Southern Justice, Part 59
I’m Fixin’ To present part 59 of Southern Justice:
The water level of the lake was minus two feet due to a mild drought, however, the five inches of rain that had fallen several days earlier north of the lake had swollen the three rivers and the creeks that emptied into and formed the lake. The influx of water resulted in the opening of the floodgates at the dam on the south end of the lake by the engineers employed by the power company. This was a normal procedure to keep the lake level stable, however, it always resulted in a much stronger pull of the current toward the south.
There were two islands in the lake located at the south end a quarter of a mile before reaching the dam. The larger of the two islands had inhabitants—goats. There was a giant Billy goat, two nannies and their brood of kids. There was no official name for it, but everyone called it Goat Island.
Daylight was just beginning to evaporate the shadows on Saturday morning, four days after Jackie Payne-Haselton’s disappearance, when two bass fishermen launched their boat from the marina just past Goat Island. There was a no-wake zone until you got past the island, consequently, they were traveling at idle-speed as they approached the edge of the island.
That’s when they heard the Billy goat bleating loudly, and strained their eyes to see him standing on the island beach. When they got closer they saw the cause of the goat’s disturbance. It was a bikini-clad body lying face-down, with her legs still swaying in the shallow water.
“Lord have mercy!” the fisherman in the bow of the boat gasped. “That’s a body!”
“Dang sure is” the driver said as he guided the boat a little closer. “You think she’s still alive?”
After a closer look the fisherman who had first spotted the body said, “No way. She’s long dead! Head back to the marina!”
After the fisherman returned to the marina and reported their finding to 911, officers were dispatched from the county sheriff’s office, as were the park rangers.
The current had slowly but surely swept Jackie’s body downstream until it had surfaced and washed up on the beach of Goat Island.
She was no longer pretty to look at. The body was bloated and the turtles had had their way with her. But Jackie had gotten her wish—she had remained at the lake until she had finally got what was coming to her.
That same Saturday morning Rick Junior had called a special meeting of the operating committee to discuss and arrive at a strategy of how they were going to handle the anticipated arrival of B. Wendell Hormel on the upcoming Monday morning.
Once everyone was seated with their coffee Rick Junior began to speak. “As everyone is aware of, day after tomorrow that fat slob of a lawyer, Hormel, is coming in here with a court order intending to take the place over. Just the thought of it makes me insanely angry. And I’ll be honest with y’all, I’m not sure what we’re going to do—but I can assure you we’ll do something. Maybe I’ll just lock the front door and let no one in, close up completely and give everybody the day off. I just don’t know. Patty, I know you’ve been working hard. Do you have anything to report?”
Chris Adams could tell by the tone of Rick Junior’s voice that he was not expecting much from Patty, but he knew better, so he just sat back and listened as began to speak.
“Well, gentlemen and Vickie,” Patty began, “There’s not anything you have to do. That’s why you hired me. Monday will just be another day, because Hormel will not set foot in this building then, or on any other day!”
Chris observed as everyone sat up a little straighter. Patty had their full attention.
Jones was the first to speak. Chris knew he felt overly responsible for the situation since dealing with the law firm had been his assignment. He could sense the hope in Jones’ voice when he asked Patty, “Just how do you intend to stop him?”
Without any hesitation Patty replied, “With this,” as she slid a folder across the table to each of them.
(tmdunagan@aol.com)