by Roger Hayden
“It’s okay,” he said. Turning back to Mary, he said, “I understand that you see me as something of a villain. But you’ve been lied to, Mary, even by your own instincts.” He put a hand over his heart and stepped forward, once again the practiced fraud. “I’m no murderer. I’ve dedicated my life to public service. If I was as bad as you may think, why would I spend my entire life in Redwood as mayor of this town? Not exactly the most ambitious path, is it?”
Mary moved closer to the mayor, inches from his face. “Maybe what’s in this house is holding you back. Maybe your political career has been tainted since the beginning. Maybe Redwood is the only town on this planet that would elect someone like you over and over again.”
Curtis urged her to calm down, placing his hand on her arm with a reassuring tap. The mayor seemed unfazed in the silence of the room, maintaining eye contact until Mary took a step back and sat down. This was not the time to push her luck.
The mayor then continued, unabated. “Do you want to know who alerted me to Phil’s deception? It was Beatrice, and it wasn’t until after his death that we learned of his secrets. In the end, it came down to money. He was broke and on the verge of losing his home and the church. Maybe blackmailing Redwood’s wealthiest and most influential leaders was part of his desperate mission to get everything back.”
Mary remained quiet, even though she didn’t believe a word he was saying. Her biggest question was where she fit in with the mayor’s overall plan. She had information on the supposed underground catacombs and the supposed cursed treasure and skeleton key. She doubted the validity of any of it. Of all the far-fetched stories, buried treasure was the most difficult to accept, even more unlikely than the existence of a paranormal presence. But if not for a treasure, why would the mayor keep her or Curtis alive?
“Mr. Mayor,” she began. “This thing that you call a ‘gift.’ I’m afraid it’s all a bunch of superstition. I really don’t know what more I can do for you. I would kindly ask that you let me and my husband go. You’ll never hear from us again. I promise.” She wanted to mention Deputy Ramirez but knew that doing so could ruin any chance of their release—as slim as their chances already were.
The mayor scratched his chin and thought to himself. For a moment, she couldn’t tell if he was really considering letting them go or simply mocking her. “You’ve done great work so far, Mary. Of course, you know the precarious situation we both find ourselves in. We both want something from each other. I want to use your gift, you want me to release you and your husband. I get it. Probably the best thing for both of us is to work together. To trust each other and do what’s right.”
Mary leaned forward. “Can you give me your word that no harm will come to us?” she asked, even though she knew what kind of man he was and that any guarantee was worthless. It didn’t hurt to try, however, and the mayor seemed far more malleable when hidden behind his phony charade.
Mayor Taylor paced around the couple, in deep thought or pretending to be, as raindrops began to hit the windows like tiny pellets, building in weight and speed. “I don’t want to hurt either of you, understand? I’m perfectly open to compromise, and once our business is done, we can go our separate ways.”
“Your associate over there shot Deputy Ramirez point blank in the face,” Curtis said, pointing at Bob Deckers, who was standing across the room. “Is that what you would call a compromise?”
Mary felt an immediate shift in the atmosphere, which became instantly more hostile and dangerous. It was out there now, and there’d be no going back, though she was pretty sure Deckers had already informed the mayor of the deputy’s death. She squeezed Curtis’s leg, urging him to stop, but he didn’t seem to want any of it.
The mayor brought a hand to his chin, clearly taken aback, and pondered the accusation as Bob glared at Curtis. “I did not know that,” he said, staring back at Bob. “Is this true, Bob?”
Deckers shook his head. “He doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about. Just look at that face. Probably suffering from a good amount of delirium or concussion as we speak.”
“You’re a pitiful liar, Deckers,” Curtis said.
The mayor stared at Bob, studying the anger and uncertainty in his face. “Tell me the truth, Bob. Did you shoot one of my deputies?”
Bob turned away from him in anger and stormed down the hall and out of view. “I don’t have to listen to this shit. I’m having a smoke.”
The mayor remained in place and signaled one of his bodyguards, stopping him from following Bob. “Let him be.” He then paused and looked at Curtis. “I can assure you that Mr. Deckers will be dealt with in time.”
“Bullshit,” Curtis spat.
“Please,” Mary said.
Curtis pushed her hand away and stood up. “This entire charade has gone on long enough. Your brothers murdered the Bechdel and Drake families. It was obvious from the beginning. We know it, and you know it, so cut the shit!”
“Curtis, stop!” Mary shouted.
Curtis saw the look of fear on her face and went silent, as though he had just become aware that he was possibly sealing their fate. Mary looked up and saw the mayor seeming to ponder Curtis’s words, his expression ambivalent: both disbelieving and amused. “I’m not sure what to say to that, Mr. Malone. It’s not the first time I’ve been accused of having a hand in that massacre. There have been dozens of investigations, and not one has yielded any evidence that suggests what you’re accusing my family of. So please, keep your wild conspiracy theories to yourself.”
Curtis slowly lowered himself back into his chair with nothing else to say. “I guess I’m just upset right now,” he said. “I didn’t mean to get so carried away.” Mary could hear the squelched anger in his voice as her husband said what he thought he must.
“I understand,” Mayor Taylor said with a smile.
Rain began to fall heavier against the windows. The thunder became louder, and a few brief cracks of lightning flashed through the curtains in small bursts of electrified light.
Sacrificial Lamb
The doors in the foyer opened as the Taylor brothers rushed inside, drenched from the rain. They set their rifles in the corner, and Liam held the safe, proudly entering the ballroom with Garret behind him carrying a large toolbox. They brought the safe to the center of the ballroom and set it down on the floor as the mayor watched with interest.
Garret shook the rain out of his hair like a wet dog, swiped his hand across the lid of the wet toolbox, and then paused dramatically, relishing the attention of the mayor and the other brothers. The security detail stood in their respective spots, looking as professional as trained militia and not interfering in any way.
Mary wondered just how much the mayor had paid them and others to look the other way over the length of his entire career. Like Deckers, all the rest must have sold their souls to help the mayor realize his wishes and ambitions. Beatrice emerged from upstairs to the sound of a toilet flushing and then looked down at them from the railing.
“What did they find?” she asked eagerly.
The mayor turned around and looked up at her. “A safe, my dear. Buried under Phil’s barn.”
Beatrice nodded with excitement in her eyes. “Ah, of course. He always had such fondness for that stupid barn. We should have known.”
Mary watched them search through the toolbox with great anticipation, leading toward the big reveal. She hoped that its true contents were safe and that Theo had been able to secure them properly. Opening the safe had been a miracle in itself. The next miracle, she thought, would be surviving the coming ordeal. Her cell phone suddenly vibrated in her pocket, and she automatically reached down as if to cover the sound, but continued looking ahead.
Mayor Taylor hovered over the safe, offering suggestions and telling his brothers how slow and stupid they were and urging them to hurry up.
“Damn, Freddy. We’re getting to it,” Garret barked, kneeling down. “It’s a four-inch-thick safe, not a freaking key box.�
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“Just do it,” the mayor said. “Then we can move on.”
Jeffery stood by and stretched, looking around while trying to shake the rain off his jean jacket. He looked to Mary with frustration on his damp face. “You got any towels around here?”
“Ah, suck it up, Jeff,” Liam said as he pulled a crowbar and several long rods from the toolbox.
“Eat shit. I’m soaked here. Damn rain,” he said.
“Nearest towels are in the kitchen,” Mary said.
Jeffery thought to himself as he brushed back his wet gray hair. “You got any beer?”
“Go to hell,” Curtis said abruptly.
Mary put her hand up for calm. “Yes. We should have a few cans in there.”
Curtis whipped his head around to her, angered. “Mary?”
“It’s just beer, Curtis,” she said.
Jeffery seemed satisfied enough and walked past them toward the kitchen, down the hall. “I’ll bring you one too. How about that?” he said with a laugh.
Curtis said nothing back and simply leaned forward with his head down. Mary wrapped her arms around him and rubbed his back. “We need to get you to a hospital as soon as possible.”
“I know,” he said. “I don’t know how much more I can take of this.”
“There’s hope,” she said softly. “Julie’s near. I can feel her.”
Curtis looked up and glanced at Mary, looking skeptical. She knew he had his doubts, just as even she was beginning to have hers, and with a storm starting to rage outside, she felt as though no one would be leaving the house for a long while.
“Get some lights on in here,” the mayor said to the security detail as it got progressively darker in the ballroom. They searched for the switches and lit up every hall and room in the vicinity of their gathering.
Garret pulled out a welder and held it with the confidence of someone who had quite possibly cracked a few safes in his lifetime. Mary looked away as the welding tool flared against the safe door, sparks flying everywhere. With the lights on, she could see the injuries to Curtis’s face more clearly. His fresh bruises made her gasp in pain for him.
“I’m so sorry,” she said again, grazing the side of his face with her palm.
“Don’t be,” he said. “I told you that this isn’t your fault.”
Beatrice leaned over the railing, enjoying the show. “You’re doing it all wrong,” she said. “That’s no way to open a safe.
Garret stopped the welder for a moment and waved her off, ignoring her. He then signaled for Liam to stick the crowbar into the side of the safe where the door was hung, and he brought the torch inches from the surface above the combination dial.
“What do you think’s in there?” Curtis quietly asked Mary.
Mary thought to herself as Liam heaved at the side of the safe, pressing down on the crowbar. “Nothing.”
A few moments later, the brothers managed to pry the door away with a distinctive-sounding pop, much to the relief of the mayor. “Wonderful,” he said. “Now open it up.”
He hovered over his brothers as Bob Deckers walked toward them. “What do we have here?” he asked. “You got it open?”
“Not a word from you,” the mayor snapped. It would seem that the water was not yet under the bridge between the two.
With gloved hands, Garret adjusted the safe properly on the floor and grabbed a flashlight from the toolbox. He then pulled the safe door open. No one made a sound. Curtis watched as intently as the others while Mary pondered whether the distraction gave them their last opportunity to escape. One thing was certain: once the mayor and his entourage discovered what was really inside, they were going to press her even harder.
She stood up, reaching for her phone, as Garret shined his flashlight inside. He gasped as sand poured out and reached inside, grabbing a fistful, which he held up and allowed to drain through his fingers as the stunned faces around him moaned in growing panic.
Still watching from the staircase, Beatrice squinted and called out to the group, “What is it? What’s wrong?”
Mayor Taylor instantly spun around to face Mary, angrier than she had seen him yet. “This? This is what you found? What is this, some kind of sick joke?”
Mary shrugged. “That’s what we found. It was Phil’s safe. Not mine.”
The mayor took a step forward, enraged. “Then you didn’t find the right one! Where’re the documents? I know he had more! This is a travesty!” He knelt down, pushing his brothers out of the way, and then tore through the sand, tossing handfuls across the floor. “This… this is a decoy. That’s what it is!” He then picked up the safe, lighter in weight now, and flung it as far as he could, sending it crashing onto the floor, with sand flying into the air and slowly settling everywhere. The mayor glared at Mary, Curtis, and his own men, as if blaming everyone for his disappointment. Out of fear, nobody spoke. Anything might happen now.
Curtis blocked Mary defensively as the mayor stopped inches away from them. “What’s your problem?” he said. “She didn’t put that sand in there.”
“I don’t know,” the mayor said in a calm tone despite his heavy breathing. “Maybe she did, maybe she didn’t. Either way, something isn’t right here.”
“Make an example of them,” Beatrice called out from upstairs. “They’re obviously not taking us seriously.”
The mayor turned around to address Beatrice, seemingly distracted and confused. “Yes. I can do that easily.” He spun to his brothers, Liam and Garret. They stood across from him, still surveying the broken safe on the other side of the room. “Grab your rifles. Things are going to get a little messy in here,” he said.
Mary launched up, beside herself. “What are you doing? I had nothing to do with what was in that safe. All I did was find it!”
“I don’t believe you,” the mayor said.
“We had a deal!” Mary shouted.
“You’re right,” he said. “But I’m not about to walk away empty handed.”
“Maybe Phil got rid of all this blackmail stuff,” Mary said. “Did you ever consider that?”
“He didn’t,” the mayor said with assurance. “And don’t try to convince me otherwise.”
Liam approached, wiping his rifle with his wet sleeve. “Who do you want us to do first?”
The mayor looked at him with disbelief. “Who do you think, you idiot? The husband.”
Liam nodded and aimed his rifle as Mary jumped in front of Curtis shouting, “No!”
“Get out of the way, Mary,” the mayor said. “I mean it.”
“I’ll find it, okay?” she said, distraught. “Just lower the weapons, and I’ll get you what you want.”
The mayor put his hand up and brought Liam’s rifle down. Garret watched the spectacle unfold, holding his own rifle against his shoulder.
Beatrice laughed from upstairs. “Oh, Frederick. You’re such a softie.”
“Start talking,” the mayor said to Mary. “Where are the goods?”
Suddenly, a creaking noise sounded from the kitchen, attracting the mayor’s attention. Shadows cast down the hallway moved closer as two men emerged, one holding a gun to the head of the other. Mary watched them get closer as the room fell silent and Theo came into view, walking behind Jeffery with a pistol pressed against the back of Jeffery’s head.
“Everyone freeze!” Theo shouted, pushing Jeffery further into the ballroom “If anyone makes a move, I won’t hesitate to shoot him right in the head.”
Liam and Garret watched from afar, stunned, and aimed their rifles in Theo’s direction. The mayor’s security detail acted in kind and drew their pistols, aiming them in a kind of Mexican standoff. Mary’s faith in Theo had never wavered, but she still couldn’t believe his perfect timing. She and Curtis had been possibly moments away from getting shot.
The tension in the room increased as Theo maneuvered against the nearest wall, pulling Jeffery along and keeping a safe distance. “Drop your weapons!” he shouted. “You’ve got five secon
ds.”
But no one moved. Mayor Taylor studied Theo for a moment as his eyes widened. “You…” he said. “You’re that phony psychic. What in the hell are you doing here?”
Mary held back her smile. She couldn’t believe Theo had actually gotten in, but her happiness was short-lived, with the admission that they were hopelessly outnumbered, just as the rain poured harder outside, beating against the window.
Theo pointed past the mayor, indicating Bob Deckers. “I recognize him. This is the asshole who tried to buy me off earlier, but it’s not happening. You wanted me to deceive the Malones and keep them blind to what you’re doing. But I know about all of you, especially you, Mayor Taylor,” he said, standing behind Jeffery. “Now it’s time for your motley crew to retreat before I leave you one brother short.”
Liam, Garret, and the security detail all looked at Mayor Taylor for guidance.
“Five seconds!” Theo shouted, growing desperate.
Mayor Taylor passively pulled a pistol out from his coat and aimed it in Theo and Jeffery’s direction. “I’m sorry, Jeff. You were one of the good ones.”
He then fired two shots into Jeffery’s chest without care, shocking everyone in the room. Jeffery slumped to the ground, causing Theo to trip and fall over, losing his pistol in the process. It skidded across the floor, stopping inches from Mayor Taylor’s leather cowboy boots.
Mayor Taylor turned to Mary and Curtis with fire in his eyes. “It’s time to come clean, Mary. You’re going to help me this instant, or I will kill you, your husband, and that lump of shit in the corner.”
He spun around to his dazed brothers and demanded that they subdue Theo immediately. Before Theo could even get up, the brothers were on him, pinning him to the floor. Liam and Garret lifted Theo up and carried him over to Mary and Curtis as he thrashed and twisted in their grip.
“You’re not going to get away with this!” Theo shouted.
Mary noticed the vacant looks on both the Taylor brothers’ faces. They were in an obvious state of shock. Jeffery’s body lay only a few feet away in a puddle of blood. The mayor had made a definitive example. Mary hadn’t imagined that it would be his own brother. She was relieved they hadn’t killed Theo immediately but began to ponder why. Then the answer struck her: Theo and Curtis were leverage. The mayor was just getting started.