"And the guy just drives off like he doesn’t give a fuck.” Keith joined in.

"Watch your language Keith ", Bishop Smith said under his breath.

Matt waited then said animatedly “Yeah right! And there ain't no other
witnesses at the truck stop that saw it. What the heck does he take us for? "

"He 's playing a game. " Mike said shaking his head, "It 's sick he just wants to get the reward money ".

"For fucking 250,000 fucking dollars he might have even paid some fucking guy with a grey fucking stationwagon to fucking kidnap her. Than he plays like the fucking hero and fucking rescues her! " Keith said angrily.

"He 's not getting one cent! " Bishop Smith said with conviction. "I 've got the police checking into it right now. ...But let 's keep very quiet about it. If the paper were to get wind of this they would be making him a hero before you knew it. "

Mike just shook his head. He had two little daughters and if anything happened to one of them, well ..he didn 't even like to think about it.

"This isn 't freaking Los Angelos, oh my heck this is Logan Utah! " Matt said raising his voice. "Pardon my language but what the heck is going on around here. I knew there would be trouble from the moment those faggots moved in! "

"Now Matt you really don 't know that.. " Bishop Smith started to say but he was interupted by Mike.

"Bob, I think it 's true.. Look at the color they painted the house. Look at the landscaping. And I even saw Michael put his arm around Rick once and head into the house. "

"We should have kept a closer eye on them. As Bishop of this Ward I should have at least had them over for dinner.

"That would have been the neighborly thing to do. " Matt nodded. "But you know what those faggots are like. They want to push their homosexuality in the schools and then they go and claim that they were just born that way ".

"Yeah, that 's a bunch of BS " Mike agreed. Mike was a big man who had worked at the railyard since he was 18. "It 's just another perversion. "

Keith had always admired Mike and wished that he could have been more like him. He only stood 5 '3 " and he had always been described as wiry. And he was already losing his hair. He tried to hide it by growing it long but it still showed..

"Maybe he 's not a total faggot " Keith ventured "Didn 't the doctor say that she had been fucking... molested? "

Bishop Smith turned a shade of red. Then tears started to run down his face. If he had only taken her with him shopping. She had rushed and gotten dressed up, and she had wanted to go with him. But he had insisted that she stay and finish her chores.. He could have brought along. He shouldn 't have left a 10-year old girl at home alone.

Keith was watching Bishop Smith. "How 's about we go for a walk around the neighborhood? "

"I was thinking the same thing " Matt agreed. Back in Wyoming they wouldn 't have let this sort of thing happen in their town. Heck, they always carried loaded guns around with them on the ranch.

Even though it was a Monday night, and it was "Family Home Evening Night " the neighborhood was deserted. But people might have taken their families out to a restaurant, or out bowling, or maybe even a movie -- but good ones were getting harder to come by these days.

It was a nice neighborhood. People weren 't rich but they took care of things and their pride showed. The older homes were covered with top quality vinyl siding, and their yards were also fenced with top quality vinyl fences. The trees were large and mature and the streets were wide and comfortable -- as Brigham Young had planned them to be. No doubt about it the Mormons were a people with
real style.

"Watch this! " Keith said, picking up a wooden baseball bat that was lying against a low vinyl rail fence. He picked up a pine cone, tossed it in the air, then, placing the hand back on the bat, he hit the pine cone squarely sending it sailing down the street.

"Don 't do that Keith " Mike reprimanded. "You could hit somebody or break a window. "

Keith tried to put on his most serious look "Michaels here. There 's his truck! "

"Well look what the dog drug in.. " Matt said heading for the truck. It was an older grey Freightliner, and there was a noticeable dent in the sleeper -- obviously caused by a "jackknife ".

"People like him shouldn 't drive " Matt said disgusted.

In front of the truck, in the strip between the sidewalk and the road, Michael and Rick had planted some feminine looking flowers. But Matt hadn 't noticed the flowers and he had walked over them to look at the dent on the truck. "Looks like he went and wrecked the truck " Matt pointed out.

"Matt you 're stepping on their flowers " Mike said. "Watch where you're walking ".

"Oh those " Matt grinned kicking at the flowers "They should 've planted grass here. "

"Hey, what 's going on out there? " A voice came from the house. Then Michael came out. "Come on.. you 're standing on my flowers. "

"Now you just calm down! " Bishop Smith said sternly to Michael. Michael sure as heck didn 't look like a truck driver. He was slim and he was wearing slacks, a button down shirt, and a dressy coat. He looked like he belonged in an office job. But then again he was a homosexual and homosexuals had a reputation for dressing a bit overly neat.

Matt stepped out of the flowers onto the sidewalk and cocking his head to the side asked "Where 's your lover boy? ".

Michael just grinned, he knew that Matt was just joshing him. "I guess you didn 't see the flowers. It 's no big deal I probably shouldn 't have planted them there anyway. " Then becoming more serious he turned to Bishop Smith "Bob, how 's Sally doing? "

Bishop Smith started to breath a little heavily but didn 't say anything and kept looking at Michael intently.

"You 're not fucking fooling anybody! " Keith said suddenly become a bit braver.

"We 're going to find out what really happened " Mike said trying to maintain complete composure. But he felt himself shaking a little. He hoped that Michael didn 't notice. Sometimes when he got nervous he would start to stutter. But he 'd had quite a bit of speech therapy and he had it under pretty good control.

"Look I hope there isn 't any sort of misunderstanding, and I hope that my living arrangement with Rick doesn 't make people in this neighborhood uncomfortable. And I can sure appreciate how much you 've gone through Bob.. " Michael said starting to put his hand on Bishop Smiths shoulder.

But Bishop Smith really didn 't like the idea of a homosexual touching him. And when he imagined Michael and Rick kissing it made him sick. And even worse he almost found Michael a little attractive himself. But he was trying to keep it out of his mind.

Bishop Smith sort of reacted and he kind of clobbered Michael in the nose when he hit his hand away. Michael stepped back and Matt caught him in the stomach with a punch that knocked the wind out of him and caused him to bend over. He saw Keith coming forward with the bat and he turned running into Mikes stomach with his head. Mike was knocked backwards but Bishop Smith had picked up a
large rock and he hit Michael square in the face with it splitting his forehead open.

Michael went down on his knees. Blood was streaming down his face and he seemed to reach for his pocket.

"Fuck he 's got a gun! " Keith yelled swinging the baseball bat at his head with all of his might. There was a sickening cracking sound and Michael fell back on the ground.

"Oh my g-g-god w-w-we sh-should c-call an am-ambulance. " Mike Stuttered.

"Heck, let him lie there for a spell! " Matt countered "He had it coming. "

Mike was still stuttering but he managed to call 911 on his cell phone. Under the circumstances it was the right thing to do.

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"Under these cicumstances we 're not going to charge you with anything" Sheriff Parker told them. "We 've had a number of reports that they have drugs in their house. These guys are bad news. We 've got a drug unit on the way with dogs. "

Sheriff Parker wasn 't bothered by the fact that Rick and Michael were
homosexuals, that was their own business as far as he was concerned. But the drugs were a whole other issue. Michael wasn 't going anywhere but he needed to find the drugs before Rick got away scott free.

When the drug unit showed up Sheriff Parker led them into the house. The house was very neat but he was shocked by what he found in the kitchen. Stuck to the refrigerator door with magnets were a dozen or so letters. Some were written in pen, others in crayon -- obviously by children.

One of the crayon pictures had, written at the top, "I luv u daddy! " below that was a picture of four labeled stick people "Mommy ", "Daddy ", "Kara ","Billy ", and "Kim ". Another similar picture had "Mommy ", "Daddy ","Maria ", and "Crystal ".

One of the letters in pen read;

"Rick,
It looks like we have a sale on the house. Marsha and her kids have been a tremendous help. But they can 't wait to move and see their daddy. I 'm sure that Logan is going to be fantastic, and we can 't wait to get out of LA! It 's great that Michael is letting you stay there, and that Marsha and the kids stayed to help us sell. We 're lucky to have such good friends as the Jenson 's. It may be a little cramped until we find a house of our own but things are going to be much better in Logan. Especially after you get your engineering business
going there. And I 'm sure that Michael is going to be relieved to get to go back to work as an engineer. I still can 't picture him as a truck driver.

Love, Wendy "

On the walls were pictures of Ricks family, and pictures of Michaels family.

Sheriff Parker was starting to feel a bit sick. He wasn 't supposed to use the phone at a crime scene but he didn 't care. He picked it up and called the hospital.

"How 's he doing? " he asked.

"I don 't think he 's going to it.. " the doctor answered "He took a serious blow to his head. But..we found an envelope with a card in it that I 'm sure he would want delivered to the Smith 's. It 's sort of a get well card for Sally, that seems to have been signed by his and another family. "

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Matt and Keith were seated at the Denny 's.

Keith was full of life "God it felt fucking great to stick up for Bishop
Smith! After all his family went through, we set things right! "

"Damn straight " Matt agreed.