Chapter 36--- Here's the latest chapter of this story. Hope you like it and thanks for the comments.
Matt stooped to pick up the object on the ground, handling it very carefully with his fingers.
"What is it," Jed asked.
"It looks like a class ring," Matt said, inspecting it, "but it's a bit charred."
Jed frowned.
"It's a pretty funny place to find one, don't you think?"
"I agree," Matt said, "Do you have anything to put it in?"
"I'll check the saddle bag," Jed said, "Shouldn't we leave it for the arson investigators?"
Matt sighed.
"They're not coming," he said, "You can bet that Daniels knows who did this and is going to be obstructing any investigation."
Jed nodded, resignedly.
"So what are you going to do," he asked.
"Contact my friend who works for the feds in Denver and Fed-Ex it to him."
C.J. and Rhonda walked to the diner where they would be holding their bachelorette party in the banquet room. They walked around the spacious room with deer and other animal trophies on the wall, considering the possibilities.
"Those have got to go," Rhonda said, pointing at the trophies, "It just looks too much like they're watching us."
C.J. laughed.
"You're kidding, right," she said.
"No I'm not," Rhonda said, "I want the ambiance to be perfect for my party."
"I'm sure the decor here would only add to the experience," C.J. said.
Rhonda looked skeptical.
"I think it gives it too much of a masculine feel for what's supposed to be ladies' night," she said, "Well, maybe the stuffed fish can stay up."
Sydney walked in tailed by Joseph.
"So are you getting ready for the big party," she asked.
She directed Joseph to turn on the camera and aim it at Rhonda. She pushed it away and put her hands on her hips.
"What do you think you're doing," she said.
"I'm filming the preparations for the big bachelorette party," Sydney said, "I need to get this footage on the Web site so it will build up the anticipation and suspense for our readers."
"Suspense," Rhonda said, "What's so mysterious about hosting a bachelorette party before my wedding?"
"Normally nothing," Sydney said, "but we've got a huge and very compelling storyline here of local boy leaves town and makes good fighting criminals but returns with the woman he loves to get married among his family and friends."
"Honey," Rhonda said, "That happens every day somewhere."
Sydney smiled widely.
"But not in Silver Lode."
"Maybe you have a point," Rhonda conceded.
"This has been one of the most exciting months," Sydney said, "First we have one of the sexiest bachelors in America grace our small town and now the Wedding of the Decade."
Rhonda widened her eyes.
"Really…the decade," she said.
Sydney nodded.
"Readership online and off has been way up since the article on Matt came out," she said.
C.J. smiled.
"I know," she said, "Thea's been fielding phone calls from female readers all week by the dozens."
Sydney nodded.
"Same at my office," she said, "In fact, I'm thinking of making a business proposal to Matt so will he be in town today?
That perked their interest.
"Business proposal," C.J. asked, "Like what?"
Sydney flashed another smile.
"I came up with another brilliant idea," she said.
"And…," Rhonda said.
"I'm going to ask Matt if he would like his own weekly column," Sydney said.
C.J. and Rhonda just stared.
"Get out of town," Rhonda finally said, "A column?"
"Why yes," Sydney said, "It can be on whatever topics he likes, like his work or what he looks for in a woman."
Rhonda looked at C.J.
"That will an interesting article," she noted.
"He's not much into writing," C.J. said, "He's very physical, an outdoors kind of guy."
Sydney shrugged.
"Well, he can dictate his column into a recorder," she said, then snapped her fingers, "Or better yet, video blogging, which will play to his great looks."
"Come again," Rhonda said, "Matt's got his hands full working on this case involving these developers who are out to steal all of the land they can get their greedy hands on."
Sydney sniffed.
"Oh that," she said, "It will blow over, but having his own blog in a renowned newspaper can do wonders for his business."
Rhonda tried not to laugh.
"Yeah, a renowned paper like yours with a huge circulation," she said, "but he's very busy and then there's his personal life…"
"He can write about that too," Sydney said.
Rhonda lifted her brow at C.J. who just looked away.
"He might be in town later," C.J. said, "but that depends on how the arson investigation is going."
Sydney looked confused.
"You mean that old barn that burned down," she said, "Why would there be an investigation there?"
"Because someone set it on fire," C.J. said.
"Accident," Sydney said, dismissively, "at least that's what Sheriff Daniels stated in a press release from his office."
C.J. looked at Rhonda who rolled her eyes.
"Why isn't that so surprising," Rhonda said, "that they would write it off as one so quickly."
"It was no accident," C.J. said, "We rode out last night and there couldn't be any other cause for the fire."
"It could have been bums or transients taking advantage of the fact that it was abandoned and falling apart," Sydney said.
"It also happens to be standing on a parcel of land that's heavily under dispute between the ranchers and Kilroy's developers," C.J. said, "and we've already seen what they're capable of doing to get what they want."
"So you say," Sydney said, "and I agree some of it looks suspicious but these land deals are always better than pills when it comes to putting our readers to sleep."
Rhonda pursed her lips.
"So you just want to keep them awake with stories about weddings and bachelorette parties attended by exes of the town's promising son who made good?"
Sydney sighed.
"Hey it sells papers," she said, "People love the personal angle over the business angle."
"I think the ranchers would disagree," C.J. said, "I can't think of a story with personal roots that's more compelling."
"Maybe," she said, "But let's talk about this party. How many people have RSVPed?"
Joseph dutifully turned his camera towards Rhonda, awaiting her response.
"A few," Rhonda said, "We're keeping it small. Bonnie's bringing the food and it's just a bunch of us girls kicking back before I walk down the aisle."
Joseph aimed the camera at Sydney.
"And there you have it ladies and gentlemen as the countdown towards Wedding 2009 continues with the Bachelorette Party being held in town tonight. We will bring it all to you live," Sydney said.
With that footage filmed, Sydney left followed by her cameramen. Both C.J. and Rhonda breathed a sigh of relief.
"I thought she'd never leave," C.J. said.
"Yeah, she had just decided to ask Matt to do an expose on his life including his personal relationships which means…"
"I know what it means," C.J. said, "I don't want our relationship on page one."
Rhonda looked at her.
"Why not?"
C.J. struggled to find the words.
"Because everything that's happened to me…us in the past year or so has been on the news, including the most personal and painful things," she said, "I want a break from that so I can enjoy spending time with Houston without the cameras around. So we can have some time to ourselves."
Rhonda patted her shoulder.
"I can understand that."
"She's really gone around the bend about your wedding to Jonathan," C.J. noted.
Rhonda shook her head.
"They've taken my wedding and hyped it up so much," she said, "All I wanted was to marry my beloved in his home town in front of his friends, not this circus."
C.J. smiled at her friend.
"Then why don't you tell her that," she said, "or if you can't do that, just beg off. That worked for Houston and me."
"When," Rhonda asked.
C.J. laughed.
"We ran into her when we were in Denver," she said, "Actually, when we were outside of Denver."
Rhonda smiled broadly.
"Where you two were…getting closer," she said.
"Well, she had us sitting in a restaurant talking to a source who turned out to be useful," C.J. said.
"But you had other things on your mind," Rhonda guessed, "Other things you wanted to do."
C.J. nodded.
"Yeah, we did," she said, "so we just begged off and told her we needed some rest."
"You know if she found out that you two were an item," Rhonda said, "You might get your own feature story about it."
C.J. sighed.
"I don't want that," she said, "I love my relationship with Houston but if she were to write about anything involving me, I would want it to be about the ranchers' lawsuits."
Rhonda snorted.
"She sure doesn't seem that interested in the scandal going on right under her nose," she said.
"She just can't believe that any of the political officials and people like Sheriff Daniels could ever be rotten to the core."
"What would it take to convince someone like her," she said.
C.J. looked doubtful.
"If nothing that's happened has convinced her by now," C.J. said, "Then I'm not sure there's anything out there that could."
Matt got off the phone with Kent in Denver and promised to mail him the ring that he'd found. He had tried to identify its origin but the soot had seared its way into the metal making that impossible. Kent assured him that they had chemicals that they could use to clean up the ring and thus make it easier to figure out what school it represented.
He and Jed rode back to the ranch house and ran into Thea who was fixing some lunch.
"You guys hungry," she said, looking at them, "silly question."
She served them some fried potatoes and eggs, which they dove into with great enthusiasm.
"I did get a call from Sheriff Daniels," she said, "He said there's no need to do any further investigation because it's an accident."
"Not according to what we found," Matt said, "I think whatever accelerant they used evaporated quickly but someone left his class ring behind."
"A lot of men wear them," Thea said, "but not a lot of ranchers because jewelry's a bit of a hazard out on the range."
"So it could be some guy in town," Matt said, "or someone they hired from out of town."
Jed set his jaw grimly.
"We know it's Kilroy and his guys," he said.
"That's one bet I'm not taking," Matt said, "Sabotaging airplanes, running cars off roads and now arsons, is there anything these men won't do?"
"I don't think they've placed limitations on their actions Matt," Jed said, "Not even murder if it comes to that."
Matt sighed.
"They've already tried that," he said, "C.J. and her friends weren't supposed to survive that car wreck and I'm sure she and I were supposed to be splattered over the Rockies when my plane went down."
"But you're both still here," Thea said, "Doing great work to help people. Most of the people in town and living in the valley appreciate what you're doing."
"Everyone but the developers and the politicians they've paid off," Jed said, "and I bet that includes Daniels."
"Which is why as everyone has said again and again, you need to run against him," Thea said.
"I plan to," he said, "but in the meantime, he's a problem that has to be dealt with. Are we going to wait until someone does get killed and he labels it an accident?"
"I don't plan to," Matt said, "not since C.J. seems to be the main target."
"Has she received any more threats," Jed asked.
"Not in the past day or so," Matt said, "but maybe they're done threatening."
Thea looked up.
"You think they're planning something else?"
"I'm thinking that we can't be sure what these people are going to do," Matt said, "Their attacks have been haphazard but they've all had serious outcomes."
"Outcomes that could have been worse," Jed said.
"That's true," Matt said, with a sigh, "but how long are we going to be that lucky?"
"Maybe the unpredictable nature of them indicates a power struggle among the developers," Jed said.
Matt stroked his jaw.
"That could be," he said, "Nick seems to be the worse between him and Kilroy and I'm pretty sure that he's not convinced that Kilroy's tactics are going to get the job done."
"Well, we've just got to think of a better way to fight back," Thea said, "All of us so that none of us are vulnerable as individuals."
"We've been working on that," Jed said, "and you've great with the phone tree getting all those people out on short notice."
Thea smiled.
"I'm just doing my part to preserve our way of life."
Rhonda got off of her cell phone.
"That's Jonathan," she said, "He might be flying in tonight or tomorrow."
"So he's going to make it in time for the wedding," C.J. said.
Rhonda scoffed.
"Of course he is," she said, "not that I ever had any doubts."
C.J.'s face grew serious.
"You really shouldn't about him," she said, "He keeps his promises."
"I know he's kept everyone he's made to me," Rhonda said, "Fran's going to be coming in too and she might make it to the party tonight."
"That will be great," C.J. said, "She's just what you need to liven things up."
"That she will," Rhonda said, "Hopefully motherhood's toned her down a bit."
"I doubt it," C.J. said, "Well, I've got to head to City Hall and check to see if they ever found those records."
"But I thought you said that Edna, the keeper of the records said that Kilroy and his partners walked right out with them," Rhonda said.
"I've got most of what I need," C.J. said, "but there might be a couple records I missed."
"Then go," Rhonda said, "I'll be okay here. Chris and Bonnie will be dropping by later to help me."
"What about Joe," C.J. asked.
"He knows when to show up and what to do," Rhonda said, "at least I hope."
C.J. shrugged.
"He's a car mechanic," she said, "Even if he used to be an exotic dancer, it was probably years ago."
Rhonda rubbed her hands together.
"You know what they say about riding bicycles," she said, "and taking off clothes comes second nature to most men."
C.J. rolled her eyes and laughed.
"You are incorrigible Rhonda," she said, "I hope Jonathan knows what he's getting himself into."
Rhonda ran her hand through her hair.
"I think he's marrying because I'm incorrigible," she said, "All this partying and wedding planning aside, I can't wait to see him."
C.J. watched the emotions play out on Rhonda's face and she knew her friend was in love.
Matt parked his car in front of Bonnie's store and ran inside to mail his package containing the ring to Denver.
"It's strange that this ring would just show up amid a burned out barn," she said.
"I'm having Kent send some photos of it back when it's cleaned up," Matt said, "Hopefully someone in town has seen a ring like that before."
"Unless it's a common one," Bonnie said, "from a local high school or university."
"Then we'll have a much larger suspect pool," Matt said, "but it will be a start."
Bonnie shook her head as she took his credit card.
"This is getting so nasty," she said, "Mayor Parker sure bought himself in with some bad boys."
"The money he's probably receiving from Kilroy and his partners is probably a powerful incentive," Matt said.
"That doesn't make it right," Bonnie said, "We need some honesty and integrity at City Hall."
"Sounds like someone who's thinking about running for office."
Bonnie laughed.
"One political candidate in the family's enough," she said, "and I'd sure like to see Sheriff Daniels go down."
"I think he will," Matt said, "then there'll be some justice in this town."
Bonnie looked at him.
"I know you and C.J. have had a difficult time here with some very questionable people," she said, "but Silver Lode's a really great town and it's a good place to raise a family."
Matt nodded.
"I think so," he said, "Lot of good people here and wide open space to build a home and a life."
"Yeah, sure is," Bonnie said, "I was raised her and I've never felt like leaving."
"C.J. really loves it here," he said.
"Well, she didn't come here under the best of circumstances," Bonnie said, "but this time around, she gets to be herself, doing something to help people that she really loves. Despite everything that gets thrown at her, I can see she's really enjoying herself."
"She's certainly in her element," Matt agreed, "It's nice to see her so happy."
"Well her work is only part of that," Bonnie said, "She's also got you and that's what really matters."
"Indeed it does," he said, "Well, thank you for mailing this package for me and for the conversation."
She smiled.
"No problem," she said, "You're lucky I was still here though."
"Why?"
"I'm closing early today," Bonnie said, "I've got a party to help set up."
The door opened and in walked Nick.
"I've got something to mail," he said, "I heard you were closing early."
Bonnie nodded.
"You made it just at the right time," she said, "So what are you mailing?"
He handed her the package. While she calculated the postage, he looked at Matt.
"Fancy running into you here," he said, "Mailing something?"
"In fact, I am," Matt said, "Something I found last night. I'm trying to find out who it belongs to."
Nick raised his brows.
"Oh?"
"I found it in what's left of the Wyatt barn," Matt said, "I'm sure someone's looking for it."
"And what was that," Nick said, casually as he handed Bonnie the money.
"I'll be circulating photos of it when it comes back," Matt said, "The feds are analyzing it."
Nick shrugged.
"Why didn't you just give it to Sheriff Daniels?"
Matt stared right at him.
"Because he's working for the wrong side," he said.
"The feds won't get involved in a local fire, even if it's arson," Nick said, "Besides the barn that burned was abandoned."
"It was located on a contested piece of property," Matt said, "That might interest them since the injunction that was supposed to limit access and protect it was instituted by the federal courts so I imagine they'll send a team in a day or so."
Nick's face paled a bit and his smile wavered. He took one last look at them and walked out of the store.