The Secret of Hoyt's Farm : Chapter 7
#7 of The Secret of Hoyt's Farm
Chapter 7 :
The Raid
"Hold up..." Sophie said, lifting the yoke off her shoulders and letting it drop to the ground behind her, "We got a stone here. Looks like a big one."
She and Annabelle and been plowing this acre of land for more than a week now, and it was tough going. The soil had been pasture for the better part of a century, and it was as fertile as land could be thanks to countless generations of cattle shitting all over it. Unfortunately it was also full of large rocks, which meant they had to plow by hand and remove them the hard way. The one they were looking at now was the size of the tire off a large truck. While they did have a small tractor and a few implements for it, stones like this one would have eaten it up.
Annabelle handed Sophie a shovel and went off to fetch the wheel barrow while the larger woman started digging it out. It wasn't the first time they had done this sort of work in the years since the change. Sophie pulled the old plowshare while scanning for obstacles, with Annabelle behind keeping it upright and straight. It was hard work, but it was honest and the pair couldn't imagine wanting to do anything else.
"About three hundred and fifty, I'd guess." Sophie had dug enough out around it now to squat down and lift it out of the dirt, gauging its weight. Too much bigger and she wouldn't have even tried to lift it out by hand, but this was well within her ability, "It's a good one for the rock wall."
"Definitely." Annabelle said with a nod, setting the barrow down in front of her. The wall was just a side project. They'd been building it out behind the graveyard to separate it from the creek for no other reasons than it looked good and it felt like a place where their people were buried deserved some attention. That and they had a surplus of rocks, "I think we're going to get her finished this year, sugar."
Sophie smiled and gently placed the over-sized stone in the barrow, then moved around to take it up by the handles. Annabelle probably could have carried it off herself this way, but it would have been difficult. She was a strong girl, but Sophie was a giant. She lifted it easily, and started to wheel it away.
She only got about a dozen steps before she stopped and turned her head, one of her ears twisting back to listen carefully. After a moment she dropped the barrow.
"Shit..." She said, starting across the field at a quick pace, "Get Henry, Annabelle. The Sheriff is coming."
Annabelle paused only briefly in surprise, then took off running to the barn. Sophie quickly made her way out toward the main road, hopping the fence just as the Sheriff's car was pulling up the drive.
The man that got out was about Henry's age, but a lot more grey and strong as an ox despite being a little more on the portly side. His neck was almost as wide as his head, giving him a look less like a man and more like a roided up potato. He'd been driving fast to get here. Mind you, he always drove fast since no one was about to pull the Sheriff over for speeding, but this was fast even for him.
"Reggie..." Sophie said, walking towards him slowly, "How are you now?"
"Not so bad, Sophie..." He said, sticking his thumbs in his belt, "And you?"
"Can't complain, I think." She said, folding her arms over her chest, "That about to change, Reg?"
"Might be..." He said slowly, looking around her as he saw Henry now making his way up the dirt road at a quick pace, Annabelle and Megan in tow, "Might be..."
Henry was a little less concerned with pleasantries as he got within earshot, calling out as he approached, "What's going on, Reggie? You don't show up here without a reason."
"True enough, Henry. Cain't be seen hanging around places like this. I'm an elected official, after all." It didn't answer Henry's question, but Reggie waved him off before he could ask it again, "You got about six officers and a city councilman bearing down on you with a warrant, thirty three. Just wanted to get out here before them to give you the heads up."
"Thanks, Reggie. I appreciate that." Henry nodded with a heavy sigh. Reggie's full name was Reginald Wells, and the two had gone to school together once upon a time. He still had an annoying habit of calling Henry 'thirty three', which was his old jersey number from their football days, "I think we're ready for them. Shouldn't be a problem."
"Are we?" Megan asked, clearly worried, "Henry..."
"You need to trust me, Megan." He said, turning to give her a reassuring smile, "Just let me handle it, okay?"
It would have been perfect timing if the other officers had shown up just then, but sometimes things just don't fit together that perfectly. The group stood around awkwardly in silence instead, waiting for something to happen.
"So how's the wife?" Henry finally asked, trying to break the tension.
"Great! Livin' it up with her boy toy on my dime in Florida now!" he said with a sneer, "Thanks for asking!"
"Sorry, Reg... I hadn't heard." Henry winced, "If it makes you feel any better, I never liked Nancy. Thought you could do better."
"Appreciate that, thirty three." He replied, shaking his head slowly, "Shoulda followed your lead. Never marry right out of high school."
To everyone's relief they finally heard the sound of several vehicles coming up the road, which was an odd thing to be relieved by since it was a police raid. They were coming up fast in a tight line, and upon reaching the farm all skidded to a stop in a pattern designed to blockade the exit road. It was all very dramatic, and in direct contrast to how casually Henry and everyone else watched them do it.
"Officer Wells?" A man in a suit, covered in a bullet proof vest yelled as he jumped out of the passenger side of one of the police cars, "Just what the hell are you doing here?"
"That's Sheriff Wells, thank you very much, and I'm waitin' on you lot. That warrant was issued two hours ago." He said with a grunt, watching about eight officers pile out of their vehicles all looking like they were armed to take on a Mexican drug cartel, "Jesus, Pete... It's just a damn dairy farm. Did you leave anything in the armory?"
The one he called Pete gave him a look, but then moved forward toward Henry holding out a stack of papers, "Mr. Hoyt, we have acquired a warrant giving us the right to search your property at seventeen fifty one Lee road. Any attempts to hinder us during this search will be considered a crime in the eyes of the law."
Henry nodded calmly, taking the papers to look them over, "Well that'd be the houses to your left and right, so feel free. Try not to scare Cassidy too much in the one on the left there, would you? She's a nice girl."
"You two, take the main house... You two, the other one." He started barking out orders. He really didn't have any right to be leading an investigation this way. It really wasn't in his purview as a councilman, "You four with me in the barn."
"Well now, wait a minute..." Henry said, still looking over the paperwork curiously, "This doesn't give you the right to search the barn."
"I think you'll find it does, Mr. Holt." The man said with a smug little smirk, "We have the right to search all of your holdings at this address."
"At seventeen fifty one, yes." Henry turned toward the barn about football field away down the dirt road, and he pointed at it, "It's kinda hard to make out from here, but I think you'll find that little white plaque on the side of the building there says seventeen fifty three. It's a whole other property."
"What?" Came the shocked reply, "That's not..."
"We subdivided it years ago to separate the business from the homestead for tax reasons." Henry went on, noticing Reggie was grinning like an idiot now and leaning up against his car, "Sorry to disappoint you, Mr... What did you say your name was?"
"Walters..." Came the reply, the man now red faced and angry, "Councilman Walters."
"Nice to meet you sir." Henry said, still polite as can be as he held up the paperwork, "Tell you what... Looks like you put a lot of effort into this. Why don't I just give you the tour anyway? Save you the trouble of getting another one."
The officers and Walters all went quiet. They hadn't expected that, and neither had Megan. She noticed the Sheriff was still there smiling like he knew something she didn't, and it may have been the only thing that kept her quiet.
"Follow me. Bring a couple officers with you." Henry said, motioning for them to do so as he started toward the barn, "We can clear this all up, I think."
Megan watched as Walters, the Sheriff and two of the other cops went after him, then she and Sophie a few yards behind. She leaned in to whisper, "What is he doing? If they go in there..."
"He's controlling the investigation." She whispered back with a reassuring smile, "Don't worry, Megan. We've got this."
Henry turned around, walking backward with his hands out as the group entered the barn, "I'd ask you not to touch anything. We produce milk here that is for human consumption, so we take sanitation very seriously."
The three that had never been in here before looked around excitedly, but were clearly disappointed by what they found. Walters finally spoke after they'd taken stock, "The cabinets... What's in those?"
Henry just nodded, moving over to open Clairibelle's. Megan's stomach nearly jumped out of her throat. She knew what was in there. Out of all the girls she had the most sex toys. Dildos, vibrators, and of course her sizable collection of butt plugs. But he swung the door open without hesitation to let everyone see what was inside.
Lotion. A couple boxes of tissues. A small handheld game device.
Henry picked up the lotion, "Being milked twice a day can cause some chafing, as you might imagine. Plus they spend longer at it, so they each have their ways of passing the time."
One by one then he went around the room, opening each cabinet to reveal things that Megan had never seen before. Rosie's had an old style CD player with some headphones. Jasmine's was full of books. It was all pretty basic stuff, clearly staged to give the impression that nothing naughty was going on in here.
Walters had already given up on that, walking over to the table where the sterilized glass cups were all stored in plastic bags on a shelf and pointing at them, "And these? What are these?"
"Please don't touch. We keep them clean." Henry said, moving over to the councilman's side now to pick one up and hold it so he could see, "The old teet cups just didn't make much sense, you understand. They were made for a whole other kind of cow. These were made to be more comfortable for the girls."
Walters eyes went wide for a moment, and he smiled wickedly. In his mind he had just discovered something significant. Knowledge that the people paying him had done so to gain, "I see... And this helps with your production?"
"It helps keep everyone happy." Henry said with a smile, "That's all we're trying to do here, Mr. Walters. Keep the farm going, and enjoy ourselves doing it."
The councilman nodded, his mind spinning with the secret he believed he had just discovered. Megan couldn't blame him. It was what she had thought before they had revealed the real secret to her.
"How about a demonstration." Henry finally said after a long silence, "Sophie, would you mind?"
Sophie had already started unbuttoning her shirt, throwing it open to let everyone gathered have a good look at her breasts, "Sure, Henry. Sounds like a good idea."
One of the two officers looked away in shock, while the younger one just stared with his eyes wide. They were massive, well formed and with only as much sag as they'd earned and deserved. She just let them look, but Walters had already all but left the building.
"I think we have a good idea how things are here, now." He said, walking briskly towards the door. The officers followed, though the older one had to grab his mesmerized partner by the arm to drag him out, "Thank you, Mr. Hoyt. You've been very forthcoming."
Once they were gone, Wells just lost it.
"Dammit, Sophie..." He said, still laughing, "Put those away before you give someone a heart attack!"
She gave them a little shake instead, smiling back at him, "Don't act like you don't like it."
"Jesus..." Megan gasped. She'd barely been able to contain herself during all this, and now it just came tumbling out, "I thought they were going to find out!"
"Megan..." Henry said, nervous for the first time since this had all started.
"Don't worry, thirty three." Wells said before he could continue, "I know you got more going on here than that, and I don't care what it is. I've known you for too long to think it would be something bad."
Henry nodded, smiling at his old friend, "Thanks, Reg. That means a lot."
"Don't mention it." The Sheriff waved him off, turning to leave himself, "And Sophie?"
"Yeah, Reggie?" She replied.
"I'm changing my will." He said turning with a smile before he went out the door, "When I die, I want to be buried between those knockers."
She laughed as he left, finally starting to button up her shirt, "He's good people, Henry. We're lucky he's here."
Megan just shook her head, still trying to process what happened, "No one was in here. Who switched out all the stuff?"
"Jasmine is a smart girl. Not all of her ideas are particularly useful, but..." Henry smiled, moving over to the shelf where all the cups were kept and reaching underneath it to flip a hidden switch. Just as quickly the inventory of all the cabinets started to rise up and out of view, the shelving containing all the sex toys she was familiar popping up from below to replace them, "Every once in a while she has a stroke of genius."
Megan just shook her head, "I'm still so confused."
"It's about controlling the narrative, Megan." Henry said, walking back to her, "They've seen the inside of the barn now, but they did it on our terms."
"We've been rehearsing this little stage play for years." Sophie added, coming over to put a hand on Megan's shoulder, "We probably should have let you in on it, but it just never came up."
"And the only thing we lost..." Henry said with a sigh, "Is information which will make the competition treat their girls better. If only a little."
Megan looked up at him, tilting her head curiously "Elsie said... She said you've seen it? The way they keep them?"
He nodded, a look of sadness coming across him now, "I have. It wasn't good."
They all went silent, then Sophie finally sighed and turned away, "I need to get back to work before Annabelle gives herself a hernia trying to move the rock we just pulled."
They watched her leave and then the silence fell again. Megan watched him. He was lost in thought, remembering the horrors he'd seen at Wolfkill. The girls in cages. The indifference of their owners. The scars...
She stepped forward, put her hand behind his neck to pull him down...
And she kissed him.
It wasn't long. Just enough to wake him up and bring him back to reality.
"Megan..." He said, the surprise clear in his voice, "I..."
"I know." She said, giving him a melancholy little smile, "But I still like you Henry, and you earned that one."
He watched her for a moment. She really was the kind of girl he could love, even though his heart belonged to someone else. For the first time he realized not that she knew that, but that she was okay with it.
"You're a good woman, Megan." He said with a smile, "I'd have been lucky to have you."
She turned to walk away, putting a little swing in her ample hips as she did so to let him admire the view, "And don't you forget it."