Chapter 21 of Magic Town ...
Sunday, 9:32 PM: “I killed a man!”
Jeff finds out that his volley of bullets through Antonio’s office
door killed Snake Arm. He can’t believe that he actually killed someone! Shonna and Jeff talk over what happened,
Jeff still uncertain that it could have been Snake Arm who was the shooter
yesterday; how could he get so close to his victims? They have found out that
Joel is the main man for sure! Now to plan for the big meeting tomorrow where
they hope to nab all the bad guys at once!
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Author contact: Chris Lamela,
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Magic Town, Chapter 21
Sunday,
9:32 PM: “I killed a man!”
An hour later they were walking into the safe house when Arnie walked
up, “Guess who showed up at Grady
Hospital
Shonna and Jeff stopped dead turning sharply to Arnie, shocked. “Yep,
seems they dumped the body there. And check it out, three bullet holes, all
thirty-eights.” He looked at Jeff with a grinning smile, “Good shootin’ there
Jesse James!”
Jeff’s jaw dropped, looking down at the floor as he tried to take those
words in. He looked up at Arnie, “I killed someone?” Arnie shrugged. “I killed
someone?” Jeff felt his knees start to fall out from under him when four strong
hands grabbed each arm leading him to a chair. “God, I killed someone.”
Arnie walked away as Shonna kneeled in front of Jeff, “Hey, you okay?” He
stared vacantly at her. “It’s not your fault. Remember, we think he was the
shooter.” She squeezed his shoulder, massaging it with her finger tips. “He
killed so many people. Jeff, he would have killed you too.” She paused trying
to get his eyes, they were blank. They sat like that for Jeff couldn’t remember
how long. “Hey, if it’s any consolation, you were the one that guessed he was
the shooter, right?” Jeff didn’t respond.
She stood up pulling at him, “Look, it’s been a long day, let’s get you
into bed. Come on.”
Jeff heard his voice without feeling his lips moving, “I really need
some food. Screw it, no, I really need a beer.” He half-chuckled, “Real bad,
maybe two.”
“Maybe bourbon.”
Shonna led Jeff into the dining room, sat him down, poked into the
kitchen, in a minute appearing with three opened beers, “Here,” she said
putting one in his hand, “I ordered sandwiches, they’ll be out in a minute.”
He lifted the bottle to his lips, without drinking put it back down as he
turned to her, “He was a really bad man, right? I mean I’m not going to be
arrested for murder am I?”
She smiled, “Take a drink first, come on, bottoms up, me too.” They both
raised their bottles giving them a light tap together, tilting them back. Jeff
took a long swallow, a second, a third, slamming the empty bottle onto the
table so loud that the two people sitting behind them jumped looking around for
the noise.
“There now, better, right?” she said in a soothing voice.
Jeff looked at Shonna, questioning, “But that doesn’t make sense. They
wouldn’t have let him get up close to them. It couldn’t have been him,” he
squinted his eyes in thought, “could it?”
She held his hand, “It doesn’t make total sense maybe, but he was the
one coming back to finish off Antonio, right?”
“But I think I heard another voice, what if I shot the wrong guy? There
were definitely two people. What if Snake Arm wasn’t the real shooter and I
happened to shoot him instead of the real shooter. Wouldn’t that make sense?”
“No, I don’t think so. Look I can’t explain it all, but everyone thinks
you shot the right guy. The shooter was Snake Arm.”
He sat shaking his head as two arms reached down between them holding
two plates with sandwiches. The both ate slowly without speaking. When they
were done Jeff stood up without a word starting to turn to the door, he listlessly
sat back down again. “Wow, what a day. I can’t believe this. What a weekend! Nobody
will ever believe this.” He glanced
at his watch seeing it was nearly ten o’clock, with a start, “Damn, I’ve got to
call home!” He looked anxiously at Shonna, “What am I going to say?”
She smiled, “Like always, love you, can hardly wait to get home. You
know. But take a deep breath first. Women can hear these things, you need to be
calm.”
“Can I do it up in the room?” She nodded. “In private?” She nodded
again.
He stood up walking out of the dining room, found the stairs feeling
like he was just floating up the stairway.
A few minutes later he came back down.
“How’d it go, everything okay?”
“I think she could tell.” He gave a weak smile. “It’s kind of hard to be
totally cool when you know you just killed someone, Snake Arm or not.” He
picked up the second beer, saw the kitchen helper walk by as he motioned for another.
“So tomorrow…” he turned to see the kitchen helper walking up handing
him his opened beer, nodding thanks. “Tell me a about tomorrow.”
She sat up, “Well we know more than we did a few hours ago that’s for
sure. We’ll start out with a team meeting, probably at nine, make all the preparations
for the Big Show. We will have to do a very careful job in this planning. We’ve
laid the net, now we want to make sure we get all the fish.”
“What more do we know?”
“We think we know for sure who was the shooter.” Jeff nodded. “We know
this guy Joel could be the Big Cheese, for sure he’s at least the main go-between
representing the congressman, but my guess is that his is much more involved
than just that.” She thought. “We’ve seen the faces of the bad guys.” She
looked to the ceiling counting in her head, “Well most of them anyway, but
there may be more we still don’t know about. This is one very extensive
criminal enterprise.” She paused sipping from her bottle. “Yes, very
impressive. We’ll find out in the morning about who owns the warehouse, that
might give us more information.”
“But what about the big meeting?” He sipped his beer. “I mean if the
word has gotten out that I’m an imposter where does that leave me?” He paused
looking exhausted. “I mean,” yawn, “am I supposed to stand up in front of these
guys?”
“That’s what we’ll figure out at the meeting in the morning.”
“And if Joel knows that the Feds are on this, how will that all play
out?”
“Oh, don’t you worry about mister Joel, he is already working hard to
position himself as having been the undercover guy in this all along, that maybe
he has just been following the orders of the congressman. After all, the
congressman can’t defend himself, right?”
“Any way he can really sell that?”
“At trial you mean?” She shrugged sipping her beer, “Who the hell knows.
I mean, look at OJ Simpson, right?”
Jeff nodded concerned, “I mean, what’s supposed to happen at this big
meeting at noon tomorrow?”
“It all depends. We will know a hell of a lot more at noon tomorrow.” He
shook his head like they were talking in circles.
Finally they got up from the table going upstairs to the room that they
had slept in the night before. His luggage was still there, though his luggage
was now closed. The room had been straightened up. His pajamas weren’t laid out
like before.
Jeff didn’t say a word as he turned flopping onto the bed saying weakly,
“I want to brush my teeth, but I can’t.”
She laughed softly, “Did anyone ever tell you that you’re whiny when
you’re tired?’
Shonna lay down on the bed next to him, her body touching his. She ran
her forefinger down his nose, “You did really good tonight. I could not believe
how much courage you showed when everyone was pulling guns on you.”
“On us,” he replied sleepily.
“Okay, on us,” she smiled. “Look it’s been a hell of a day in so many
ways. I must tell you mister Jeff that you are a hell of a man. I sure wish you
weren’t one of the good ones already taken.”
She wasn’t sure Jeff heard her last words.
His breathing said that he was already asleep.
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