Chapter 0353
+25 BONUS
Despite the general unpleasantness of the conversation with the mayor and the governor, they eventually agreed to let us go. They had no real reason to hold us, and Logan saw through their veiled threats easily enough.
In fact, he e even seemed to make them feel to make them feel like unsupportive friends for not supporting
Senior.
“I suppose we can admit that Mr. Hatfield Senior’s requests have become more… erratic as of late,” the governor said.
The mayor was a bigger holdout than the governor, looking at him in concern. “You can’t mean….?”
“The tide is turning against Senior,” the governor said. “This is an election year. I can’t stand on the wrong side and hope to survive no matter how much Senior has to offer, or how good a friend he has been over the years.”
A very pragmatic take, if a heartless one.
The mayor must have had more to lose. “But if they go…
The governor gave him a sideways glare. “You don’t mean to hold people against their will, do you? I’m not sure your constituents would like that.”
The mayor lowered his chin.
“Senior asked us to speak with them, and we have,” the governor said. “We’ve fulfilled our end on the bargain.”
The mayor grimaced a moment, before turning and nodding to the sheriff, who stepped forward.
“Get up and get out,” the sheriff groused. We were happy to obey.
Back at the house, after Tammy and Frank worried over us and we explained the full story, we gathered Mabel and Dylan and sat in the kitchen to make our next plans.
“It’s a good sign that even Senior’s most powerful friends are refusing to stand with him,” Mabel said.” The favor with the governor was likely his last resort. I don’t know if he even has any other cards to play.” “Cornered animals are the most dangerous,” Dylan said. “We still can’t let our guard down.”
Logan stayed quiet, frowning down at where he had clasped his hands on the table. He didn’t say anything for a moment so long that the rest of us all kind of looked at each other.
No one seemed to know what he was thinking. I certainly didn’t, and neither, it seemed, did Dylan, who had been his friend the longest, nor his foster parents who helped raised him.
Then, he looked over to me. “I think we need to look for my grandfather’s affair partner.”
“But…” I was still hesitant about it, not wanting to drag a potentially innocent woman back into a life she might have run from.
“Logan’s right,” Dylan said. “Mr. Hatfield Senior is likely going to try something big on his last play for power. It’d help if we had our own ace up our sleeve.”
Chapter 0353
+25 BONUS
“I don’t know.”
“If she’s unwilling, we will back off,” Mabel added, throwing her lot in with the rest.
If even she agreed…
Tammy, sitting beside me, reached over and placed her hand on my arm. Softly, in a motherly tone, she told me, “We know you want to protect this woman, and you have good reason to. But this is a person who was potentially wronged the worst by Senior. She might not want to help, but doesn’t she have the right to be asked? Should we really be speaking for her?”
When she puts it like that, I can’t help but agree. I want to protect this woman from further harm, but yes… she did have the right to know we were ready to fight the battle. She had the right to choose for herself whether she would stand beside us or sit out this particular war.
“Okay,” I said. “Let’s find her.”
Tracking her down wasn’t particularly difficult, thanks exclusively to Mr. Hudgins, who kept in contact with her over the years. He seemed relieved when we finally went to him, asking for her information. “She lives far out of town,” Mr. Hudgens said over the phone. “I couldn’t ask her to come in just for the meeting. But if you were to go to see her… Find out how she is, and give my best wishes. We exchange Christmas cards every year, so I know the address is good. I have not actually spoken to her in too long.” After thanking him, I hung up and reported my findings to the rest of the crew around the table.
“We shouldn’t all show up at her door,” Mabel said. Looking at me, she added, “You and Logan should go
alone.”
Logan and I exchanged glances. He nodded slightly, as if to agree.
Janice Weathers lived in a small town a three hour drive from the city, in the opposite direction of Russford.
Logan and I were quiet for most of the drive there. I was lost in thought, considering what we might actually say when we met her. We needed to tell her our story and ask for her help, but without appearing too pushy.
That was assuming she even let us through her front door. There was a very real possibility that this three- hour trip was for nothing, and that she might close the door in our faces without even hearing us out.
“Are you nervous?” Logan asked.
My anxiety had flared and dipped since all of this began, but at the moment? No. I could honestly say that I was not anxious. Maybe she would help us, maybe she wouldn’t. That wouldn’t change our ultimate outcome, of that I was certain.
an was by my side and we would find a way to stay together no matter what
But with Senior backed into a corner… With him likely to have a card he hasn’t played yet that none of us know about…
I’d rather have as many allies in our corner as humanly possible before we go to face the final act to this war with Mr. Richard Hatfield Senior.
+25 BONUS
Chapter 0353
“I’m not nervous,” I told him. Not with you at my side.”
He smiled slightly, and the mood in the car lifted slightly. Our spirits stayed high even as Logan pulled the car up in front of a small ranch home nestled away on a quiet suburb street.
“Now or never,” Logan said.
Exiting the car, we walked together to the front door and rang the bell,
We waited a moment.
When, after two minutes, no one answered, we rang the bell again.
Funnily enough, in all my musings over how this moment might go, I never considered that Janice Weathers might i
not be home.
“What now?” I asked Logan,
He gave me a thoughtful expression, even as he said, “I guess we could come back later.”
“Okay,” I said. We’d seen some of the town on our way in. It looked cute, with a small downtown area with mom and pop stores and restaurants. We could probably spend some time there and come back later.
Yet, just as we were about to walk away, someone else came walking up the driveway.
It was a man, slightly older than us, who could have been Logan’s long lost brother. “What are you doing here?” the man asked.
“We’re looking for Janice Weathers,” I said, when Logan seemed too stunned to speak.
‘The man narrowed his eyes. “What do you want with my mom?”
