Voted Out

by J. S. Marlo

  “Frankly I believe him, but that doesn’t absolve his involvement in the two attempted murders,” Jasper continued. “We’ve got him there. We matched his fingerprint to a print found inside the pill bottle recovered with Damien’s suicide note. We’ve got the pictures of the detonators and military grade C-4 he illegally stashed under the floor and in the roof of his shed, and the dog owner’s note places him on your street the morning of the explosion.”

  “He kept the note?” The shock in her voice matched his own reaction when he’d laid eyes on it. “That was stupid.”

  “Sooner or later, criminals make mistakes, which is why they eventually get arrested.” The perfect murder was an illusion. “Stuart showed the note to Janet, and she told us where to find it. Luck also played a part, as Stuart could have disposed of it before I sent officers to seize his vehicle.”

  “She betrayed her lover.” Soft laughter trickled on her pillow. “She and Thomas deserved each other.”

  “Agreed.” Though Jasper couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment, sometime during the interrogation his suspect realized he’d been played by a ruthless woman and his confrontational attitude became more conciliatory. “Anyway, after Stuart was told Damien remembered him as the one who fed him the toxic capsules—I didn’t say jelly beans—he sought a deal.” The older defense lawyer tried to intimidate his younger counterpart, but the prosecutor impressed Jasper when she remained unfazed and rejected any counter-offer. “Twelve years. No parole.”

  “He conspired with Janet. I suppose it’s fair he received the same sentence.” She stirred and the towel slid aside exposing her rounded bottom. “What about Rose and Jasmin?”

  “We refrained from filing charges against Rose after she agreed to attend a few counselling sessions. I doubt it’ll convince her not to seek another sugar daddy, but it may enlighten her on criminal behavior.” Or maybe not.

  Reining in the temptation to join her, he readjusted the towel to cover her modesty. “As for Jasmin, she boarded a plane for Vancouver where she’ll be reunited with her probation officer while her lawyer and the prosecutor discuss an agreement. She was caught between a rock and a hard place, and Thomas took advantage of her, but her case is out of my hands. It’s over, sweetkin.” He placed a tender kiss on her lips. “Between you and me, I wouldn’t mind a short nap after my shower.”

  An ethereal smile grazed her mouth as she closed her eyes. “Hurry.”

  After checking to make sure he’d locked the front door, he undressed in the same bathroom she used and stepped in the tub for a quick shower. The hot water soothed his tired muscles and appeased his mind.

  The woman asleep in the bedroom had captured his heart and he would miss not staying here with her once Ariana and Dillon returned from Europe. Concerned over their children’s reactions—and how their romantic liaison might impact the kids’ own relationship—he and Liliane had been dating in secret for months. Had he not replaced the smelly carpets throughout his house, and piled his furniture in his basement, she might not have welcomed him into her home, or her bed, before those two left for university. It might have been a blessing in disguise that his truck broke down again and he ended up parking a rental car in her driveway during the night. If the neighbors ever gossiped about the strange car, or if Ariana ever inquired, Liliane could pretend Damien had stayed in her guestroom during his visit.

  A draft ruffled the shower curtain. As his eyes flew open and his body instinctively tensed, he spun around.

  Radiant green eyes framed by a halo of flaming hair peeked around the black polka dot curtain. “Nathalie just called. Sewage backed up in one of our polling sites, but before I tackle that problem, I need another shower to wake up. Mind if I join you?”

  He answered by scooping her into the tub then angling the shower spray on both of them. Her delicious curves hugged his body, arousing an intense longing he debated appeasing in a slippery tub.

  “I love you, sweetkin.” Against his better judgment, he cupped her bottom and pinned her back to the cool ceramic wall. Her gasp of surprise died on her lips when he captured her mouth and swept her into a smoldering kiss.

  Time stilled and reality faded away as he relished awakening all her senses.

  Chapter Twenty

  ~ The best-laid plans go awry in seconds ~

  Two weeks later

  Liliane enjoyed the excitement of Election Day with as much passion as she hated the problems associated with it.

  Her first cup of coffee that day rested on her desk, half full and still warm. The polls didn’t open until 8:30 a.m., ninety minutes from now, and ran until 8:30 p.m. None of the workers were expected to report to the polling stations for another half an hour. She shouldn’t be facing her first problem this early in the day. That didn’t bode well for the next fifteen hours.

  “What do you mean we lost a polling site? Was it stolen during the night?” Liliane quipped hoping to unwind the tense woman standing across her desk.

  Nervous chuckles rocked Amanda’s body. “According to my DRO who showed up early to make sure the doors were unlocked, someone died yesterday and they’re using the hall for his wake.”

  “They stuffed a body in the community hall and they didn’t think of informing us?” The oversight annoyed Liliane, but it didn’t surprise her.

  In previous elections they had set their polling station in the local school, but the ongoing repairs to their sewage system terminated the lease. After strained negotiations during which Liliane agreed to pay twice the current rate, a lease for the community hall—the only building still available in the remote village—was signed through emails. Less than two hundred people lived in that village. Among them, one hundred and twenty-four were registered as electors.

  Liliane didn’t need a big room to accommodate them. “Any chance your DRO could ask the family of the deceased if she could set a table near the door? People could come pay their respects and vote at the same time. Wouldn’t that be convenient?” she teased.

  “That’s not funny, Liliane.” Still, a smile tugged at the corners of the older woman’s mouth. “Claudia’s waiting in her truck with her poll clerk and all the election material in the parking lot of the community hall. What do you want me to tell her?”

  “Let me check something.” Using the weather app on her iPhone, Liliane browsed through the weather forecast for the day. Warm and sunny with a light breeze and no rain. The sun wouldn’t set until after 10:00 p.m., so light wouldn’t be an issue. “Right now, I can think of three options. First one, she can remain in the parking lot, tape the election sign on the side of her truck, and have a tailgate voting party.”

  “You’re kidding, right?” Amanda looked aghast.

  “No, I’m not. Second option, she can set her polling station on a picnic table somewhere in the village. Third, she can have voters come to her or her poll clerk’s garage.” At this point, Liliane didn’t care which option was selected as long as the electors weren’t denied their rights to cast a ballot. “Give her the choice, Amanda. Get her to pick the option she prefers, but remind her she needs to be ready to serve the first elector at 8:30 a.m. If she ends up moving away from the community hall, she’ll need to tape a note on the door saying where the new polling station is located. She and her poll clerk will be compensated for the additional hardship and lease of the truck or garage, and if she knows someone who would like to act as security or traffic officer, tell her to hire him. Any questions?”

  Her recruitment officer pivoted on her heels as she shook her head, then left her office without uttering a word.

  Nathalie breezed into her office before Liliane had a chance to lift her cup of coffee to her lips.

  “Tailgate voting party?” Her friend placed a chocolate cupcake on her desk. “I’d like to hear you explain that one to Headquarters.”

  “Feel free to eavesdrop when I call them tonight.” In this case, Liliane favored seeking forgiveness to asking permission. “And if they learn about it beforeha
nd and complain, they can always send someone to build me a nice polling site.” She pointed at the mouthwatering dessert. “You realize I haven’t eaten breakfast yet, right?”

  Her friend burst out laughing, a warm and hearty laugh that wrapped around Liliane like a cozy blanket. “This is your special Election Day breakfast. Besides, you’re worried about Ariana, so you need chocolate.”

  A heavy sigh deepened the void in Liliane’s chest. “I know they are safe, Nathalie. They have a place to stay, and they have enough money, but—”

  In the last three days, Jasper had reminded her a hundred times that there were no buts. The air controllers went on a twenty-four hour strike the day their two children were scheduled to fly back, leaving thousands upon thousands of travelers stranded in Frankfurt, Germany. Rebooking all those passengers onto new flights took time and patience.

  “But you’re worried. I get it. I totally understand.”

  Amanda barged in. “Sorry to interrupt, but I thought you’d want to know Claudia chose to remain in the parking lot of the community hall. That way, if anyone needs to use the washroom, there’s a flush toilet inside.”

  The reason brightened Liliane’s day. “Hey, you can’t argue with a flush toilet.”

  ~ * ~

  To remain attuned to the mood in the office, Liliane refrained from turning her music on and kept her door wide open. Every time Gloria brewed a fresh batch of coffee, the aroma wafted down The Catacombs, beckoning Liliane to visit the kitchen, pour herself another cup, and grab a pastry from the tray on the table. At this rate, she wouldn’t sleep for a week or fit in her gym clothes.

  As she stretched in her chair after updating the list of workers, a different smell tantalized her nostrils.

  Seconds later, Damien walked into her office with two boxes of pizza. “The owner of your local pizzeria just delivered a dozen pizzas for the staff. All we’re missing is champagne.”

  “You want to celebrate the end of this by-election with champagne?” The last month had been horrendous, and Liliane might wash it off her memory with beer, but not champagne.

  “Not the by-election, my divorce. My lawyer called. My ex signed the paper.” With a sway of his hips, he began performing a lively jig. “I’m free, Lily. Free.”

  Laughter started in her belly then burst past her lips as she let her amusement take over. “Put the boxes on the desk before you drop them,” she choked out. “I’m hungry.”

  Heeding her suggestion, Damien slid them onto the corner of her desk then grabbed a slice. “So, how many workers didn’t show up?”

  “Fourteen.” Her recruitment officer hired more than four hundred workers. Off the top of her head, Liliane calculated around three and a half percent didn’t bother to show up. She wouldn’t deny that some of them might have had valid excuses, but the least they could have done was call to say they weren’t coming. “We used all our standbys, shuffled some workers around, and combined two polls. Nothing we couldn’t handle.”

  “Good.” He leaned against the filing cabinet. “I visited a few sites in town this morning. The longest lineup I encountered consisted of four people. A mother and her three kids. That’s discouraging.”

  “At the risk of paraphrasing you, our job is to ensure people are given the opportunity to vote, not to force them to vote.”

  He rolled his eyes as he stuffed the crust in his mouth.

  By-elections tended to record a low voter turnout, and so far, this one had followed that exact pattern. Few and far between, electors trickled in and out of the polling stations at a snail’s pace. This unfortunate voting rate gave the poll supervisors time to call the office and provide an accurate list of their workers and the positions they occupied, which in turn allowed Liliane to update the payroll as the day crawled by. As much as she would love to see the polls overflowing with eager electors, she appreciated the reprieve.

  Steps resounded in The Catacombs followed by Amanda. “We have a problem at Rapid Water. I just got a call from a retired firefighter who dated one of my cousins a long time ago. When he entered the cabin to vote, he found the DRO passed out on the table, empty bottles of liquor under the chairs, and the eighty-three-year-old poll clerk as blind as a bat—she forgot her glasses at home—on her knees scrambling to gather the ballots scattered on the floor. How she managed to cross any names from the electors’ list is beyond me.”

  This is worse than catastrophic. Liliane’s feelings mirrored the look of horror on Damien’s face. “Did you ask him if he could stick around for a while?” Asking the question gave Liliane a few additional seconds to devise a plan of action.

  “I didn’t need to, he volunteered to help, but he has an appointment at 3:30 p.m. so he can’t stay till closure.” Her recruitment officer rocked back and forth on her heels. “If you don’t mind taking care of my job, I could go but I need someone with me to try cleaning up that mess.”

  The situation in Rapid Water outstripped her tailgate party, and no one could explain it better to Headquarters than the man in her office.

  “You go now and take Damien with you. Drive safely.” As they headed out, another thought crossed Liliane’s mind. “And don’t forget to check to see if they have a security camera in the lodge,” she called after them. “We don’t want the footage to end up on the evening news.”

  Looking over his shoulder, Damien scrunched his face at her. “This incident will not appear in any report I write.”

  “Agreed.” For the sake of everyone involved, this incident should never see the light of day. “Enjoy damage control.”

  After they left, she checked her iPhone. 1:09 p.m. Unless they encountered a slow-moving tractor or a dead moose in the middle of the road, Amanda and Damien should reach the small community in less than two hours and take over from the friendly and helpful firefighter before he left for his appointment.

  Whoever wins this by-election better win by a substantial margin. She would hate to face a judicial recount over a bunch of unaccounted ballots in Rapid Water.

  ~ * ~

  With an hour left before the closure of the polls, Liliane walked into Leonard’s office and caught the man playing poker on his computer.

  “It’s free.” He pointed at his screen. “And it’s for fun.”

  “If you say so.” From everything she’d ever read or heard about addiction, the maximum number of bets a gambler could safely make before relapsing was zero. “I just want to thank you for playing by my rules. I know we started on the wrong foot, but I hope you won’t hold any grudges against anyone working in this office.”

  “Liliane, the only person I blame for this whole mess is dead. I’m grateful that you and the rest of the wonderful people working in the office gave me a chance. I didn’t tell anyone, but I’m starting counselling next week. You all inspired me to get a grip on my problem, or at least try.” He gestured toward a chair. “Have a seat.”

  Stunned by his revelation, she sat in the armchair by the desk. While she didn’t harbor any feelings toward him, negative or otherwise, she was pleasantly surprised—and pleased—he intended to tackle his problem. “I wish you luck, Leonard, and I mean it.”

  “I know.” The screen of his computer darkened, entering into sleep mode. “So, who do you think will win?”

  With all the events that had unfolded in the last few weeks, she wouldn’t dream of venturing a projection. Stuart’s guilty plea cast a dark cloud of suspicion over his candidate who saw his party’s popularity plummet despite his upstanding personal reputation. The credibility of Greg’s candidate had also suffered after someone leaked the fact that he had accepted money from the returning officer’s family. It’ll be interesting to see if the disgruntled electors decline to cast a vote or line up behind a different candidate.

  On a brighter side, out of the two hundred ballots issued to the DRO of Rapid Water, Damien and Amanda counted and secured one hundred and eighty-six ballots. At that point in time, nine names were crossed off the list of electors, wh
ich meant nine votes were cast into the sealed ballot box. They were left with five unaccounted ballots or five electors not crossed off the list after voting. Or any combination of both.

  Regardless of the answer locked inside that sealed ballot box, worrying about the discrepancy wouldn’t change the outcome, so Liliane pushed the problem on the back burner. “I have no clue, Leonard, but we’ll find out soon enough, won’t we?”

  ~ * ~

  The results from the polling stations started coming into the office within minutes of closing. By 8:50p.m., Christine Miller, the candidate of the party that stood in third place a month ago, had gained a comfortable lead over Stuart’s and Greg’s candidates. At 9:22 p.m., Liliane looked over Nathalie’s shoulder as her friend entered the last set of results, and breathed a silent sigh of relief.

  Eleven thousand three hundred and fifty-two people, sixteen percent of the eligible electors, cast a ballot. Christine Miller won with four thousand two hundred and ninety-six votes—four hundred and twenty-nine more votes than her closest rival. The discrepancy of five ballots in Rapid Water played no role in Miller’s victory. The by-election finally ended.

  After the last local ballot box was returned to the office, Liliane bid the security guard goodnight, locked the door, and set the alarm. The guard would spend the night in the office until they started wrapping things up tomorrow.

  At 11:06 pm., she parked in her driveway beside Jasper’s police cruiser. Delighted by his presence, and still riding an adrenaline rush, she hurried inside. Darkness covered the living room and silence filled the house, but someone had turned the light on in the kitchen.

  You’re not asleep, are you? Disappointed, she dropped her purse at the top of the stairs and ventured into the kitchen for something to eat. Maybe the noise will—