Pariah Lafferty, Texas Ranger Ch. 5: The Investigation Begins

1045

On The Road

The list of names she was given was adequate for a starting point in Jesse's view. The rancher and his contact info were appropriately top of the list, followed by contact info for various power companies around Killeen and Fort Hood, the rancher's neighbors, and the numbers for journalists with the local news. It was a start for her, but she knew she could do better, but she decided to start with a visit to the ranch to see if she could get eyes on with the alleged source of it all.

"Do y'think its some sort of cover up? Whole thing be weird," Observes Jamie as Jesse drives the two of them to the ranch. It would be a bit of a road trip, but they were already nearly there. Fort Hood is a massive army installation its sprawling size necessitated by the training needs of both Air Cavalry and Mechanized Cavalry units stationed there as parts of the First Cavalry as well as the presence of an additional regular infantry division, the Third Infantry.

Much of Killeen bears a certain southwestern suburbia feel coupled with the city flair expected of a town married to a mainline military installation. The surrounding countryside is a mixture of mesquite forest, desert, and rolling hills covered with parched grass. The ranch they are going to visit on the backside of the base is a combination of the first and last of these.

Large grassy hills mounted with shrub trees and mesquite greet the eyes of the Rangers before the farmhouse owned by Jeremiah Garret. An old cowboy with a sizeable head of cattle, his estate is known to the locals as the Lazy J Ranch, his cattle all marked with a distinctive wobbly J that sort of resembled a curvy checkmark capped with a short horizontal line.

Jesse responds to Jamie's question after several long moments to consider a neutral but honest answer,"I agree its weird, but we're about to see for ourselves. If the military is still cleaning up after two days, we can take a guess."

Jamie nods at that as they pull into the driveway of Mr. Garret. The duo don their distinctive Texas Rangers cowboy hats and check their silver stars as they get out, each donning aviation sunglasses against the glare of the afternoon sun. Jeremiah steps out to greet them, a short and stout man visibly getting on in his years but quite spry.

"You here to run off those damned troops from my land? My family has owned this land as long as there's been a Fort Hood, and they ain't got no rights keepin' my cattle from grazing there this long!" Hollars the old cowboy, which he looks the very image of from hat to chaps complete with a six shooter hanging from his belt.

Jesse answers civilly,"I'm Sergeant Lafferty, and this is Ranger O'Connelly and we're with the Texas Rangers. I'm very sorry for the inconvenience of this situation, we're trying to get a first hand understanding of what exactly has happened."

The man pats a bead of sweat from his brow with a handkerchief as he answers,"Sorry for the greeting, misses." Pocketing the article, he recomposes himself before gesturing for them to follow,"I've got a few horses, I can show you near'bouts the problem. They got a perimeter stretched out with electric wire fence so I can't even see it from a hill. I seen it myself the night it happened, the next day they set'bout blocking it all off and won't even let me on the next hill from it. Weren't no damned bomb, was too big and weird shaped."

That last part gets Jamie and Jesse looking at each other as they follow him to a barn where he has a ranch hand saddle up three brown ponies to show them as a far as he can. Jamie asks,"Weird shaped an' big? Explain if y'don't mind."

The man leans against a post as the hand busies himself. He explains while packing a corncob pipe with sweet smelling tobacco,"Well, kinda hard that. See, bein' dark when I seen it I figure it might've been about fifteen or twenty feet and it left a bit of a divet if you catch my meanin'. I never seen a cruise missile, but that's the only sensible thing I can conjure other'n a helicopter, but I didn't see no blades or glass. Might've been one of them drones, seen one or two of them around."

Jesse nods, her expression typically neutral as she pulls out a writing pad to take notes as does Jamie. Soon enough the horses are saddled up for them to head out. Jamie's a little uncertain at first, the ranch hand having to help her so she doesn't fall but Jesse's done this a time or two herself though it's been a while. The prison she worked at had a horse patrol.

Saddled up, the man leads them out on their way. He fills them in on details about that night as they go, both of the women impressed by how little the reports actually told about what had happened that night other than the explosion and outtage. Likewise, they were impressed by how big his ranch actually was. It was a twenty minute ride before they actually got to the perimeter.

"Hard t'believe a Ranger that ain't hardly ever been in a saddle," the old man chuckles at Jamie as she grumps.

Jesse offers to keep them on task,"So this extends around the entire designated site?" She gestures broadly to the hastily erected fence, three wires staked out with posts hammered in every fifteen feet to keep out cattle and trespassers. She figured it was likely electric.

Jeremiah nods curtly,"Yep, and I wouldn't touch it neither. It works plenty good keeping my longhorns out."

Jesse hrms, and is admittedly impressed with the question Jamie asks for follow up,"You seen anything hauled outta here the last couple days?"

Jeremiah shakes his head, but offers,"I did see what I thought might be one of them transport choppers hover there yesterday. Stick around here a few minutes though, an' one of them soldier boys'll be along to ask us to git." He then takes a long puff from his pipe and the two Rangers gaze thoughtfully.

Jesse suggests,"Well, let's not loiter. I appreciate you taking us out and showing us this."

Jeremiah nods agreeably as he turns his horse to lead them back to the barn. "No problem, I'm not too fond of bein' asked to skeedaddle by a fellow mannin' a machine gun friendly or not."

They get back to the farmhouse in short order where the man shakes both of their hands. He's somewhat miffed at their admission that they don't know how much they can do to speed up the return of his land, but they part on cordial terms nonetheless. Within the hour they are back in the Ranger SUV and on their way back to town.

"So what ya think?" Jamie asks as they cruise along back to Killeen.

"I think we need to get a motel." Jesse answers noncommitally.

Jamie chuckles and shakes her head,"No, I mean about the assignment."

Jesse wipes her nose before replying,"I think tomorrow we'll start on the nitty gritty. I want to go to the airport first thing in the morning, then we'll go and meet with one of the power company representatives."

Jamie raises a brow,"The airport? They aren't on the list we were given."

Jesse exhales softly before she responds,"Of course they aren't."

Move topic to another board