North of the Rock

by Ian Jones

  They were all found guilty.

  Waldron, Raymer and the Regulators were all given long sentences, although there was no evidence that they had ever actually killed anyone. Tilling admitted his involvement in Rita Geller’s murder but stated he did not kill her, the other man with him was Andrew Walters, the blond shot by John in the pick-up, and he was supposedly responsible. It was not possible to prove it either way.

  Barlow was given the death sentence, it seemed Raymer narrowly avoided it out of deference for his long years as a judge.

  Cane was allowed to go free. There was still the case of fraud to answer, but the judge accepted that he was effectively doing the job he was instructed to, and he had not made a single dollar out of any of the transactions and had already served ten years in prison unnecessarily.

  In summing up, the judge thanked the jury, and stated that he hoped to never have to preside over such a horrific case again.

  John said goodbye for the last time, went home, and back to work. There were always problems to solve.

  Several months later Patrick emailed him three photographs, which he had received from the agent that was now closest to Gray Rock. The first one showed an event sponsored by the plant, crowds of people all around the square by the rock, a long line of barbecues, and a bar, everyone laughing and smiling. A mix of races and ages, all together in one place. And a big group of soldiers all enjoying a beer. The second was a picture of a sheriff walking out of the town hall. A young, black man. The final one was of people leaving a church, the old tired, wooden one on the south side. Most of the congregation were Hispanic and black, but there were several white faces in the crowd too.

  There was also a copy of an article. Texas state education authority had looked at Gray Rock’s schools and had been unable to work out why there were two big high schools, and also why the new one with all the facilities on the north side was only a third occupied. It had taken the decision to make that the Gray Rock High School, and to change the use of the southern building to a special education centre. There was a photograph of the new High School football team, a collection of sixteen and seventeen year old boys. Black, white and Hispanic, all wearing their uniforms and smiling. They had just won their first ever game 17–6, the first victory for any sporting event in the school’s history.

  There was a short note at the bottom from Patrick, which just read ‘You did a good thing, you asshole.’

  Copyright

  Published by Clink Street Publishing 2019

  Copyright © 2019

  First edition.

  The author asserts the moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior consent of the author, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that with which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  ISBN:

  978–1–912850–10–5 – paperback

  978–1–912850–11–2 – ebook