Secrets of the Past II

Chapter 2

Max sighed.

"Alright," he said, "You'll all probably find out sooner or later anyway. That guy Scheckter, and whoever he represents, have been trying to get me to sell Pine Hollow ever since he first showed up right before the Atwood family got back to Willow Creek. And he doesn't seem to want to take no for answer."

"Yeah," said Maxine, "But is the first time he ever got threatening."

Matt grimaced.

"If I know him, and his boss, it won't be last time either." He muttered

"Speaking of which," said Mrs. Reg, "How do you know Scheckter and his boss anyway."

"Before I moved here to Willow Creek, I lived down south of here in a little town called Carver's Bend. One day Scheckter and his boss Carter Scanlon blew into town and immediately set about trying to get their hands on my old neighborhood all for one of their ethically and legally dubious business ventures." Explained Matt

"That still doesn't explain why Scheckter's afraid of you." said Tina

"I getting to that." Replied Matt, then he went on, "Scheckter and Scanlon are notorious for using threats and violence to get what they want. One day Scheckter and some of his goons roughed up my mother, as she was coming home from the grocery store, in an attempt to intimidate my father, who was one the people who wouldn't sell out. Well, I went a little crazy with anger when I found out and beat Scheckter within an inch of his life. He's been scared of me ever since."

Later that evening, Evie showed up at Matt's house. When she walked into his room, she found him sitting at a table putting some menacing looking arrowheads on his arrows.

"Uh, Matt," said Evie, "what are you doing?"

"I'm getting ready for Scheckter and Scanlon's next move. As soon as I finish this, I'm going back to Pine Hollow," said Matt, "I know how Scheckter and Scanlon work, they'll sneak back there after dark and start with a few 'accidents' as they call them. they did the same thing in my old neighborhood."

"Shouldn't you call the police and let them deal with these slimeballs?" said Evie

Matt looked very serious.

"Evie, there is something that I didn't mention before," he said, "When Scanlon moves into an area and sets up shop, one of the first things he does is get someone on his payroll with enough clout to keep the local cops off his back."

"Great," said Evie throwing up her hands.

Matt nodded.

"How did you save your old neighborhood?" asked Evie

"Well, the truth is that when I beat up Scheckter I did it in front of half the neighborhood and it ended up causing my neighbors to lose their fear of them. We joined forces and a managed to hold them off until we got a piece of evidence that we turned over to the state police. When they heard that the state police were after them, they disappeared real quick."

"So, we have to find evidence that Scanlon and Scheckter are up to something illegal." Said Evie nodding in understanding.

"Right," said Matt, "And until we do, I have to make sure no one at or connected to Pine Hollow gets hurt."

"You mean we have to," said Evie, she sat down across the table from him and began helping with the arrows.

"You got another one of those?" she asked pointing to Matt's bow.

Matt looked at her.

"I'm not going to talk you out of this am I?" he said

"Nope," said Evie, "I'm my mother's daughter."

Matt chuckled.

"Okay I won't even try to change your mind." He said, he jabbed a thumb over his shoulder at rack next to his bookshelf, "There's another bow and quiver on the rack."

Evie nodded, got up and a second later came back with them. Matt was already beginning to put the Arrows in his quiver.

Evie loaded the second quiver. Each quiver had 20 arrows in it. the leftover arrows they each had were place in a special four arrow quiver that was mounted on the bows themselves.

Then they went out into the back yard to Matt's personal archery range.

"Okay, Evie," he said "show me what you can do."

Evie loaded an arrow, took aim at the target, and fired. The arrow shot through the air and straight into the bullseye.

Matt looked at Evie surprised.

"Do that again," he said, "If you can."

Evie nodded and promptly shot another bullseye.

Matt looked at her impressed

"You're a dead shot, a natural!" he said smiling at her

"Something else I got from my mother," said Evie, "She was pretty good at archery too."

"Oh, I see," Replied Matt. Then he looked around.

"The sun's going down," he said putting his jacket on, and throwing his quiver over his shoulder, "We should get to Pine Hollow."

Evie nodded in agreement. She collected the two arrows that she had shot and returned them to her quiver. Then she and Matt started off through the trees. A few minutes later they crossed Diablo Hollow and reached the trail that led to Pine Hollow.

When they got to Pine Hollow, it was already dark. They could see a light on in the Regnery home and in the office.

"I think we should split up." Said Evie, "We can cover more of the stable that way."

"Good idea." Nodded Matt

"I'll take the Tack Room," said Evie, "You take the Hayloft."

"Right," said Matt.

As soon as they got inside the barn, they took up their stations. Then, they waited.

Matt texted Evie.

"They won't try anything until they're sure that everyone has gone to bed."

"Got it." Evie texted back.

They hunkered down and waited some more. A few minutes later the light in the office went off and they heard footsteps leaving. Then a little later, past 10pm the lights in the Regnery's houses went off.

Evie and Matt immediately tensed up. If Matt was right, they could expect trouble anytime now.

Soon Matt's hunch was proved correct when at about 11pm Matt's sharp ears picked up the sound of a car stopping at the end of the driveway, he heard the doors open and close, then four sets of footsteps.

"Evie," he texted, "They're here, get ready!"

Evie texted back a thumbs up emoji. Matt stood up in the shadows of the Hayloft. His pupils opened up and instantly he could see everything as plain as day. The door of the tack room opened a crack.

Four men appeared at the stable door.

"Okay, boys," said their leader, a burly man name Vic, "Scheckter wants us to leave the Regnerys a message."

He pulled a knife out of a sheath on his belt as he started toward Beauty's stall, "and I think slicing the tendons of some of these nags should do the trick!"

Just as he got to the stall door, an arrow pinned the man's sleeve to the post.

"What?!" he snapped startled.

One of his men whirled in the direction the arrow came from and drew a gun. But before he could fire, he was clobbered by the heavy tack room door being shoved open. He hit the floor as the gun went flying out of his hand and clattering under a bench. He made a dive for his gun but was stopped by Evie stepping on his hand. And the same time she fired another arrow that struck the third guy in the thigh. He hollered in pain and dropped to the ground.

Matt had vaulted over the hayloft railing and dropped to the barn floor cracking the fourth one over the head with the end of his bow knocking him cold.

Vic reached for his own gun with his free hand. He whipped it out and fired. It was then that Evie saw Matt's true reflexes in action. He twisted to the side with blinding speed and dodged the bullet. It smashed into the doorpost splintering the wood.

Evie cracked Vic on the wrist with her bow knocking the gun out of his hand. Then put him out of commission with an impressive right cross.

The gunshot brought everybody in the house.

"What is going on here?!" said Maxine as she and her father burst in front door of the barn with the rest of the family at their heels.

"Long story short," said Evie, "Matt and I came back and hid here because Matt suspected that Scheckter would send some men here to lean on you to sell Pine Hollow."

"Yeah," said Matt, "These jerks were about to cripple some of your horses and we stopped them.,"

Max's face flushed with anger as he grabbed his cellphone to call the police.

As Vic was being loaded into the squad car, Matt stepped close to him and spoke in a low menacing voice.

"Vic you tell Scheckter and Scanlon that if they send any more of their bullies over here, they're going to end up looking like you."

To Be Continued…please review