The Other Side of Lone Mountain

Chapter 35

Three days later, Mandy was ready to go back to work. She arrived at the office to find a big banner that read, “Welcome Back Mandy !” hanging on the back wall of the main office. Everyone was happy to see her back. Jeff stood up and welcomed her back with a big hug. “It’s good to have you back. Let’s go into my office and I’ll catch you up.”

“Yeh, what’s going on with Gill and his friends? Did you find out who he was working for?”

“He says he was working for Old Man Hickory’s oldest granddaughter.”

“Why would she be involved in something like that?”

“We don’t know yet. We’re still trying to find her. I’ve contacted her father and grandfather. We’ve told them we want to talk to her concerning the theft of timber on Lone Mountain. We told them we want to talk to her because one of the perpetrators mentioned her name. It’s gonna be interesting to find out why she started this whole scheme, if she really did. I can’t believe everything Gill says. We asked Gill why she engineered the scheme but he says he doesn’t know. When he asked her she told him it was none of his business so he never asked again. Gill says she somehow found out that he had been in prison and threatened to tell her grandfather if he didn’t help her, which would mean he would lose his job so he had to go along with her. At first that was the only reason, then he got use to the extra money and got greedy. First he went to the granddaughter for a larger cut, when she turned him down, he went to their client. He was the person Mark saw with Gill. Your father and Kenny found out what they were doing and threatened to tell the authorities. That’s why they were killed. They also killed a Forester who had gone up there undercover. When Mark accidentally came upon Gill and his client in an argument, he wasn’t sure how much Mark had heard and he didn’t want to take the chance that Mark would tell someone what he overheard. Then when you and Paul started snooping around, he knew that if he didn’t stop the two of you he was dead.”

“What about the four guys with him? What was their part in the whole thing?”

“They helped him bring down the trees and deliver the timber. They were also his henchmen. They did all the dirty work. He had met them in prison. Since he was now doing all the hiring it was easy for him to get them on the payroll.”

“The person I feel badly about is Steve. All the poor guy ever did wrong was to obey Gill without ever knowing what was really going on. He did not deserve to lose his life that way”, said Mandy. “Did you find out who he was selling the stolen timber to?

“Yeh, and you’re not going to believe it.”

“Who?”

“The town treasurer.”

“You’re kidding right?”

“I wish I were.”

“Have you picked him up yet?”

“Not yet, I’ve been talking to my brother and he wants me to hold off on that for a bit. Said he would explain later. That’s what Anthony was reporting to him about. He wanted to know what we had on the treasurer and what we were doing concerning him. He wanted to be able to stop us if found out about him.”

Now it was Paul’s turn to ask, “What are you going to do with Hickory’s granddaughter when you find her?”

“Don’t rightly know right now. I guess it will depend on what she tells us and if she really is the ring leader. I did find out from her granddaddy that she has some serious gambling debts and when he cut off her allowance she panicked and was trying to find some way of getting money again. Her creditors were after her for the money she owed them. He’s guessing that she overheard the treasurer talking to someone about starting a business and was looking for a way to get cheap timber; so she approached him with an offer he couldn’t refuse. From there it was easy to set everything up.”

Just then Jeff’s phone rang; it was his brother. He was on his way to see Jeff. “I’d like the two of you to stick around and hear what he has to say”, said Jeff.

“Sure, I’d like to see Kevin again”, said Mandy.

“I don’t have anything pressing to attend to right now either, so I don’t mind hanging around. I’d like to meet your brother”, replied Paul.

A few minutes later Senator Kevin Singleton entered the Sheriff’s Department. Everyone was surprised and wondered why he was there. They knew he was the Sheriff’s brother but they had never seen him visit the station before. He said hello to everyone as he continued directly to Jeff’s office. Without bothering to knock he opened the door and entered. “Hello Jeff”

Jeff got up and shook his brother’s hand. “Hello Kevin, it’s good to see you again. You remember Mandy.”

Kevin turned to face Mandy and held his hand out to her. “Mandy, you look great. It’s good to see you again.”

“Same here Kevin” she replied.

Jeff then introduced his brother to Paul. “Kevin, this is Paul Covington”-

“Of the Covington Farms Covington”, asked Kevin.

“Yes Sir’” answered Paul. “My father owns the farms.”

“Paul has been helping with the problem we had on Lone Mountain”, interjected Mandy. Kevin caught just a hint of something in her voice but he wasn’t quite sure what it was. Was there something more going on between them.

“Okay Kevin, now tell us why you wanted us to keep things quite. What’s going on”, demanded Jeff.

“Well, it all started with a call from the Mayor. He suspected that the Treasurer was dipping in the City’s funds but couldn’t prove it. He didn’t want to start a scandal that could have destroyed a man’s career if it turned out to be a false accusation, not to mention what it would do to the town, so he asked me to see what I could find out and to help keep it quite until we were able to find the truth. The first thing that happened was that my man caught him talking with Gill one day up on the mountain.”-

“Wait a minute” interrupted Paul, “are you saying that Mark was working for you?” “Yes, I’m sorry about what happened to him. And please, don’t get mad at him for not telling you because I specifically asked him to tell no one.”

“My best friend almost lost his life up there!”

“I know, and as I said, I am sorry. I did tell him what was involved and that it could be dangerous, but he was still willing to do it.”

“What about the investors, are they real investors”, asked Paul.

“Yes they are and they are very much interested in your suggestion about the other side of the mountain. But anyway, that was the first report. We then began delving into his other activities and found that he had purchased a sawmill under a false name and was buying stolen timber from Gill. Like you, I knew that Gill couldn’t be the one who started this little scheme so I asked the Director of Forestry to send one of his men under cover. I found that they had also been investigating timber theft on that mountain as well and that they had already lost one man.”

“Then that’s why you told them to stop their investigation, right” asked Mandy.

“Yes, I didn’t want anyone else to be hurt or killed. I also knew that Jeff could handle the situation discreetly even though I couldn’t tell him why it was necessary at the time. I wasn’t aware at the time that Paul was involved. But I’m glad that you were here for Mandy, Paul. From what Jeff tells me you saved our little sister’s life. She’s very special to us.”

“Well she’s very special to me also, sir.”

“Please drop the “sir”; call me Kevin that’s what all my friends call me. Now to continue, where was I? Oh yes, we checked out all his contacts and found that he had been talking with Old Man Hickory’s granddaughter just before the thefts began, so we figured she had to be his contact. We then checked out his bank account and found his account showed a lot of deposits and withdrawals. More than usual and the amounts surpassed his salary as City Treasurer. The deposits were for the same amounts that were missing from the Treasury accounts.”

“What did my deputy have to do with all this”, asked Jeff.

“Anthony was my eyes and ears here at the station. I needed to know how close you were coming and to make sure nothing went wrong. He got scared for his job when you caught him going through the reports. I assured him that I would square it with you and not to worry. He’s a good cop.”

“I knew none of these guys would do something against the law”, chimed Mandy.

“Well where do we go from here”, asked Jeff. “Well the FBI has already picked up the City Treasurer. I think he’ll go away for a long time. I think it’s time to pick up Miss Hickory and finish this little fiasco for good.”

“Poor Mr. Hickory, that family has always been so good to this town and now we have to send his granddaughter to jail”, said Mandy.

“Old Man Hickory loves all his children and grandchildren, but he also believes in honesty and believes in justice being served, even if it involves one of his. So Paul, what are you going to do now that this is all over” asked the Senator.

Paul looked at Mandy then turned back to Kevin. “I’d like to invite you and Jeff to Sarah’s Bed and Breakfast this evening because Mandy and I have something to tell everyone and we want her mother to be present.”

“What time?”

“We’ll get back with you, will you be at Jeff’s?”

“Yes, I figured since I’m in town I’d see Karen and the kids and spend some time with them before I return to Washington.”

“I have to tell you guys this because it’s almost spooky”, said Mandy. “You know Miss Melly; well she seemed to know what was going on before any of us did. She made a statement a while back about some people having authority they didn’t deserve. Well our Treasurer surely was given authority he didn’t deserve. How do you think she knew that?” “They all looked at each other and then started laughing.” “What!” asked Mandy.

“Mandy, you know Miss Melly is shall we say a little strange at times” laughed Jeff.

“Well I guess it was just a lucky guess”, conceded Mandy.

“Jeff” said Paul, “I hope you don’t mind if Mandy takes off a little earlier, we have lots to do before this evening.”

“No you two run along.” Jeff turned to his brother after they had left and said, I have a feeling we’re going to see a lot more of Paul around here.”

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