Compass Call: Survival & Awakening (The Gatekeeper Book 3) (48 page)

Murmurs began to travel through the crowd, and Joel stepped forward to yell, “You’re a murderer and a liar, Anderson.”

“Shut up, Joel,” yelled Jeff in reply. “Let him finish.”

“Yeah, let him finish,” yelled other anonymous voices from within the crowd.

Joel scowled and stepped back into the shelter of his small group. John studied him for a second and said, “You’ll get your chance to talk, Joel. I won’t be much longer. Now, as I was saying. The Desperados burnt down Paul’s house the other day. And why do you think they did that?” John let the question hang for a moment before he said, “They did it because one of their gang members was shot and killed for his crimes . . . shot and killed for beating and severely raping Mrs. Hernandez near to death!”

The crowd gasped. Some booed and murmured, but none of their disgust was directed at John. People began to look at Joel and his group, either waiting for a reply, or with accusation, John didn’t know, but he continued by saying “The Desperados burnt down the Hernandez’s home in retaliation for losing one of their own, but it was Paul they were after. They wanted his head.”

Shouts of anger and dismay began to drown out John’s words, so he stopped and held up a hand. When the crowd settled sufficiently, he said, “Please, let me finish. There’s more information you need to know.” The crowd quieted even more and John continued, “Paul wasn’t home, so they burnt his house down. Fortunately, Paul and his family moved in with me after the first attack or they’d all be dead right now.
And I’m telling you this because someone in this very neighborhood let it happen!”

“That’s a lie!” shouted Joel. “Don’t listen to him. He’s full of . . .”

“Shut up!” shouted several men at once. They were from Jeff’s group, and they managed to move close to Joel’s group, ready for trouble. Jeff yelled for all to hear, “He said he’d let you talk, Joel, so keep your mouth shut until it’s your turn!” The intimidation worked, for Joel sunk back into his group after flipping off Jeff. Jeff just shook his head and said, “Go on, John. We’re listening.”

“Thank you. More than one person invited that gang here. The first was Steve. I don’t know if you remember him, but he was that guy I tussled with a while ago.” John’s comment raised a few chuckles and cheers, but also a few boos and heckles.

“Where’s, Steve!” yelled someone from Joel’s group, “And why are you driving his van?”

“I’m getting to that,” replied John. “As it turns out, Steve was related to the rapist. And when he learned I rescued the Hernandez’s family, that I had something to do with Darrel’s death, well, he took it upon himself to retaliate. The fight at the meeting was his first move. His second move was to enlist the help of Tony Marino,” replied John.

“Bullshit!” yelled Joel, as he once again stepped forward to challenge John. Someone in Jeff’s group quickly stepped up and punched Joel in the stomach. He let out a whoosh of air and doubled over. Jeff’s group quickly corralled the guy and thrust him to the back of the group.

The assault raised the tension by several degrees, and John was worried about losing control. He yelled at the top of his lungs, “Please people!” and in a more controlled voice added, “There’s no need for vulgarity or unprovoked physical assault. I’m almost done, and you’ll be free to hear opposing arguments.”

When the crowd settled down once again, John said, “I met with Tony after the first meeting. We had a good discussion, and we agreed to meet again to discuss the future of our neighborhood. He invited
me over the following day, and after he invited me to take a seat in his garage, he pulled a gun on me and held it to my face.” John allowed the implications of his last comments to sink in.

As anticipated, the crowd’s response was mixed, and seemed to lean more toward denial than surprise. They had a hard time believing Tony could resort to such tactics. “Tony disarmed me, and he had Joel and Randy tie me to a chair. Then he turned me over to Steve.” He once again allowed the crowd to digest his claim, and after a suitable pause he added, “But that’s not the worst of it. Tony told me his plan to eliminate my family, and take my house when I was gone. Then he had Steve take me to the Desperados hangout where I was beaten and tortured before I escaped.”

Several angry shouts and comments were heard, and a few heated arguments broke out in the crowd. The meeting wasn’t going the way he planned, so he whistled shrilly and raised his hands high into the air. “Please, let me finish. I’m almost done and you’ll get to hear from Tony!” shouted John.

When order returned, John said, “While I was Tony’s prisoner, he also confessed his plans to use the Desperado’s as his personal army. He thought to leverage the biker gang and have them do his dirty work for him. That’s why he wanted me gone, so he could control the neighborhood. Little did he know, the Desperado leader had his own plans for the neighborhood, and he shared those plans with me before he attacked my home!” yelled John.

“The Desperados thought they could attack my home, and kill and take whatever they wanted. They threatened to sexually abuse my wife and daughter in front of me, and then kill me in front of them. They planned to strip this neighborhood clean, and leave all of you with nothing. But they’re dead! We killed them! We don’t have to worry about them anymore!” said John, as he raised his voice to emphasize the end of the threat.

A loud cheer went up from the crowd. Obviously, news of the fight with the biker gang had spread through the neighborhood, and almost
everyone in the crowd seemed pleased to hear that they were no longer a threat. Comments and questions erupted from the crowd, “We heard you cut off the leader’s head!” yelled one man. “How’d you escape the bikers?” and “What happened to the prisoners?” came from others. But there was only one question John wanted to answer, and that was, “What’d you do with Tony?”

“Those are all very good questions, and you deserve to know the answers, but we don’t have enough time to discuss every detail. What I will do is provide a written report, and make sure it gets read or circulated through the neighborhood. But the one question I will address is Tony, and how he came to be in my custody. Now I’ll be honest with you, after what he did to me I wanted to kill him,” said John. The crowd erupted with a mixed response of appreciation and horror, so John added, “After what he did to me, the threats he made to me and my family, and the plans he had for this neighborhood, I was very angry, but I’m not a murderer. Tony’s plans never materialized, and other than a few bumps and bruises, I’m unharmed. We can move forward and make a new plan.”

“That’s easy for you to say,” said an older man from the crowd. “I know you have everything you need to survive!”

“Yeah, you talk about how the bikers were planning to take everything we have, but we don’t have anything!” yelled another man.

John nodded and said, “That’s what I came to meet with Tony about, and you know where that got me. But plans are in place to get food for everyone.”

“What plans?” yelled a woman.

“We know of several good possibilities, but one is very promising, and very close to us. That’s all I can say about it now. You just have to trust us that your survival is our survival. But we have to work together and cooperate. And we don’t need a dictator to do that,” finished John.

“Who’s we?” someone yelled.

“I’m working with neighbors who are willing to sacrifice their time and resources to help you, and not put you under their thumbs,” said
John, and he looked toward Jeff’s group. “And the man responsible for leading that effort is Jeff. Hold your hand up, Jeff, please.” Jeff held up the old rifle and spontaneous cheers erupted from the crowd.

“But we’re not done yet,” said John. “We still have to decide what to do with Tony, Joel and Randy, my three abductors and co-conspirators.”

“Let’s hear Tony!” yelled someone.

“Yeah, let Tony talk,” said another.

John slapped the side of the van and Paul opened the back doors. Tony was untied and ready to talk, and Paul covered him with a shotgun as he moved on shaky legs to stand next to John. John looked at Tony and said, “Stay next to me and you won’t be shot.”

A wail rose in the air and a woman barged through the crowd and made straight for Tony. John stepped aside as Pam embraced her husband, and with theatrically inspired sobs, she desperately clung to her husband. Tony, not one to show emotional weakness, especially in a public setting, whispered loudly to his wife, “Pam, pull yourself together. It doesn’t look good when you act like this.”

Pam was silent for a moment, unsure of how to respond to her husband’s insensitivity, but she refused to let go. “Pam, stop!” said Tony, as he scanned the crowd. “This is business. I’ll be done in a minute. Go stand with Joel until I’m done,” he added tersely. When Pam stepped away, Tony turned to John and asked, “Where’s the megaphone you were using?”

John pointed to his chest and shook his head. Tony looked at the crowd and stepped forward. He rubbed his wrists and asked the people nearest him to gather around, but no one moved. He ignored the slight and proceeded with his defense by saying, “I heard everything this man, John Anderson, said, and he’s not telling the truth. He wants you to believe that I’m the bad guy here, not him . . . not the motorcycle club. He wants you to believe that I made a deal with the biker club to control you, to kill him and his family,” he said, as he pointed to John. “But those are all lies. Mr. Anderson speaks half-truths, and he uses misinformation to mislead and misinform you.”

Tony paused and looked casually around the crowd. He identified a few people by name and said, “Hello, Sam . . . Troy. I’ve known you . . . most of you . . . since you first moved into this development. And you know me. You know I would never do the things this man has said. That’s not me, it’s not who I am. I don’t deal in dirt.” Tony took a breath and continued, “Mr. Anderson is a very angry man. He’s angry that I snubbed him several years ago about preparedness. Was I wrong to snub him? Apparently, but we’re still alive. We still have hope. He said those things about me because he doesn’t want to share his resources with us. He doesn’t want to share his food with you.”

While Tony spoke, John somehow managed to remain outwardly passive and unemotional, but he felt very different on the inside. He fought to control his anger, and knew he couldn’t rise to the urge to respond to Tony’s lies. But actually doing it was one of the hardest things he had to do since the disaster occurred. He knew Tony would lie, but not so blatantly. John had to struggle with a nearly irresistible urge to interrupt him, to call him a liar, but he didn’t want to sound like Joel. He knew, instinctively, that for this to work, he had to afford Tony the same opportunity he gave himself.

John thought the meeting would be little more than his word against Tony’s, but he realized Tony was actually evidence against him. He was the one who was kidnapped people, not Tony. He thought of going to the van and holding up Blackbeard’s head, but it somehow didn’t feel right. He looked at Paul and saw his mounting discomfort.

In a flash of insight, John realized Randy was the only one who could turn the tables on Tony. He scanned the crowd again, trying to find him among the faces, but he was nowhere to be seen. The crowd was heating up again, and thanks to Tony’s smooth delivery, their anger was mounting and beginning to shift back to John. John kept his hand off the radio, but searched the adjacent roof lines in an effort to spot Pete. They devised hand signals for just such an event, but his friend was either too well hidden, or not where he said he was going to
be. John wondered what had happened to him, and for the first time since arriving to the meeting he began to worry.

As Tony talked, trying to turn the crowd into a mob, John began to consider his escape plan. He looked at Paul and saw that he was standing, holding his shotgun at the ready. He also felt the shift in tension. There was no way he was going to allow the crowd to lynch either of them. His first two shots would be fired at Tony, after that he didn’t care. He was glad for Jeff’s unanticipated support, but he didn’t think there was enough to shift the outcome. John was sure Jeff was counting on him to settle the issue of neighborhood leadership, or at least eliminate the single biggest problem leader. Neutralizing Tony had always been a part of the plan, and that plan was rapidly falling apart.

Tension in the crowd reached a new level when Tony added, “And Mr. Anderson kept me tied up in that van for eight hours . . . without food and water . . . or a bathroom break. I was forced to wet myself,” he said, as he gestured to his still damp crotch with mock embarrassment. Support seemed to be swinging rapidly in favor of Tony. John knew he should say something, but he didn’t know what to say. Besides, Tony wasn’t interested in losing ground. He asked the crowd, “What kind of person does this to another human being? He broke into my house, in the middle of the night, and kidnapped me from my own bed. He then beat me and held me prisoner in a van. He’s the problem here!” yelled Tony, as he pointed an accusatory finger at John, “Not me!”

The mood in the crowd grew tense as people began to press forward toward John and Paul at the van. “He’s the one who needs to go!” billowed Tony. John dropped his hand to his pistol and was about to draw when a deep voice pierced the crowd. “That’s a very pretty speech, Tony, but I think everyone should hear the real truth!” It was Pete’s voice, and the crowd parted way as he and Randy walked forward. They were pushing a third man along in front of them, their rifles pointing at his back.

Joel stepped forward to intervene, but Jeff’s group acted quickly. They rushed forward with weapons ready and demanded Joel, and
everyone in his group, to drop their guns. Joel and his men obediently complied, and after surrendering their weapons were made to sit on the ground, all except Joel who was led forward to stand next to Tony.

“It’s good to see you again, brother,” said John, as Pete approached. “It looks like just in the nick of time, too,” replied Pete.

John snorted and said, “Who’s the stiff?”

“I found him on Joel’s roof. He was set up with a rifle, and it was pointing this way. I’m not sure who he was aiming at, but I’m thinking it was you,” replied Pete.