Once the two teens left, I returned to my mission of crowd control at the auction of Beauregard's property. Things remained rather quiet for the rest of the auction. At least in the sense that there were no more interruptions. The auctioneer went through his work quickly and diligently. Beds, couches, tables, chairs, and even lamps went across the platform and sold rather easily.
The process of the bidding on each item was the thing that amazed me the most. The auctioneer announced each item, set the opening bid, and then counted the bids as they came in, raising the bid as they did so at a fantastic speed. And in the course of this, he never seemed to lose track of who had bid on what and what the winning bid was, and was able to articulate it fairly clearly as the auction proceeded. I was fairly certain that I could never duplicate such fast talking. And the fact the auctioneer could do all that was amazing to me.
As items were successfully sold, they were boxed and taken toward the back of the barn with some of the auctioneer's assistants leading the winning bidder by the hand to a desk set up in the back. As I carried out my patrols along the edges of the crowd, I did occasionally glance to see the winning bidder at that table being instructed on how to pay for the item he/she had bought.
The toughest part of the auction was the sale of the cattle. They knew I was there, and while I doubted they knew exactly what a tiger was, I was fairly certain that they sensed some "aura" of a predator that I likely carried thanks to my transformation. Maybe my scent was fairly similar to a Mountain Lion's... but I couldn't be certain on that as Molly and I were yet to actually see a Mountain Lion ourselves. Though the thought of the smaller cat seemed to also trigger an instinctive urge to kill it or at least drive it off, as a potential rival. I put those thoughts to the back of my mind though. I had work to do, and while a tiger's instincts were to try and remove all competition from its territory, my mind wasn't going to do that.
Despite the cattle's apparent nervousness at my presence, the auctioneer's aides managed to move the large animals along the same path that most of the other goods had gone on. I tried to keep myself toward the back of the gathered people to give them an easier time of moving the cattle. A few local ranchers did buy some of the cattle and the calves, but the bulk of the animals ended up being bought by a pair of meat packing groups. One was from Helena, the other was all the way from Cheyenne, Wyoming.
The last thing to be sold was the land and house that Beauregard's ranch had sat on. The auctioneer brought out a large map of the land that the ranch occupied, all divided into individual plots. I managed to spot Frank Rhoer's home, isolated as an island in the middle of Beauregard's land and Dave Choir's vineyard on one edge of Beauregard's ranch, but that was about all that I recognized on the large map that the auctioneer was using to sell the land.
The selling of the land did not go quite as the auctioneer probably thought it would. Beauregard's house and a couple plots of land sold to a couple that looked the way Molly and I did to many natives of Columbia Falls, not animal people but people who hadn't lived in that specific region of Montana for generations. A couple of local ranchers bought a few plots of Beauregard's land that was adjacent to their own, but that was about it. No one really wanted the rest of it, but despite this, the auction was a fairly decent success.
"Well that went very well," the auctioneer said to me as the people began to file out and those who had bought animals began to pull their trailers around to where they could pick up the animals they had bought.
"Yes, and no real problems," I nodded, keeping my eyes focused on the traffic, knowing I may have to step in to direct it.
"Yeah," the auctioneer nodded, "other then those kids, no one caused any trouble. What was their beef anyway?"
"Their father had been friends with Beauregard, and his arrest and trial revealed that Beauregard wasn't a friend in return and had cost them their college fund," I answered, "I think they were trying get even with the man that essentially used their father."
"Oh... ouch," the auctioneer sighed, "can't really do anything about it though. There will always be jerks in the world."
I slowly nodded.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The next couple of days went by fairly quietly. With the auction held and done with, I returned to the foot patrols I had been sent on while waiting for Officer Barnes to recover from the wounds that Beauregard had inflicted on him. These remained fairly quiet with little to no problems whatsoever. The only "call" that I had was a supposed breaking and entering case, which turned out to be rather harmless. The supposed "suspect" was actually the owner of the house, and had somehow locked himself out and was trying to get back in.
Thinking on that made me chuckle a little bit as I made my way toward Officer Barnes' home one evening. My shift for the day had ended, and I had decided to pay him a short visit to see how he was progressing. His brother Joey met me at the door as he commonly had when I'd come to check on my partner.
"Good evening, George," Joey Barnes said politely, "here to check on Fred?"
I nodded in response, "How is he doing?"
"Still getting better," Joey answered, "though he's about at the point where he doesn't really need me around to help him out."
"He can stand on his own?" I asked.
"In terms of leg and back strength, he could always stand," Joey Barnes corrected, "but thanks to the injuries to his stomach, he couldn't bend over without flopping forward... and then the weight would be too much and he'd go over. Now... he's building up enough abdominal strength that that isn't an issue... though I'll let him give you the details."
"Thanks," I said with a nod.
"No problem," Joey Barnes replied.
I went into the room to find the lights on and Officer Barnes slowly doing sit-ups on the floor, using part of his bed to hold his feet down. He shook a little, but it wasn't much, and he managed to maintain full control of himself.
"Hey, George," Officer Barnes said after a moment, "How are things going?"
"Pretty quiet," I shrugged, "just stopping by to see how you were doing."
"I'm doing good," Officer Barnes replied and resumed doing sit-ups, "getting strength back... getting control back... hard to believe it's nearly been a month since that lunatic shot me."
"Time flies, I guess," I quipped.
"Oh not for me it doesn't," Officer Barnes groaned, "do you realize how boring it is to just lay around and watch time go by? It's boring, I tell you. Boring. There is no good television on during the day... nothing but soap operas, talk shows, and "you cheated on me!" programs. Boring, boring, boring."
"At least you're getting better," I managed a shrug.
"That is the good thing," Officer Barnes nodded, "I've been making very good progress, and the doctors are fairly confident I can return to work in a few days, though they want one more visit before they'll clear me to do so."
"You're coming back to work?" I asked.
"I'm getting good enough where I can sit and stand without any problems," Officer Barnes answered, "so yeah, I can come back to work... it'll mean desk duty for a while though. Running the dispatch controls and the basic filing information for awhile. Officer Howard will probably assign a temporary partner until I've built up enough strength to go back on patrol."
"All after only a month," I commented.
"It'll give me something to do besides watch bad TV all day," Officer Barnes answered.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
And Officer Barnes did return to work. Three quiet days after I visited, he calmly walked into the station in uniform. Many of the other officers that were there expected it and were waiting for him as he came in. I had just finished clocking in when he came in.
"Welcome back, Officer Barnes!" the desk officer cheered.
"How are you doing?" the dispatch officer asked as she looked up from the radio area.
"I'm doing good enough to get out of the house," he said with a chuckle, "though I expect I'll be on desk duty for awhile."
"It's good to see you!" the desk officer smiled at him.
"It's good to be here," Officer Barnes responded, and then came to attention as the commotion had brought Officer Howard out of his office. Officer Barnes reported to him first, "Good morning, sir. You will be pleased to hear that I am strong enough to return to work. Officer Frederick Barnes, reporting for duty."
"I see," Officer Howard nodded, looking him over, "Officer Jenkins, Officer Wayne, please come with Officer Barnes and I for a moment."
The desk officer got up and moved over to where Officers Howard and Barnes were, I followed along toward the rear of the small formation as Officer Howard lead us all into his office.
"So, Barnes, how is everything?" Officer Howard asked, "besides Officer Wayne's updates on your condition, we haven't heard all that much."
"I had post-operative appointment yesterday, sir," Officer Barnes reported, "the doctor is confident that I can return to work without serious difficulty. I've built back a lot of strength, and I am ready to return to work, sir."
"Not too shaky?" Officer Howard asked.
"No, sir," Officer Barnes answered, "I've worked especially hard to cut that out."
"Good to hear," Officer Howard gave a nod, "although, you will understand that while you're still attending physical therapy, we will be keeping you here while you're on duty."
"Of course, sir," Officer Barnes nodded, "the doctors actually suggested that I be on light duty for a month or two until I've got everything back to full strength."
Officer Howard nodded and then turned to Officer Jenkins and I.
"In the meantime, while Officer Barnes is recovering," Officer Howard began, "I'm going to have to do some reshuffling. Officer Jenkins, this is your chance to some patrol work. You'll take the vehicle that Officer Barnes has normally drove. Officer Wayne will go along with you to show you the ropes as best he can."
"Thank you, sir," Officer Jenkins answered.
"And Officer Wayne, this is Officer Danielle Jenkins, she will be your partner until Officer Barnes here is fully recovered," Officer Howard spoke.
"You can call me Danni," Officer Jenkins told me as we shook hands.
"You can call me George or Wayne," I offered, "either works, since my last name can also be a first name."
She nodded in response, "What about Tony? He's grrrrrrrreat!"
"Have you been waiting to do that?" I asked curiously.
"Yes," Officer Jenkins chuckled, "was it a good joke?"
"If the humor session is over," Officer Howard cut in, "there is work to be done today."
We all nodded and made our way out to go about the work assigned to us. Things would be interesting for a little while, but at least it marked some progress. After a month of recovery, Officer Barnes was back on duty. He'd be on desk duty for awhile, but he was back on duty. Continuing to show the end of Beauregard's influence on Columbia Falls.