Gone (Michael Bennett)

over there.”
    “What are they going to do when he gets there? Hold hooves and go bowling or something?” Trent asked, beginning to really crack up.
    Great. Here we go , I thought. It was too early in the morning for cows and bulls, let alone the birds and the bees.
    “Something like that, Trent,” I chimed in before Cody could explain things in more minute detail. “Look at the time. Last one back in the truck is a rotten Homer!”

CHAPTER 27
     
    AS WE WERE BUMPING our way back to Aaron Cody’s farmhouse, towing the four-footed, twenty-five-hundred-pound bachelor of the month behind us, I noticed on my phone that I’d missed a couple of calls.
    I blinked at the screen, not knowing what to think. I didn’t get many calls these days. Actually, I guess I had a bit of an idea. Both of the calls were from the same person, Emily Parker of the FBI.
    I wanted to call her back right there and then, but I knew I needed some privacy. My little, and not-so-little, Bennett pitchers had big ears, and if it was something important, I didn’t want to get everyone riled up. Or more riled up than usual.
    When we met back up with Seamus and the girls, who were done with the milking, I told Mary Catherine that I was going to walk the mile and a half of country road back to our house.
    “Any particular reason for the sudden return to nature?” my sharp-as-a-tack nanny wanted to know.
    “Just need a little exercise,” I said.
    “Is that right?” Mary Catherine said, her blarney detector obviously going off like gangbusters. “Whatever you say, Mike.”
    Gravel sprayed as she drove away with my brood. I slipped my phone out of my pocket as the car crested the hill.
    “Mike,” Emily answered on the second ring. “I assume you’ve heard what happened.”
    “Assume I live with cows, Parker,” I said. “I couldn’t be more out of the loop if I tried. What’s up?”
    She proceeded to tell me about the previous night’s amazing events in Los Angeles. A half-dozen men with automatic rifles had opened fire in a suburb east of the city. Two LA County narcotics detectives, along with four members of a notorious Vietnamese gang, had been murdered in the middle of a busy street.
    I hadn’t even begun to digest that when she told me about the even bigger news, the home invasion and murder of the celebrity rapper King Killa and singer Alexa Gia.
    “I’m at the home invasion right now, Mike. It’s the same exact M.O. as with the mobster in Malibu. The victims were poisoned with the same still-unknown substance, through the ventilation system. I’ve been to crime scenes, but never in an astronaut suit borrowed from the Centers for Disease Control.”
    “So it’s Perrine,” I said.
    “No question. The Vietnamese and the rapper both had strong ties to the drug trade. Perrine has some kind of elite paramilitary hit team treating LA County like it’s a war zone.”
    “It sure seems like it,” I said. “So how do I fit in?”
    “Don’t be obtuse, Mike. My phone’s been ringing off the hook. The director himself wants you put on this now, more than ever. We need you to come back. Perrine needs to be stopped. He needs to be found—not tomorrow, but now.”
    I let out a breath as I kept walking. I looked out at the miles and miles of Cody’s completely empty, tan-colored land. The reddish mountains in the distance beyond. For all my griping, we were safe here. Being in the middle of nowhere had its benefits.
    “Mike? Hello? Are you still with me?”
    “What about my family, Emily?” I said. “You know the price Perrine has put on my guys. I go traipsing out hither and yon, looking for this bastard, who’s going to watch my family? I can’t risk something happening to them if I’m not here. I won’t do it.”
    “Please, Mike. Perrine is outgunning us, outthinking us. Screw the bureau. I need your help. Can’t you come down and just talk with our people, at least for the sake of morale? I’ll get them to fly you down, you give a pep talk, and I’ll have them fly you back. You’ll be gone two days. I promise.”
    I let her hang for a few seconds.
    “I’ll call you back,” I said, and hung up.

CHAPTER 28
     
    “OK, FAMILY MEETING!” I yelled when I finally made the last country mile back to the farmhouse. “Listen up, people. I need to talk to you.”
    I poked my head into the kitchen and saw all my guys already arrayed around the kitchen table. They were all staring at me, too. I was waiting for