Chapter 24, Killing Moon

The afternoon sun was fading to the west casting orange shadows upon the east wall of the modest building that Bumpersville could boast of a city hall. It was a few offices, one each for the appointed village office holders and a small entry way with an information booth displaying the first brochures advertising the appeal of Happy Valley. The village didn't have a Jay Cee's or a chamber of commerce yet, buisness owners where too busy keeping thier affairs in order to worry too much about being too civic minded just yet, although George Pembrook had high plans for a lot more, plans that he never had an opportunity to put into play. The building sported the village jail, a one room off-shoot from the city hall proper but complete with bars around the small window and doorway. Steven Hubener sat upon the cot looking despondant.

The building had been one of the first things built using village revenues and it was hardly used. Tate Sr. never even set foot into his office, that set aside for the village Alderman complete with mahogony desk and decorated with an antique looking desk lamp and nice leather desk top protector. The paint from inside the office still smelled of that new office pungency. The other offices had been used, one for the village secretary, one for the Sheriff and a common desk for the deputies. The treasurers office was across from the Alderman's and was a little more used, used that is until that morning when Treasurer Hilcock was shot while on his tractor.

Outside of the jail cell, the temporary desk was occupied by Deputy Alan Middlebrook, Pete Middlebrook's third son. When it came to the local law, Ed Tate Jr. lead the pack of three deputies in everything related to lawlessness and chicanery. Alan Middlebrook, like Willie Banks, was not much more than a pawn in the games of others. Alan sat at the desk, an Archie comic open on the top and a coke bottle nearby, sweating a water stain upon the grey surface.

"Hey Alan," a voice from the front of the building called.

"Yeah, Ed? That you?"

Ed Tate Jr. hobbled into view from around the corner followed by a wearried Willie Banks. Willie couldn't believe that he was still chained to Jr. and about to go through what he knew he would regret later. Like a dog to its vomit, Willie couldn't help but to keep the ugliness alive.

"Yeah, it me."

"Thought you got shot?" Alan asked.

"Grazed is more like it," Willie said.

"Shot!" Ed Jr. protested.

"Sure, shot," Willie rolled his eyes.

"Sheriff wants to let Hubener go fer some reason," Ed Tate said to Alan.

"Let him go? After all that trouble this mornin'?"

"That's what yer paw said, let 'im go," Ed said with a wink.

Willie caught the wink and suddenly felt cold inside. What was the little cretin up to, he thought. Ed Sr. had said nothing of doing anything to Steven Hubener nor of anything to do with him at all earlier and Ed Jr. certainly hadn't heard from Sheriff Middlebrook about releasing thier first ever prisoner.

Steven perked up when he'd heard Tate make his pronouncement and sat up straighter on his cot.

Alan turned to look at him then back at Ed. Alan said, "you sure we's supposed to let this killer go? Don't we have ta do somethin' like send him ta Charleston fer a hearin'?"

"Dun ask me, it's yer paw's orders," Ed replied.

"Dun seem right, lettin' this hill topper go like that, who ya gonna kill next," Alan said to Steven.

"Perhaps you, you little ingrate," Steven said and flushed red.

Willie could hear the anger and righteous indignation in Steven's voice and he had every right to be. It had all been a sham from the beginning and of all the hill toppers whom Willie had known Steven had been one he actually really liked before. Steven looked up at Willie and Willie couldn't help but turn away in a small show of shame. He had enjoyed his coffee, his company, his warm store in the winter time and had begun to warm up to the man before Ed Jr. started to get ideas about how things should be done. Now, he had helped in arresting Steven for no other reason than Ed Jr.'s incomprehensible hatred of the man.

"You watch yerself, Hubie," Ed Jr. said with a grin. "I'll keep ya locked up jus' long enough ta have another crack at yer daughter."

Willie winced and if not for the influence of Ed's father, he would have killed Ed Jr. right then and there.

"What?" Alan exclaimed.

Steven stood bolt upright and walked up to the bars of his cell. "If I shoot anybody, it'll be you Tate, you little bastard!"

Ed Jr. grinned wide and placed his hand on his service revolver. "Oh, I don't think you'll be shootin' anyone else today, Hubie. Go ahead Alan, open the cell an' let our killer walk."

"What'd you say 'bout his daughter?" Alan asked.

"The lil bastard raped my daughter and got her pregnant, that's what!"

"Ju's open the cell, Alan," Ed Jr. said annoyed.

He wants Steven to do something, Willie thought as it dawned on him what Ed was up to.

"Why'd ya go an' do a thing like that, Ed?" Alan asked, unsure of what to do.

"Because he's an evil man, that's why. How many others have you preyed upon, you little monster. How many others that we don't know about?" Steven snarled.

"Open the cell door, Alan so's we can get this over with!" Ed Jr. said angry.

Willie couldn't let Ed do what he knew was working in that sick mind of his, he was going to shoot Steven and call it an accident, there was no other reason why he'd want Alan to open the cell, and Steven wasn't helping matters any. "Alan, don't open the cell, Ed's lying, he hasn't talked to yer paw."

Ed Jr. swiviled around and glared at Willie, a mixture of shock and surprise reflected on his face. "Let me handle this, Willie, this is official police buisness here!"

Alan was blank faced and Willie saw the confusion working behind his eyes as he was getting input from three sides and unsure of who to believe. Alan said, "I don't know Ed, it don't sound right an' I don't think we should let the prisoner go. I need to talk to paw first."

"Damnit Alan, open the cell!"

"Yes, Alan, open this cell so I can tear Ed's head off. Would you stand by while he raped your sister?" Steven added.

"Alan, just walk away, go find your paw and find out for yourself what's going on," Willie said to Alan. "Take the keys with ya."

"Shut up, Willie, or paw will hear about this!" Ed shouted.

"Just go, Alan an' take them keys with ya," Willie repeated. Ed Jr. had gotten away with much in his protected life, but Willie was through with his shenanigans. Ed Sr. could have his hide for all he cared right now, as long as he kept Jr. from doing something else stupid and destructive.

"Willie, you stay outta this, this aint yer buisness!" Ed Jr. yelled. "Alan, you open the cell or so help me I'll plug you right there!"

Alan froze in indecision.

"Damnit, Alan, I mean it!" Ed Jr. sputtered.

"Do it kid, do it! Let me outta here so I can teach that little runt a lesson!" Steven egged on from within the cell.

"All of you, shut up!" Alan shouted. "Ed, I'm not opening the cell but I am going to find paw and find out what is going on, sorry."

Willie eyed Ed Jr. closely, waiting for him to make for his revolver. Alan had finally made his decision and stood for a moment more staring at Ed before he headed towards them and the exit out of the building. If Ed was going to attempt to do something, now was the moment.

Ed, his attention turned to Alan dropped his hand to his holster but it was held in place by the leather snap that prevented the .357 revolver from jostling loose if the wearer was running or stooping. Ed jerked upwards on the handle but the fastener held tight. Alan froze when he saw Ed go for his revolver.

Willie sprang on Ed with a quick grab for his right hand and twisted the wrist inward once his hand was free from the pistol grip. Another swift swivel of his body brought his elbow to Ed's neck and Willie knocked Ed into the hallway wall where the two of them had been standing since they entered the jail. Alan had been reaching for his own revolver when Willie surprised both he and Ed.

"Go Alan, go get the Sheriff, they'll be no more killing today," Willie said with some effort as Ed tried to break Willie's grip on his wrist.

"Gog gammit, Gillie gemme go," Ed Jr. gasped.

"Quiet!" Willie hissed.

Alan hurried past Willie and Ed and dissapeared around the corner of the hall. Willie increased the pressure on Ed's wrist, turning it while pressing his thumb hard into the middle of Ed's had, leaning in hard on his whole body, Willie applied equal force to Ed's struggles to free himself. Willie hadn't used any of his military trianing since the war, though he hadn't seen any hand to hand combat, some of the lessons where coming in handy now.

"You're going to march your sorry carcass out of this jail and back home to poppa, I've suffered your presence long enough," Willie said as he turned up the pressure another notch.

"Gop it," Ed gagged, "gop itgth."

"You want him taught a lesson?" Steven said from his cell. "Bring him a little closer to the bars and I'll put the fear of God back into him."

"You shoot him an' he's still in his cell, it won't be too hard to figure out you did it, Ed. You'd better get control of yourself real fast," Willie whispered.

"Yeah, c'mon Ed, shoot me an' see that you aint put in here instead of me," Steven taunted.

"Hubie, don't make it any worse," Willie said.

"You know damn well I didn't shoot Howard Hilcock," Steven protested.

"Yeah, I knowd ya din't, an' I know jus' who did," Willie replied and pressed his fore arm hard into Ed's neck.

"Well, I'll be a ..." Steven started to say when Ed worked his free hand away from Willie's forearm against his own neck and reached for Willie's face, clawing his fingers into Willie's eyes.

Surprised at the reversal, Willie let loose of Willie's wrist and brought both hands to his face, more out of surprise and a sense that Ed had done damage. Stunned, Willie could only think of checking his eyes than of what Ed might be doing at the moment.

"Hey!" Steven yelled.

"Shut up," Ed roared followed by the loud report of a pistol.

Willie, his eyes still stinging heard a yelp followed by another report that echoed loud against the hallway walls.

"Sorry, Willie, but you'd prolly do the same," Ed said as if he were carrying on a normal conversation. "Thanks fer all yer help."

Eyes still closed, Willie figured out what was about to happen and lunged in the direction of the voice but was met by another loud report. He felt himself hit Ed but his strength and momentum were spent and he felt himself falling to the floor.

"I'll tell paw I had ta let ya go, Willie. Bye Cap'n, my Cap'n."

Willie felt Ed's legs move passed him and echo down the hallway. His eyes wouldn't let him open them and he felt blood running down his cheek. "This is what it's like to be shot, Jr," Willie moaned and slipped away.

****

George drove the short distance from his house to the village jail and village hall. The crowds of valley men had dispersed with the darkness as if warded off by it. The hotel parking lot was still full of cars and people milling about, but the buisnesses where dark and quiet save for the stream of traffic along State15. Turning off of State15 down a short road to the hall, George noted the few lights on in the building and one pickup truck in the lot. Easing out of the front seat, George walked up to the front door and peered inside. Expecting the door to be locked he was surprised to find it open. He figured someone was there guarding thier prisoner, but hadn't expected the door to be unlocked. It struck him as awfully lax. He walked into the front of the building and noted the darkened office of the Alderman, an office he had designed for himself to occupy.

"Hello, can Hubie have visitors?" George called out. Something told him it wouldn't be wise to stroll into the jail area unnanounced.

"Hello, anyone there?"

Silence. Save for the pickup in the front, it was not out of the realm of possibility they had all left Hubie to sit in his cell without a guard around. Where was he going to go? George decided after a few moments to go ahead and head to the back of the building. The front offices had a receptionist desk that had never been occupied by anyone and behind it was the hallway that snaked its way around to the back and the jail cell. Rounding the corner brought him to the end of the hall and the opening into the jail and something he hadn't thought he would ever see. Laying in a gathering pool of blood was the crumpled form of Willie Banks, someone whom George had often fantasized about sewing his mouth shut whennever he occasioned to open it in George's presence. Someone had gone a little further than that.

"Hubie?" George called out. He could see the cell but the extra desk used by the deputies obscured everything from waist level downward. What was going on, dreamed up by Tate Sr. and delivered by those whom he controlled hadn't surprised George yet, but what he was seeing now did. Could this be something he's cooked up as well, George thought to himself as he lightly stepped around Willie's supine form to get around the desk. Hubie was lying back against the cot in the cell, his head propped up against the wall and had bled all over himself and the cot. The fact that Hubie was dead was a little less disturbing than to find Willie also, Tate Jr. had something for Hubie for a long time, but why was Willie here also?

"George?"

The voice from behind him startled George. George answered, "Yes?" Turning around quickly, suddenly aware of the appearance of him being the only one standing amidst the carnage and the possibility that he might be attatched to the crime, "No gun, see?" George said as he held his hands up in mock surrender.

"George, what the blazes is goin' on?" Jim Hilcock asked as he stood at the foot of Willie's corpse.

"Jim, I'd like to know the same myself. I came by to check up on Hubie and found this," George replied and lowered his hands. Of all of the valley people, Jim and his late father where the only ones he could trust.

"I dun' know what ya got yerself into, Willie, but it finally caught up with ya," Jim said to the corpse. "Ya know, I watched from the beginning all the changes 'round here and in all the people I used ta be close to an' what I saws today really surprised me. I dun' know what would motivate sum folks to do this or that, but when I looked Willie in the eye earlier this mornin' he wouldn't return it, like he was privately ashamed of it all."

"How's your family? Benton told me about your mother, I was sorry to hear about both of them," George said.

"They's restin', kids seem ta have recovered an' are bouncin' off the walls, the Shield's gonna have quite the mess ta clean up once this is all over," Jim said with a grin.

"I suppose I ought ta go an' inform Hubie's family of what's happened. I was surprised ta find no one here to be honest," George said and stepped towards the hallway. "Do you want to go get Doc Robbins?"

"Yeah, I'll do that, he's been at the hotel most of the day, some of the folks is still sick," Jim answered.

"Well, perhaps we ought to get moving before someone else happens by who isn't as clear headed and decides that one of us is the culprit, eh?" George stepped over Willie's body and headed down the hallway with Jim slightly behind him. As if the village hall had been a magnet, Alan and Sheriff Middlebrook came in through the front door and both sets of men froze.

"What are you two doin' here?" Sheriff Middlebrook asked.

"I came to visit Hubie, you remember Hubie don't you Sheriff, that man you wrongly arrested for murder?" George replied.

"We had evidence, Pembrook. Where's Ed?"

"You tell us, your his boss. He wasn't here when I got here, but someone left a mess back there," George answered.

"Alan, go check on our prisoner," the Sheriff said, adding emphasis to our and prisoner for George's benefit.

"Your prisoner is dead, Sheriff, so's Willie Banks for that matter," George stated.

Alan's eyes grew wide and he rushed passed George and Jim and into the back hallway leaving George and the Sheriff to stare at one another.

"Well, I'm goin' ta get Doc Robbins, if ya dun' mind there Sheriff," Jim said more to break the icey silence than out of really seeking permission.

As Jim was leaving Alan came running back into the foyer breathless.

"Shit paw, he kilt 'em both, both of them, he did fer sure."

"Alan, quiet, we don't know yet who, do we?" Sheriff said and gave Alan a look practiced by many a parent to a child to communicate displeasure.

"What? But Ed was ..."

"Alan, I said zip it!" Sheriff Middlebrook growled.

"How deep's he got you, Sheriff? How deep in Ed Sr. pocket are you?" George asked, more out of a need to rattle his cage than out of a true curiosity.

"Get out of here Pembrook before I decide it was you who did this," Sheriff Middlebrook sneered.

"Just like you decided Hubie shot Howard, eh? Is that how one comes about to criminal fact finding? Decide who you want it to be then make it so?" George wanted to keep pressing Middlebrooks buttons, he didn't really know why given the dangerous atmosphere. Call it a compulsion to wield power or to at least give something back of all of the drubbings he'd gotten lately from some of these hay seeds. George saw the question flash on Alan's face but an icey glare from his father shut him up.

"Well Sheriff, don't you have a real killer to hunt down?" George broke the moment of silence.

"Shut up, Pembrook an' get the hell outta my building!" Sheriff Middlebrook replied.

"Well, if you want semantics, it's my building that I lease to the village. But, I'll leave on my own accord and go console the soon to be grieving widow of your late prisoner, Sheriff." George knew he was pushing his luck just then and quickly exited the room. That things had escellated to this level still rattled him. One bad egg is all it takes, he thought to himself as he got back into his car.