He did read the words on the plaques and presented them to the two boys to the applause of everyone in attendance and to the tears of their mothers. Lillian Shook came around the table and kissed each red-faced boy on the cheek and thanked them. Mr. and Mrs. Shook hugged the boys and also thanked them.
In her thank-you, Mrs. Shook said, “This is so much better than having to attend Lillian’s funeral. You boys are wonderful.”
The mayor had a punch bowl full of a fruity punch and a plate of cookies stashed in the back room. He wheeled those out and asked everyone to help themselves.
Jack and Billy Joe were still in shock from the honors they had received but they were able to drink several glasses of punch and to eat several cookies each.
Both mothers would break into tears every time the honors or the act was mentioned.
The mayor was very good at pleasing large and small audiences. That might be why he had been reelected every term for thirty-six years.
As they were about to leave the City Hall, four men entered. Two held large professional cameras and the other two held notepads and pencils.
“I was beginning to think you fellows were not gonna make it,” the mayor said. “Let me introduce them to you and each of you can introduce yourself to them as they interview you. Two of these men are cameramen and I really don’t know them by name. This fellow is Gordon McRae of the
Laurel Leader Call
newspaper. The other, as you all probably know, is Frank Black, of the
Progress Item
newspaper of Ellisville.”
The reporters interviewed some of the people separately and some in groups but they seemed to get the full story. After it all finally ended, Jack and Billy Joe’s families were saying their goodbyes at their cars.
“I have a confession to make,” Jack’s father said. “I feel very badly that when this all came up and I didn’t know what was really happening, I was too willing to believe that Jack and Billy Joe had done something wrong. There was no reason for me to have that feeling. These two boys have been excellent sons and very good citizens for their whole life. I am ashamed that I had those negative thoughts about them and I will try to change that in the future. I know that there could be no prouder father than I am at this minute.”
Both wives were crying again.
Billy Joe’s father said, “Jess has said it perfectly. I cannot improve on or even match what he has said. I will just say that I, too, will address them with more respect in the future. As for right now, I would like to invite both families to dinner tonight at a restaurant of Jack and Billy Joe’s choice. What is your choice of restaurants, boys?”
The boys looked at each other for a moment and they both nodded. Billy Joe said, “That’s an easy one. We want hamburgers and French fries at the Mecca Café in Laurel.”
“I give them a blank check and they let me off easy with hamburgers and French fries. Is there any doubt they are the greatest kids in the world?”
The celebration was, indeed, a happy one. The parents had steaks and the boys had their favorites, hamburgers and French fries.
The newspaper articles came out the next day and their effect on the boys was less than perfect. They had their hands shaken by every adult man they met and their necks hugged by every adult woman for a week. Their classmates teased them unmercifully so that all the two boys wanted was to go fishing and get away from it all. But that was all they ever wanted anyway.
Chapter Thirteen
The Ex-employee
As Jack and his family arrived at home, the car headlights raked across the garage door. Jack and his father both saw a man dart around the corner into the concealment of the dark. Jack’s mother, who was riding in the back, did not see him.
As Jesse parked in the garage, he told Millie to go on in. “I want to show Jack something.”
“Men’s secrets, huh,” she said with an out the corner of the mouth smile.
“Yeah, sorta,” Jesse said jokingly.
When she went in and closed the door, Jack said to his father, “I know that was Lige Garner and he was up to no good. What’cha wanna do?”
You go in and call the sheriff’s deputy, tell him briefly what’s happening and ask him to get right on down here. Try to keep your mother out of it.”
“Yes, sir,” Jack said and went into the house.
Jess started looking the garage over to see what had been disturbed. Two of the pipe tool cabinets were open and slightly ajar. He opened them to see what was missing. The first cabinet that he checked should have been full of large pipe cutters and dies. It was empty. The next cabinet should have been full of other tools, all very expensive, but it was about half empty.
Caught him in the act,
Jess thought.
He went on to check the other cabinets but they hadn’t been touched as far as Jess could tell.
Easing up to the garage door corner where he had seen the man disappear to the outside, he slowly stuck his head out to see what he could see.
Suddenly, there was a person right in his face looking back at him. Jess recoiled as did the man. Then they both lunged forward at each other. Both men fell on the grass of the lawn just behind the garage wall.
As a natural instinct, Jess tried to pull away but the man who was on the bottom of the two-man pile held him tightly. Jess pulled and tugged and twisted to no avail. He started punching the man in the kidney area but the punches were short and did little good.
Jess grabbed the man in a bear hug of his own and rolled. That worked but to no advantage. That only meant that the two men took turns being on the bottom.
Real fighting, Jess discovered, was not like it is in the movies. In the movies, it is an artful ballet. This was a clumsy and inefficient farce. Neither were having any advantage and certainly not winning.
Jess went back to punching the man in his kidneys knowing that sooner or later, it would have to have an effect on him. It did. The man released his grip. Jess jumped up, grabbed the man’s left shoulder and right arm and turned him over. He put his knee in the man’s back and pulled both arms behind him. With that hold, he was able to secure the man, more or less, permanently.
“You doin’ all right, Daddy?” Jack asked into the darkness of the backyard.
“Yeah, did you call the sheriff?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good, now turn the back door light on so I can see.”
“Yes, sir,” Jack said as he ran to turn the light on.
A sheriff’s car eased around the corner looking for the altercation that had been reported. As he pulled up to the garage, Jack came running out of the house and waved wildly at the car.
The deputy got out of the car and said, “Where was the burglary?”
“Here in the garage,” Jack said, pointing, “but my daddy’s got him pinned to the ground in the backyard.”
The deputy ran to the backyard with his pistol drawn and his flashlight in his other hand. “Mr. Jess, you’re too old to be rollin’ around on the ground like that.” He smiled.
“I’ll quit if you’ll take him, Willard,” Jess promised.
Willard laughed and said, “Let me slip these cuffs on him, Jess, and you can turn him loose.”
Jess eased off enough for Willard to slip the cuffs on the man. Then he helped Jess to get up before he lifted the man to his feet.
“You know this bozo, Jess?”
“Yeah, he’s Elijah Garner,” Jess reported. “They call him ‘Lige’ for short.” He worked for me for a number of years before I had to let him go. He knew right where all my expensive tools were kept.”
“Where you reckon they are now?” Willard asked.
“Around the edge of this backyard somewhere waiting for him to bring his old pickup truck in here to load them up later tonight. Jack and I’ll find ’em.”
“I wish everybody would make my arrests this easy for me,” Willard complimented Jesse.
“Well, the next time, I’m gonna wait on you, Willard.”
“Naw, you won’t, Jess. You wouldn’t know how to stay out of it.” Willard laughed. “I’m gonna need you to come down to the station house tomorrow morning, Jess, and sign a complaint on this fellow.”
Willard put Lige into the back seat of his patrol car and hauled him off to the lockup.
“You’re a good fighter, Daddy,” Jack complimented.
“Don’t you even think about saying that to anybody, you hear me?” his father said. “I stumbled into that fight and the only reason I won it was, Lige was drunk and a worse fighter than me.”
Jack heard his mother laughing behind him. “And,” she said, “we don’t want every young man in the county coming to take this tough guy on.”
“We certainly don’t,” Jess agreed.