Chapter 20

Pepper swung the horseshoe back and forth until satisfied with the smoothness of his swing. He let loose, and watched the horseshoe fall four feet short of the post. Pitching more than two and a half pounds forty feet made it a little difficult to judge just how much energy to put into a throw. Sometimes a horseshoe would just land flat and lie there. Other times it would bounce a couple of times before coming to a stop. Sometimes it would cartwheel past the post.

He shook his head and said, “I’m never going to get the hang of this game.”

Sam laughed at Pepper’s frustration and said, “It helps to have a few beers first.”

“Sam has this theory that when you’re seeing double, you can aim at either post, and the shoe will hit one of them,” Carl said with a broad grin.

John broke out in laughter while Sam said, “It’s true.”

John launched a horseshoe at the post. There was a clang and Sam’s leaner was knocked down. John’s horseshoe rebounded a couple of feet.

Sam said, “Hey, you aren’t supposed to do that.”

“Yes, I am,” John replied good-naturedly.

Carl threw his shoe and watched it stop dead a foot from the post. It had landed with a dull thud. The group walked to the far post and looked down at the shoes. Sam’s shoe was the only one within six inches of the post. Sam said, “I got a point.”

“No you don’t,” Carl said. “That point is John’s.”

“That’s my horseshoe,” Sam said pointing at the shoe.

“That doesn’t matter. It’s John’s turn to get a point. We’re playing rotation horseshoes — a point for you and then two points for us. You’re out of luck,” Carl said.

“Ha, ha! Very funny,” Sam said picking up his horseshoe. “Don’t listen to him, Pepper. We got the point. He’s just jealous because they’re throwing like girls.”

“So the score is three to four, right?” Pepper asked.

“Right,” Sam said, “At this rate, we’re going to be here until tomorrow morning.”

John said, “You guys are still up first.”

Sam let loose with a horseshoe and watched it cartwheel past the post. He shook his head and said, “I really need a beer. I really play a lot better when I hold a beer in one hand and a horseshoe in the other. It helps me balance.”

“Last time you did that, you threw your beer bottle,” Carl said chuckling.

“And parts of it were within six inches of the post,” Sam countered. He leaned over to Pepper and added, “They should have counted it as a point.”

Pepper stepped up to the line and tossed the horseshoe. It actually hit the post this time. He shouted, “All right! I hit the post.”

“It was bound to happen, sooner or later,” John said.

John stepped up to the line and tossed his shoe after an exaggerated approach. The shoe hit the post and careened away.

“Bad luck,” Carl said. “Let the master show you how it’s done.”

“The only thing you’ve mastered is bating,” Sam said. Even Pepper groaned at that ‘masturbating’ pun. Sam ducked when John tried to give him a tap on the back of the head. Carl tossed his horseshoe, and it landed well short.

Shaking his head, he said, “I don’t know what the matter is, today. I guess gravity is affecting my horseshoe more than yours.”

“That’s it! Blame it on gravity,” Sam said. “Heaven forbid that you admit you’re a lousy horseshoe player.”

“He’s just getting warmed up,” John said.

The four men walked to the other post. There was the short discussion about scoring despite the fact that Pepper’s shoe was the only one within six inches of the post.

Sam said, “Another point for our team.”

“What does that make? One?” Carl asked picking up his horseshoe.

“It makes it four to four,” Pepper said picking up his horseshoe.

He was having a good time. The game was an easy one to learn, but that didn’t mean it was easy to play well. He hadn’t realized that it was more of a social game than a competitive game. At least that was the way they played it here.

“Sally would have won this game by now,” John said shaking his head.

“Your wife is a terror with horseshoes,” Carl said. “How many windows did she break last game?”

“Two and that’s because you kept ducking out of the way,” John said laughing.

“Oh, yeah. I forgot about that,” Carl said.

Sam was about to toss his horseshoe when Sally came running out of the bunkhouse.

Waving an arm to get them to head over her way, she shouted, “Hey you guys. You’ve got to see what’s on the television.”

“What is it?” John asked looking over at his wife. He hadn’t seen her that excited in years.

“It’s the gang,” Sally shouted.

Pepper followed everyone into the bunkhouse. He froze upon entering the main room, and stared at the television. The news station was broadcasting an overhead image of the strip club. Half of the roof had caved in. Two cars were on fire in the parking lot.

Shocked by the destruction being broadcast, he asked, “What happened?”

Donny stepped into the bunkhouse and said, “Sonny was shot this morning.”

“Oh, God,” Pepper said turning around to look at Donny. He backed away to make room for him.

Sally asked, “Is he okay?”

“He’s in the hospital, and is in stable condition,” Donny said gravely.

Pepper asked, “What happened?”

“Sonny was talking to some detective when a car drove by. Calvin must have been distracted because he never saw the car until it crashed. All he saw was Sonny sitting on the ground with blood coming out of his gut,” Donny said. “I’ll find out more when I get there.”

“Our prayers are with him,” Carl said.

“Amen to that,” Sam said.

John said, “I can only imagine how your uncles felt.”

“Uncle Dan and Uncle Joe decided it was time to quit fooling around,” Donny said.

He looked at the screen, and the devastation that was presented there. The plan had been to blow the roof off of the strip club in the middle of the night when it was empty. They weren’t supposed to do it in the early afternoon when it was filled with gang members. He wouldn’t have wanted to be around his uncles, considering how angry they must have been to go that far.

He gestured to the screen and said, “As you can see, they quit fooling around.”

Looking at the screen, Carl asked, “What did they do there?”

“Hank blew up the roof, and part of the backside of the building. Dan and Joe took care of everyone inside the building. Hank and Calvin took care of everyone outside the building,” Donny said, shaking his head.

He hadn’t believed that they had gone that far. Even Dan had been in a state of shock. His uncle had repeated several times that he was unable to believe what he had done.

“Did anyone see them?” John asked.

“I don’t know. No one stopped them when they were leaving,” Donny said.

He left out the fact that they were disguised as homeless people pushing shopping carts. That had basically allowed them to walk right up to the gang.

He said, “They figured that so long as no one knows who they are that they stand a good chance of getting away. They paid cash for everything while they were down there, so there’s no paper record of them being there. As long as no one comes forward and places them in Los Angeles then it will be pretty tough to pin it on them.”

Pepper noticed that everyone was doing their best not to look at him. He knew what they were thinking.

He croaked, “I ... we know who they are and where they were.”

“I guess that it true,” Donny said looking at Pepper.

“I don’t think any of us would talk,” Pepper said looking around at everyone.

He knew what they were thinking. He was sure that they were all of the opinion that he would talk to the police and everyone would get arrested. He was uncomfortable at being the sudden center of intense scrutiny.

“I won’t talk,” Pepper said.

Donny said, “I guess time will tell.”

“What are they going to do now?” Carl asked.

“They are on their way home. They should be back in two days,” Donny answered.

Concerned, Pepper asked, “Is Sonny going to be all right?”

“I hope so,” Donny said.

“I know you probably won’t believe me, but I like Sonny. I used to think he was from a different planet, but I liked him. He was always polite and friendly,” Pepper said.

The tension in the room was almost a physical presence. It seemed to him that all of the camaraderie that had been present during the game of horseshoes had disappeared. He glanced over at the television thinking it would have been much better if the attack on the gang hadn’t happened.

Donny nodded his head and said, “Craig is bringing a truck around for me. I’ll be heading to the airport now to fly into Los Angeles, tomorrow. Craig will be in charge until I get back or my uncles get here. I want all of you to listen to him, and do what he says. Is that clear?”

“Clear as a bell,” Carl said.

“Yes, Sir,” Sam said.

“Yes, Sir,” John said nodding his head.