Chapter32 A United Front

Ruth informs them that the mayor's on the phone with Senator Steinman; and, asked not to be disturbed. The sheriff takes off his Stetson, tells Ruth they'll wait, and takes a seat. Deputy Hopkins decides to take a different approach, walking past Ruth and bursts in the mayor's office. "Hey, Al, what's shaking; long time, no see!" The sheriff gets up to follow the deputy in; and, as he passes by a stunned Ruth, quips, "Well, Mam, I reckon he's available; so, we'll be seeing him now. Ruth, don't bother getting up; I got the door. Thank you kindly." He closes the door, leaving Ruth behind gawking at her desk. The mayor rushes off the phone. "Excuse me, Senator, some pressing matters just came up and I'll have to be going now. I'll take care of those matters we discussed. Thank you, sir; and, I do apologize for the abrupt ending of this call. Take care." Once sure the senator hung up, the mayor slams the phone down and yells, "What is the meaning of this intrusion?" Deputy Hopkins takes off his sunglasses, sits down and throws his feet up on the mayor's desk. "Relax, Al; you got it all wrong. This isn't an intrusion…it's a friendly visit. We were in the neighborhood, so we thought we'd stop in for a little chit chat. So, do you prefer to do the ‘chitting' or the ‘chatting'?" He pauses, then chides, "If you don't mind me saying so, Al; by that expression on your face, it looks to me like you may be ‘chitting' in your pants right now." "Deputy Hopkins, as Mayor of Beaver Ridge, I demand that you show me a little respect!" "Trust me, Al; I'll always show you as little respect as possible." The mayor's face turns beet red. "Deputy, this desk is an antique…it's very old and very expensive…and, you've got your feet up on it. Do you mind?" The deputy looks at his feet on the desk and, leaving them on it, answers, "No, I don't mind; but, thanks for asking." Enraged with the deputy's insolence, the mayor turns to the sheriff. "Lloyd; what's the meaning of this?" "Well now, Al, like Mike said, we just stopped by for a visit; thought maybe you had some more of that lemonade you were offering to me the other day. Sure could go for a glass of it today." The mayor walks behind his desk. "Yeah, well; I don't have any today. Got some water; if that's okay with you?" Deputy Hopkins jests, "Poland Springs or Evian?" The mayor snorts, "Tap!" The deputy flippantly responds, "Mmmm; just like Mom use to make." Mayor Cromwell pours a glass, walks out from behind his desk…passing by the deputy…and, gives it to the sheriff. Deputy Hopkins goads, "What; none for me, Al?" The mayor quickly turns to the deputy and snaps, "Get it your damn self!" He turns back to Sheriff Faulkner, leans in, and whispers, "Why the hell is he here, Lloyd?" "Well now, Al; truth be told…not that it is much around here as I'm discovering… Mike and I didn't just come here for a visit. We're actually here on official police business." The mayor laughs, "Official police business…you and Hopkins? You're a team now, huh? A regular ‘Dynamic Duo'." "That's Batman and Robin, Al. I'd like to think of us more like a Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid kind of alliance." The mayor gives a slight nod. "Ah; interesting choice, Lloyd…considering which side of the law they were on." "I'm finding that around here, it doesn't necessarily matter which side of the law you're on; that when it's all said and done, it just comes down to being on the side of right or the side of wrong. The question is which side we choose to be on. Ain't that right; Deputy Hopkins?" "Hallelujah, Brother Butch!" The mayor huffs. "Can we just get this over with. What do you want, Lloyd?" "I want answers, Al." "Answers? What answers, Lloyd?" The deputy jumps in. "Straight answers, Al…he likes straight answers." "That's Mr. Mayor to you, Deputy." "Sure thing, Mr. Mayor Al." "Lloyd, I hope you don't expect me to stand here and take this crap from your deputy this entire meeting; do you?" "No, Al, of course not;" goading the mayor, "by all means, have a seat. No need to stand for it the entire time." The mayor's infuriated. "I'm losing my patience with this, Lloyd! What do you want? And, by the way; I heard you called in the State Police for some sort of search this morning?" "We're looking for a body, Al. I called in the state boys for some assistance." "Whose body? Did you find anything? What the hell's going on, Lloyd?" "A…Whose body is irrelevant for now, Al…B…no, we didn't find anything … and, C…that's why we came here, Al; hoping to find out what the hell's going on." "I don't know what you're talking about, Lloyd; I'm totally lost." The deputy laughs, "As usual." "Damn it, Hopkins! Mind your tongue, or so help me…" The deputy jumps up from his chair and puts his face within inches from the mayor's. "So help you what, Al; what are you gonna do? I know…maybe you'll have Chas hit me with his car; like Jessica Ultredge. You do remember Jessica; don't you, Mr. Mayor Al? Have you ever stopped in to see her? I have. She's still paralyzed in that wheelchair; in case you were wondering." The mayor's drops his eyes to the floor as the deputy continues… "So…how is ol' Chas these days, Al…still doing the gay porn thing?" "Leave my boy out of this, Deputy!" "Sorry, Al, I know it must be a hard thing to accept; but, it really shouldn't be. After all, there's not much difference between you and ‘Chasy…when you think about it…the only difference between the two of you is that you like giving it to people up the ass; while he likes taking it up there." "Damn it, Lloyd; control your man!" "All right you two," the sheriff moves in between them, using his hands to push them further apart, "that's enough catching up. Now, Al; how about them answers I came here for." "What do you want to know, Lloyd?" "What's going on with that house, Al?" The mayor turns and slowly walks over to a bookshelf, pretending to be looking for a book as he nervously asks, "What house are you talking about, Lloyd?" The deputy makes a buzzer-like sound. "AAAAAAAHHHHH! Wrong answer, Mayor; but, thanks for playing our game. Hope you enjoy your consolation prize." The mayor turns to look at Deputy Hopkins and scowls. Sheriff Faulkner repeats, with a more authoritative tone, "What's going on with that house, Al?" He answers again; very meekly, "What house, Lloyd?" "You know damn well what house I'm talking about, Al; now come on." "You mean the Lazinski's house?" "There; now was that so hard? Yeah, that house; what's going on out there?" "I don't know what you mean, Lloyd." The mayor turns back to staring at the books. "Hey, Lloyd; you think we'd get some answers from him if I grabbed one of those books he's looking at, and hit him upside his head with it?" "Well now, we may not get the answers, Mike; but, it sure as hell would probably be a lot more productive…not to mention more enjoyable than it is now." The sheriff grabs the mayor by his shirt collar and drags him to his chair; tossing him down into it. Sheriff Faulkner places a hand on each arm of the chair, as he leans in towards the mayor. "Now, Al, this here approach seemed to work well with your friend Gus down at the diner; so, let's see how effective it is with you. Questions too general for you, Al; okay, I'll be a little more specific then. For starters; why didn't you tell me about all those families who disappeared from that house?" The mayor looks at Deputy Hopkins, giving him a brief cold, harsh stare before facing the sheriff again. "Hopkins told you that; huh, Lloyd? Well, once again Hopkins is over exaggerating a situation. First of all…we're only talking about seventeen families that…" Sheriff Faulkner cuts off the mayor. "Only seventeen families? Well dip me in cougar shit and call me Betty Lou…you're right, Al; Mike here plum blew things way out of proportion. It wasn't that serious after all; sorry for wasting your time. Come on, Mike, let's go and let the Mayor get back to whatever it was he was doing." There's a brief moment of silence before the sheriff hollers at the mayor… "Christ, Al; what the fuck's going on out there?! Why didn't yawl tell me about the disappearances?!" "Because it wasn't necessary to tell you about them, Lloyd." "Wasn't necessary?" "No." "How do you figure it wasn't necessary to let me know that seventeen families vanished from that house?" "Look, Lloyd; Sheriff Jameson investigated the cases…surely Hopkins, you do remember that…and, there was no evidence of any crime happening. No bodies were ever found; and, there were no signs of forced entries or struggles or nothing." "Well then; what do you think happened, Al?" "I'll tell you what happened, Lloyd; they left. They heard some rumors of the house being haunted, got scared, and took off…end of story." "End of story; just like that? Rumors of ghost stories chase them away; is that it, Al? You sure it wasn't because they heard about the killings that occurred forty some odd years ago?" Caught off guard, the mayor starts gagging on the sip of water he was just taking. After a brief coughing fit, he struggles to respond to the sheriff. "You heard about the killings, Lloyd?" The sheriff nods; while the mayor attempts to compose himself. "Well, there you have it then; they must've heard about them too, and left." Sheriff Faulkner grins. "So, now what your suggesting is that instead of the ‘ghost stories'; they heard about the killings and became so scared, that they decided to leave their new house and high-tail it out of Dodge? I see; well I suppose that would explain everything then. What do you think, Deputy Hopkins?" "I'm sorry, Lloyd; did you say something? I didn't hear you; I was too busy shoveling this shit around here…which seems to be piling up higher every time Al opens his mouth." "Well, Al; it looks like Deputy Hopkins disagrees with your summation. Perhaps you'd like to try again." "Don't push your luck, Lloyd;" the mayor warns the sheriff, "there are certain things you just don't want to go getting mixed up in around here. There's a lot of powerful players involved that'll eat the two of you up and spit you out without giving it a second thought." "Really? Would one of these people you're talking about happen to be Senator Jack Steinman?" "Lloyd," the mayor squirms while going to sit up in his chair, "Hopkins' an idiot, and doesn't know any better…poor upbringing I suppose. But, I honestly believed you were different; I figured you knew what the deal really is, and how to play the game. Careful now; you don't want to go messing with the Steinman family." "Is that just for the Senator; or does that go for Chelsea and Tommy, too?" The mayor quickly turns pale. He starts shaking as his voice cracks, "Who did you say, Lloyd?" The sheriff stands up from bending over the mayor and sits on his desk. "I was asking if that included Chelsea and Tommy Steinman as well. What's wrong, Al, you don't look too good; something you want to get off your chest?" The mayor jumps out of his chair and rushes to the door. He opens it and points out, stretching his arm out into the reception area. "I want the both of you out of this office now! And as for you, Deputy Hopkins, I don't want to ever see you here again. Lloyd, don't you dare bring this buffoon back here with you. Now, the two of you get the hell out of my office!"