Chapter 19: Melee

In a show of contempt, Harley kept his back to Stanley as he drove. He watched the man in the rear view mirror. When Stanley began to rise up in the back seat, Harley slammed on the brakes. Stanley sprawled over the front seat and ended head down, jack knifed over the seat. "Stay put until I get you to the station. If I have to stop and put handcuffs on you, I won't. I'll just beat the shit out of you until you're too hurt to move. Not a soul in this town would turn a hand to help you. They trust me."

As soon as Harley stopped the car, he got out and told his prisoner, "Go on inside." The defeated James

Stanley didn't answer. While they walked down the sidewalk and into the police station, Stanley looked back and forth as he sought a means to escape. His face had the expression of a trapped and caged animal. Harley opened the trunk of the car and placed the unloaded shotgun inside, then closed the lid tight. He decided he liked shotguns as primary weapons.

He walked into the station and saw a scared looking Elspeth. Stanley stood near the hallway leading to Harley's office. He had an angry grin on his face.

Harley did not stop to ask what was wrong. When he saw

Stanley's smirk, alarms went off inside him. Harley dove straight ahead and grabbed Stanley by the suit coat and spun him into the hall. Two shots were fired and Stanley fell to the floor.

"Ellie. Get down on the floor and stay there till I say different." Harley yelled at her. He turned his attention to the hallway he had thrown the luckless

James Stanley down and called. "I don't know who you are or how many of you there are, but either come out with your hands up and empty or come out dead. Your choice."

Six shots sounded from the front of the station, followed by the sound of a body falling. "Don't shoot, I'm coming out." a man's voice called. A stranger jumped out from the hallway with a gun in hand. Harley shot once and missed. At the same time another shot came from the front.

"I got him. You can get up now, Harley, sir, I got him." Ellie came up to Harley with a revolver in her hand.

"Stop." Harley ordered as he got up off the floor. He approached the fallen man with caution and kicked the gun near his hand out of the way.

Suddenly Ellie screamed and threw her pistol down the hall. A voice yelled and Harley stepped into the opening in time to see James Stanley start to bend down to retrieve a small snub nose automatic. "Don't," Harley ordered. Bleeding from a shoulder wound, Stanley stood up, hands empty.

"Can I take at least one of those guns home for a souvenir? The little one he was trying to get free of his ankle holster is kind of cute." Ellie looked beseechingly at Harley. "My older brother was so jealous when I got to keep first one."

"Girl," Harley told her, "You get to keep his ankle holster the little bitty gun goes in also, if you want. But right now call the hospital and tell them we have another customer who needs patching up. He's got money; he'll pay his own way. Remind me to get you a badge. I don't know how they figure these things about female police, but you deserve a badge and a raise."

Harley turned back toward Stanley, "Now you, you arrogant son of a bitch, take your coat off and drop it." Stanley stared at Harley with hatred filled eyes, as he struggled out of the suit coat and let it fall.

Harley stepped forward and toed the coat out of the way. Harley kept close watch on his prisoner as he picked the coat up. The body on the floor hadn't moved. Harley kicked the downed man once on a wound and he didn't respond. "Christ." he exclaimed in disgust, "Is this never going to end?"

Harley had an inspiration. "Ellie. Call the newspaper editor and get him over here. We are going to create havoc and dissention amongst the ranks of our enemies." He pointed toward the front. Stanley moved where he pointed. Harley shoved him onto a wooden chair and said, "Stay," like he would to a dog.

She looked across the room at Harley and said, "I called the hospital and the newspaper is sending my cousin Winifred over. May I have the holster now? It's a peach."

Harley laughed, "Oh yes, the important stuff. You'll have to come over here and take it off him. He can't do it himself, what with bullet wound and the cut on his forehead where you threw a gun and hit him. Where did you ever learn to throw like you just did?"

"Oh, I play baseball with my brothers when they need a first baseman or short stop. I'm pretty good." She stood in front of the prisoner, "But I don't know about bending down and being near a man's, er uh well, I never..." her voice faded out. She looked at Harley uncertainly.

"Honey, you're going to be closer to his knees and his ankles than his man parts, so it's okay." He grinned at this girl who could adapt enough to shoot a man and ask for trophies, yet still be a prude.

"Harley. There's a bulge in his pants down there." She jumped up and back.

"What? Where?" Harley looked where he thought a bulge should be and saw nothing.

"There on the back of his leg." She pointed.

Harley smiled an angry smile at his mistake. "Stand up." Harley ordered the man. He jerked Stanley upright.

"Ellie, Pull his suspenders off his shoulders and unbutton his pants. This seems to be a walking arsenal we have here. Now don't be shy, just do as I say. Unbutton his shirt too."

Ellie acted skittish; but she obeyed. As he stood in his underwear, Stanley seemed even more threatening. He had a throwing knife strapped to the back of one leg and a small twenty-two caliber derringer near his crotch. Ellie forgot her prudishness and grabbed the small weapon from its clip. "Mine." she cried.

Harley removed all of the assorted cutlery from Stanley as Ellie took her latest trophy back over to her desk. The big man laughed, "I think I have created a monster in the guise of a pretty young woman." He shook his head and sat the now quite groggy prisoner back down hard on the seat.

A moon face chubby young woman came in and said, "Hi, Elspeth, what is so earth shaking this time?' Then she saw the prisoner, "That's Mister Stanley. What's he doing almost naked?"

"I took his clothes off him," Ellie said proudly. "He was going to shoot Harley."

"I went to college and I have the diploma to prove it. However the logic escapes me, cousin. How does undressing a man prevent him from shooting Chief Duran? Am I not seeing something here?"

"No. I undressed him to get at his things." Ellie tried to explain.

"Elspeth you didn't. What are you talking about?"

"No. Not those things. His weapons things. He had this cuddly little derringer and some knives and a snub nosed automatic. It was a twenty-two caliber also. He was very well armed." Harley is going to let me keep the derringer and the snub nose and ankle holster. Isn't it keen?"

Harley shrugged. "She's a wild one, I don't dare tell her no. She might hurt me." He laughed and Ellie joined in.

"Why did you want me over here?" Winifred asked.

"Mister James is going to tell us why he, a high ranking member of the Democratic Party has killed a banker, tried to cover up a land deal and has tried to hide Greater Western Land Company's interest in stealing a worn out farm I know isn't worth a hundred dollars unless there's..." A light seemed to go on in Harleys eyes.

Before he could pursue the thought, Winifred said, "Well, there's no secret about the fact Mister Stanley is the operations manager for Greater Western.

He is also the second largest shareholder behind the Governor's cousin who owns sixty percent of the stock. It's all a matter of public record."

"Ah. But what is on the land to make it so valuable?" Harley paused and asked, "Have there been any drilling crews around here in the last couple of years? Oil is the only thing I can think of would make any sense here."

"Well, I have never interviewed an important man in his underwear before. Is there oil on that property?" Winifred waited, pencil in hand, and pad at the ready.

"I want a lawyer."

"Well, I guess we'll put you back in the cell with the other prisoner."

"I've been shot. What about my wounds?"

"Here comes Leroy, he'll put you in back. Maybe he knows a doctor who might be willing to patch you up." He turned to the reporter.

"Come on back to my office and I'll give you a story to print. I believe you will wish to share it with the big city publications. Ellie, there is a Gladstone bag in my car, please bring it in." He led the way to his office and sat behind his desk. Winifred sat on a hard backed chair and waited. Ellie scurried in with the Gladstone.

"Harley, may I please tell my friends about all this? They will be so jealous. And a badge too." Harley nodded his assent and she left

"Badge? Guns? That's my little cousin there. What is going on?"

Harley took a deep breath and said in a flat voice, "This town has become so corrupt almost everyone in it was touched by it, either as a beneficiary or as a victim. A young girl was raped and not a word in your newspaper. I know it had to have happened more than once. Either the owner of the paper is afraid or he is as corrupt as the late sheriff and the chief of police were and the county commissioners are.

"Gambling and prostitution are a given in any town this size. There is too much money available for payoffs. When the government officials own and run them, what you have is corruption of the worst sort.

"George Teel was shot in the head today. Murdered by James Stanley who tried to make it look like suicide. In this bag are the papers they attempted to steal from the Teel household. Let's look and see what they are." He opened the bag and dumped the contents on his desk.

The first bundle of papers was tied together with a ribbon. The top document bore the heading of a well-known geologist. It stated the following properties all had shown traces of a metal called titanium and rich deposits of nickel and zinc. Oil presence was negligible. The next papers were oil survey reports. The first name caught his eye was Clanton.

"Ellie." he yelled, "call the governor. That ass hole has a big problem. If you run into any problem, just say Jim Stanley has been shot." He smiled.

"You have a telephone back here, why didn't you just call the governor's office from your desk?"

"Truth be told, I hate talking on them unless it's short and sweet. Your little cousin gets me through to whoever I need to talk to faster than I can. I don't know what I'd do without her."

"Just what is your full interest in my younger cousin, Chief Duran?"

"It is none of your business. Your cousin is over thirteen years of age. And in practice, the age of consent in this state hovers around twelve or thirteen. But I'll answer you anyway because I do not wish a few gossiping tongues to destroy a fine young lady's reputation.

I love my wife and I love my daughter. They are the only females in my life except for Buttercup, our dog. Ellie is a great young woman who knows her own mind.

She acts like a giddy girl. I have a hunch most of that giddiness is an act. The thing is, when the chips are down, she comes through like nobody I ever saw before. Let's get back to work." Chastened, "Cousin Winnie" began to read.