"The Neighborly Thing To Do"

John drove his white Ford F-150 up the long, winding drive way. The drive was narrow and grass grew chest tall on both sides. With all the ruts he could tell that a tractor used this road as much if not more than any cars did. He just hoped someone was home.

The drive finally came to a clearing and where he found an old white washed farm house, a barn in decent repair, and a little shed about ready to cave in. Three tiny little dogs greeted him barking angrily as he opened his truck door. As he approached the porch of the house two huge Rottweiler dogs were chained and barking so loud he felt the vibrations in his chest. The house looked so rundown that if it weren't for the dogs no one would ever believe people still lived there. He knocked on the door. No one answered. He knocked again and no one came. Assuming no one is home if they didn't hear his knocks or even the dogs barking he turned to head back to the truck. Suddenly a young woman opened the door.

John offered her his hand to shake. “I’m your neighbor from just down the road a little way and I think you’ve got a cow loose. When I went to my mailbox I saw a cow just wondering along the side of the road and I knew who ever it belonged to would want to know.”

“Umm, what color is it? There are a lot of farms ‘round here. It could be anybodies.” She seemed nervous and distracted as she answered.

“It’s black with a white face and has a red tag in its ear.”

“It sounds like one of ours. All cows look the same to me though. This is my Granddaddy’s farm.” She kept looking back over her shoulder into the house as she talked. “It’s awfully nice of you to let us know.”

“Well, I just felt like it was the neighborly thing to do.” John smiled as he talked but he noticed the strange way she was acting.

“I’ll send somebody right over to check about it.” She was looking down at the porch and not at his face. It could be assumed she was lying.

“OK then.” John stepped back off the porch and threw his hand up in a parting gesture as he started back toward his truck.

As John rounded the corner of the house he saw someone standing over to his left and when he turned his head to look, THWACK, a baseball bat met him squarely between the shoulders sending him to his knees then down on all fours. He saw the tops of a pair of work boots then a flashing light before everything went black.

“What did you do that for?” The woman shouted.

“That guy’s a cop. I remember seeing him in court the day I was sentenced.” A large burley man in overalls answered.

“He was here asking about some stupid cow. He doesn’t know what’s going on.”

“Well, maybe he don’t but you were acting so suspicious he was going to figure something was up.” The man in overalls laid a shovel down next to the porch.

“What are you going to do now? We can’t leave him tied in the barn forever. Someone is bound to come looking for him.” The woman was about to loose what little cool she had left.

“I don’t know. He’s done seen you and he might’ve seen me or Jake. We can’t afford to take any chances.” He rubs his head with a dirty hand in frustration before he addresses his partner. “Jake, go pull his truck behind the barn. We’ll get rid of it after while.”

A shorter man in jeans and a red flannel shirt left and went to the truck.

“Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. I’ve got to think of something. Why the hell did you answer the door in the first place? He was about to leave.” The large man in overalls paced the floor looking nervously around the room.

“I don’t know. What does it matter now? I messed up; OK. I didn’t expect anybody to come out here. I just wasn’t thinking.” Tears started to pool in the woman’s eyes.

“You sure as hell weren’t! Now we’ve got a cop tied in the barn and all this shit scattered all over the house. I’ll have to do twenty years if I’m caught with all this. I’m not going back. Do you hear me? I’m not going back even if it means I have to kill that cop!”

The woman, started to cry, and spoke. “You never said anything about killing somebody. You said we were just going to cook up a couple batches and get us some spending money and we would be done in a couple of days. That was a month ago.”

“I know what I said but sometimes the plan changes. I’ve got to figure something out. I’m going to call Stan.” The big man pulled a cell phone from his pocket.

John opened his eyes and looked around; everything was blurry except for the pain in his head and shoulders. That was coming through crystal clear. What just happened? He wondered. The farmhouse, I got out of my truck and went to the farmhouse. The pain in his head pounded harder with each heartbeat as he tried to sort out the details.

“Hello, gimme Stan on the phone. I have to talk to him.” The realities of his actions were becoming clearer to the big man as he tried to come up with an explanation.

A crime boss wearing a solid white suit with gold rings on every finger answered the phone. “Stan here, what is it?”

“Stan, listen. We’ve got a problem. A cop wondered up here and acted suspicious.” It was terrifying the big man to have to explain.

“Did he see anything?”

“No, I’m sure he didn’t.”

“OK, what you need to do is get everything out of the house as quick as possible and we’ll just move the operation to another location. Do you understand?” Stan spoke in a calm voice. A person didn’t get to his position of power without being calm under pressure.

“Well, we have a problem.” He pauses briefly. “I’ve got him tied up out in the barn.”

“What, did you say he was tied in the barn? Did you stupid country bumpkins assault a cop and then, instead of killing him, you tie him up in the barn? Listen you hick dumb ass, that cop will bring the whole thing down. He will have that place crawling with cops and if it gets traced back to me, jail will be the least of your worries. If I don’t get to you before you’re sent up then I’ve got guys on the inside that’ll slit your throat! Do you understand me?”

“Yes sir. We will take care of it.”

“Good, now get rid of him and get out of there. Call me when you’re done. I’ll have my boys looking for a new location for the operation. I don’t want to have this conversation again.” The crime boss hangs up and turns to the thug in dark blue pinstripes and shiny black shoes standing next to him. “Tyrone, we have a situation. When the hillbillies call back, arrange a meeting and have the boys take care of them.”

“Will do boss. I’ll see to it myself.”

John looked around now starting to focus. He was lying on the ground in a barn. Stacks of hay lined one of the walls and various tools: a pitchfork, shovels, an ax along with gloves and some feed sacks were hung neatly on nails along another. His hands were tied behind his back and his feet were tied together. A rag that tasted like a combination of kerosene, sweat and dirt gagged him. He started to put the events that lead up to this point together.

That woman was acting very nervous. What did she think I had seen, or might have seen? This barn was obviously used regularly. Was she the owner? Was this her grandfather’s like she said? How am I going to get out of here?

It was now dusk. He was supposed to pick his daughter up after school. He missed her. What did his wife Tina think when she came home and the two of them weren’t there? Surely they called her from school when he didn’t show. He tried to focus on something to comfort himself with. Help with come soon. My family knows I’m missing.

Tina, John’s wife, was getting more worried by the minute. She has called John’s mom, his brother, their friends, and even the station just to see if he hadn’t got called in on an emergency. None of the neighbors saw him leave. He is no where to be found. In the seven years she had been a police officer’s wife this was the most frightened she had ever been. Her intuition tells her something is wrong.

John hears a diesel motor running. He turns to his right, looking through the barn boards he can make out a tractor digging a hole in about 50 yards away. He tries to see the driver but all he can see is a red flannel shirt. The hole looks to deep for any kind of crop that he knows of. Maybe it’s meant for him.

“Don’t we have anything besides bird shot?” The big man asks the woman.

“You are not seriously going through with this are you?” Her voice slurred from the three or four Valium she had popped to try and regain her composure with.

“We don’t have any choice now. The boss said we had to take care of it so we have to. We are in it way too deep to quit now.” The big man was trying to sound tough and confident but he wasn’t even convincing himself.

“Well, if you’re going to do it I don’t want to be here when it happens. I want to leave.”

“That might be the best thing. Let’s finish boxing up all the stuff and get it out of the house. It’s too risky to take it with us. We’ll put it in the hole too. We’re going to just have to take the loss and be done.” The big man was now thinking straight enough to form a plan.

“Do we still have to do it?” The woman asked, still buzzing from the nerve pills.

“He’s done seen our faces. I wish there was some other way. I’m not going back to that hell hole. I won’t be locked up again. I hate that it’s come to this.” Remorse was starting to creep in, it made him uncomfortable. He loaded the shot gun before he lost his nerve.

“Are you going to call Stan back when you’re done? We have to do something with that truck. Somebody will find it and know he was here.” She couldn’t believe she was actually talking discussing a plan for a murder and a cover up. She just wanted to make some easy money and just sit back and relax for a while on it. She didn’t consider herself a terribly bad person or a criminal, until now.

“We’re done with Stan. We have screwed up royally. Stan is not going to let us get by with it. After we take care of this little detail we are out of here. Jake’s got some people in Kentucky. Maybe we’ll head up that way. Right now I want you to finish putting the stuff in boxes and then leave. I’ll call you at the hotel as soon as we are done. OK?”

“OK.” And with that she gathered her things and left. After pulling out she felt the full weight of her guilt. She didn’t want to be a part of this man’s death. Sure, she had done a few things wrong but she had never killed anybody. She didn’t know if she could live with herself after tonight.

The big man and Jake took the boxes of paraphernalia and dropped them in the bottom of the hole. Now it was time. The big man grabbed the shot gun and put tucked it under his arm. They both took a deep breath and headed to the barn. It was now dark and a kerosene lantern lit their way.

Once at the barn Jake cut the cops feet loose while the big man held the lantern and kept the shot gun on him. John felt sick to his stomach. He was scared for his life. These two intended to kill him and drop him in that hole. He thought about his family. He saw Tina’s beautiful face and thought about how much he loved her. He thought about his children and the fact that he would never see them grow up. The plans they had made for the future would never happen. He and Tina would never walk on the beach together. He would never see his kids’ faces when they saw Disneyland for the first time. He didn’t tell his mom he loved her the last time they spoke. His mind is flooded with regrets of things left undone as he faces his own mortality.

The three made their way to the hole when suddenly lights and sirens pierce the darkness. A caravan of police cars sped up the narrow drive to save John. The two men holding him dropped their gun and ran for the woods once they saw the police on the way.. The woman’s guilt had gotten the best of her and she drove straight to the police station after she left. She knew she would have to serve some time but she would rather do that than live with the guilt of taking part in this man’s murder.

When Tina heard the news of John’s rescue she couldn’t get there fast enough. When she saw her husband standing in the field with the other officers she flung open her door and ran to him. Once John was back safe in Tina’s arms he held her close, kissed her and said, “What do you think about going to Disneyland?”