Town Darling (27 page)

M
itchell ran down the
backstairs, crossed the Remington’s kitchen, and ran for the partially closed
door.  He threw open the door to reveal Grey, who was out of breath and
clinging to the doorframe.  Grey looked at Mitchell, appeared surprised to see
him, and uncertainly straightened. 

“I thought Sheriff Holt was
here,” Grey said.

Mitchell was in a state of
panic.  “Casey’s gone crazy.  You’ve got to stop her!”

Grey appeared surprised
while staring at him.  There was an eerie silence.  “Did you do something to
her?”

“No--”

A twisted smile suddenly
crossed Grey’s face.  His look was oddly psychotic.  “Did she
accuse
you
of something?”

Mitchell slowly backed away
from Grey.  He entered the house while grinning in a creepy manner.  Mitchell
appeared frightened and continued to back up.  Casey appeared in the living
room archway and casually leaned against it.  Mitchell saw her behind him,
panicked, and lunged for Grey, the obvious lesser of two evils.  Grey spun into
a high, roundhouse kick, and struck him in the chest.  Mitchell flew backwards
and into Casey.  She caught him, smiled sweetly, and brushed the dirty
footprint from his chest.

“How about you start by
telling us what you did with Sheriff Holt?” Casey demanded to know with a look
that immediately sent chills through the deputy.

Mitchell was now
terrified.  In her state of mind, there was no telling what Casey would do.  “I
didn’t do anything with Vaughn, I swear,” Mitchell cried out.  “It was Tucker! 
He had someone run him off the road.  I swear; it wasn’t me!”

Casey looked at Grey.  Her
expression changed to that of concern.  Grey gave her a firm look and a quick
nod.  Casey resumed her slightly psychotic attitude and forced Mitchell to look
her in the eyes.

“Was it Tucker who killed
our parents?” Casey demanded to know.

“Yes, it was Tucker,”
Mitchell stammered while attempting to keep watch on both.  “Tucker did it to
keep the mayor in office.  Your father was a threat to his position.”

“And what was your part in
it?” Grey demanded, causing Mitchell to gasp and look back at him.

“I was supposed to keep an
eye on Vaughn at his speed trap, but I fell asleep,” he announced nervously. 
“I didn’t know he was going to kill anyone, I swear.”

“And the mayor ordered the
hit?” Grey asked.

“There wasn’t supposed to
be a hit,” Mitchell protested.  “It was supposed to be a warning.”  He suddenly
hesitated.  “He said he was just going to rough up Casey and her mother to
frighten Brandon.  He never said anything about killing anyone.”  Mitchell
remained tense and looked from Grey to Casey.  “That’s why I volunteered to go
after Dina the other night.  I didn’t want to see anyone else hurt, but then
someone jumped me--”  He suddenly eyed Casey with an odd realization.

She grinned and shook her
head.  “Sorry,” she replied.  “That wasn’t me.  If I came across a man in a
mask, I probably would have shot first and asked questions later.”

“If it wasn’t you--”
Mitchell gasped softly then looked at Grey.

Grey grinned.  “Sure, blame
it on the psycho brother,” he teased.

“I knew it!” Casey suddenly
announced with a twisted smile.  “You were acting a little too innocent.  You
were behind the Harford boys and the cannon too, weren’t you?”

“We all vent in our own
way, sister dear,” Grey replied.

“And here I was blaming
Ruger,” she scoffed while hiding her smile.  “I’m proud of you.”

A gun was suddenly heard
cocking just behind Casey.  She tensed to the familiar sound near her head. 
Mitchell darted away from her, turned to look back, and held his chest.  Tucker
stood behind Casey with a small, semiautomatic pistol to her head.

“Look what I found in
daddy’s nightstand beneath the dirty magazines,” Tucker teased.

Casey remained still as
horror crossed her face.  She didn’t chance looking back at him but knew it was
a gun against her head.  “The twenty-two?” she asked softly.

“That’s right,” Tucker said
with a chuckle.

Casey groaned softly and
shut her eyes.  She then muttered, “Forgot about that one.”

Grey appeared stunned while
staring at her with his mouth hanging open.  “Good job, Casey!”

“They know everything,
Tucker,” Mitchell informed him and appeared less nervous now.

“Of course they do, thanks
to your big mouth,” Tucker snapped.  “We’ll continue with the original plan.”

“How do you intend to
explain your missing guns?” Casey asked while resuming a little of her earlier
confidence.

Tucker suddenly glared at
Mitchell.  “Cuff Grey to the banister and find our weapons.  Check the upstairs
bathroom.”

Mitchell removed his
handcuffs and kept a safe distance from Grey while subconsciously rubbing his
chest.  He nodded him to the stairs and tossed him the cuffs.

“Cuff your right wrist to
the banister,” Mitchell ordered.

Grey hesitated and eyed
Casey.  She raised her brows in silent response.  Grey frowned then groaned as
he cuffed his right wrist to the banister.  Mitchell took a wide birth around
Grey then darted up the stairs.

“Who ordered the hit on our
family?” Grey asked while glaring at Tucker across the kitchen.  “Was it the
mayor or that bastard Ernest?”

“The same person who stole
Casey’s car and ran Vaughn off the road tonight,” Tucker informed him while
grinning slyly.  “Although an investigation will reveal it was Dina behind the
wheel, that is, once they identify her body.”

Casey and Grey exchanged
horrified looks.  Grey sneered and gave a firm tug on the handcuff attached to
the banister.  His look was once again psychotic.  Abby appeared in the open
kitchen doorway and stared at Tucker with a strange look on her face.  He looked
at her and appeared surprised.  A clearly visible cut on the corner of her
mouth bled freely.

“Abby?” Tucker gasped. 
“What are you doing--?”

Vaughn forced Abby into the
kitchen while holding his gun to her head.  She was obviously frightened by her
run-in with him.

“You know, I never hit a
woman before,” Vaughn said firmly.  He casually looked around the room then
eyed Casey.  “I wasn’t expecting quite so many people on our date.”

“Yeah, the party got a
little out of control,” she muttered while casting a sideways glance at the gun
to her own head.  “Nice of you to finally join us.”

“Traffic was bad,” he
scoffed.  “I saw Dina along the road with the ‘auto club’.  She seemed fine,
but Diesel’s a little pissed about the car.”  He then looked at his deputy and
best friend.  “You never were good at tying loose ends, Tucker.  So I figured
I’d help you out.  You off my girlfriend; I off yours.”

Casey and Grey stared at
Vaughn with surprise. 

“Really?” Casey gasped. 
“The mayor’s wife and your deputy?”  She managed to eye Tucker partially behind
her and suddenly grimaced.  “Ewe, you slept with your ex-girlfriend’s mother! 
That is so nasty.”

“Yeah,” Vaughn announced
and smirked.  “She was surprisingly talkative after I bounced her head off the
steering wheel.  She was the driving force behind keeping her husband in
office.  It seems Lance had no clue what she and Tucker had been doing behind
his back--in and out of the bedroom.”

It seemed out of character
for Vaughn to assault Mrs. Mayor, but he’d obviously had a rough night. 

“When she stumbled upon my
accident
,
something she said earlier about Casey’s teenage crush on me finally
registered.  Half the town knew I had a thing for Casey many years ago, but
only three people knew about her teenage crush on me.  Casey, her mother, and
Dina.  Abby could only have known that if she read Catherine’s journal, which
she had stolen from my desk.”

Casey stared at Vaughn with
surprise and hostility.  “She stole my mother’s journal?  When did you intend
to tell me it was stolen?”

Vaughn sharply raised his
brows at her.  “I think we’re getting a little off subject, Casey,” he
remarked.

She glared her
disapproval.  “Fine, but we’ll finish this discussion later.”

“Shut up, both of you!” 
Tucker appeared enraged while clutching the gun he held to Casey’s head.  “You
won’t shoot Abby, Vaughn, but you know I’ll do Casey.”

There was a tense moment. 
Casey stared at Vaughn and knew damned well Tucker was right.  There was no way
Vaughn would ever shoot Mrs. Mayor without being provoked.  Casey showed no
emotion while staring at Vaughn. 

“Shoot him,” she announced
sternly.

Vaughn stared back at her
and appeared stunned.  “Are you crazy?” he gasped.

“I’m pretty sure she is,”
Grey remarked simply while casually leaning against the banister to which he
was handcuffed.

“Do it,” Casey said firmly.

“Shut up!” Tucker shouted
while clutching her shoulder and dug the barrel of the gun into her temple.

Vaughn tensed but didn’t
take the gun from Abby’s head.  Casey stared into Vaughn’s eyes from across the
kitchen. 

“There’s one bullet in the
chamber, but the clip is empty,” she quickly informed Vaughn then raised her
brows sharply.  “Shoot him!”

Tucker suddenly appeared
alarmed at the prospect of only having one bullet and aimed the gun at Vaughn. 
Vaughn shoved Abby aside and shot Tucker in the head as Casey ducked.  Tucker’s
head snapped back as his gun clicked empty.  Abby screamed and bolted toward
the garage door just past Grey.  Grey suddenly kicked her in the chest,
throwing her backward.  She roughly hit the floor and didn’t move.  There was a
loud thump from upstairs.  Mitchell tumbled down the stairs, landed roughly at
the bottom, and lay unconscious.  Ruger casually walked down the steps and
assessed the situation in the kitchen. 

Vaughn stared at Ruger with
surprise.  “Where did you come from?”

“From upstairs,” he said
innocently while pointing up the steps, “just now.”  Ruger casually tossed Grey
the handcuff keys. 

Diesel entered from the
living room with Dina just behind him and looked around.  “What did I miss?” he
asked then eyed Tucker lying on the floor as blood spilled from his head wound.

Dina saw Tucker and gasped
with horror. 

Diesel nodded his approval
and grinned.  “Nice shot.”

While avoiding the spilling
blood, Dina ran past Tucker’s lifeless body and toward Grey, who removed the
handcuffs.  He gathered her into his arms and clung to her while sighing his
relief.  Vaughn approached the dead man and glared at Casey.  She innocently
watched him as he picked up the small gun by the barrel.

“Did you know the gun was
empty?” he suddenly asked.

Casey casually shrugged,
folded her arms across her chest, and maintained an innocent look.  “No, I
actually thought there was one in the chamber.”

“What former Special Forces
keeps a gun with a bullet in the chamber but an empty clip?” Vaughn demanded.

All four looked at him
while smirking but none responded.  His question was silently answered.  Vaughn
rolled his eyes and shook his head.  He crouched down alongside Tucker and
unbuttoned his shirt to expose the bulletproof vest.  He lightly ran his finger
along the indents in the chest of the vest.

“Three indents,” Vaughn
remarked with a soft sigh.  “Same vest he wore two years ago.”

“Didn’t do him much good
tonight,” Diesel muttered then grinned.

Vaughn stuck his finger in
a hole near the side of the vest and glanced at Casey.  “I think this was your
handy work.  Looks like a .357 Magnum.  If he hadn’t been wearing, he wouldn’t
have gotten up when you shot him.”

“My shot was a little
obstructed,” she casually remarked.  “If he had stuck his head out though, I
would gladly have blown it off.”

Vaughn slowly straightened
and allowed his eyes to fall on her attire.  He casually walked past her and
murmured softly, “I like the outfit.”

Casey grinned and raised
her brows lustfully.

Ruger rolled his eyes,
turned away, and scoffed, “I’m going to be sick.”

O
ne week later.  There was a
large crowd standing before the stage at the fairgrounds.  Just about the
entire town had showed up for what would be the turning point in history of
their small town.  They had been under a cloud of corruption for decades and
finally things were going to be different.  Grey stood behind the podium as the
crowd cheered and applauded.  He proudly looked over the cheering crowd while
realizing his father’s dream.  Brandon would have been proud of his son.

“As acting mayor, I’m
making a promise to end corruption in our town,” Grey announced.  He barely got
the words out when the crowd cheered wildly.

Ernest was seen off to the
side with his three sons.  Fred was conspicuously missing.  He motioned to his
sons and all four walked away.

“And in order to do that,”
Grey continued from behind the podium, “we need a strong police department.  At
this time, I’d like to call to the stage our very own Sheriff Holt, who bravely
saved mine and Casey’s life not once but twice now.”

The crowd applauded and
cheered as Vaughn made his way onto stage, once again embarrassed by the
spotlight.  He approached Grey at the podium and shook his hand.

“Mayor Remington,” Vaughn
cheerfully announced.

Grey grinned in response. 
“Our town is going to be in the best of hands,” he announced to the crowd then
looked at Vaughn.  “Sheriff Holt, would you please introduce our new deputies.”

Vaughn stood behind the
podium and looked out to the crowd, who waited anxiously for his announcement. 
“I’d like the good people of Darwood Falls to meet our new and
improved
police force,” he announced cheerfully.  “Please welcome Deputy Diesel Mann and
Deputy Ruger Quinn.”

Ruger and Diesel walked
onto stage in their new police uniforms and badges.  The crowd applauded
wildly.  Vaughn walked down the steps as both men soaked in the attention. 
Casey rode up to the stage on her gray horse and smiled at Vaughn.  He grinned,
climbed onto the horse behind her, and they rode across the fairgrounds as he
clung to her.  Grey watched them leave, smiled proudly, and stepped behind the
podium.

“Let’s hear it for Sheriff
Holt,” Grey announced cheerfully and clapped.  “My soon-to-be
future
brother-in-law.”

As the crowd cheered, Grey
joined Dina offstage and hugged her affectionately.  Diesel and Ruger also left
stage.  Melanie walked past Diesel, gave him a lustful smile, and nodded toward
the ticket booth.  She flashed a box of doughnuts.  Diesel grinned and nearly
trampled Ruger to get to her and the doughnuts.  A group of women approached
Ruger and swarmed him.  He appeared startled by all the female attention and
looked at Grey with Dina.

“Grey, a little help?”
Ruger announced.

Grey smiled deviously at
him and gave his best royal wave.  Casey and Vaughn were seen riding off on her
gray horse across the field and out of sight.

†

E
rnest entered the foyer of
his mansion with Wayne, Ryan, and Blain following behind.  All four appeared
disgusted.  Wayne slammed the door.

“Now what?” Wayne demanded.

“First, I want that
traitorous brother of yours found,” Ernest snapped then looked at his watch
with a frown.  “Lance has some nerve insisting he meet us here.”

“I can’t believe he
resigned as mayor,” Ryan snorted and collapsed onto a bench in the hallway. 
“Then to throw Aunt Abby under the bus like that--”

“I could kill him on that
score alone,” Ernest scoffed.  “If Grey Remington gets his way, I’m going to be
broke within a year.”

“What can we do?” Blain
demanded.

“We’re going to finish what
Abby and Tucker started,” Ernest snapped.  “We’re going to get rid of those
Remington kids once and for all.  No kid gloves this time.  I want them
eliminated.”

“That’s not as easy as it
sounds,” Wayne retorted.  “They don’t roll over easily.”

“So, we’ll solicit some
professional help,” Ernest remarked.  “I know some people.  It won’t be cheap,
but it’ll be worth it.  I just need to make a few phone calls.”

Blain suddenly sniffed the
air and looked around.  “Do you smell something?”

The other three looked at
him then smelled the air.  Ernest shook his head.

“You’re imagining things,”
he remarked.

Blain walked into the
living room, smelled the air, and approached the propane fireplace.  “It’s
propane,” Blain announced as the others approached.  “There’s something wrong
with the fireplace.”

Wayne looked at the coffee
table and appeared puzzled.  A cigarette rested on the ashtray with a book of
matches holding it up.

“What the hell--” Wayne
began to speak.

The book of matches caught
fire and the propane fumes suddenly ignited, turning the entire living room
into a ball of fire.  From outside Ernest’s mansion, there was a loud explosion
as the front windows shattered and flames shot out of the house.  Wiley stood
casually on the sidewalk while watching the flames engulf the front of the
house.  He looked at the gray cat in his arms, affectionately petted its coat,
and continued on his way past the mansion.

The End