by Matt Drabble
“SHOOT HER!” Trotter yelled to the comatose deputy.
Tommy felt Katy’s arm start to turn towards Ally who was lying on the floor a few feet away from Trotter. He tried to turn Katy’s arm back to Trotter, but now she was fighting him. Despite Tommy outweighing her by some distance, she was young, fit, and healthy. Her toned muscles strained as his soft arms trembled with the effort. The gun swung between Trotter and Ally as they fought for control. His head was light and his vision was drifting as the wound in his shoulder threatened to overwhelm him completely. His stomach rocked and rolled with nausea and he had to swallow hard.
“Shoot her,” Trotter said in a fading tone as the blood leaked from his body. “Shoot her now, follow the script dammit and close the show.”
Tommy felt Katy’s arm begin to force the gun towards Ally again. He was losing the battle. Katy’s face was expressionless and her eyes were distant as she remained under Trotter’s perverted control. He locked gazes with Ally’s and tried to take strength from her, but it was just a look.
“Shoot her, shoot them all, and burn this whole damn town to ashes,” Trotter’s voice was barely above a whisper now.
Tommy could see that the man’s face was drained of color now. His skin was pale and slick with sweat. He knew that he must look the same judging by the concern in Ally’s eyes.
“We planned this all. We prepared the show, we wrote the script, it was all supposed to be perfect,” Trotter was mumbling nonsensically to himself. “If you want something done right, I guess that you’ve got to do it yourself.”
Tommy looked on in horror as Trotter inexplicably sprang to his feet. Despite the fact that his body had spilled most of its blood across the barn floor he still found the energy to raise his knife and lunge at Ally. Tommy had nothing left with which to fight. He was teetering on the edge of collapse when the gun swung towards Trotter. He felt Katy’s finger twitch on the trigger and then the gun was firing.
The first bullet caught Trotter in the ribs. The second and third climbed up his torso with expert aim. Tommy realised that he was no longer guiding Katy’s arm as the gun fired again and again. The bullets punctured small bloody holes in Trotter and the man twisted and spun under the assault. He fell away from Ally in a wheezing heap. He lay on his back with his hands twisted into claws as his chest hitched and fell.
Tommy looked to Katy’s smeared face. Her eyes were buzzing with life as hate and sorrow fought for dominance over her expression. Her magician’s assistant sequined outfit was a grotesque offering under the dire circumstances. Her body seemed to tremble as she regained full control over it and Tommy thought that she could be yet another victim of the whole sorry mess. Quite just how she had finally managed to wrestle control back over her own body from Trotter remained a mystery and he had no strength left to ask.
He sank to his knees and crawled to Ally. She had managed to crawl further away from Trotter’s fallen body. Her hands remained behind her back and she crawled to meet him on the dusty barn floor. Tommy had only one functioning arm and he could feel the tickle of unconsciousness threatening to take him. He felt the shadow of Deputy Katy Jacket pass him as she walked to Trotter’s prone body. He flinched as she put a last round in Trotter’s head at close range. There would be no monster movie last minute scare from him as his blood and brains were splattered out on the dusty barn floor.
Tommy reached Ally as best he could. He had no words left in him as the world spun dizzyingly around him. They pressed foreheads together just before he passed out and he felt her love carry him into the darkness.
25.
ALL SMILES?
When Tommy woke up again he was surprised to find himself still in the barn. He had expected to wake up in a warm hospital bed like he had done after Dixon had clocked him in the warehouse. Instead he was propped up against a hay bale with a paramedic cutting away his shirt to take a look at the gunshot wound. The woman had a kind face which was creased in concentration as she cut the material around the dull ache in his shoulder.
He looked over the paramedic’s shoulder to view the unfolding scene around him. The barn was now chocked full of comforting uniforms. Police and medical staff intermingled as they helped the surviving and processed the dead.
Blissfully he could see Ally wrapped with a warm blanked draped around her shoulders as she spoke to a police officer who was listening intently. He could also see the young deputy Katy Jacket directing other officers around the crime scene. Her face was now set officiously hard as she threw herself into the machine of authority and control. Thankfully the remains of PJ and McEwen had been removed from their grotesque display. Gaines was on a stretcher off to the side being checked over by paramedics. Tommy felt yet another stab of sadness as one of the men pulled a sheet up and over the cop’s head. There was a cover stretched over Trotter’s body on the floor and only a slight blood trail that poked out from underneath reassured him that the man was actually dead. He should have felt excitement or a grand life changing relief that he was still alive, but all he felt was tired. There were no celebrations to be had here. There was only death and sadness, and a terrible sense of waste.
On a day of assaults to his senses there were apparently more hidden around every corner. He overheard two cops talking about the discovery of three bodies in the dumpster behind Ally’s diner. The two missing town deputies and one of Ally’s waitresses were stuffed into the metal canister like yesterday’s garbage. The strange thing was that there had been no theatrical theme to their deaths. No staging, no arrangement of the bodies, only run of the mill stab wounds and concealment. Perhaps the deputies had been removed from their police duties simply as self-preservation by Trotter, Tommy thought. Perhaps they had both come across Trotter and had attempted to apprehend him. Their deaths didn’t quite seem to fit into Trotter’s grand plan. They weren’t part of his trial or the town’s conspiracy against him, he mused as the paramedic worked on his shoulder wound. Perhaps it was nothing, or perhaps it was everything.
The eerie quiet and hushed voices in the barn were suddenly split by the shrill ringing of a phone. Everyone patted their own pockets nervously checking their own. Eventually Ally leaned in close to Gaines’ body on the gurney. The ringing was coming from under his sheet. She reached in and took out the phone and answered it. Tommy could only just make a few words of the Ally’s whispers down the line, but it was enough to get the gist. She was telling Doc Norton about what had transpired here and he was worried about how the elderly doctor was going to take the news.
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Sam hung up the phone in shock. He had tried to call Gaines as he couldn’t help but worry about what was happening in his absence. His old heart felt like it could not cope with any more loss. Gaines had been his friend at a time in his life when most of his peers were dying off. It felt perverse that a God would allow his creaky old bones to keep chugging along whilst calling so many less deserving souls home. The young girl on the end of the line had told him about Trotter’s monstrous birthday party reunion and about the deaths. There was no comfort in knowing that Trotter was dead and gone. There was no victory to be found, as the price had been too high to pay.
Eventually he hung up the phone and sat back in his chair. He had been sent here on a fool’s errand. Everything had happened whilst he was gone and he had nothing to offer to make his trip worthwhile.
Sam had been checking through the box that Diane Clay had taken down from her attic. The one that she said had belonged to the illusive and mysterious Miranda Yates. According to Warden Meeks over at Halsom Prison there had been some rumors of an inappropriate relationship between Miranda and Trotter. Apparently Miranda had left the prison’s staff roster rather suddenly and under a cloud. He had no idea what any of it meant, but he couldn’t help but feel that it was still important.
When he had left Denver Mills the best part of 24 hours ago, he had left his small beloved town under the veil of Arnold Trotter. It seemed clear now that the man
had indeed returned home and was seeking vengeance. Gaines had sent him away to stay out of harm’s way and he felt a bitter stab of resentment that he was deemed so vulnerable and useless. Apparently his friend had been right to do so, but at what cost to himself.
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It was almost dark when Tommy was released from the hospital. He would normally have expected to be kept in for longer, but the small town facility was overrun with the fallout from the barn.
Ally had been discharged earlier after being checked over thoroughly and diagnosed to be suffering from little more than shock. His shoulder was now a dull and distant ache as the painkillers kicked in and worked their magic. The bullet has passed clean through the flesh and exited out the other side and he had been cleaned and stitched and sent on his way.
The neon lighting of the waiting area hummed as he saw her pale face come alive when she spotted him. He couldn’t express his joy at finding Ally waiting for him in the reception area. She ran hard into his clumsy and painful embrace and he held her as best he could.
They walked in silence through the hospital towards the rear doors and into the darkening late afternoon. Without Adrian Todd holding sway in Denver Mills, Tommy couldn’t help but wonder just what was going to happen to his home town. There were already the buzzing hornets of unfamiliar faces sniffing around for juicy details. News vans were being assembled and unpacked as they desperately scanned the local faces for gossip and tales. Apparently the word had finally gotten beyond the town borders and the press were a ravenous hoard descending excitedly. Hopefully the back of the hospital wouldn’t yet be manned and they would be able to slip out without being noticed.
Ally took his hand and he took her comfort. He had no idea just how to begin discussing the day’s events as any words would be woefully inadequate.
“Where to?” Was all he could think of to ask her.
She sighed heavily, her face lined with stress and sorrow. “I expect that your place will be knee deep in reporters by now and mine will be a crime scene.”
The thought suddenly returned to him that there had been bodies found in a dumpster behind the diner. Ally’s once beacon of self-reliance and achievement would be forever tainted. “I’m sorry,” was all he could think of to say. “The waitress that they found, were you close?”
“Not really, at least not anymore. Her name was Courtney. In a lot of ways she reminded me of myself at that age and I thought that I could help her avoid some of my mistakes. But she wasn’t for listening,” Ally said sadly.
“Kind of odd don’t you think?” Tommy asked.
Ally replied by staring at him with a cocked eyebrow.
“You know,” Tommy shrugged. “Odder than the rest. I mean why would Trotter take the time to bump off two deputies and a waitress and then hide the bodies?”
Ally considered. “I suppose, but who the hell could know what went on in that maniac’s brain.”
“Just seems like it doesn’t fit, like a lot of things,” Tommy pondered aloud.
They reached the street and Ally flagged down a passing taxi. The car pulled up to the curb and they both got in.
“Where to folks?” The cabbie asked pleasantly.
“The police station,” Tommy answered.
“Why?” Ally asked as they pulled away.
“I didn’t get the chance to thank that young deputy,” Tommy replied. “I mean she did kind of save us all and I was whisked away too quickly to say thanks. God knows what she must be going through. I mean Trotter made her shoot Gaines dead.”
“Not to mention you,” Ally said a little bitterly.
“Hey, could have been a lot worse,” Tommy said lifting his arm gingerly. “She could have killed me but she only got the shoulder. In the end she was somehow able to fight against Trotter’s control and save us all.”
They soon pulled up across the street from the police station. The normally quiet building was a hive of activity and lights. Police cars were stacked on the street on either side as the small car park proved to be insufficient. Men and women of differing uniforms were scurrying around back and forth as a couple of parked news trucks were watching eagerly. Perfect hairdos and gleaming white teeth were on display as on air reporters milled around desperate for action. The taxi idled as the driver waited patiently.
“I don’t want to run that gauntlet,” Ally said nervously.
“Me either,” Tommy conceded. “Besides I doubt that she’s even in there by now. It looks like the Denver Mills police department has been usurped.”
“You guys looking for Katy? Deputy Jacket?” The driver piped up.
“You know where she lives?” Tommy asked.
“Sure, I’ve run her home a million times,” the driver replied, “small towns and all that,” he shrugged.
“Why don’t you drop me at the diner first?” Ally asked. “It may well be a crime scene but I’m sure that I can get some stuff from my apartment above at least.”
“You sure that you’ll be ok? Why don’t we just stick together?” Tommy asked nervously.
“Tommy I’m sure that a diner full of cops will be perfectly safe, especially now that you know who is no more,” Ally replied. “I’ll grab some things and maybe we can just take off for a while, together?”
Tommy thought that nothing sounded finer.
10 minutes later the taxi pulled up to small apartment block after having dropped Ally back at her place. The diner was indeed a crime scene surrounded by beefy uniforms, but Ally had been allowed to enter the apartment above.
Katy Jacket’s building was dark save for one light in one of the apartments. Tommy exited into the night air and paid the driver.
“7J,” the driver called to him just before he pulled away.
You sure that you want to do this now? He asked himself, nervously glancing up at the darkened building. Damn sure, Tommy thought with more confidence than he felt. For some reason Trotter’s death had not brought the release that he’d hoped for. But he was determined not to be scared anymore. His bogeyman was gone and it was time to stop being afraid of shadows.
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Dr Sam Norton was sitting in the kitchen leafing through the box as Diane Clay busied herself making fresh coffee. He had dozed off for a few hours on her couch as the tiredness had finally overwhelmed him. The woman was gentle company and he felt a strange tug of familiarity. His late wife Lorraine had been the homemaker and the nester and it seemed like a lifetime ago that he was in a home instead of just a house. He had cried a little on her shoulder after hearing the deathly news from home. But he hadn’t felt ashamed and her touch had been gentle and kind.
He rummaged through the box, turning over various undelivered mail. Envelopes that contained nothing more exciting than bills and junk mail. It all seemed a little pointless now, but he still felt that he had to at least complete what he had come here for. There were some personal effects in amongst the banality: an inexpensive looking necklace, a couple of paperback books, some stationery, and a small stuffed toy. His forehead wrinkled at the discovery of the child’s pink teddy bear. He rummaged further into the box and found a photograph. The image looked old and creased.
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Tommy rang the door bell and waited. His shoulder was now a pleasant fuzz that hardly bothered him anymore, at least for as long as the prescription lasted. He felt tired, desperately tired and wanted nothing more than to sleep for about a week. Perhaps when he woke his life could begin again, and hopefully not alone.
Footsteps shuffled softly to the door and he felt the eye within staring through the peephole.
“I told you vultures no comment,” Katy’s voice barked from within.
“Deputy Jacket? Katy?” Tommy tried. “I was just hoping to have a quick word with you, if you’re not too busy?”
“Mr. Marsh? Is that you?” She replied through the door.
“Yes,” he answered.
The door unlocked and swung open. The young deputy no longer
looked quite as young as before. Her once pretty face looked haggard and exhausted and Tommy’s heart went out to her. He could see the small crescent moon birthmark on her cheek more clearly now as her face was scrubbed clean of whatever concealer makeup she normally wore.
“Come in quickly if you’re coming,” she said tiredly.
Tommy stepped inside the apartment; it was small but attractively decorated.
“It’s late in the day Mr. Marsh and I was about to turn in, it’s been a hell of a day,” Katy sighed heavily.
“I just wanted to thank you deputy, for everything that you did,” Tommy said earnestly.
“I don’t think that I managed to do anything,” Katy whispered, “except when it was too late.”
“Don’t say that Katy,” Tommy said taking her arms firmly. “Don’t you start carrying that guilt around, because believe me if you pick it up, then you’ll never be able to put it down again. You saved us, maybe not all, but certainly some and that’s a lot more than I could manage to do. I’m alive, you’re alive, and Ally’s alive. God knows how many other victims Adrian Trotter would have managed to take before you ended his life. You’re a hero Katy, a hero.”
The young deputy blushed furiously and her reddened cheeks momentarily hid her birthmark. She looked embarrassed but pleased by his words.
“Let me stick the kettle on,” she said breaking away from him. “Instant alright with you?”
“Sounds fine,” Tommy answered as he sat down on a plush sofa.
He now felt immeasurably tired and felt like he could drop off here and now. Perhaps a quick jolt of caffeine would get him moving again.
He started to dare to think of the future and of Ally’s part in it. He hoped that she would agree to leave this place behind them now. Denver Mills had been the site of so much pain and nightmares from their childhood and now it would be a fatal reminder of their adult lives. But he could never hate it entirely, as it had brought them back together again.