by Ruby Jones
“Are you ok ma’am?” She came running over to me. Relieved I passed out and fell to the ground. I woke up in a beautiful bed in a very bright room filled with gorgeous farmhouse antiques. The window was open about an inch. The girl who had come over to me and an older woman came in with trays full of food.
“Are you ok?” The girl asked when she realized I was awake.
“Where am I?” I asked.
“My name is Racheal Fisken and this is my Grandmother, Helen.”
“We have some nice hot food.” Helen set the tray down. “You must eat dear. We will talk as you eat.”
“I need to get to…I have no idea where we are.”
“Where are we?”
“We are in Redwood.” I actually was not far from home but definitely in Malanta Family zone.
“Are you a part of the Malanta family?” I asked cautiously.
“Oh hardly.” Helen laughed.
“Gram and I have lived here forever. I came to live with her when my parents died.” Racheal told me.
“I need to get to town. I only live thirty miles from here.” I did not dare get into it too much as I figured the less these two knew about me the safer they were in case they came looking for me. I sat up. It was a bit difficult but I did it.
“You must rest!” Helen said. “Whatever it is, it can wait.” She ordered. I was tired.
“Do you have a phone?” I asked.
“Yes. “Racheal left the room and came back with a cell phone. I was so happy. I dialed Jason’s number.
“Alison!” He cried into the phone when he realized it was me.
“Come get me Jason.” I told him where I was. After filling him in on everything, we hung up. Help was coming. I walked out of the room and started down the stairs. It was definitely an old farmhouse. Bright in some areas and dark in others. As I made my way down the stairs, I heard voices. It sounded like they had some guests and where in the kitchen. When I walked into the kitchen, I came to a complete stop. Sitting at the table looking at me was Riley. Behind him stood Shanna, Reese and two other men. I then saw Helen and Racheal sitting in two chairs bound and gagged. My heart leapt into my throat.
“Well hello, Alison.” Riley smiled. He reached into his pocket and pulled out my medication. I sat down and Reese immediately stood behind me so I could not get up. Shanna came over and slapped me in the face.
“You fool!” She yelled.
“Ok, Shanna.” Riley smirked. “The deal is going down in about an hour. Then we are off to a warm country.” He stood up. He turned to Shanna and Reese. “I am sure Jason and his buddies are on their way to save their little Princess. You two cannot mess this up again. Keep all three of them still and quiet. I will call you when the deal goes down and then…” He looked at us. “Then, take care of them! I am so done with this small town nonsense.” He took one last look at us. “Alison, just so you know. None of this was ever personal.” He left.
Mysteries Close Silently
Reese bound me up next to Racheal and Helen. I could barely look at either one of them. I felt so bad they got involved into this world of crime and horror. It was my fault. The two of them left the room. I looked over at Racheal who looked so frightened and it looked like Helen was just staying strong for her. It seemed like hours but I knew it was not that long. Suddenly they came in again.
“Let’s go. Get them up.” Shanna ordered. Riley came over and yanked us up one at a time. We were hustled outside and into the green car that was parked next to the porch. The two of them jumped into the front and Shanna drove away. We drove towards my town. My heart sank. That meant Jason was driving past us thinking I was still in Redwood. He would never get to us on time. We drove to one of the docks past my bar. We were hustled into one of the boat shacks. Amazingly there was no one on the docks. It was not tourist season but the locals came down all of the time. The men would find some kind of “work” to do on their boats to get them out of the house so they did not go stir crazy or even worse drive their women crazy. They all could be eventually found down the road at my bar. Today the docks were empty.
“The shipment should be here with in an hour Riley said.” Reese told Shanna.
“They said that an hour ago.” Shanna flopped down on the old couch. “I am so over this. Riley has promised me after this no more crime.” She turned and smiled. “I am going to love Costa Rica.”
“Shanna!” Reese yelled looking at us.
“What?” She carelessly waved at us. “Them? They will be dead soon. We will have to worry about nothing as far they go.” She smiled.” I will be so rich and popular finally I will not have to worry about a thing. I will never have to be a slave to someone else’s concept of beauty again!” Reese just looked at her and shook his head. The more I looked at him the more I could not even imagine what I had seen in him. His violation of me earlier totally changed him into something entirely different as far as how I viewed him. “You might as well take their gags off.” She told him. I doubt very highly anyone will hear them down here. Will they Alison?” She was right. Down on the docks the wind blew very hard at times. The wind would carry any screams away.
“Shanna.” I asked.
“What?” She leaned over and looked at me. Her eyes were as cold as steel. I could not believe this was the same hairdresser that smiled day in and day out to all of her clients. The soft-spoken woman who complimented everyone all of the time. Shanna had always had such an innocent look to her but now she was hard. Angry and bitter.
“What has happened to you?”
“What has happened to me?” She yelled. “Are you serious? You want to talk Alison. Do you want to hear Shanna’s sob story? Okay.”
“No.” Reese said. “Not okay. Tired of listening to chatter.” I could tell the two of them were getting pretty tense with the end coming.
“Shut up Reese. I will tell you right now Alison. Not being born into the privileged families of this town, it can be pretty hard to make a living. Oh I got a lot of clients but only because there is nowhere else to go. Day in and day out, I hear of all of the successes of my schoolmates. The same ones who left me out of everything while growing up.”
“Sounds like a poor me story.” Reese inserted. She looked at him.
“Whatever Reese.” She turned around and looked at him. “We know nothing about you. Why don’t you tell us about you.”
“This is not show and tell” Reese stood up angry with her now. I looked over at Racheal and Helen who had not said a word or moved a muscle. I could tell they were extremely frightened. I was worried about Helen. She did not look good. We heard a motor boat off in the distance. “That has to be them. Ok. I will go and meet them. You take them where Riley told you to and let us finally finish this up.” He gagged us all again. Racheal was crying and Helen looked like she was going to pass out. He left us. Shanna pulled a gun out of the backpack she was carrying.
“Ok ladies. Let’s go.” We all got up and went outside to the back of the cabin. I could not even see an escape route. I did look down the dock and saw Reese down at the motor boat that had pulled up alongside it with about five people in it. I saw they were unloading piles and piles of boxes. Shanna poked me with the gun. “Let’s go Alison.” We walked up over the bank and down Hallow’s Path which was a man made path that the town had made years ago so the tourists could walk the water line without having to danger the rocks and dangerous shore line. We came to a clearing. “Stop!” Shanna yelled. “Turn around. I am not a coward. I will not shoot you in the back.” I started to try to go shield Racheal when I heard a shot ring out. I heard people yelling. When I looked up Shanna was laying on the ground and the police where all over the place.
“Alison, Alison…” It was Jason. He was running towards me. He got to me and took the gag off. I was crying and I could not stop. I saw that Racheal and Helen were ok but Shanna lay very still.
“Jason,” I cried out. “Is she...”
“Yes and we have Reese and the men o
n the boat in custody. They picked up Riley at the air port along with a few of the other big key players.” I shook my head. Riley was going to leave Shanna here with Reese holding the bag. I looked sadly at Shanna’s body. It was all so sad. In a way, I was glad Shanna did not know about Riley’s pending betrayal. As much as I wanted to be angry about all of this I was very sad about Shanna. She was right. All of her life she fought to be important. Even making other women beautiful just picked away at her insecurities of feeling like a nothing in our small town where everyone, including her, was very important. The one person who made her feel like she was something had been in the process of hurting her more than any of us could of even tried to do. He made her trust him, fall in love with him and then he was getting ready to desert her. The ambulances and FBI all started showing up. They got Helen and Racheal settled for transport. I spoke to them both. Neither one of them held any ill will against me. I apologized repeatedly until Helen hushed me.
“I wouldn’t change a thing dear. It has been a long time since I have had any excitement in my life. As long as my Racheal is, ok and you are ok as well. No, harm no foul. Come see us dear. Anytime.” I hugged her and they took them to the hospital.
“Come on Alison. You have to go too.” Jason said. More hospital time. I thought. Just what I needed. I knew better than to argue so I let them strap me in a gurney and do what they needed to do.
I was lucky. I was only in the hospital for a couple of days. I was dehydrated. It was very obvious according to the nurse that I had been assaulted so bringing charges against Reese would be very easy. Jason, of course was by my side nearly twenty-four seven. If he was not Jenna, Lisa and Jim were. My nurse Marla was really was very happy to see me as I was her. Jason filled me in on everything. Marla had gone out to her car to get a couple things thinking I would be ok. She got talking to my neighbor Bonnie and realized I had not come out of the house. She went back in and realized I was gone. Jason told me they had hunted for me for days when he got my call. They knew Shanna and Reese had taken me. Jason had been on his way home to let me know that the FBI had finally figured out Shanna was not a victim but pretty much one of the main players. The more they dug they also realized that Shanna’s beauty parlor had been bought out by Riley so he could hold the papers over Shanna’s head. However he made it look to Shanna that he bought the place was going to sign it over to her if their relationship lasted. If it did not she could buy him out. I firmly believed though that Shanna had fallen in love and in doing so would do anything to protect Riley. I believe her anger and jealousy of me was not only directed towards me but all of the girls who grew up popular or pretty.
“Linden and Holbrook will be here shortly to fill us in about Reese.” I looked up at him. How was I going to tell Jason about what Reese had done?
“Well I guess before they get here…” I started.
“Yes, Alison, tell me what happened. “ He grabbed my hand and we sat on the couch.
“Jason, Reese forced himself on me.” I decided to put it straight out there and not beat around the bush. I saw Jason’s face go from shock to sadness to anger to pure fury. He stood up and paced around. “I am sorry.”
“Sorry?” He sat right back down next to me and pulled me towards him and as much as my body hurt I did not care. I had missed his touch. The safety of his arms. “You don’t have to be sorry. I am sorry I was not here to protect you.” Tears welled up in his eyes.” I touched his cheek. I kissed him gently.
“You were there.” I told him. “Every time I grew terribly scared, alone or sad while they had me captive I thought of you. While Reese was hurting me I zoned out and just completely was able to pretend I was in the safest place in the world. Your arms.”
“I want to hurt him for what he did to me.”
“I know.” We hugged until the FBI got there. Finally, we were meeting to put closure on this whole thing. There was court to still deal with but I was so ready to just get everything settled.
“Ok.” Linden started. “Riley Malanta and five of his boys were caught at the air port with tickets to Costa Rico. Riley has three pages of Federal Charges coming plus a first-degree murder case. Reese as well has both Federal and first degree murder charges coming.”
“What more do you know about Reese?” I asked.
“Reese, whose real name is, John Sheldon Andrews.” I was shocked. I do not know why I was shocked after everything but I was shocked. He was not even, close to who he said he was. “He was born in Kansas in 1975. His parents died in a freak accident when John was 12. However there were rumors that John may have even had something to do with it.”
“At 12?” I asked.
“Yes. He was moved into home after home. He did not exactly make great choices. He finally ran away from the system at sixteen and everyone lost touch with him. Apparently, he found himself in Redwood Maine where he was taken under the wing of Riley Malanta. Riley took him in. Gave him a job and basically treated him like a younger brother. So when John was old enough Riley brought him into the underworld of crime.”
“Oh goodness.” I said. Digesting all of this was hard. So many different shocking truths coming out but I braced myself for more.
“Thanks to Dan and his investigating Riley started feeling the pressure of getting caught for his activities here. By that time we were involved as well. Riley set up for John to move here under the name Reese, get the job at the school, and meet you. Since all of the meetings were taking place at the Full Cup, they were worried that you either had caught on or were getting ready to figure out what was going on. Riley figured if he sent John here to distract you they could get done what they needed to do to get this multi-million dollar shipment in and then leave the country.”
“This was a lot bigger then I even imagined.” Jason said shaking his head. “I think even bigger then Grandpa thought as well.”
“Oh most definitely.” Holbrook agreed.
“How did poor Raymond get involved?” I asked. I felt so bad. With everything going on, I still had not paid my respects to Raymond or his family. I really needed to do that.
“After everything is settled down.” Jason smiled at me. I could not help to smile even with all of this going on. I didn’t even have to say anything and Jason knew what I was thinking.
“Raymond was a complete innocent victim. He was at the bank one day cashing a check Jeff had given to him. He ran into Riley and Reese. He thought it was odd that the Superintendant of a school was mixing it up with a known drug smuggler.” Holbrook continued. “So Raymond got a hold of us after a couple of weeks of by chance seeing things happening in your bar as well as down at the docks. One night about three weeks ago Raymond was waiting for Jeff to give him his check. He had been sitting down at the docks when he saw a motor boat pull up and out from between the buildings he saw Reese and Riley come out and talk with the men while the boat was being unloaded. He even saw you pull up a little while later, Alison and pick up Reese.” I remembered that day. Reese had told me he was going to go deep sea fishing with some friends and had asked me to pick him up. When I had told him I would meet him down at the docks, he was very firm that I waited for him in the car claiming the docks were slippery. I did not really think anything of it because I rarely went down on the docks anyway unless I had the right boot or shoes. I had lived there all of my life. I knew the wood on the docks got very slippery sometimes.
“Oh poor Raymond” I sighed.
“Riley and Reese saw him and Riley approached him later. Raymond being who he is told him he was going to make sure this all stopped. It was the wrong thing for Raymond to do. When he told us about this confrontation, we asked him to please step back. After phone calls, text and death threats like the one sent to you Alison he decided to confront Riley again and that is the conversation that went on in your bar that night and then you found Raymond dead.” I shook my head. I just could not believe any of this. It was like a horror, suspense mystery you could read only it was happening for
real.
However, the more shocking news was still yet to come. Linden continued.
“John is the one who killed Carl, sent the messages and made the calls to you Alison and also rammed into Jason’s truck.”
“I am not surprised. “Jason said. He was so angry I was almost scared but was totally with him.
“John is even in more trouble than Riley. Kidnapping, Criminal threatening, attempted murder, first-degree assault, drug trafficking. The list seems to get longer every time I talk to the attorney general.”
“I want to talk to John one more time.” I said.
“What?” Jason turned to look at me.
“I want to look him in the face and let him know I am not scared. He did not ruin my life.”
“You can’t talk about the case, Alison.”
“Oh I know that but don’t you think I have the right to make the steps to heal?”
“Most definitely. I guess we can arrange this.” I was surprised because Linden was able to make it happen within the hour. John was already processed and sitting in our jail and was being transferred to Redwood in the morning. All of us drove over. As we walked through the building, I saw people smiling at me and waving. Little by little, it was going to take awhile for this small town to heal. We were lead to a small conference room. When Linden opened the door, I saw John seated at the table. Two Federal Marshals standing behind him. He looked up and for the first time since this all started he made eye contact. Jason stood back by the door with Holbrook. I knew he felt if he got any closer he would grab John. Linden walked with me to the table and we both sat down. John’s lawyer spoke up.