Chapter Six

Some of the hands started walking over to the fence in determination. As they came closer, Kalin recognized some of them as being formerly of Malcolm's Crew. He also saw Dave among the group. Seluga was still nowhere to be found.

"All of you are trespassing," Dave snarled. "We live here; we have a right to do what we want!"

"Within reason," Radley said. "You're mining for dyne in the tunnels." He handed him the nugget Virgil had given him.

Dave looked taken aback for a moment. Then he snapped, "It's still our property! Anything under it is ours too!"

"Does Ms. Bennett know what you're doing?" Radley asked. "Technically, it's her property and anything under it is hers. She can share it with you if she wishes, but she's the owner."

"Of course she knows!" Dave insisted. "She told us to do this!"

"In the dead of night, without proper lighting?" Kalin quirked an eyebrow.

"It was supposed to be a secret," Dave said. "She didn't want the whole town knowing there might be dyne under the ranch."

"What made you think there was?" Kalin asked.

"Found a nugget or two by accident," Dave grunted.

"Maybe someone did find out and now they're trying to rout all of you out," Radley said. "Or maybe one of you got greedy and is trying to take it all for himself."

"I dare you to prove that!" Dave stormed over to him the rest of the way and towered over him.

Radley just glowered, holding his ground.

"Rick and Jake don't even know about this," Kalin said. "Why have they been kept in the dark?"

"You'll have to ask Ms. Bennett," Dave said. "But don't bother her now; she's finally sleeping." He turned to stomp back to the trapdoor. "I have to get back to work."

Billy snorted. "This is bogus," he said. "Are we really going to wait for her to wake up?"

Radley sighed and shook his head. "I don't know. This is just getting weirder. The fact that he's so adamant she knows makes it seem like she does."

"And why don't Rick and Jake know?" Kalin frowned. "That's perhaps the most concerning thing here."

"We've definitely got a lot of questions to ask Ms. Bennett," Radley remarked. "I guess we're at a standstill until we do that."

"I've got no problem waking her up," Virgil said.

Kalin nodded. "We don't know if Dave's lying to us. If he is, and she doesn't even know what's going on, she needs to be notified. I say we talk to her now."

Radley sighed but also nodded. "That's a good point. We'd better wake her up."

The group headed for the ranchhouse. Kalin arrived first and knocked on the door. When that failed, he also rang the bell.

Finally a very grouchy Amanda in a robe opened the door. "What is this?" she demanded. "Don't I get any time to sleep?"

Suddenly Kalin realized that she likely didn't know yet about Rick waking up. Perhaps he should tell her, he thought, but he was more interested in focusing on the new problem.

"Are you aware that some of your hands are digging for dyne?" he asked. "You claimed to not be aware of any tunnels on the property, but they're digging in one, and they say you sanctioned it."

Amanda's eyes flickered and she turned away. "Yes, I know about that," she said. "I thought the dyne would preserve the ranch for years. But I was afraid that if anyone in town found out about it, the ones who have been trying to stop me would try even harder."

"But you didn't even want to believe things were wrong until Rick was hurt," Kalin said.

"I didn't want to believe the accidents weren't accidents," Amanda said. "But I've been aware for ages that people don't like what I'm doing."

"When we asked about tunnels, it was in case the one causing the accidents was traveling through them," Radley said. "You should have been honest with us about them."

"I had the hands go all through them," Amanda said. "We couldn't find any trace of other people using them. A couple of hands are standing guard down there all the time now."

"At least that's something," Kalin grunted.

"Rick and Jake don't even know about this," Radley said. "Why?"

"They're the youngest; I didn't want them to worry thinking the ranch was in trouble," Amanda said. "And I didn't want them to get their hopes up if there's not much dyne here. We're still not sure how much we've got. It's looking good, but there's room for improvement."

"You're supposed to be 'one big happy family,'" Virgil said. "You don't keep secrets like this from family! Radley would never do that to us."

"I can do without your judging!" Amanda snapped. "I get that enough from everyone else!"

"Hey, calm down," Radley said. "I can see both sides of it. But I do think Rick and Jake should be told. Jake's getting scared and suspicious wondering if they can even still trust anyone here. He knows something's going on, but he doesn't know what, and he doesn't like being kept out of it."

Amanda looked to Radley with a start. "Really?"

"That's right," Kalin said. He hesitated, then added, "Rick woke up tonight; I wasn't sure if the hospital had reached you about that yet. He's also scared, like Radley said."

"He's awake?!" Amanda stared now, all other subjects forgotten. "No, they didn't reach me! I must have already been asleep. How is he?!"

"The doctor was encouraged," Kalin said. "He'll need to stay there for a while. Jake wants to stay with him."

"Yes, they should stay together." Amanda stepped out on the porch. "I should go back to the hospital right now and see them!"

"They're probably asleep now," Kalin said. "You should call first."

"I think you should just stay here and sleep some more yourself," Radley said. "Go over in the morning; you've had a long day."

"Would you wait until morning if he was one of yours?" Amanda countered.

". . . No," Radley admitted. "Even if he was asleep, I'd want to go over right away."

"And so do I." Amanda headed over to her car, not caring that she was wearing a robe and slippers. "There's nothing more to talk about tonight. I'm going over there." She got in the driver's seat and took off without another word.

". . . Should we take anything from the fact that she didn't let anyone else know and just took off?" Kalin grunted.

"She probably didn't have her phone on her," Radley said. "But I'd be lying if I said I didn't wonder too."

"This thing about them being a family is just propaganda," Virgil snorted. "She leaves people in the dark all the time if she feels like it."

"Some people feel like that's the best way to take care of their families, taking all of the burden on them," Kalin said.

Radley nodded. "To some extent, I've done that myself."

"Yeah, but just about things involving you," Virgil said. "Which you shouldn't do either, but I mean, it's not like refusing to tell Rick and Jake about something that really does involve them! She just acts like they don't deserve to know. It's not like they're ceramic and are going to break or something."

"I don't agree with her methods," Radley admitted. "I kind of see her reasoning, but I don't think it's good to isolate some of the group even if they are younger. Yeah, what happens on the ranch absolutely involves them too."

"And then take now, just running off to the hospital without bothering to let anyone else know Rick woke up," Virgil continued. "She's totally selfish!"

"Unless she knows the others wouldn't care," Kalin remarked.

"But if they wouldn't, there we go again," Virgil said. "They're not a family."

"You're right," Radley said.

". . . So what now?" Billy spoke.

"Let's go home," Kalin said. "We're not going to learn anything more tonight. Tomorrow I'm going to try to find out if the ranch is in serious financial trouble."

"And maybe we should still pay that visit to Malcolm," Radley remarked. "I'm not convinced he couldn't be involved."

"Neither am I, especially with Seluga still missing in action," Kalin said. "He could have left to report to him."

"Or if he's not guilty, he could be laying hurt somewhere," Radley frowned. "We should have asked Ms. Bennett if she'd seen him since coming home."

Virgil snorted. "We wouldn't have got a straight answer."

"Probably not," Radley sighed. He looked back toward the ranch. "But we have to keep trying."

xxxx

Everyone was worn-out and confused and discouraged to various extents as they headed back to the street where all of their homes were. Klaus was just glad they were going home, and he dropped Kalin and Radley off in their front yard before heading home himself.

"Bed is going to feel good," Kalin said, rubbing his neck as he walked up to the porch and got out the keys.

"I must admit it will," Radley said. "What I don't know is if either of us will be able to quiet our minds enough for sleep. There's so much to think about regarding this case."

Kalin unlocked the front door and reached inside to turn on the lights before stepping inside and waiting for Radley. "There is," he agreed. "Right now I don't know how everything fits together. Maybe looking up that dead ranch hand is our best bet."

Radley stepped in right beside him and shut the door. "I think so," he said. "And maybe we should also try looking up Seluga and see what information there is on him. I can't decide whether I think he's a victim or a villain."

"There's not a lot that makes sense in this mess," Kalin grunted. "What was the hand's name?"

"Kevin Jackson," Radley said.

Kalin nodded thoughtfully. "I'll get started on all of these searches in the morning. Or tonight, if I can't sleep."

Radley headed down the hall. "You'd better try to get some sleep, though," he said. "You and Klaus lectured me all day about pushing myself, but you need rest too."

"I know," Kalin assured him. "I'll get some sleep. I'll try that first before I start doing searches."

"I hope so." Radley slipped out of his jacket as he wandered into his room, revealing the tank top underneath. "Goodnight."

Kalin smiled a bit to himself. "Goodnight." He had already figured that he would go to his own room tonight, feeling that Radley should have his bed to himself after being hurt that day. Radley enjoyed sharing with Kalin, but it could get awkward with so little space, and Kalin didn't want to risk crowding him or perhaps even hitting the sore spot on his head with his hand in his sleep.

Within a few minutes they had both readied themselves for bed and Kalin was laying on his mattress, staring up at the ceiling as his thoughts wandered. Radley was certainly right about the many facets of the case making it difficult to sleep. Kalin wanted to make the pieces fit together so badly, but the solution just wouldn't come.

Finally he rolled over and grabbed his phone off the nightstand. While he doubted anything would really come up in a general Internet search, he typed Kevin Jackson Crash Town into the search bar anyway.

As often with Internet searches for people, the page of results that appeared seemed to be nonsense and not relevant in the least. But Kalin took time to examine each site description anyway, just in case it ended up being something.

It was near the bottom of the page when he finally spotted something that actually looked like a possibility. Kevin Jackson Obituary was printed as the site title. From the web address, it seemed to be the Crash Town newspaper.

Kalin quirked an eyebrow. He hadn't realized the small paper had put up all of its back issues online. He had planned to visit the paper's morgue the following day. Now it looked like he wouldn't have to.

The obituary was barely a paragraph and only really mentioned the bare bones facts of Kevin's death. No relatives or other backstory was known to report.

Kalin sighed and set the phone aside. He would have to use his sheriff title to access the more important and possibly helpful records. He would do that tomorrow. For now, he needed to try to sleep.

He smiled a bit as he noticed his deck on the nightstand next to the phone. The day had been so hectic that there hadn't really been time to think about it, but now the memory of what he and Radley had discovered came back to him and he smiled more. It really was incredible that they had met before as children. Kalin had to wonder what Yusei, a firm non-believer in fate, would have to say about that. For Kalin there was no question but that they had been supposed to meet. And that was a comforting thought to take through the night. Hopefully they would indeed have many years together, as they both wanted.

xxxx

Radley slept in that morning, despite having slept off and on during the evening. He woke up when Kalin looked in on him and he laid back against the pillow, sleepily smiling at his friend. "Good morning."

"That was supposed to be my line," Kalin said with a smirk. "How are you feeling?"

"Good," Radley said. "And ready to continue trying to solve the mystery."

"I've already tried looking up Kevin Jackson," Kalin said. "No known relatives. I also couldn't find any record of his friends, but those would be less likely to be on government reports."

"So it could be an angry friend," Radley said.

"I don't know how we'll find out," Kalin sighed. "I also had about the same luck trying to look up Seluga."

"What about the ranch's financial state?" Radley asked.

"It's in some possible trouble, but it's not that serious yet," Kalin said. He shook his head. "I still don't buy Ms. Bennett's reasoning for not telling Rick and Jake about the dyne. Is what they're doing illegal?"

"It's her property. She's got a right to look for dyne if she wants to," Radley said. "Although . . ." He frowned. "I wonder if the tunnels are set up with all the proper safety regulations. If they're not, there could be a bad accident down there. The tunnels could cave in on them."

"You'd think she would have thought about that, if she really cares about those people so much," Kalin said.

"We're going to have to ask her about that today," Radley said. "I hope nothing happened during the night."

"We surely would have been called to help with finding missing people if it had," Kalin said. "They're probably alright for now. Do you feel like eating?"

"Oh sure." Radley sat up. "I can fix the food."

"I've fixed it," Kalin smiled. "It might not be as good as yours, but I don't think it's too bad. I had to fix meals all the time as a kid since my dad was too stone drunk to try or even care."

"That's awful," Radley frowned. "But I'm sure the food's great. Everything else I've eaten of yours was delicious." He pushed himself off the bed.

"Well, good," Kalin chuckled.

Breakfast was indeed delicious and Radley was in high spirits when they finished. He was more than ready to try tackling talking to Amanda again.

They tried the hospital first. Neither was surprised that Amanda had stayed the rest of the night and was still there, exhausted but seeming genuinely happy about Rick.

"I'm sure he's going to be alright," she told them. "He's rallying very quickly." Her smile faded a bit as she added, "But he seems so skittish about the ranch now."

"Can you blame him?" Kalin grunted. "We still don't know who sawed through the floor or why."

"I still can't believe it was anyone who works there," Amanda said, folding her arms.

"Do you have the tunnels set up with all the important mining safety regulations?" Radley asked. "If you don't, they're much more likely to collapse."

"We did everything we could," Amanda said, "but we've been limited in our resources since we didn't want anyone to find out what we're doing."

Radley heaved a sigh. "That's what I was afraid of. Ms. Bennett, you've got to make the place properly secure! If you really care about the ranch hands like you say, you won't risk their safety."

"Like you did with Kalin every night when he dueled for you?" Amanda countered.

Kalin shot her a Look. "I chose to duel. And Radley fully believed in me. He hoped I could overthrow Malcolm and save the town."

"I'm just saying, you people have put each other in danger too," Amanda said.

"Things were a lot different then," Radley said. "You've kinda got a bad habit of throwing people's pasts back in their faces. It's pretty juvenile. And if you don't finish fixing up the ranch with all the right safety measures, we're going to have to shut down your dyne mining operations."

Amanda's eyes flashed. "It's my private property!"

"You should know law enforcement has to do things like that," Kalin said coolly.

"Maybe in some ways, Crash Town was better without law enforcement," Amanda said. "People were left to their own devices and their private business was their own."

"And people like Malcolm and Lawton could just roll in and take over," Kalin said.

"Malcolm didn't take over for four years," Amanda said.

"Thanks to Radley and the Bunch putting themselves in the way." Kalin's voice was starting to fill with warnings. "They were the closest things you had to law enforcement."

"They never butted into what the citizens were doing," Amanda said.

"Hey, it was all we could do to keep Malcolm at bay," Radley frowned.

"And they definitely butted into what the citizens were doing," Kalin said. "Seluga was usually part of that. And yet you took him in."

"I don't have to justify myself to you," Amanda said.

"No, but we're going to have to come out and inspect your mining operation and see exactly what you need to safely continue," Radley said smoothly. "We need to do that now, before you mine any more dyne. If you don't agree to do it peacefully, we'll get a court order."

Amanda stared at him. "But . . . !" She clenched her fists. "I can't have that kind of bad publicity. Yes, you can go over with my blessing."

"Good. We'll see you there, if you want to be with us while we're looking," Radley continued. He gave a wave and turned to go.

Kalin smirked a bit. "Radley is very good at what he does." He followed after his friend but soon sobered.

Radley sighed and shook his head when they were outside. "That lady is becoming a serious headache," he proclaimed.

". . . And unfortunately, she's like I was," Kalin frowned. "I didn't want the police interfering with our lives in the Satellite. I thought we were better off without them."

"At least your police were mostly corrupt, as I understand it," Radley said. "We're not doing anything wrong."

"Maybe not, but it still feels surreal," Kalin said. "I railed against the police so much and now I'm one of them."

Radley chuckled softly. "There's that saying about living long enough to see yourself become the villain. In your case, you've lived long enough to also see yourself become the hero again."

"I guess so," Kalin said.

Radley smiled at him. "So let's get out to that ranch and do what we have to do."

Kalin nodded. "Let's."

xxxx

Neither was sure what kind of reception they were going to get that day. Radley texted the Bunch and instructed them to ride out too. They were pulling up around the same time Radley and Kalin arrived.

"So what's the plan?" Billy asked.

"We need to inspect the tunnels to see if they're set up properly for mining dyne," Radley said. "I'm hoping Ms. Bennett will cooperate as she said so we don't have to spend time on paperwork first." He frowned. "I'm very worried about the possibility of a collapse."

Kalin's eyes flickered. Radley often tried to hide it, but he still bore the emotional scars from when the tunnel in the mountain had collapsed and nearly killed Kalin. It was no wonder he would worry now.

To their surprise and relief, Amanda pulled up in her car and drove through the gate, leaving it open for them. "Alright, let's take care of this," she said brusquely.

They all followed her in, where they were met at the barn by Dave. "What is this?!" he exclaimed.

"They want to inspect the tunnels and see how we're mining, Dave," Amanda said.

Dave scowled deeply. "Can they do that without a warrant?!"

"They can if I agree to let them," Amanda said. "They're right, unfortunately. We can't do anything that might endanger everyone. We have to know if our set-up is safe."

Dave didn't look pleased in the least, but he didn't protest further. He just stomped off to the trapdoor and hauled it open. "Here, then," he growled.

"Thank you, Dave," Amanda said. She went down the ladder first and switched on a light. "Come on, all of you."

Kalin led his friends down the ladder and into what looked like an endless tunnel. Unlike the other underground tunnels they had seen, this one's walls and floor were being dug up. Several buckets of dirt were lined up in a row near the ladder, while another bucket held a few precious nuggets of dyne.

Radley took the lead now, as he was the most knowledgeable about mining. He frowned as he walked ahead, inspecting the walls and running his hand along one. "You're trying, but it's clearly an amateur effort," he said. "You don't really know what you're doing and things aren't secure enough."

"Nothing can completely prevent a collapse," Dave growled as he came down too.

"No, but you can do more about it than you have," Radley said. He took out a small notepad and started writing.

"What are you doing, giving us a ticket?" Dave grumped.

"I'm making a list of everything you need to do," Radley said.

Amanda read over his shoulder. "We'll have to do this," she said.

"All of these updates will cost money," Dave objected.

"If you want to mine safely, you'll still have to do it," Kalin said. "If you refuse, we'll have to shut down your operations."

"We need this dyne," Amanda said, "but it's not worth the men's lives. I'll find a way to raise the money."

"Good," Radley said. He walked on ahead.

An eerie sound met his ears and he froze, listening. Would it come again? In a moment it did, and he looked over his shoulder with a jerk. "Someone's moaning!" he exclaimed.

"That's ridiculous," Dave snapped. "It's probably the ghost coming back."

"No, it's a mortal!" Radley insisted. He ran off down the tunnel, following the sound. Kalin and the Bunch chased after him. Amanda and Dave brought up the rear.

"I don't understand!" Amanda exclaimed. "Who could it be?! Didn't everyone come up last night?!"

"Yes!" Dave said. "He's probably just throwing his voice around to make us look bad!"

"Radley wouldn't do that," Kalin snapped. He was still being reminded of himself with all of these attitudes. It was so strange seeing it from the other side.

Radley ran around a corner. By now the moaning was much louder and more disturbing. It seemed to be coming from a small, hollowed-out room to the left. He ran through the arched doorway and stopped short.

"What is it?" Kalin asked. Then he saw that Radley was staring at a burly man lying limply on the floor.

"It's Seluga," Radley said in disbelief. "He's badly hurt!"