Plans Change The Story Continues 7

After that first week of questioning which got moved from California to Arizona, I was allowed to stay at the ranch at night to continue to oversee my business.  Christina who they suspected had a larger part to play in all that happened over the last years was thrust thanks to my lawyer back into my lap so to speak.  The military I supposed saw it as beneficial as they did not have to care for my shoulder or at least not directly which kept me from having to explain what happened.  I was allowed to accompany her and because of my still having clearance they more than once had me listen on her questioning which started easy enough with questions on what she knew about this event or that event.  Because of the nature of the topics being looked into it seemed prudent to me as well as to the investigating team to use my lawyer as she had a background and clearance.  With men and women now actually investigating the sequence of event which I new was a  witch hunt of sorts the questions became more personal as being in the business I was in for so many years I did have privileged information which if I had passed it on to my wife and she passed it on to someone else it would have been considered espionage.  I had to listen in on her answers as she gave the names of the lovers she had taken over the years.  Many of the questioners were men and at times when they got into a line of questioning that had nothing to do with the topics and I knew they were just prying for their own twisted purposes I did not hesitate to call them on it and got into more than one toe to toe where I calmly explained if they continued to harass the mother of my children I would have words with them.  One special agent pushed back one day and tried to get physical with me and I sent him to the hospital needing to get stitches after his face and a table collided very swiftly.

It was when they wanted me to open my books that I told them unless they had a warrant it was not happening, the fact we were already working with two states on our audits kept the feds at check as much of the money that had been funneled through FES was government and opened a whole different investigation as to what, when, who, why, where and how.  Somebody had sent the IRS in and Steve and his wife as well as Carlos's team of accountants who were the people I had seen in those meeting rooms danced around the IRS agents.   They could not find anything wrong in our accounting and set about harassing us and tried several times to throw fines at us.  When they were about to seize funds from an account my contacts in both the banking world and the government were so good we would move them so that when the banks were asked to turn over funds there were none there.  I got this crazy idea one day after finding out the amount of the settlements in California which I had never received and counted as a tax loss.   I took the number and the settlement orders which I finally received and offered the full amount of the uncollected settlement to them which caused them to try to get it from the various entities in California thus removing them from my hair.  In return for their harassment we returned the favor by formally complaining and bringing suit against the IRS for the total amount of the unreceived settlements plus legal fees  Why I agreed to let those two women have the case I really did not know but since it was out of their pockets not mine as if they one their would be a big payday I agreed.

At night on the ranch I rode or worked on something when I was not working on plans or looking over field reports to give my analysis.  Christina I could tell was going stir crazy as she was purposely being kept isolated so I told her to see if she could help the military.  She had thought I was kidding until I told her there were still a lot of wounded men and women who could benefit from her knowledge and skill as a surgeon.  As our offices were finally moved so Steve and Beth could remain closer to home the ranch house which I usually avoided mainly as I really did not like fighting with Christina was emptied save for the study.  Walking through the empty house one weekend I decided to make some furniture to fill the space mostly to keep Christina from pacing.  The first thing I built was the bedroom set for her bedroom to replace the cheep frames and when it was done I realized the mattresses and box springs were hand me downs so I arranged for new ones to be brought out.  Then it was the living room furniture all made of log.  Having full time security paid for by the tax payers for that year and half meant that I had someone to give me a hand when i was ready to bring in pieces.  My room still filled with boxes I did not touch as I preferred to sleep outside which I found helped my dreams.  I went on several dates that year with Miriam and we both realized though we liked each other well enough we made better friends than romantic interests.  Christina finally out of frustration or boredom followed me out to the shop one Saturday where I was working on a new design for pump truck and wanted to know how I was getting along with Miriam.  When I was somewhat vague she finally let her temper rise and asked if I had slept with her.  I asked if she meant sleep as in sleep or sleep as in not sleeping.  She asked if there was a difference and I told her from my upbringing there was as one was you just shared a bed and slept and the other may not actually be in a bed and not much sleeping got done as the two people were too busy having sex.  She asked if I was going to make her ask and I told I was not going to make her do anything but if she wanted to know something it was her right to ask.  When she asked if I had had sex with Miriam I smiled and when she started getting her back up I told her she was cute when she was angry when she told me she was not angry I laughed and told her yes she was and no I did not have sex with Miriam but yes we had shared a bed in which we both slept and twice we were both naked and both times I made sure when i gave her her massage she found relief.

I watched Christina's chest start heaving as she got madder and then she told me she did not believe me.  I asked which part; she told me she did not believe me that I could sleep naked in a bed with a woman and not have sex with her.  I had smiled and told her I would take that bet.  That night I took her riding to a creek and as usual we were followed.  I rolled out the bedroll and told her it was her turn; she asked her turn for what and I told her to get naked of course and climb into bed with me.  I did not hesitate to strip and take a dip in the creek and then lie down on my right side waiting.  The Marshall's who usually shared the campfire with me had kept their distance and were around their own campfire.  I finally told her they would not see her but if she did not want to she could just lay down.  She had chosen to just lay down, my hand began massaging and she finally relaxed, I was half asleep when my hand found her breasts under her shirt, I had not intended to but I began kissing her neck she finally kicked out of her pants after I had them unbuttoned and removed her shirt  I took care of her lingerie as I was awake and rolling her onto her belly I began to massage her.  First it was the deep needing to work out the knots in her muscles and then I lightened my touches so that when she was on her back she began squirming.  When we kissed I remembered our early years and my fingers found there way south,  I did not need to do more than tease her  but I made it more complete when I did use my mouth on her nipples.  She finally fell asleep after her sixth release but I would not let her touch me. I woke her up long before sunrise and helped her get dressed and then I took another dip in the creek before dressing and and saddling up the horses.  Walking over to the camp fire burned down to coals I made enough noise to wake a bear.   None of the agents wanted to wake up I had to laugh at them knowing full well one of them should have stayed awake.  I saddled their horses as well and once I was sure they would not fall off we headed back after checking on the cattle and horses.  The morning crew was just getting up when we arrived.  I knew their breakfast was usually bad coffee and something frozen and microwaved.  I made breakfast that morning and when it was time for them to pass on the reports I called time out and told them I had been watching and I know watching a couple of middle aged divorcees was exciting work but they really needed to learn to love their job.  One of the women asked if that meant the rock she had slept on.  Her team mates gave crap to her and I told them I had seen them all get lax at times as this was more or less a boring assignment as they were not out chasing anyone and weeks at a time doing nothing was boring and I should know as I was the king of boring jobs but when I was not supposed to lose my concentration I never did.

During breakfast I was asked then how did I manage to end up shot so many times.  Technically I had only been shot a couple of times but I knew what was meant and I told them the last time I saw it coming and just waited for it as I really did not want to see anyone else get hurt.  Christina looked at me and I told her that would be the time near home when I came out of the courthouse and it did help me memorize the man's face.  It was later that day as Christina slept that I crawled in next to her as the mattress had looked soft and my should though healed up still hurt from laying on the hard ground.  I started with my back to her but she rolled over and draped her arm over me when she traced her hand down to my groin I grabbed her hand and held it and would not let her touch.   Sleepily she whined and told me I was being selfish.  I told her go back to sleep and tell me later.  Since earlier I had more or less opened the main house kitchen to the agents they cooked that night.  Christina seemed embarrassed when we were served in bed.  I had to laugh at her.  After that day she went riding every night with me and to the delight of the agents who had enjoyed the rides I began sleeping inside the house.  With the house furniture complete I began building the guest cabins Beth had wanted.  I kept them all in the style of a barn which allowed for lofts in them.  Once I had the plan in my head it was easy and they had gone up quick once the foundation and floors were laid.  When one day Christina told me she was bored I told the agents if they new anyone who could use the services of the best dammed reconstructive surgeon in the world.  One of them pointed to me and as Christina touched my neck I told them those stayed as did every other scar.  The first one to come up with someone was one of the younger men whose mother had just had breast cancer and had had a double mastectomy.  I had to put pressure on the Attorney General to let Christina look at the women and three weeks later the woman walked away happy that she actually had a figure and I had started the fundraising when I pitched in to help pay for the surgery.  They began finding people just in their world from firefighters to soldiers or victims of crimes and a whole lot of children they read about.  Having something to focus on helped her spirit and he fact these were people who needed her services and not some woman or man who only wanted to go under the knife for vanity sake changed her demeanor.

I liked watching her back and forth with her inquisitors after that as she would flat out ask them her own questions and even those men who had been more or less male chauvinists had to change as she had won over many of the various investigators as the stories of her helping those who actually needed it spread.  The day came when for her it was over she got sent home.  I went back to sleeping outside and stayed out of the house all together, for a long time sleeping in a house only brought visions of her sleeping with someone else in the carnal sense now it brought up memories of me holding her.  The day came when we had to reenact the day of he bombings.  The crater in the road was still there and I drove down into it and parked.  I was able to because of the flora that had been damaged walk them to the exact spot where I had gone to ground and tracing the trajectory I found the culprit piece of metal that had slice me open.  When I began finding other metallic and man made objects and fragments it became clear to me that no one had actually even come out to investigate the reports and when I mentioned that to the General he had already came to the same conclusion; what got him was when we found three of the four wheels with tires still on them,  I asked if he would let me try to track the two men I had seen.  When he nodded I told him not to watch me but the faces of everyone else.  I headed off to the saddle where they had been and found a single rifle cartridge which was definitely military issue.  From this vantage point I wondered how the guy had missed unless he knew there was ride coming for him and he needed to get moving.  I actually found the laser used to bring down the missile or rather I watched one of the investigators walk buy it and pretend he did not see it.  I had  stepped up behind him and picked it ip and then studied his face memorizing it.  By now it was a known talent of mine and I could see the sweat starting and I was not the only one.  I told the colonel that maybe they ought to let him go home as he did not look so well.  He told us he felt fine and I asked how he had felt the night he ran away like a scared little girl.  He told me he did not run like a scared little girl. Wrong choice of words on his part and he was put into the hot seat.  Later that day we found the drone, which meant it was definitely American.  Being close to the border meant that they could have used the drone hiding it among the other drones patrolling and then using the incoming training run to mask the movement of the missile.  I wondered why the drone fell.  It hit me that if it had been controlled by someone on a helicopter and the first target had been missed as they had a target of opportunity then they would need to alter their plan and destroy the original target by another means.  My thought was that somebody had fully intended my children to be dead when I showed up and them long gone.  My breaking every traffic law in Arizona had saved their lives.  With that realization I just felt tired and wondered how long they would keep me a prisoner.