moaned softly, "Go easy, that spot's tender today."
"Yeah, I felt that too," he seemed surprised, because it was her discomfort that he'd felt.
"So what? Lemme sleep s'more! We can play 'round later."
He knew Dori liked to sleep in and needed more sleep than he did, so Tor gave up teasing her. He got out of bed, dressed in a T-shirt and shorts, ate a quick snack and went outside to sit on the porch with a large glass of fruit juice. The next few minutes were the only major break he took that day and Tor spent that time by watching the sun rise, listening to the birds sing, looking at the scenery and petting his dog.
Juice drunk, he set down the glass and began his daily stretching routine and warmup, then he went for a run. The gate to the ranch was at least a half mile from his house and he raced there, then alternately jogged and sprinted as he returned to the house. Thoroughly warmed up by then, he moved on to a series of other exercises meant to both extend his respiration and tighten his muscles and followed that with a gradual period of easing back. Finally, after almost an hour of exertion, he headed back inside and put the coffee on, then took a shower and changed into regular clothing. After making and eating breakfast, then cleaning up his dishes, he went back to the bedroom and kissed Dori awake long enough to let her know he was going to work. Finally satisfied that he was ready for whatever came his way, he went outside to tackle his first full day as the owner of a working ranch.
Tor's work day started as he helped Donald and Eric put stock racks on both the farm's old two-ton truck and Donald's pickup. They loaded a dozen of the cattle they wanted to dispose of into the two trucks, then Donald and Eric headed to town and the cattle sale. Next Tor helped Dawn and the two McClure boys to clear the last of the bales from the hay field. They were almost done that job when Tor noticed the RCMP and CSIS officers arriving in two big vans and a police cruiser. He hadn't seen any sign of his uncle or aunt at that point, and he felt there should be one of the family there while Harold Burns' cameras and crud were removed, so he headed up to the log house.
Officer McDonald was there and greeted him warmly, but warned him that although they had worked late the night before, he didn't think they had found all the little secrets of the house yet. It was obvious that the buildings had been designed by someone with a penchant for voyeurism and a knowledge of camera work. Whoever it was had also kept maintenance of the equipment in mind as well. Cameras covering the second floor of the main building and the whole of the smaller cabin were hidden, but easily accessed via the attics of each building, but they hadn't found all of those in the main house before they gave up for the night. From the connections to the video recorders in the basement, they knew there were at least thirty-six cameras distributed throughout the two buildings. Four of those cameras had covered all the entrances, while six more were placed in the small cabin, but the police had found and removed all of those the previous evening. Another twenty cameras-covered views of the upstairs bedrooms of the main building and were accessible from the attic, so McDonald had two men working on removing those that morning.
At that point they hadn't found the six cameras which provided views of the main floor of the main house, but as he was talking to Tor, one of the CSIS men came up and showed them a plan that he had just discovered. It showed that the cameras viewing the main floor of the main building were accessible by opening removable sections of flooring in the closets on the second floor. They soon found those trap doors and before Tor's Aunt Hanna and Uncle Nils arrived an hour later, all the cameras in both buildings had been removed and loaded into the vans.
At that point Tor gladly left the job of observing the removal of Burns' video recording equipment with his aunt though. Uncle Nils had brought down the four horses he was going to keep on the acreage and Tor definitely wanted to be there when they were unloaded from the truck.
"Hey, I thought we agreed that we'd have Dag look over the animals on the ranch before we brought in any stock?" Tor protested as he climbed into the cab of his uncle's truck.
"Aye talked vit Dag, undt he calledt the vet vhat looks after dhis area. He said dhere vas no sickness in dhese animals when he vas here dhis mont vit da AI fer da vun cow."
"Oh, I never thought of that, in fact I noticed the payment for those visits on the records and saw it was for AI, so I guess I'm to blame for raising a red flag over nothing," Tor frowned.
"Yah, but better safe dhan sorry. Besides, Dag iss run off his feet, yust tryin' to catch oop to vhat needs doin' aroundt Eagles Bluff. Da oldt vet oop dhere vas not goodt," Uncle Nils frowned slightly. "Oh yah, vhile I tink off it, Ollie vants you to call him. He hass a tradte fer you to tink aboudt. Dhere iss a man vhat vill trade you dhat Arabian stallion fer a tree year oldt bull undt two bred heifers, all polledt Shorthorns too. Aye tink dhat iss a very goodt tradte fer you."
So they drove down to the ranch and Tor helped unload the horses, saddled them, then asked Dori, Dawn, Jimmy and Tommy to ride them up the hill to the acreage and put them in the little barn there. Needless to say they readily agreed, then once they rode off and his uncle had left, Tor went inside to call his dad, but his mom was the only one home when he called.
"Hello. This is the Eklund farm, Olga speaking. How can I help you?" she answered his call.
"Hi Mom. I was just making a quick call to let Dad know that if he thinks those cattle are a good deal to go for the trade for the Arabian stud."
"That's good, because your dad has already gone off to pick up the cattle," she chuckled. "He said they were good enough that he'd buy them and add them to our herd if you didn't want them. How are things going down there?"
"Busy!" Tor laughed. "We shipped off a dozen cattle this morning, then Officer McDonald and several men showed up to finish the job of confiscating all of Burns' video taping garbage. They'd just gotten started when Aunt Hanna drove up with another carload of her belongings, so she'll be on pins and needles for them to get done. Then Uncle Nils showed up with their horses, but now he's on his way back home to get a load of horses he's lending and selling to me. I feel like I'm in a windstorm and don't know what is going to be blown my way next, but I'm getting ready to duck anyway."
"Well then, I'll warn you that Jax and Keisha are on their way down there to deliver a gift for you and Dori, that way they won't take you by surprise." his mom chuckled.
"Oh great, what are they giving us, or is it a secret?"
"Oh, the gift they're bringing down isn't from them. It's from Wally Friedman, so I'm guessing it's some sort of old car or truck, maybe a tractor, but I don't know for sure. I do know that Jax has whatever it is loaded on his new tilt deck tow truck."
"Wally Friedman? Why would he send me a gift?"
"I think Jax said it was a belated birthday gift," she chuckled. "He said Wally told him you'd given him a birthday gift, so he owed you one in return. I understand he was out at the Friedman's wrecking yard getting parts for some car he's working on when he happened to mention you had made a trade of the lease for the ranch. That's when Wally got the idea to send you a gift that he thought you could use."
"I don't see why he'd feel he owed me anything, because I don't remember giving him anything except for an old coin, and that was a token payment for the wheels he gave me."
"Well, I think you impressed him and he's a very rich old man, who probably appreciated the thought you put into the act of giving him that old coin. Whatever the gift that he sent you happens to be, I'd say it was his try to repay you for thinking of him. Perhaps whatever he's giving you is symbolic, the same way that the coin was," Tor's mom paused for a second. "Now if you want me to call the Wilsons and get hold of your father, I'd better get off the phone."
"Oh, yeah, please do, and thanks Mom."
Tor had barely hung the phone up when it rang again, surprising him so much that he jumped slightly, but he picked it up quickly.
"Hello. Tula Ranch."
"Hello, this is Ollie Eklund and I'd like to talk to my son, Tor, please."
"Hi Dad, it's me. I just got off the phone to Mom. I was asking her to call you and tell you that the trade for the stallion sounds good to me if the cattle are worth having."
"Good, but I called because Jack Wilson has two older cows for sale as well, both polled Shorthorns and both bred to a decent bull. They're purebreds, but he doesn't have papers for the pair and they were bred early in the year. He doesn't want to screw around with winter calves though, so he's not asking much for them. I think his price is reasonable, so do you want a pair of older cows, one is four and the other is five, which means they still have several productive years to go."
"Well, are they good enough that you'd think about buying them for yourself?"
"Yeah, I would."
"Okay, I'll write you a cheque for them when you get here."
"Good enough, I'll see you in about two or three hours, so have that stallion ready to load," he hung up.
Tor just shook his head, then grinned, knowing that Donald and Eric were going to be surprised that things were changing so fast. He just hoped they'd be pleased as well. So he headed out to the corrals to move the Arabian into one of the small pens near the loading ramp to make it easy to load the stallion when his dad got there.
The Arabian was a good-looking horse and he wasn't hard to catch, so Tor soon had him fitted with his halter, then he led him into one of the two holding pens near the loading ramp. Since the horse had been cooperative, Tor went to one of the grain bins, got a small bucket and dipped out about half a gallon of rolled oats for him. As the stallion was gobbling down the rare treat, Tor took a curry comb to the stallion's rougher looking areas, occasionally making the stallion shiver with pleasure.
"You've got a lot of guts to be currying that rank bugger. He's chased several of us over the fence," Tor heard someone behind him say and recognised Jimmy's voice.
"Well, I'm not all that gutsy, but then he knows I won't hurt him or annoy him," Tor glanced back and winked at Jimmy. "Besides, there aren't any mares in season around here right now and I told him he was going to a ranch full of horses like him, so he's being good."
"Are you telling me you talk to horses?" Jimmy sounded incredulous.
"I sure do, but they never seem to talk back, at least not out loud, so I'm not sure if they listen or not," Tor chuckled. "They do pay attention most of the time though and they seem to learn a lot faster if you talk to them as you're training them."
"I wanted to ask you about that, how do you teach a horse to do that high-steppin' fancy-dance step your uncle's horses do. Aunt Hanna said you taught all of them that shimmy shake thing."
"Well, since you're going to be here while I'm training horses, you'll probably learn how to teach them that trick. You really do want to learn, don't you?"
"Well, yeah! Of course I want to learn."
"Well, the first thing you need to learn is how to make friends with the horse. That's why I'm currying this stallion, even though I've just traded him off. I want him to trust me when I load him into the truck, then he won't give me any grief as I'm leading him up the loading ramp and into the truck."
"You've traded him off, already? But, you just got here a couple days ago. How did you manage to find someone who wants an Arabian stallion so fast?"
"Well to be honest, Dad found someone who wants one and is willing to trade for some decent cattle. Dad made the deal for me and I trust him to make a good deal."
"So how many new cattle are we getting?"
"A bull, two bred heifers and two bred cows."
"Holy crow. You mean this stallion is worth that much?"
"No, I'm buying the two cows, but Dad is good at trading stock and this stallion actually is from a darn good blood line. I'm just not a fan of Arabian horses. I prefer Quarter Horses and Quarter Horse - Thoroughbred crosses."
"Well, where are you going to get a stud horse from?"
"Uncle Nils has a really good one that he's willing to lend me for a year or two. He doesn't want to sell it, so I'll board it for him and if his stud breeds a few mares while he's here, that's just a stallion doing what comes naturally. It won't cost Uncle Nils a penny and it won't hurt the stallion's price either," Tor grinned.
"Oh, okay. I see. Hey, I forgot, I got sent down her to tell you that Dori, Dawn and Aunt Hanna are making everyone lunch and that we are supposed to eat at your house at noon. We got a ride back down here in Aunt Hanna's car, but the cops are just finishing up with all of Burns' video taping junk, so we're gonna go help move stuff to the big house after lunch."
Tor glanced at his watch and sighed, wondering where the morning had gone, then gave the horse a last pat before climbing out of the pen.
"Race ya!" Jimmy challenged, then took off at full run.
Tor let him get a lead, but when Jimmy was almost a quarter of the way to the house he broke into a sprint. Even in his heavy work boots he caught up to Jimmy before they got to the gate into the yard.
"Holy . . . crow . . . you're . . . fast!" Jimmy panted.
"It's all in the training, Jimmy," Tor grinned at him, since he wasn't even breathing hard. "I spend some time every day, doing wind sprints and then I spend a lot more time keeping in shape for other things. I've been doing it since I was a little older than you and it's a habit now, but constant exercise in the off months is how I keep in shape to play hockey in the winter."
"That's why you have so many muscles, huh?"
"Actually, you have just as many muscles as I do and they're developing every day, but at your age you have to be very careful not to overdevelop your muscles or you can damage your bones. You see your bones are still growing quickly, so they aren't as strong as they'll eventually become. I suppose you could say they're 'soft,' only that's not really the right term, but because the bones are growing so fast, muscles that are too strong can deform the shape of the bones as they grow. In my case I didn't start a heavy exercise routine until I was almost six feet tall, so considering the height of your mom and dad, you have a little growing to do before you should train very hard. If you're still interested in training next summer, I'll see about setting up a program to suit you."
Of course when they went inside Jimmy had to brag to Tommy that Tor had offered to train him. That set off a small war of words - which Tor had to break up by including Tommy, but then he had to explain why they would have two different programs. Then he had to spend lunch explaining the reasons for treating exercise as a potentially dangerous enterprise for young people. What surprised him was having Dawn and Dori paying attention, while Aunt Hanna smiled and nodded at what he said. In fact she went on to talk about what athletes should eat, using her experience as an example, telling them what Kai ate while he was training for a boxing match.
They had barely finished eating and were cleaning up when Dori glanced out the window, "Hey, Mom and Dad are here, and they're in Dad's new truck, the one he just bought so he can haul cars faster, easier and for longer distances."
"Oops, sorry. I guess I forgot to mention that. Mom said they were coming down this afternoon. She said Wally Friedman sent us a gift of some sort and he asked your dad to bring it down," Tor headed for the door with Dori right behind him.
After hugs, handshakes and other greetings, Dori introduced all the kids to her dad, then they all turned to the tarpaulin-covered load on the back of the truck.
"Wally said this was mostly for Tor, but Dori would probably use it too," Jax grinned and undid the ropes on the tarp, then pulled it off, exposing a very well used Jeep. "According to old Wally, every ranch should have a Jeep. He said this one was made in 1973, which is the year Tor was born, so it was a birth-year gift and a match for the birthday gift Tor gave him."
"Well, it's not a wreck, but it's sure been used hard, hasn't it," Tor grinned. "Just what did it start out being?"
"It's a Jeep CJ5, rigged up as a hill climber and off road unit, complete with a roll cage, front and rear winches and what Wally calls mudder tires. The body is a bit beat up, but he says it's in good mechanical condition, only he said to warn you that it's been modified so much it wouldn't be legal on the road. In other words it can't be licensed, but it can be used here on the ranch. When Keisha described how big this place was, Wally hunted around and found you a snow plow for plowing your driveway in the winter. It's hydraulicly operated and fits right on the front of the Jeep with quick connect hydraulic fittings and a few pins."
"I can see where that might be useful," Tor grinned. "I think I owe Wally a big favour for this."
"Well, he seems to think he was repaying you, so I wouldn't be too worried about it," Keisha smiled at Tor. "Your mother says you can drive quite well, so I think you can safely use it here on the ranch. Maybe you can even give Dori a few lessons, then she can take a young drivers course and when she turns sixteen, she can get her license."
"Oh, Dori can already drive, but she needs practise," Jax winked at Tor. "Now, let's unload this thing, then Tor can show me around his new ranch."
About then Tor's life shifted into high gear once more.
They scarcely had the jeep offloaded before Officer McDonald drove up, and reported that Aunt Hanna's house was now clear of incriminating evidence. The whole house had been inspected from attic to basement and the police were certain that it was clean and clear of all possible booby-traps. They had removed thirty-six video cameras, forty-one video recorder/players, eighteen video monitors, twenty-four audio tape player/recorders, two video tape duplicators and a wall sized audio/video control system. As well as that they had confiscated more than three hundred used video tapes and a hundred and forty audio tapes. They had also removed the incendiary device, the timer and all of the switches or wiring associated with that device. He handed Aunt Hanna a handwritten list of all the items removed from the house, then winked at Tor, hopped in his car and drove off, leaving Aunt Hanna staring after him. Tor had to grin, because he was certain she was just getting primed to ask Officer McDonald a thousand and one questions when he slipped away.
After she'd regained her composure from Officer McDonald's abrupt departure, Aunt Hanna asked for help to move her belongings from the small cabin into the big house. Almost everyone was willing to help her, but Tor begged off temporarily, saying he was going to show Jax around first, but he promised that they'd come help as soon as they could.
They might have been able to do that too, except that by the time Tor had shown Jax the barns and the corrals, Donald and Eric were back from the cattle sale. The two of them were extremely happy with the amount the cattle had brought and bragged about that for a minute or two. They hadn't come back with an empty truck though. There had been a group of four weaned heifer calves for sale that went extremely cheap and Donald had bought them. One was a Jersey calf and the other three looked as if they were polled Shorthorns.
"These four came up last and no one seemed interested in them, so I bought them. I got the little Jersey because the milk cows are getting on in years, but the price for whole group was just too good to turn down," Donald said quietly. "I hope you're not upset about it, Boss. I had the office take the cost of the calves out of cheque we got for the cattle, but I'll pay for them if you don't want to cover their cost."
"No, I'm not upset, not at all and I don't mind the cost coming out of our profits. Let's unload them and get your truck moved out of the way though," Tor suggested. "Dad's on the way down with more cattle for us and I think he'll want to load the Arabian right away, that way he can get back home in time to do his chores tonight."
"So that's what the Arabian is doing in the other loading pen. You traded him off, didn't you?" Eric asked.
So as the four men unloaded the calves and put them in a small pen, Tor told them about the deal his dad had made for the stallion and what they were getting in the exchange. Then he explained the deal he'd made with his uncle and why they were doing it, but that was mostly for Jax' benefit.
"Dad got us a good bull, a couple of heifers and a couple of cows in a trade for the Arabian stallion and a few bucks cash. Uncle Nils is lending us an excellent Quarter Horse stallion and he's going to sell me several breeding mares as well as helping me to purchase others. I plan to reduce the number of cattle and increase the number of horses, but that's because I'm not really a cattleman. I think everyone must know by now that I want to raise and train horses, then sell them, but at the same time I want the ranch to remain as self sufficient as possible. So what we're doing now is replacing the animals that weren't doing well with good stock. Since I'm young and relatively inexperienced, I'm going to be leaning on Dad, Uncle Nils and on both Donald and Eric to help me select good animals," Tor paused and grinned at Donald and Eric. "These two impressed me before I ever met them, because I saw photos of the ranch and I saw the financial records that Harold Burns had. My dad and I poured over those pictures and those ranch accounts, and we could read between the lines. We could see that these fellows weren't getting much help from Burns, and we knew then that Donald and Eric had to be damn good managers since this whole ranch is still self-sufficient. The two of them are the main reason that I signed the lease over to Burns and made the trade.
"Now, I'm counting on these two guys and their families to help me run this place, because they live here and while I'm going to be here as much as I can, I won't be here all the time. I won't be abandoning them though, so even when I'm not here, they'll be able to contact me and I want to hear about any problems so they can be fixed as soon as possible."
"Hell, we're not worried about that!" Donald said sharply. "You've done more to help us in the last two days than Burns did in five years."
"Get used to it!" Jax laughed. "You're dealing with one of the Eklunds now. They work hard, play hard and have a reputation for making things change for the better. If you don't believe me, just go up to Eagles Bluff and ask anyone you meet on the street what they think of the Eklund family. Of course they might also warn you not to try to swindle the Eklunds. They treat people fairly and honestly, but they expect others to treat them the same way, those that don't usually find they lose out in the long run."
"Hey, don't try to make us out to be angels, because we're just normal people. We get up in the morning, try to make an honest living and try not to make too many mistakes, but we aren't perfect, so sometimes we screw up. Only if we do foul up, we admit our blunder and try to repair things, instead of walking off and leaving trouble for someone else to handle."
"Well, you didn't screw this place up," Eric snorted. "Burns did that."
"Yeah, but because he screwed up, we were able to get the ranch cheaply enough to be able to invest a little into it, so we can fix the easy things. Once we get rid of the losing efforts and start making profits, that will mean we can invest more, which will lead to more repairs," Tor grinned, then pointed up toward the entrance to the ranch and his dad's truck. "And here come more of our first investments, right on cue, so we need to get this truck moved, then Dad can back in against the loading ramp. We'll have to get those cattle unloaded and the Arabian loaded quickly, because I don't want to hold Dad up if he's in a hurry to get home again."
"Are all of these new cattle from the same farm?" Donald asked Tor as Eric was moving the truck.
"Yeah, why do you ask?" Tor asked.
"Well, we're going to want to split them up later, but if they're already familiar with each other we could put them all in the second loading pen for now. That way we can load the stallion right away and if your dad is in a hurry, we won't hold him up for very long at all."
"Good point," Tor nodded. "Let's do that."
When Tor's dad drove down, Jax guided him to back into the loading ramp, then when his dad got out of the truck, Tor introduced him to Donald since they hadn't met before.
"I'm glad to meet you," Ollie shook his hand and smiled. "Hopefully you and Eric are both going to stay here on the ranch."
"Oh, you can count on that," Donald grinned. "You and your family have already convinced us that things are going to improve and we want to be around to enjoy it."
Tor was quite impressed with the cattle his dad had brought and when he wrote his dad a cheque to pay for the two extra cows he discovered his dad had paid little more than feeder cattle price for them. His dad even refused to accept anything for haulage, saying he'd collect it out of Tor's hide that winter. He didn't stick around for long though, because he wanted to deliver the Arabian stallion before going home.
Once Tor's dad was on his way, Tor and the other men separated the bull from the heifers and cows, then herded the females to the pasture with the other cattle they were keeping on the ranch. Initially Tor played with the idea of moving the bull into the pen where the Arabian stallion had been kept, but he wanted that as a breeding pen for the new Quarter Horse stallion, so they checked out the old bull pen. It wasn't in bad shape, but Tor was fussy about his animals and about their safety, so he pointed out a few cracked poles and jagged corners that he'd like to fix before they used it.
"We'll have to get at this in a hurry, because I want to put Gorgeous Khan in the stud pen as soon as he gets here and Uncle Nils said he was bringing him down today. The other option is to sort out all the unbred cows and turn the bull in with them for now, only then we'd have some of them calving in March, which is a bit early. That's why those heifers and cows that we got today were so cheap. All four of them are already bred, which means they'll probably be calving in January or February, and that means we'll have to find room in the barns for them this winter."
"Don't let that worry you, we've done that before." Eric shrugged. "Our worry right now is finding a place for the bull though."
"There isn't all that much to do here," Donald glanced around quickly. "Eric, if you get the chainsaw, hammers and the other tools we need, I'll get a few poles from the dry stack. If the two of us put our backs into it, we can easily have this fixed up and good as new by supper time. That way we can keep the bull in here for another six to eight weeks, then breed the cows from September on, that way they'll calve in April or May like they should."
Actually, since both Tor and Jax dug in and helped, they were done well before supper at six. Even then they barely had time to move the bull to his new pen before Nils arrived, but they heard the stallion long before they saw his truck, and Tor had to chuckle.
"Sounds like Khan can smell the mares that we have here. Just listen to that dang horse scream!" he chortled, then frowned. "That's funny, the Arabian stallion wasn't the least bit excited when I was handling him before, but Khan is making so much noise that I think one of our mares must be in season. Maybe we should check them and see if there's any sign of that?"
"Instead of that why don't we just move the mares that aren't in foal down to the little pasture at the bottom end of the ranch. It has pole fencing all around and the grass is in good shape. That pasture is small, but it's certainly big enough for seven mares and a stallion for a few weeks. We can soon sort out the mares that aren't in foal, after all that's only three of the Quarter Horse mares that came from Utah and the four Appaloosas that the kids ride," Eric suggested.
Both Donald and Tor agreed that it was a good idea and that was when Tor learned to really appreciate the setup of fenced roadways, gates and pastures on the ranch. With Eric and Donald riding on cutting horses and Tor minding the gate to the pasture that the horse herd was in, they soon had all seven mares cut out and driven to the roadway that ran along the front edge of the pastures. Then it was simply a matter of moving them to the farthest pasture and the gates that Tor swung across the roadway steered the mares where they wanted them to go. They almost had it done by the time Nils had driven down the hill and Jax had guided the truck back to the loading ramp. The only reason it had taken him that long was that the construction on the road slowed him down. He'd taken it easy on the bumpy sections so the horses wouldn't be thrown off their feet and hurt themselves.
Uncle Nils' truck was loaded to the hilt with six horses, including the stallion, four mares that were already in foal and Tor's yearling filly. All six horses were prime examples of Quarter Horse conformation and were in excellent condition, so even Tor was impressed when he saw them.
"My gosh, Uncle Nils, these look like show horses."
"Nay, but dhey are all goodt stock undt da mares are all bredt to udder studs vhat are not close related to Gorjus Khan, so he vill be a goodt stud fer you fer two or tree years."
"Well, just as long as you didn't hurt your breeding stock by bringing them here, I'm certainly happy to have him and these four mares."
"Vell, Aye bin tinkin' undt Aye haf a deal fer you," Uncle Nils grinned. "Insteadt uff buyin' dem fer market price, you keep da four mares fer two full years undt vhata foals dhey trow vill be yours, but dhen I take da mares back after dhat. So you care fer dhem undt keep da coldts, but Aye get back da four mares vhat haf bin bred to Khan."
"That sounds like a great deal for me, but what benefit do you get out of it?"
"Vell, to be honest ayboudt it, Aye haf too many horses fer vhat pasture Aye haf," Uncle Nils chuckled. "Vit you keepin' Gorjus Khan, undt dhese four mares, Aye haf room to keep a haf dussen yearlings undt next year Aye can sell dhem as two year oldts. Dhat vay you profit from da increase in your herd undt Aye profit from da extra pasture, but don't lose four uf my goodt mares foreffer."
Tor just laughed and held out his right hand to shake on the deal.
After all the horses were shifted to the pastures where they would stay, Tor, Donald and Eric watched Nils drive back up to the acreage, then Donald cleared his throat and shook his head.
"Yeah, what is it?" Tor grinned at him.
"I'm trying to figure this out and what I see is that you just made a deal to gain eight colts and two or three years use of a stud, but it's not going to cost you anything at all?"
"Not really, just look at it from the other side. We have to feed and care for those five horses and in exchange we're being paid in kind. Uncle Nils still owns those horses and can still profit from selling them, but at the same time he is literally able to expand the potential of his ranch with no real investment. In effect he gains the space to handle the young stock he already has at hand, and by keeping them for longer, he can sell them for far more profit. He is making me a gift of the services of the stallion, because he's used him as much as he can right now, buthe doesn't want to part with the horse yet, just in case he has need for him in the future. He's very careful with the bloodlines of the horses he breeds and he may be looking down the road a year or so to a mare he wants bred to this stud, but he can't use him right now. So he's lending him to us and reducing his maintenance costs, but retaining the stallion's breeding potential.
"However, the complication in our deal comes from the four mares and it involves their actual age. You see as purebred Quarter Horses, their official date of birth is January first of the year they were born, but I'd be willing to bet that these four mares were born later in the year, so they're really less than forty-eight months old. We'll have to check with him to find out for sure, but I think the foal they're carrying is probably their first one, because Uncle Nils never breeds a mare at less than thirty-six months of actual age. What we are looking at is four mares who will be dropping their first foals sometime next spring and there is no doubt about the fact that they could have complications with a first foal. Effectively he is putting his trust in me that I'll make sure his mares are well cared for. At the same time I'm putting my trust in you that you'll not only look after those mares, but that you'll also be here to help when they're foaling, because there's no guarantee that I'll be here then. Lets face it, I'm going to be an absentee landlord most of the time since I'm still going to school, so you'll only see me on weekends and holidays," Tor turned and grinned at the two men then. "I figure I'll probably be a lot better landlord than Harold Burns was though."
"You already know the answer to that one," Donald chuckled. "You could sit on your butt for the next four years and still be better than he was. Now I have to ask one other thing, does your family always work together the way your dad and your uncle worked to help you today?"
"Well, yeah! After all, we are family so we help each other out when we can," Tor shrugged. "I suppose you could say that we compete as well, but not against each other so much as against our mutual circumstance, if you know what I mean. We know that we're all fighting things like the weather, the markets and others in the same business, but by working as allies, we gain some advantages. For instance Dad is more into cattle than horses, but for the last couple of years he's been letting me use a small pasture to train some of Uncle Nils' horses. Dad gained the advantage of having fully trained horses to work his cattle, my uncle gained the advantage of being able to sell trained horses, while I've been getting a small stipend and a chance to develop my skills as a horse trainer. It's just the way we work, if one of us needs help to fix a problem, the others will lend a hand.
"Today Dad spent most of the day, helping me, but at the same time he helped out a friend. Jack Wilson wanted to sell off his cattle and wanted an Arabian horse, while I wanted cattle, but had an Arabian stallion I wanted to sell off. Dad invested a little time and a few dollars in gas to help both of us. Neither Mr. Wilson nor I invested all that much and we each gained something we wanted, but we both owe Dad a favour. Don't you and Eric trade favours?"
"Well, I suppose we do, but it doesn't feel like the same thing," Donald snorted a short laugh. "We aren't trading horses and cattle around like they were tiddlywinks."
"That's nothing!" Jax laughed sharply. "You do know they traded a chunk of scrub brush and an isolated one-room cabin for this whole ranch, don't you?"
"Hey now, you have to know that Harold Burns' real estate agent contacted us and even then the whole deal was a surprise to me," Tor rolled his eyes and grinned. "I bought into the lease, only I didn't realize I had as large a share in it as I did. So when the trade was made, I ended up with a much larger share than I expected, but I'm not complaining about it. Instead I'm happy as a pig in his wallow, because having a horse ranch suits me to a 'T' and it's a short circuit to a major ambition I've had for the last few years."
Just then Dori and Dawn came driving up in the old Jeep, skidding to a halt and shutting it off just short of the loading ramp, then both of them leaped out and ran toward the men.
"Dad, Mom just called and says she needs to talk to you, right away!" Dawn called as she ran toward them. "She said she saw Harold Burns in the hospital near Sami's room, but she says the police there don't believe her. They say it's not possible, because he's supposed to be in Seattle or something."
As Donald started to run toward the house, Uncle Nils came racing up in Aunt Hanna's car.
"Donaldt, yer vife needts you!" he bellowed as he stepped out of the car. "Aye gif you a ride to da hospital in Hanna's car, since it iss faster dhan yer pickup vouldt be."
"Take ten minutes and change your clothes, Donald," Tor called. "The cops will listen better if you don't smell of cow dung. I'll run to the house and call Officer McDonald and he'll get the cops in Hope off their fat asses, because if there's any chance to catch Burns, he's going to go for it."
For the next few hours life got totally weird. Uncle Nils and Donald had stopped at Donald's house to grab some clothing, then hurriedly left to drive to Hope. Meanwhile Tor and Dori raced back to their house in the Jeep and Tor called the RCMP office in Eagles Bluff only to be told that Captain McDonald was too busy to take his call. That annoyed him enough that he demanded to talk to the second in charge and chewed on that officer's ear when he got through to him. Tor found out later that Aunt Hanna was talking to McDonald at the time he called and she was already raising a major ruckus. After thinking about the situation for a while Tor decided he'd best apologise to Officer McDonald the next time he saw him, after all the RCMP didn't exist just for his family's convenience.
Eventually things calmed down, then it became a matter of waiting for news. Eric and the boys did the evening chores, while Dawn and Tami stayed in the house waiting for the phone to ring. Tor and Dori were doing almost the same thing, waiting for a phone call and feeling left out of the loop. Jax and Keisha decided to spend the night with Aunt Hanna. For some strange reason she had made up her mind that Burns might come back to finish the job of burning down the house.
It was a good thing there were three separate phone lines into the ranch, because just after eight that night all the phones rang at about the same time. Uncle Nils called Aunt Hanna, while Mary called Dawn and Donald called Tor, but they all had the same basic message.
Sami was fine and they would be bringing her home late the next afternoon, so Donald and Uncle Nils were staying in a motel in Hope that night. Sami would have to go back to the hospital to have her cast exchanged for a walking cast in two weeks, but for now she would be able to get around on crutches. Harold Burns, or someone who matched his description, had been seen by several people as he wandered the halls of the hospital during afternoon visiting hours, but the police hadn't caught him. However, a Canada-wide warrant had been issued for his apprehension and arrest. Canadian border guards had been advised of the warrant and given Burn's description, but just in case he did slip over the border, the Washington State police had been updated on his status as well.
After he'd hug up the phone and explained everything to Dori, Tor wandered over to the stove and looked to be very thoughtful as he poured himself a cup of coffee.
"Okay, are you going to ask the million dollar question, or am I?" Dori said quietly.
"What question is that?" Tor asked with a frown.
"Is that creep after Sami because she's a cute little girl who turns him on? Or does she have telepathic abilities too?"