Shane Didn’t Die

By Toby Lewis

"Shane Didn't Die" is the story of the every man, same as the Alan Ladd character depicted in the film "Shane" who innocently wanders into a volatile situation that is impossible for him to ignore. The main character in my story is that every guy, who no matter how badly wishes to not get involved is drawn in by the sheer cruelty of other men. Threats to those he love's and the discovery of his affection for a woman from his past won't allow him to stand on the sideline and do nothing. In this good versus evil story, right overcomes the cruelty of the wrong to make the world a better place.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 4, 2019
• ISBN: 9781796014952

Toby Lewis

Toby Lewis, a born and bred true Texan is a former journalism student who loves the telling of a good story, be it written or spoken. A lifelong weight-lifter who spent the majority of his adult life working in the night club industry working as a bouncer, bartender, and manager. That career has fortunately allowed him the privilege to live and work all over the country as well as to spend a couple of summers as a roadie for a not so famous rock and roll band. I don’t fancy myself as the most polished of writers, but I think I’m a damn good storyteller, I’ve been told that I write like I talk. I’ll take that.

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

The only movie I’ve ever watched where I cried at the end was the western titled Shane, starring Alan Ladd, Van Heflin and my favorite movie bad guy Jack Palance. Though decades old, the argument still goes on between the lovers of shoot’em up movies, as to whether or not Ladd’s character Shane rides off into the dark night and dies alone. My stand is, no way does the hero vanquish the bad guys in a shootout so dramatically staged, and then ride off into the night to die. I’m as fond of, as any western lover on earth, in the cliffhanger ending, but seeing as a movie has never been made to prove different, I’ll forever argue that Shane didn’t die. I personally was more intrigued by the scene in the movie, when just before the climactic gunfight in the saloon starts, the dog realizes hell is about to break out and gingerly walks across the floor and leaves the saloon.

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Sydney Peveto viciously kicked the watch dog that unluckily got itself tangled up in his legs as he walked through the door of the makeshift laboratory, where he and his deputies were instigating the demise of the three men outside. Peveto had been the high Sheriff of Fort Bend County for as long as I could remember, and I was closing in on thirty years of age. Peveto controlled his modest fiefdom with an iron fist, if one dime legal or illegal passed through this county, he was sure to get his twenty percent cut.

Where’s the other one? Peveto gruffly asked his two deputies, who were his accomplices in the cold blooded assassination of the Mexican and the two Caucasian men lying face down on the ground before him. Their intensions were to make the killings look like the four dope dealers were taken out by rivals in the same business. All three victims were killed execution style with double taps to the back of the head, the universal sign of a criminal assassination.

"Shouldn’t take too long to catch up to that other one, we’ll be watching his mama’s house down in Chenango, if he sticks his head up, we’ll take it off.

Y’all just get that other dope head before he starts flapping his lips, you hear, the man demanded.

We’re on it Sheriff, every snitch we got will be on the look-out for him, most of them tweekers owe these boys money, so they won’t need much motivation, said the deputy.

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My name is Leland Temple and I was born and raised in Fort Bend County Texas, I graduated from high school in Fresno Texas, the town where I came into this world. My best friend Lester Joyner was also born in Fresno but Lester never moved away from Fort Bend County for any period of time. I on the other hand, took off for the West Coast a few months after graduating high school, I wanted to get out and see the world before I impregnated one of my home girls and had some obligation prevent me from doing so. I’d seen it happen over and over again in our little town, local boy graduates from high school, gets his high school sweetie pregnant, goes to work in the Dow Chemical refinery and vanishes into the world of `going nowhere` and never realizing his full potential. I was determined not to become just another numbered employee for Dow Chemical, like ninety-nine percent of the people from this part of the state.

Me and Lester were close enough friends, where we hardly ever lost contact with each other, no matter where I was in the country. I hadn’t talked to him for a few months, so I phoned Lester one day while I was in New Orleans, spending my days out in the Gulf of Mexico humping my ass on a shrimp boat crew and my nights in the French quarter drinking. Lester answered on the fourth ring, it’s me Les.

You better have a damned good reason why me or your mother haven’t heard from your ass in nearly a year Leland, barked Lester in my ear.

What I want to hear from you old friend is Julie has kicked your ass out and you’re on the way to join me in New Orleans.

No such luck ass hole, just answer my question, Laura and me have been worried sick about you, you best have a good reason why you been out of pocket for your mom, pal.

Me and Lester Joyner had been best friends since kindergarten, we were both the only child of single mothers and over the years we’d become more like brothers than good buddies. His mom passed away from an aneurism of the brain when we were in junior high, and my mother stepped right in to adopt the broken hearted youth as her own. Pretty much making Les my brother and we both grew up with all the love of a mother as warm and protective as Laura Temple could shower on two brothers, blood or not.

You coming home for the Lone Star this year? questioned my lifelong friend.

Don’t I always, you know we ain’t missed a rally since they started the party on the island, that’s why I’m calling to let you know I’ll be home in a few days bro. I been crewed up on a shrimp boat the past year, two more shifts and I’ve told the captain I’d be dry docking myself for a while. How are things in Fresno these days?

That son of a bitch Peveto is still running the whole county, this must be his fifteenth term as County Sheriff. Word is Mike Richmond is running against him in the next election, `bout` time somebody had the balls to take him on. A lot of story’s floating around about the corruption and dirt sticking to him and his henchmen. Folks in this county getting fed up with a dictator wearing the badge of the high sheriff, said Lester.

Sounds like Fresno is becoming the wild, wild west with Syd and his goons running things, I said.

It pretty much is dude, folks are scared shitless of being pulled over by one of his deputies, if you get stopped, you get a ticket.

Peveto likes to keep the county coffers stuffed with dollars, and the only way to get the money is by taking it, I guess.

With Fresno being his hometown and all, him and his boys feel entitled Leland, they got more people selling dope for them than Rudy Perez. I’m glad we was smart enough to get out of the game before he got his hooks into us.

Amen to that brother.

The truckers hate passing through Fresno, Peveto won’t allow the state troopers to make traffic stops on the part of two eighty-eight that passes through this part of the county, he even considers the fines he squeezes out of the truckers his. That all’s going to change when they open up the new highway, it runs on a straight line from Brazoria county to Harris county. I’m sure the state troopers are having a good laugh at Syd’s expense.

Serve’s that old bastard right for being so greedy, Lester.

I ran into him in the grocery store one night, and he went as far as to ask me if I’d seen you lately? Me and you is the only cats to ever tell him to go fuck hisself when he tried to put us to work for him.

He knew we worked for Rudy Perez, who would have given us lead poisoning before allowing us to go to work for Peveto. Les, just think, we started running weed for Rudy when we was in eighth grade, the first thing Rudy would have thought is we might give him up to Peveto. Old friend or not, I’m certain that Mexican would have found it more efficient for him to disregard our friendship and cover his ass.

I could tell from the sound of Syd’s voice, he ain’t gotten over the fact you got his daughter pregnant and didn’t let her force you into sticking around to be her fulltime baby daddy.

Screw Syd Peveto and his daughter too Lester, Sandy knew I didn’t have no kind of plan that included having no kid with her and being her husband. She was way wrong, thinking telling me she was pregnant was going to make me choose her wishes over my own life, anyhow me and Sandy was just fuck buddy’s. I ain’t even sure if she was really pregnant, do you know if she ever had a baby or not, Les?

"The word is Peveto and his wife shipped her off to Dallas to live with relatives while she was pregnant and after the birth, they put the child up for adoption, but I’m sure Peveto still hates your guts.

Sandy is his pride and joy, so it’s a certainty, you still at the top of his shit list."

That ain’t it Lester, he’s still got the red ass with me for telling him to go fuck his self when he pretty much ordered me to set him up in a deal with Rudy. It was easy for you to walk away from his offer, he figured my connection to his daughter would make it easy to turn me. Sandy was only collateral damage, that chick’s had the hots for me since we was in junior high. She was so damn fine by the time we was juniors in high school, it was impossible to ignore her, Sandy is a good girl, but she’s also a spoiled brat. That was so long ago bro, Sandy or her father could not in real life be still dwelling on that shit. It is strange though, to think out there somewhere in this big ‘ole’ world, there could be a child carrying my DNA and blood, along with that of Sandy Peveto, ain’t that a trip?

Don’t kid yourself big boy, she’s been married and divorced two times dude and she ain’t never had another kid yet. I don’t see her very often, but every time I run into her somewhere, the conversation always turns to you. I think her and her father both consider you unfinished business my brother, laughed Lester.

I gotta’ go Les, I’ll see you in Fresno in four days, I’ve got to work one more two day shift on the boat that I’m already scheduled for, then I’m ‘outta’ here. If you see my mama, don’t tell her I’m coming, I love surprising her bro.

The Lone Star Rally is two weeks away, and don’t forget your mother still rides, Laura just bought a new Harley that she’s anxious to show off. Even though you ain’t called her in a while, she knows you’ll be home for the rally.

Yeah, you right Les, still I get a laugh out of surprising her, see you in a few days brother.

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Talking to Lester made me even more homesick, I needed to go home to see my mom, whether the rally was on or not. Mom loves fresh lobster, so I hung on to every big one that got caught up in the net and kept them all on ice and alive until the Salty Mary docked. I had twelve freshly caught four pounders that I surrounded in cold packs and ice and had FedExed overnight to my mom in Fresno.

CHAPTER TWO

The ride to Fresno would take only six hours, I was at home out on mom’s front porch smoking a joint when the FedEx truck stopped out front the following day. I loved surprising my mother, she was my staunchest ally and the best mother in the world. My mom, Laura Temple raised me on her own, my father was mom’s college sweetheart, she was pregnant with me when he went off to Vietnam. His death on the night of the Tet offensive, I think broke my mother’s heart forever, she never remarried, I never sweated it because she was the center of my world. We lived for each other, and I can’t remember us ever being unhappy, if not for her insisting I get away from Fresno for a while, I’d still be living closer to her. Mom always had a boyfriend but not ever did any of them live with us. I guess no one ever filled her heart the way my father did, and I was proud for it.

Mom invited her most recent boyfriend over along with a few close friends and dazzled them all with her multiple ways of preparing fresh lobster. She couldn’t stop bragging to her friends about how her baby boy had caught them for her himself while out shrimping less than two days ago. I stepped outside to wait for Lester and his wife Julie and to sneak in a joint, even at this age, I still wasn’t comfortable, smoking pot in front of my mother. Mom’s boyfriend Paul saw me leave and followed me out, he wanted to smoke a cigarette. So me stepping out was his opportunity to do so, I offered him a hit of my joint, as he walked over.

No thanks Leland, he said, I just stepped out for a smoke too, mine is tobacco, we’ve never met before today, but I hear stories about you all the time around here. Some of these people treat your mother like royalty, and it’s because of you, she tells me. They say you the only man to ever back down that big dog county sheriff Sydney Peveto, hard to determine what’s true and what ain’t when you hear stories in a bar.

Personally Paul, I got nothing against Peveto, me and his daughter had this thing when we was kids where we was steady sex buddies whenever one of us had the urge. She knew what my plans were after high school, to get out of this county and this state to see some of the world outside of Texas. Sandy Peveto on the other hand, had her own plans for my life and that’s where the trouble with her daddy started. A few weeks after we graduated, Sandy tells me she’s pregnant with my child and insist we get married.

What was so bad about that? asked Paul, I’ve seen the woman, she’s a beautiful heartbreaker and on top of that her family is rich, why not marry her?

I agree with you brother, she is a damned good looking female, but I didn’t give a rats ass how much money she came from, I wasn’t about to marry a woman I felt no real love for. That piece of shit sheriff thought he could force me to marry his daughter by siccing his two bulldogs on me.

You got to be talking about them two bookends who are always at his side, Carter and Adamson! exclaimed Paul.

You got it dude, Adamson and Carter got out of high school a year ahead of me, so I’ve known them for most of my life. The both of them were bullies when we were kids, so it makes perfect sense for them both to become corrupt policemen, the mistake they made with me was thinking their badges scared me. They approached me in the parking lot of a beer joint in Arcola one night, their plan was to beat me into seeing things the Peveto way, fortunate for me, just as the fight started, oh speak of the devil.

The monstrous rumble of Lester’s red hot Camaro pulled up and he and Julie got out, I walked over to embrace my best friend who I hadn’t seen in many months. His wife Julie jabbed me hard in the rib cage to turn my attention away from her husband, doubling me over with her well-aimed punch, making me and Lester burst into laughter.

You still the toughest woman I know Julie Joyner, my pal chose well, but what was that for?

That punch! declared Julie, was for falling off the grid and nobody, not even your mother knowing where the hell you were, you had my husband and Laura worried sick about you Leland.

My deepest I’m sorry’s to the both of you, and my mom’s already boxed my ears a few times for my being out of touch for such a long time. Julie, Lester, this is mom’s boyfriend Paul, I was just telling him the story about me and Les kicking the shit out of Adamson and Carter, the night they insisted on me marrying Sandy Peveto. Bad thing for them two knot-heads was they were out of uniform and off-duty, plus me and Lester wasn’t little boys anymore either. Just before they jumped me, I heard the roar of my best pals Harley Electra Glide coming up two eighty-eight. I was holding my own when my homeboy here joined the scrap. Lester was meeting me at the Arcola Icehouse for a few beers and to shoot some pool, so him showing up when he did was perfect timing.

Yeah, that was some night, added Lester, them two fucker’s still look at me sideways every time our paths cross. We knew they were packing, so me and Leland never let up once we started kicking their asses, right in front of a parking lot full of people, who’d all come out of the bar when they saw us fighting.

Julie slapped her husband on the shoulder and said, I heard this story a hundred times from all of y’all’s friends, so I’m going on inside to have a drink with Laura.

I’m gonna finish this joint with Leland baby, I’ll be inside to repeat this story while I’m stoned, it always sounds better when I got a little buzz on. Julie smacked each of us on the shoulder before turning to go inside.

Julie’s still a firecracker Lester, she’s the best woman I know, I don’t blame you for settling down with her, she’s a damn good woman. Once Julie was out of earshot, Lester shifted to another gear, dude, where the fuck have you been these past few months? Every time you call, you in some different little town along the Gulf Coast, what gives bro?

Believe it or not, I was on my way back here when I had the thought to catch Mardi Gras before I came home. This beautiful hooker with cinnamon colored skin and the sweetest French accent I ever heard slipped something in my beer and when I woke up the next morning, that bitch had ripped me off for everything but my scooter. I guess she couldn’t ride a motorcycle, she might have taken that too, all the cash I had and what clothes were in my saddlebags, which were gone too. I had to skin out without paying my hotel bill, I felt bad about basically being a thief by doing so. Instead of calling you or mom for a loan, I made the choice to find some work in New Orleans to at least pay the hotel back. If I was lucky, I might run into that tramp who ripped me off before I left town, but I never did. I had just enough gas in my bike to get down to the shoreline where the fishing boats dock and offload the daily catches every morning. I guess the good Lord was watching over me that day, I was walking along the dock, and this Jerry Garcia looking dude yelled me down and asked if I was looking for work.

I told him, yeah man if you serious about the job offer, I’m serious about the work. For the past year or so, I’ve been a shrimper, it’s a hard life, but damned exhilarating when you pull that long ass net up and it’s bulging with shrimp and any other edible seafood that gets caught in the net. It wasn’t a bad life and if you’re smart about it, you can make a lot of money. The months just flew by and before I knew it, I was part of a rock solid shrimping crew. The times you couldn’t reach me by phone were when the boat would be out at sea for days at a time."

My mother’s boyfriend had already gone back inside, so me and my pal stood out by his car catching up. Lester popped open his trunk and after seeing the igloo cooler of iced down Coors beer, I knew I was officially home.

You still drinking that damn Colorado water, I teasingly jabbed at this big square jawed dude who was like a brother to me.

Shut up and drink, Lester growled at me as he tossed an icy can of beer in my direction, and don’t get that joint wet, that’s some righteous bud my brother. I’m glad you home man, I’ve really missed you and so has Julie, she just likes breaking your balls, just like she does me, but she loves you and Laura like blood.

Thanks for keeping an eye on mom for me, I’ve never worried about her because I know you got her back when I’m not around.

Laura don’t want you away so much, but she knows how dangerous Peveto and his boys are, he feels you’ve wronged his daughter, and on top of that you shoved his bribe to work for him back in his face.

Let me tell you something Les, only you can understand this, we had been running weed for Rudy Perez and his guys since eighth grade and we know a lot of Rudy’s secrets. If we had gone to work for Peveto, the Mexican cats ‘woulda’ stopped our clock on suspicion alone.

I know man, answered Lester, every chance he gets, Peveto intercepts Rudy’s loads, if him and his boys get a tip-off from one of their snitches that it’s coming anywhere near this county. They don’t need anything from Syd and he hates that, as soon as that new highway two eighty-eight is finished, it’ll be a breeze bypassing Fort Bend County altogether. Syd knows not to stick his nose in any of the business down in Freeport, everybody in Brazoria County hates his ass. That’s why he works so hard on jacking loads coming from down south.

What about Adamson and Carter, they been giving you any hassle? I know them two fucker’s ain’t going to let it drop about me and you kicking their asses in front of half the town?

They damn sure haven’t Leland, them sumbitches pulled me over and gave me a ticket every time they saw me when they were on duty. You remember J.W. from high school?

Hell yeah Lester, big James Walters, baddest dude on the football team, why?

J.W,’s a Fort Bend County deputy too, he doesn’t work directly under Syd Peveto like Adamson and Carter, but he hears things. He showed up at the house one morning out of the blue, J.W. overheard some deputies talking about Adamson and Carter having a plan to get even with you and me, seems word got to them that you might be showing up home for the Lone Star rally. I don’t think they figured on you being away for such a long time, you being out of pocket gave me a chance to pack up my stuff and move up the highway to Manvel. It ain’t that far from Fresno, but at least Manvel is in Brazoria County. Julie and me don’t leave the house without our pistols, especially when we come to Fresno, Lester said as he lifted his shirt to show me the snub nose thirty-eight in his waistband. I appreciate JW’s warning and I owe him one, he knows all about Peveto’s racket but he focuses on doing his job and avoids any of the men working directly under the sheriff.

If anything was to happen to you, Julie or my mother because of some grudge they got against me, I’ll kill them all Les, what happens afterwards, I don’t give a shit about.

J.W. said he would call to keep me up to speed on any word he gets through the grapevine, I just need for you to watch your back while you home Leland.

You think I need to go strapped Lester?

Yes dude, after all these years Syd’s still talking trash around town about what you supposedly done to wrong his daughter, he ain’t letting it go and it’s clear to me and Julie, neither has Sandy. I’d be a lot more at ease if you stay at the house with me and Julie while you home. We already discussed it, my wife says you can stay with us as long as you want.

Thanks ’Lester, let me talk things over with Mama and get back to you, come on let’s get inside, I sent Mama about fifty pounds of lobster by FedEx. She’s making something called lobster thermidor, let’s see if it cures the munchies.

CHAPTER THREE

Julie had already pleaded her case to my mother by the time everybody left mom’s dinner party. We were standing at the sink doing the dishes when my mother suddenly turned the water off and pitched me a towel.

Dry your hands son and have a seat at the table, let’s talk a bit before we go to bed, I’ll be back in a minute, she said, I need a quick bathroom break.

I took a seat at the kitchen table and opened a bottle of beer, I knew my mother and I were about to have one of our serious mother, son talks. Any time Laura Temple told me to have a seat at the table, I knew she was in serious protective mother mode. When mom walked back into the kitchen she was carrying her purse, she took the seat opposite me, opened her purse and took out a beautiful silver-plated three-eighty pistol. Mom slid the shiny gun across the table to me, reached back into the purse and passed me a full eight round clip.

Be quiet you little wise ass and listen to what I have to tell you? she said, in what I knew was her serious voice.

What’s on your mind mother?

I keep this pistol with me at all times son and if the time comes where you need to protect yourself, don’t hesitate to ask me for it. Do you understand me Leland?

Yes ma’am, but I think you, Lester and Julie might be over reacting to people just bumping their gums with a lot of big talk.

Look boy, snapped my mother, "you sound like Lester yourself, saying stuff just so I don’t worry and I love Lester for looking out for me the way him and Julie do.

I’ve never told Lester and Julie this and I really don’t want to tell you but that Sydney Peveto calls me every few weeks asking for you, saying he has a job you’d be perfect for. Even I know better than that, I know you ain’t no innocent little choirboy son but the mother in me who knows you better than any person on earth is certain you’d never have nothing to do with that crooked ass sheriff. This is a small town son, in a big county and I hear things about Peveto and ain’t a bit of it good. That’s why I wanted to get you away from here for a spell in the first place. I used to hear some talk about you and that daughter of his and how he was going to teach you a lesson for something, what went on with you and that girl."

That wasn’t nothing mama, me and Sandy was fooling around together on and off for a long time, but I never promised her nothing. She was wanting me to get married to her and go to work for her daddy, so one day she tells me she’s pregnant with my child. That’s when she pretty much threatened me by saying if I don’t marry her, her father was going to be very pissed at me. I told her I didn’t give a shit how her daddy felt about me, I wasn’t marrying her because I didn’t love her like that. Next thing I know, a couple weeks later two of Peveto’s boys jumped me out in the parking lot at the Arcola Icehouse. Lester showed up just about the time me and them two fella’s was getting into it and me and Lester kicked the shit out of them right in front of a crowd of people.

Wasn’t long after that you told me to get out of Fresno for a spell, all the big talk wasn’t bothering me, but I didn’t like seeing you so worried, that was the only reason I left, I said to my mother.

That was a good thing son, I do miss you so much when you away, especially the times I don’t hear from you for months at a time, which I could skin you alive for, remarked my mom.

That girl calls me more than her daddy, asking for you Leland, I ain’t ever tell nobody that but Julie. I don’t know if she means you harm like her daddy and them crooked deputies, but it still concerns me that she ain’t let go of you after all this time. Lester tells me she’s even been married two times since you broke it off with her, and neither marriage lasted more than a few months.

Lester and Julie want me to stay with them down in Manvel, just to be safe while I’m home, how you feel about that mama?

I think that’s a good idea, until we see how serious Peveto is about this vendetta he seems to have against you, that’s why I want you to carry my gun with you. It’s registered and legal, so you won’t be breaking no laws for carrying it, I’d rather you have it and not need it, than need it and not have it son.

I hear what you saying mama and I promise to be careful, I am going to call Sandy though, and tell her to not bother you anymore, she got no right dragging you into her crap.

I love you son, said mom as she stood up, reached across to squeeze my face between her tiny but strong hands, kissed me on the forehead and said, now I’m going to bed, good night honey.

Goodnight mother, and don’t get up just to make breakfast in the morning, I promised Lester and Julie, we’d meet them at the Kelly’s in Alvin for breakfast.

At breakfast the next morning, Lester and Julie revisited the suggestion that I stay with them while I was home, in the hope my mom would help persuade me to see things their way.

Lester and Julie are concerned about you, just like I am Leland and I think it’s a good idea, won’t be long before Syd Peveto and his daughter catch wind of you being back in town.

That same evening, I moved my stuff to Lester and Julie’s place, giving them and my mother peace of mind.

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Now I know, exclaimed Julie, it’s been a while since you two rascals have been together, that don’t mean it’s okay for y’all to pull out of here on them loud as motorcycles and not be seen for days at a time.

I promise to be on my best behavior honey, besides I’ll be working straight four-tens at the plant for the next three weeks, and Leland don’t be hanging out in Fresno if I ain’t with you to watch your back. Oh yeah, I called Mark and Joe Howard to let them know you was home, so we’ve got a land party to attend out on their property in Arcola this weekend. Mark says, he’s going to cut your nuts off if you ain’t there.

What the hell are them two heathens up to these days Les?

Joe’s married to Keri Katz and Mark is still the same old crazy Mark. They own an auto- car care shop slash gas station right on the corner where highway six and old two eighty-eight cross in Arcola. They both always ask about you when I see them, they was selling a little weed for Rudy until Peveto tried to strong arm them into working for him. I’m glad they chose not to get involved with that money grubbing snake, added Lester.

"I’m looking forward to seeing them, we been pals our whole