A Peachy Plan Read online

  Jeff felt his mood go sour, in no frame of mind to be ordered around by Bill Beardman. He did not even like the man. The only reason he stood out in a storm with him was because the pact remained sacred, and they had come together to help Chief Duddles in a time of need. Jeff wanted to help, but he was not prepared to tackle the situation alone, and would rather have the mayor by his side than no one at all. The mayor had some odd ideas about how to handle this situation, perhaps, but he was the mayor after all, and Jeff would defer to his authority. After all, Jeff was a man of Ridge Falls, and this was how they took care of things. “Mayor, the man I drove to this diner isn't a killer.”

  “How do know you weren't deceived by him?”

  Jeff continued to look up and down the street. “I don't,” he confessed. “I acted on gut instinct.” Jeff Hayes looked at Mayor Beardman. “Mayor, I still can't figure out why you sent William out to Thelma's farm and sent the rest of the guys home.”

  “It's been my experience that some men in this town have a tendency to overreact,” Bill Beardman pointed out. “I worry when too many are gathered in one place carrying loaded firearms. I prefer to keep a sensible head about me in a volatile situation.”

  Jeff accepted Mayor Beardman's reply. “Well, I'm going to wait in the truck and warm up. You want to join me?”

  “No,” the mayor replied in a flat voice. Jeff shrugged his shoulders and returned to his truck.

  A few minutes later a second truck arrived. A skinny man with a sharp face jumped out of the truck and ran up to Mayor Beardman. “Thelma refused to come,” the man explained, yelling over the wind’s noise even though Mayor Beardman could plainly hear him. “She shoved a shotgun in my face and told me to get off her farm.”

  Mayor Beardman’s face betrayed his annoyance. “I ordered you to bring Thelma back to me, at gunpoint if necessary, and search her house for that little girl.”

  “Mayor, I don't think Thelma Dodge killed Charlene Readings. Besides, even if she did, I'm not ready to have my face blasted off. I did what you said and went out to her farm, prepared to force her to come into town with me. I even got tough with her. But when a woman shoves a shotgun in your face, well, a man wants to see his wife and kids in the morning, not his funeral.”

  “Did you see a little girl?” Mayor Beardman roared. “I don't care about your miserable excuses. Tell me if you saw a little girl. You can go back to get Thelma, or you’ll regret you were ever born.”

  “Hey, don't take that tone with me, pal,” the man snapped. “Maybe if you hadn’t sent all the other guys home I would’ve had backup to help me! I did my best. I didn’t see any kid over there. If you want Thelma Dodge, you can go brave her shotgun. No pact on earth can force me to make a suicide run, and definitely not just on your say-so, Mayor.”

  Mayor Beardman watched the man walk back to his truck, jump up into the driver's seat, and drive away. Jeff Hayes had been listening at the open door of his truck and his face hardened now. He yelled over to Bill Beardman, “I'm leaving, too. Whatever is going on, you can’t ask William to do a thing like that. I don’t care what the consequences are, this is your mess now. I'm out.”

  Mayor Beardman wanted to protest but before he could, Jeff slammed the truck door and had backed his truck out onto the street to drive away. Left alone in the dark, Mayor Beardman felt a hint of panic settle into his chest. His plan depended on William bringing Thelma Dodge into town in order to force information out of her. “I should have paid Thelma a visit myself,” he rebuked himself. “Perhaps I will.”

  Mayor Bill Beardman turned to walk away when a snowball struck him in the back of the head. He spun around and yelled, “Who threw that? Who’s there?”

  Momma Peach chuckled to herself and watched Sam make a second snowball and deck Mayor Beardman in the head with it. “This roof sure gives a person a good vantage point,” she said. “Hit that rat a third time, Mr. Sam. Let's get him real upset before we move in for the kill and be thankful those men left him here all by himself.”

  Sam thought of Charlene Readings’ body slumped over in her truck. Anger flared up in his chest. “A woman is dead because a couple of sewer rats wanted to run drugs,” he said and slapped Mayor Beardman in the head with a third snowball. “Look at him down there, will you?”

  “I see that rat,” Momma Peach assured Sam. “But Mr. Sam, don't you worry one little bit. A nice little rat trap is set for him.”

  Sam watched Mayor Beardman turn around in circles, searching the dark, empty street for his attacker. “It just sickens my stomach, that's all. Crooked cop, dirty mayor, hired killers, all mixed up in the same dirty pool. And who pays the price? Innocent people...little Susan...her folks...and Charlene Readings, rest her soul.” Sam looked at Momma Peach's frostbitten face. “And here we are, Momma Peach, miles from home, caught up in this ugly mess, trying to fight the bad guys and help the innocent.”

  “Isn't that what life is all about?” Momma Peach asked Sam. “Aren't we supposed to love one another and even lay down our lives for our friends?”

  Sam nodded. “Yes, Momma Peach, we are.” Sam scooped up another snowball from the floor of the roof and decked Mayor Beardman for a fourth time. Mayor Beardman finally pulled out his gun and expended all of his bullets on targets up and down the street. “Chief Duddles sure got mixed up with the wrong man.”

  “Oh, the wicked webs we weave when first we practice to deceive,” Momma Peach quoted to Sam. Even though she was frozen solid, it felt almost nice standing up on the roof with Sam. Sure the storm blew powerful enough to blow her into the next county, but so what? They finally had the drop on the bad guys. After the night Momma Peach had, standing up on an empty roof where no bad guys could touch her felt like just the ticket. “Okay, Mr. Sam, I think we shook that rat up enough. We got him to waste his bullets. Now go tell Michelle to do her thing. I will stay right here on this roof and watch.”

  “With pleasure,” Sam said and carefully climbed down from the roof using the ladder in the alley. From the back alley he knocked on the rear door of the diner. Michelle opened the door cautiously. “Ready? ” he asked her.

  “Ready.”

  “How are the prisoners?” Sam asked and looked past Michelle into the kitchen. He saw Amanda Westings standing in front of a freezer door clutching a gun in her hand. Amanda waved her left hand at Sam. Sam waved back.

  “Tied and gagged and stuffed in the freezer,” Michelle said. She looked at Amanda. “Mom will shoot first and ask questions later if one of them tries to get out.”

  “I bet she will,” Sam said in an admiring voice and hurried to the side street. Michelle followed, carrying a black sheet that Amanda used to cover the office furniture with when she washed down the walls and dusted the ceiling fan. “Okay, kid,” Sam told Michelle in a hushed voice, “I have the guy pretty shaken up right now. Go finish him off.”

  Michelle nodded and walked up to the front street, eased her head around the side of the end building, spotted Mayor Beardman still looking around, and placed the black sheet over her body. The winds immediately grabbed at the sheet and began making it flap like a madman reaching from insanity. “Charlene,” Michelle whispered and fought back her tears, “I could make your killer confess to your murder in a different way, but I want him to understand what true fear is.”

  Momma Peach spotted Michelle stepping out onto the front walk in the black sheet. “My, aren't you spooky,” she whispered, grinning. Then she yelled, “Charlene Readings!” at the top of her lungs.

  Mayor Beardman spun around and saw a dark shadow appear in the storm and begin walking toward him. He tried to fire at the shadow but his gun only clicked, now empty of bullets. Michelle raised her arms up into the air under the sheet and screamed like a banshee: “You strangled me!”

  “You strangled her,” Momma Peach howled over the wind in a low, creepy moan. Just like the baritones liked to sing the sad hymns in church.

  Mayor Beardman stepped backward, tripped over his own
feet, and crashed down onto the snow. “No...it can't be!” he cried out in fear.

  “You killed me!” Michelle screamed again, making her voice sound like a tormented soul.

  “You killed her!” Momma Peach howled mournfully again. “You killed Charlene Readings!”

  Michelle continued to walk toward Mayor Beardman, forcing her legs through the snow and the whipping wind, embodying the angry dead woman. “You killed me! But I have returned.”

  “You can't be...” Mayor Beardman yelled. “I killed you! You can't be Charlene Readings...I killed you!” Mayor Beardman began trying to back away from Michelle. “Stay away from me!” He panicked, hearing the strange sounds swirling through the winds around him.

  “You killed me!” Michelle screamed for the last time and came close enough to him that he fell backward into an icy pile of snow. She loomed over him menacingly and then yanked the sheet off her body. “You killed Charlene Readings because she found out you were running drugs and then you went after an innocent little girl to hide your crimes.”

  Mayor Beardman stared up at Michelle with wide, terrified eyes. “I—”

  “Chief Duddles already confessed,” Michelle said and pointed an accusing finger at Mayor Beardman. “You're going to spend the rest of your life behind bars.”

  Filled with panic, Mayor Beardman scrambled to his feet and tried to run away from Michelle. He was met by Sam who landed a powerful punch at his jaw and knocked Mayor Beardman cold. “That felt real good,” Sam said and then spotted a truck driving down the street. He ran over to Michelle and they watched Jeff Hayes pull up.

  Jeff jumped down from his truck, spotted Mayor Beardman lying in the snow, and shook his head at Sam and Michelle. “I knew when he sent the rest of the guys home something felt wrong. I should never have driven him here, but now I’m glad I did,” he explained. “When I saw Mom's lights off, well, I knew something was really wrong. Mom never turns out her lights, even when she's closed. I didn't want to come back here, but I was afraid you might be in danger.”

  “See, Mr. Sam,” Momma Peach called down from the roof, “you gotta have faith in your fellow man.”

  “We didn't know the mayor murdered Charlene Readings until too late,” Sam told Jeff and patted him on the shoulder. “We were afraid he might turn every man in this town against us.”

  Jeff looked down at the unconscious Mayor Beardman. “He killed Charlene Readings?”

  “Yeah,” Sam said in a voice filled with disgust and exhaustion. “He was running drugs with Chief Duddles. Charlene Readings found out and he killed her. But that was not enough. He wanted Susan, the little girl everyone's searching for, dead too. And it’s like I explained earlier, Chief Duddles was being forced to make you guys play for the wrong team.”

  Jeff kept his eyes on Mayor Beardman as if he knew there would be a lot of changes in Ridge Falls come morning time. Then he simply nodded in farewell, walked back to his truck, jumped in and drove away. Michelle watched his truck disappear into the stormy dark and then glanced up at the roof and waved at Momma Peach. “You sounded real scary, Momma Peach!” she yelled. “Good job!”

  “You didn't sound like a bucket full of roses yourself,” Momma Peach called down from the roof. “I’m climbing down now.”

  “I better go help Momma Peach get down from that roof or she might break a leg,” Sam said and wandered off into the snow, leaving Michelle alone.

  Michelle stood very still and let her eyes fall on Mayor Beardman's twisted, unconscious face. She thought about Charlene Readings. She thought about Susan. She thought about all the bad guys she had faced and all the innocent people she had managed to help. Then she thought about Able and gently touched her stomach. “The time is coming,” she whispered, “when someone else is going to have to fight the bad guys. But not for a while.”

  Michelle waited until Momma Peach turned back on the diner lights and opened the front door before turning around and speaking again. “You get the coffee going, Momma Peach, and I'll drag this bag of sand inside.”

  Momma Peach took one look at Michelle's face and then walked out into the windy night and wrapped her arms around Michelle and hugged her. “Oh, my sweet baby,” she said.

  Michelle hugged Momma Peach and began crying. “I'll never be able to make sense of why people hurt one another, Momma Peach. I wanted that man to feel the same fear Charlene must have felt, but...was I just being foolish?”

  “You got a confession out of him, didn't you?” Momma Peach asked and hugged Michelle even tighter.

  “Yes,” Michelle replied and wiped at her tears.

  “Justice is served, then.”

  Michelle let go of Momma Peach and gently touched her stomach again. “My stomach is barren right now, Momma Peach. But someday I want to have children. But...should I? In this evil world? I know I have to keep fighting, but I can't keep fighting forever. Can I really depend on someone else to keep the bad guys at bay?”

  “Baby,” Momma Peach said and wiped Michelle's tears away, “every minute and every day a baby is born and someone dies. That's life. All we can do is keep putting one foot ahead of the other, one day at a time, and see where the good Lord leads us. This adventure is over and four very bad people are now out of business, but I am sure that somewhere down the line we'll be tangling with the bad guys again. But we can’t let that stop us from having hope. If we stop having hope, haven’t the bad guys won?”

  Michelle wiped the last of her tears away and looked out at the storm. “I guess so,” she agreed and hugged Momma Peach feeling like a little girl comforted by her mother. Sure, she was a fighter, tough and smart, but sometimes, when everything was all said and done, she just needed her momma.

  Thelma plopped down a plate of freshly fried chicken and biscuits. “Eat up,” she said and sat down beside Sam. “We can't travel on an empty stomach.”

  Momma Peach rubbed her hands together, asked Sam to say grace, and dug into the chicken as soon as they all said Amen. “Ms. Thelma, you're going to love Georgia,” she promised.

  “Now, Momma Peach, I already told you that I’m just driving down to your town to take a look around, that's all. I might not like it,” Thelma told Momma Peach and grabbed a piece of chicken.

  Sam patted Thelma's shoulder. “You'll like it,” he promised her and handed a piece of chicken to Michelle. Michelle sighed and looked at the empty chair in Thelma’s kitchen where a little girl had sat, not so long ago. “Susan is back with her folks where she belongs,” Sam said in a soothing voice.

  “I know,” Michelle sighed again. “I just miss her, that's all.”

  Sam placed a hot biscuit onto Michelle's plate. “I know you do, kid,” he said and gently wiped a wisp of hair away from Michelle's forehead. “You're going to make a great mom someday, you know that?”

  “Really?” Michelle asked.

  “Really,” Sam smiled.

  “Really, really,” Momma Peach added. “Now, let's all eat. The roads are all clear, the bad guys are behind bars, the FBI is investigating Taylor Whitesmith, and Ridge Falls has elected a new mayor and Chief of Police. Life is good.”

  Thelma took a bite of her chicken and looked thoughtful. “Maybe life isn't so good in Ridge Falls,” she said to Momma Peach. “There's a whole lot of families packing up and leaving because they're blaming themselves for Charlene Readings’ death. This town became so blind to the obvious because it was more important to protect the pact and the traditions…well, some of the people here feel personally responsible for all that transpired.”

  “Some folks still have a conscience,” Momma Peach pointed out. “Like you, Ms. Thelma. You ain't going to live in Ridge Falls anymore, either, I suspect.”

  “No, I'm not,” Thelma confessed. “I know my husband was born here and his memories are here, but there comes a time when a woman has to leave the past and move on into the future.” Thelma took a bite of chicken. “I'm sure glad you arrived when you did. I can't imagine what would have happened if Ch
ief Duddles and Mayor Beardman had escaped through the cracks. Why, they'd both still be running this town right now, selling drugs and pretending they’re cream cheese instead of stinky cheese while everyone in this town goes on their merry little way.”

  “Sometimes a town needs to be shaken up,” Momma Peach told Thelma and gulped down some sweet tea. “Ms. Thelma, we've been staying in your house for over a week now. During that week I have explored your little town. I’ve seen the faces of the people and walked in other buildings beside Mom's Diner. The only thing I see that's wrong is that folks take this town for granted and think that nothing bad can happen here. Or, like poor Mom herself, they were too afraid to step outside the boundaries of the pact to see the ugly side of it. You can't really blame folks for living in a peaceful dream, but sometimes, a dream needs to be popped to make people look ugly reality in the face for a few seconds. And now that this town has seen that ugly face, I am sure the next mayor and Chief of Police will be very careful to run things a little differently.”

  “Let's pray you’re right, Momma Peach,” Michelle said, trying to muster up more of an appetite for Thelma’s delicious food in front of her. She sighed. “We have a long drive back to Georgia. I'm anxious to see Able, Mandy and Rosa...even Old Joe,” Michelle smiled. “So let's eat, wash up the dishes, and hit the road.”

  Unfortunately, Michelle's desire to hit the road did not take her very far. An hour later she stood on a lonely back road surrounded by snow-covered fields kicking a flat tire on their blue rental SUV. At least this one smelled like roses instead of smelly gym socks. “A flat tire! Are you kidding me?” she yelled and nearly pulled her hair out.

  “And no spare,” Sam said in a pained voice, closing the trunk. He looked at Thelma. Thelma shrugged her shoulders. “Too bad you don't have your tow truck.”

  Thelma nodded and spotted Momma Peach standing on the left side of the SUV staring into the snowfields. “Momma Peach is sure some kind soul will be along shortly,” she said, enjoying the winter beauty before her eyes. The skies spread out above, blue and clear and the land white and still. No more storms, just the majesty of winter. “Sometimes we just have to slow down and enjoy the beauty the good Lord gives us.”