Simon
By noon the next day, they have already contacted Dave the Mechanic and General McClane and brought them up to speed on the situation. In addition, Cory and his brother have delivered the prisoner to their town to the sheriff for safe keeping. Reagan went with them to do a check on the Scarlet Fever kids, so they will still be a few hours before returning to the farm. He’d volunteered to go with her, but Derek said he wanted him on the farm until they returned. He’s also supposed to make another patrol ride with Samantha in an hour. They are riding routes three times per day now to keep watch. John already rode one this morning with Paige, who doesn’t even like horses. It doesn’t matter. They need all the hands they can get to keep the place safe. Herb even asked Sam to stay on for a few days to help out since Dave’s compound has so many more soldiers than they do.
General McClane calls back on the radio in Herb’s office right after Cory and Kelly leave for town with Reagan.
“We’ve arrested Sofia,” Robert tells them.
Simon is gathered with Derek and John while the others are out and about their chores, which is where they just were before Doc sent Huntley to find them so they could listen in on the conversation.
The general continues, “She isn’t talking. Seems to me that she has something to hide. If Simon’s hunch is correct, then we have a big problem. And Parker is gone.”
“What do you mean, Robert?” Doc asks his son.
There is a pause before he answers, “When the boys were up here last and discovered the people at Churchill Downs, Parker came back and then left before the boys left.”
Simon assumes that he and Cory are the ‘boys’.
“I haven’t seen him since. It’s been nearly a week.”
“Where do you think he could’ve gone? No ideas?” Herb asks.
Again, another pause. “I sent a group of men last night to check out the Churchill Downs location, and the entire group has been moved.”
“Damn,” Derek mutters under his breath.
“I’m also concerned that there could be other traitors among us here,” Robert continues. “I’m sending an envoy of my most trusted men with Sofia to Pleasant View where you can have your men question her. I don’t want her here. If Parker has figured out that we know, and I assume he has, then he’ll have someone kill her before she can be properly questioned and tell us helpful information.”
“That’s a smart move,” Derek praises quietly. He takes the lead and asks, “When can we expect her, Robert?”
“In a few hours. I’ve already dispatched the men with her,” he tells them. “I have two of my men trying to figure out if we have other moles among us. They already tossed Parker’s apartment and found other files. I sent them out to check on the emergency stash Cory found, and it’s mostly all gone. He must’ve been moving much of it over the past few weeks. I would assume once he believed the car dealer fellow was dead that he would be found out soon.”
Simon feels a certain, heightened level of frustration at their inability to stay one step ahead of Parker. He always seems to have the upper hand in this game of treachery, and Simon is sick of that. Plus, he wants to put an end to all of this so that he can get back to his normal life of fighting diseases and worrying about the coming growing season and figuring out how to win Samantha back.
“If he was in charge of the people at the racetrack camp, then he has moved them somewhere we probably won’t find,” the general says, continuing his theory.
“I agree,” Derek tells them. “Robert, we’ll send some men on patrols to look for them. I’m sure Dave will want to contribute to that, too.”
“I don’t know if it’s worth your time and effort, Derek,” Robert returns. “I doubt if anyone will find him.”
Derek looks at them and nods. “You’re probably right, but we have to try. We can’t let him make contact with the President. We don’t know what information he’s going to share. He knows your location, our farm’s location, Dave, the towns, everything. If he tells the President everything he knows, we could be ruined in a matter of days if he shows up with thousands of men to get the job done.”
There is a long pause as the general thinks about what Derek has said. Simon is doing the same. Derek’s right. The President could probably squash them all like bugs in a few days if he showed up with three to five thousand men or more. Simon’s heart actually skips a beat just considering all the ramifications of what this could mean. He could lose his McClane family, their practice in town, their friends, his sister, and Sam. The idea of losing her makes his heart skip more than one beat. It also turns his stomach sour.
Herb says to them, “You’re right, Derek. I don’t know how we could afford not to look for him. This man has been playing both sides of the aisle for far too long and has created more havoc than tranquility. We need it to stop.”
“Yes, we do,” Derek agrees.
“Stay in touch,” Robert says. “We’ll do the same.”
“Understood, son,” Herb says to him, and they cut the transmission. Then he turns to them and says, “We need to set up patrols and start a hunting party, as well.”
“Agreed,” John says. “I can take Simon and go now.”
Derek corrects him by saying, “Wait. Let Simon and Sam ride a patrol around the farm first. The top priority right now is the farm. It sounds harsh, but that’s just the way it has to be for now.”
“I’ll radio the sheriff in town and let him know what’s going on now, too,” Herb states and sits at his desk again. “And Dave and Paul, as well.”
Simon joins John and Derek out in the hall to give Herb some privacy.
“Simon, go ahead and leave with Sam now for the afternoon patrol,” Derek orders. “I want you to take a wide berth. Come out on the road down by the Johnson’s. I’ll radio Zach and let them know not to take a shot at you. He said last night that they’d join the perimeter patrols tomorrow. They’re finishing their fencing in their east pasture. By the time you get back, I’m hoping the others will be home, and we can lay out a plan of hunting this asshole down.”
“Yes, sir,” Simon utters.
“Take your time,” Derek says. “I want to know if this jackass or any of his minions have been on McClane land in the last week.”
“Other than the murder that took place a mile off of it?” John jokes with sarcasm and gets a dirty glare from his older brother.
“Just check everything out. Fresh tracks. Markings in the mud, scuffs on trees, broken branches.”
John stops him when he turns to go. “Be careful out there. Watch out for Sam, too.”
“Yes, sir. Wouldn’t dream of anything less.”
John smirks and says, “And try to stay focused. There’s time for all that later.”
Simon furrows his brow for the slightest of moments until it clicks. “Right. Yes, sir.”
He rushes upstairs where he knows she went earlier to work on something in her room, probably art. He knocks and waits for her to call out for him to enter.
“I knew it was you,” she says.
“How?” he asks, hoping she’ll say they are psychically linked or something.
“You’re the only one whoever knocks around here.”
He tries not to let his disappointment show on his face but feels his hope falter anyway. “Oh, right. Just trying to be courteous. Derek says we’re to ride a patrol now.”
“Now? Shoot, I was in the middle of something.”
“What are you working on?”
Simon steps closer and peers over her shoulder. It’s a fantastic sketch of Herb holding Mary on his lap. The side of the old white farmhouse is visible off to the right with Herb in profile in one of the rocking chairs with his back to the viewer. In the distance of the sketch is the big red horse barn. She must’ve just been drawing out the chickens and a few goats when he interrupted her.
“I’m going to add in some of the kids playing in the barnyard, too,” she tells him, looking up and over her shoulder at him from her chair.
“Wow, this is fantastic, amazing really,” he praises. He even has to choke back emotion as he gazes upon the sketch that so wholly encapsulates the farm and the life on it. Herb is the oldest living McClane, and she has shown Mary, who is one of the youngest. She has even included in her drawing Herb smoking a pipe, which is resting in his gnarly-knuckled grasp on the arm of the rocker. Herb’s hair is colored in grays and whites, the scruff of his five o’clock shadow just barely viewable. Mary’s black ringlets. The soft pink of her baby cheeks in slight profile. She has started in with color already. The red barn with its weathered siding that is faded and chipped in places. The new chicken coop that Cory mostly built. The med shed off to the right with the rose garden beyond that. Even the chickens have color, brown and white and black feathers that look as if they were drawn in with a single hair paintbrush. The detail is incredible.
“Thanks,” she says softly, her gentle face mirroring the way he feels. It’s not just a drawing of the McClane family or the farm or the finer details of farm animals. It’s their legacy she has drawn, and he knows it, and Sam knows it, as well.
“You drew his legacy,” he says openly.
Tears form in her eyes before she swiftly turns away from him. “I don’t know. It’s silly. I just saw Grandpa holding Mary the other day this way in his office. I remembered all the times I’ve watched him pick up the little ones on the back porch and hold them. It just…I don’t know.”
Simon lays a hand softly on her shoulder and says, “I know.”
“This all needs to end, Simon. We have to put this behind us. We have to secure their future.”
He knows who she means. She’s talking about the little ones on their farm, the little ones on their neighbors’ farms and the other children from town. They need a fighting chance. They deserve that much. They sure as heck didn’t deserve the hands they’ve all been dealt so far in life. They owe them this much.
“We will,” he swears, as she stands and faces him directly.
Her delicate brow creases with worry as she bites her lower lip, “What if we can’t, Simon?”
“We will. I promise.”
Sam doesn’t answer but nods. He rests his hand on the outside of her right shoulder just briefly trying to offer her some sort of solace.
“Ready? I’ll meet you at the barn in a few minutes,” he says, turning toward the door to leave. “Dress warmly. It’s chilly out today.”
“Got it.”
He almost has her horse saddled and ready to go by the time she reaches him dressed in her winter riding breeches and matching black jacket and stocking cap. He’s only wearing a thermal undershirt and flannel button up. It’s not as cold today as it has been, probably hovering near fifty degrees, and he doesn’t want to get too hot. His body has finally acclimated to the cooler weather of Tennessee versus the never-ending heat of Arizona. He doesn’t miss it as much anymore, either. Not like his sister, who often complains about the cold temps.
“Where are we going?” she asks and takes over by pulling the cinch tight.
Today, Simon tacked up her horse with a western saddle. She doesn’t need to be in trouble on an English one. She’s the best rider on the farm outside of Reagan, but the Western saddle is a better fit if they get into trouble out there. The English ones are more comfortable, according to Sam, but at least the Western ones have a big horn she can grab onto if she would lose balance.
“Wide perimeter this time,” he tells her. “It’ll take a while.”
“Oh, I wondered why Hannah packed us water and snacks,” she says and hooks her small, insulated bag to the saddle ring and hands him one for his.
When he turns back, she has already mounted and is waiting for him. Then they move out, Cory’s dog following closely. The sun hasn’t been around for days. It’s as if it, too, has felt the full weight of this dark, ominous cloud covering their farm and touching their lives right now.
As they plod through the woods, carefully searching trees for markings, the ground, and their surroundings, Sam puts forth a question for him, “How did you figure all that out about Parker?”
He shrugs, finding it difficult to answer, “Not sure. It was just a series of hunches and instincts that have been bothering me for the past few months.”
Sam snorts, “I mean, it wasn’t that big of a stretch. Parker’s a freak. But that was a lot to piece together.”
“True, but I never got the impression of pure evil from him. And that’s what he has to be in order for this to all be true. It’s hard to swallow. Even for me, and I’m the one with all the theories and ideas about him.”
“I don’t think they’re theories, Simon,” she corrects and veers her horse closer as if she’s nervous to be out here. “He is strange, but I think there is something dark within him. Maybe some people are just born that way. Maybe something happens to them when they are young that turns them this way. I mean, we’d know, right?”
Simon knows she is referring to the group with his aunt and the torment they were served by them on a daily basis. It causes him to scowl. “Right.”
“When I saw him that night in Grandpa’s office, it freaked me out. He was weird. Well, weirder than normal. He acted like I’d just caught him doing something he wasn’t supposed to be doing, but then Grandpa said that he was allowed to be in there. It was spooky. I kept thinking if he was able to come into the house in the middle of the night undetected like that to use the radio, then he could come in and do other things if he wanted to. And so could other people.”
This sends a shiver of surprise up his spine that slowly turns to budding dread of apprehension. She’s right. Parker just let himself in and went into Doc’s office. He could’ve gone upstairs and raped Sam. Or his sister, who he obviously lusts after. Or killed some of the men who were sleeping. Or set the house on fire. He might move into the house instead of remaining in his cabin until this is all over. The man knows his way around their farm all too well, and he could and probably has shared that information with others. Simon’s not sure who, but he has to have people around him that he trusts and has told about the McClane farm or their neighbors’ properties.
“What are you thinking about for so long?” Sam asks him, pulling her horse to a halt.
Simon also stops and answers, “I’m going to move back into the big house until this all blows over.”
“Why?”
“I’d feel better if I was there watching over…the house,” he lies and gets a sassy tilt of her head in answer as if she finds his reason unbelievable, which it is.
“I don’t need you to watch over me, Simon,” she says. “Besides, Parker has the hots for Paige, not me.”
“He won’t get past Cory or I’d be moving in with them,” he tells her honestly. “First he’d have to get past Damn Dog.”
“Shadow,” she corrects the dog’s real name with a grin.
“Right,” he smiles. “But you’re more vulnerable. You’re upstairs in that bedroom by yourself now.”
“I sleep with a pistol and a knife. I think I’ve got it under control. And besides, you aren’t moving into my room.”
He pauses, considers this, and has to adjust his seat in the saddle at the thought of being in the same room with her as she slept.
“No,” she repeats adamantly and wags her small index finger at him.
Simon chuckles, “I meant the basement, not your room.”
She stares at him keenly as if she’s not sure she believes him. Then she says, “I was kind of hoping you were going to say that Angelica was Dr. Eliza Avery.”
Sam says this very quietly and then risks a peek at him. Why does she always use her first and last name and title? She also always looks like she just tasted something sour when she has to say it.
“Dr. Avery? Why would she be Angelica? We’ve worked with her for quite some time in town with the sick children,” he explains with solid reasoning. “I would certainly hope I’d notice if she were some sort of evil villainess since I’ve been working next to her for so long. I know I’m not always the most astute person, not when it comes to you especially, but I’m not a total idiot.”
“Not most of the time,” she comments haughtily.
“Why would you hope it was Eliza?”
“Oh, Eliza, huh?” she asks as if she is trying to convey something he doesn’t even understand in the first place.
Simon shakes his head. Then it hits him. Maybe Cory was right when he suggested something to him the other day. “Are you…are you jealous of Eliza, Sam?”
She blows hard through her nose. Then does it again through her open mouth with a bunch of sounds that seem as overexaggerated as the huffing and puffing. “As if I’d be jealous of her! Get real, Simon.”
“Oh,” he says but eyes her with suspicion.
She chuffs with the same sense of drama. “Hey, maybe she’s still involved. Ever think of that, Mr. Super Smarts? Maybe she’s the real mastermind.”
Simon considers this quickly so that he can keep up. Nothing adds up in his mind, though. It makes zero sense, and he cannot tie her to any of it. He shakes his head.
“Maybe it wasn’t Parker. Maybe Dr. Eliza Avery is the real problem here. She could be hiding stuff and just fooling you because you’ve become infatuated with her. Ever think of that?”
Simon frowns hard. “Infatuated? No, I’m not infatuated with Eliza. My infatuation lies elsewhere. She’s just a colleague.”
“Whatever you say,” she says, pouting and turning away.
If he was a smarter man, wiser about women, someone probably like Cory or John or Kelly or Derek or even Herb or most men, he’d try to use this against her. Unfortunately, he’s just a dork without much to no experience with women other than Sam, and he never seems to get anything right where she’s concerned.
She trots her horse ahead and glares every once in a while over her shoulder at him. It doesn’t matter. She still looks like a character from a Disney princess movie. He just sends her a smile or a wave. Like a dork.
They don’t find any other markings or signs that people have been on the property or even close to it, minus the dead woman’s location, which he skirts wide and clear so as not to upset Sam. Isabella is now buried on the hill next to Cory’s sister and Grams. Herb said it was only right to afford her a proper burial.
By the time they have made their full circuit, it begins sprinkling. They end up trotting the last mile towards home from the Johnson’s, using the actual gravel road that has become a mostly overgrown path since they have had it blocked off for so many years. The oil well right of way, the same one they use to enter and exit the farm with vehicles is normally the way they take to visit their neighbors, too. Today, though, Simon understands they need to cover as much territory as possible. There are ATV tracks on the road, but he knows they are from Wayne Reynolds the other day likely confronting Parker, also on an ATV. It makes him wonder how many times Parker has been on their property or close to it or their town or Dave’s without any of them even knowing it. He slinks around like a snake.
“I wish this would just all be over,” she complains as they slow to a walk going down the steep McClane driveway.
“I know,” he concurs.
Then she hits him with, “I just want to go home.”
“You are home,” he comments, earning a sidelong glance of irritation from Sam. “Right. You meant Dave’s compound.”
“Yes, my home,” she retorts angrily.
“This was your home once,” he says, nudging his gelding closer to her mare. “It could be again.”
“No, my uncle is there. I want to be with him.”
The subject gets dropped unfortunately because Huntley races towards them on his paint horse, bareback of course.
“The family’s back,” he calls out before reining his horse to a sliding stop. “Derek’s sending people out.”
“Oh, good,” Simon replies. “We’ll be right in.”
“Race ya’!” Huntley says to Sam, who is immediately enticed. They take off leaving Simon in the dust. His horse responds as he knew it would by picking up the pace. It also recognizes that the barn is close and this means so is the end of the ride. He pulls back slightly, giving the horse its head just enough to canter but no more.
When he arrives at the barn, Sam is already inside removing her horse’s tack. Simon hooks his gelding to a single tie attached to a thick beam and also removes his saddle.
“I’ll turn them out, Sam,” he says to her.
“’Kay, I’ll store the tack,” she answers, obviously in a better mood after the race than when he was questioning where her home should be.
After he has sent the horses galloping away in the paddock to join their friends, he returns to the barn where he hefts his western saddle and carries it to the tack room.
“Hey, I said I’d do that,” she states, coming toward him.
“I know. I just finished before you,” he says and hands her the bridle. “There. You can carry that.”
“Gee, really heavy,” she jokes with a chuckle.
“That’s ok. You don’t need to do the heavy lifting, literally,” he quips.
“Yeah, seems like if you keep working out with Cory, you aren’t going to fit into your clothing anymore,” she comments as he places the saddle on its rack.
There is something in this comment that catches his attention, so he turns toward her with one arm still resting on the horn of the saddle at shoulder level. “You’ve been noticing, huh?”
“What?” she blurts with transparent embarrassment and turns away quickly to hang the bridle.
She puts it in the wrong place, which is entirely unlike Sam. She and Reagan laid out the tack room precisely the way they wanted it and expected everyone else in the family who rides to keep it that way. Neat and organized. Reagan is somewhat of a slob, so he figures that it mostly came from Sam’s penchant for organization and tidiness. Simon walks casually over and hangs her bridle where it should’ve gone but keeps his hand resting on the high hook. It just feels better to stretch out his shoulder muscle a bit. He and Cory got into a competition yesterday doing push-ups, and for the first time, he beat his friend. Now he’s paying the price.
“You’ve noticed I’ve been adding bulk?” he presses, wanting her to admit it. Paige has, too. She commented last month that if he kept it up, he was going to get as big as Cory. Sam has never seemed like the kind of girl who was attracted to muscles, but perhaps she is. If so, he’ll get as big as Kelly if it means catching her attention. He wonders if he could get his hands on some steroids.
“Sure. Yeah. Whatever. I mean, it’s totally impractical to build up so much muscle, though,” she replies with hostility.
“Why would that be?” Simon asks, genuinely confused.
“’Cuz, your clothes won’t fit. It’s not like we’re going to knit you sweaters to wear.”
“I’d wear one if you knitted it,” he reveals with a grin.
She pokes her chin in the air and says, “Then I’ll knit you one in pink with fluffy kittens on it.”
Simon smirks and chuckles. “I’d still wear it.”
She gives a funny sound, almost as if she is trying to growl at him but it mostly comes off as adorable, as usual. He taps his forefinger to the tip of her nose, getting a deep scowl. However, along the edges of that pursed mouth is just the barest hint of a grin trying to peek out at him. Simon can’t help it. He cups the side of her soft face briefly.
“We’d better get in there. The family’s waiting,” he remarks, snapping her out of her self-appointed staring contest.
She says nothing but turns in what Simon can only describe as a huff of impatience and struts ahead of him, every step an attempt to put distance between them. It doesn’t work. His stride is too long to be left behind.
Once they are gathered in the office with the others, Derek starts their meeting. “We’ve been working on this while you were riding and while you guys were in town,” he says to Reagan, Cory and his brother.
“What is that?” Reagan asks, stepping closer.
“One of the maps Simon brought back that he found in Parker’s office,” Derek explains. “We think the places he has marked aren’t something significant to us. But they were to him, though. He circled areas in red marker. We think this could be a clue. Remember before we thought he was marking highwaymen camps or trying to put markers on us? Well, what if he wasn’t? What if he was marking his own secret camps?”
“Shit,” Reagan says. “We missed that.”
Simon feels the same way. There are six red circled spaces on the hand-drawn maps of western Tennessee.
“This could be bad,” Sue remarks worriedly.
Cory snorts, “Yeah, for him. If that’s what these places are, he’s in trouble.”
“Think that’s why he fled? Or where he fled?” John asks the rest of them.
Simon answers, “I would think so. He realized I found the red files, or that one of us did, and he knew we’d figure out the racetrack. He was already acting strangely lately.”
“There’s an understatement,” Cory states with a laugh and is joined by others.
“Right, but he was disappearing a lot more than normal,” Simon tells them. “Even up at the base. He would go away for a few days at a time before he came back. Dr. Avery even noticed it. She confirmed it that Parker was leaving a lot and that he was staying away longer than usual. She said that a lot of the people who were on the supply run teams were even commenting about how much he was leaving the base lately.”
“He was either moving these groups, if that’s what these marks represent, or he was getting a stockpile set up somewhere for himself,” Reagan says.
“Probably the latter,” Simon comments. “He’s not the kind of person who would worry too much about people who were following him. He only looks out for himself. We’ve seen that time and again.”
“I would agree with that assessment,” Herb says and offers Simon a smile, which he returns.
“Simon, Sam, we’re sending you two this way tonight,” Derek says, pointing with a pen at the red circle on the map just west of Clarksville.
“Yes, sir,” Simon answers quickly and firmly and then looks over just in time to catch Sam frowning before she tries to disguise it.
“John and Kelly will take this one,” he adds, indicating the one just southeast of Nashville. They agree to the plan. “Dave’s going to meet you in town,” he continues. “I’ve drawn copies of the maps and the landmarks he’s sketched. I’ve tried to make them as clear as possible. John, you’ll get this copy to Dave and one to K-Dog so they and their men can check out a few of the other circled areas.”
“What about me?” Cory asks.
Derek shakes his head, “Sorry, man. I need you here unless Kelly wants to swap out.”
“Can we? I’d like to go,” Cory requests.
His brother only smirks. “Sure, bro. I’ll switch with you.”
Hannah says, “Good. You need a night off.”
Kelly just chuckles and tugs her close by slipping an arm around her slender waist. Hannah thinks her husband is going to spend the night relaxing with her. Simon’s done this, though. It’s not at all relaxing staying behind on guard with very minimal backup on the farm. There will be no downtime for Kelly tonight, not with the responsibility of the farm’s safety resting on just his and Derek’s shoulders alone.
Derek reviews the plans, gives everyone a notebook to make their observations on, and calls an end to the meeting. Then they have dinner, which is an unusually quiet affair. After the meal has wrapped up, they prepare for the night ahead of them.