Shortage (Best Laid Plans Book 2) (19 page)

“What if they're not all murderers?” Matt asked.

Catherine held up a hand. “Don't!” she said fiercely. “Remember the people who died today, and what happened to some of those who didn't. These men willingly went along with all of it. It's going to be hard enough to do what I need to do tomorrow without doubting myself, so don't put any more weight on my shoulders.”

Her shoulders. “Will you be the judge?”

The older woman suddenly looked too weary to stand. “No,” she said quietly. “I'll be the executioner who upholds whatever ruling the judge decides on. Is that any better?”

Matt suddenly felt as if all the weariness he could see in Catherine had settled on him as well. He hated the entire business, but at the same time he wasn't sure he even wanted to press the issue. “Good night, Mayor.”

* * * * *

It was impossible to sleep when Matt got home with his mom and nephews. Every time he tried he'd come awake to the sound of phantom gunshots, his heart hammering in his throat. Once he even dreamed up Razor leaning over him to slit his throat, but it was only his mom draping a blanket over him. He'd fallen asleep on the couch with his .40 next to him, ready to shoot anyone who tried to force their way through the broken front door that he'd barricaded with a dresser.

After the scare with his mom he thought better of that and decided the chances were higher of accidentally shooting a family member in trigger-happy paranoia, so he stuffed the pistol under a couch cushion and determined that he'd well and truly identify an attacker before going for it. It might get him killed, but better that than the alternative in his current state.

He lay in the dark for what seemed like an eternity before the back door finally opened and he heard the soft murmur of women's voices. April and Sam came into the living room, and when Matt sat up to greet them they both screamed.

“Easy!” he said. “I thought
I
was jumpy.”

“Are you kidding?” his sister nearly shouted, slapping at him in the dark. “What are you doing on the couch?”

“You guys are in the guest room and Sam's taking my room,” he said. “Also I wanted to guard the entrances, just in case. Did Terry stay behind?”

He caught the silhouette of April nodding. “He needs to keep an eye on the wounded. It's going to be a long night for him, and he's worried he won't be able to save them all.” She lowered her voice. “Actually he's worried he won't even be able to save some of the ones he could have. He's doing his best, but he doesn't have the training or equipment to help half the people who need him.”

“He's doing great,” Matt assured her, although halfway through his words were interrupted by a jaw-cracking yawn.

Sam came over to sit on the couch next to him, and he felt her soft hands cup his face. “Go to sleep, Matt. In your own bed. I can keep watch down here.”

Matt shook his head. “I can't sleep so I might as well keep an eye out. You should be comfortable in bed.”

The dark-haired woman made a noise that might have been frustration. “You're injured!” At his stubborn silence she abruptly leaned her head against his shoulder and sighed. “Fine. I'll sit with you for a while since I can't sleep either.”

He wanted to protest, but he also desperately wanted her company. So they said their good nights to April and sat together on the couch with the blanket wrapped around them, talking quietly about everything that had happened. Matt told Sam about Catherine's offer to lead the town's defenses, and unsurprisingly she insisted that if he wanted to do it she'd do everything she could to help.

In spite of his nerves being with her calmed him down, and at some point he must've fallen asleep. He woke up with a start sometime later with no idea what time it was, sprawled halfway across the armrest with Sam curled up against his shoulder.

It wasn't a phantom noise this time. He could hear a quiet rustling from the direction of the kitchen.

Matt carefully extricated himself from the couch, ignoring Sam's sleepy murmur of protest as she wrapped herself tighter in the blanket and curled up against the back of the couch, and reached under the cushion to grab the pistol. He also reached into the lamp table's drawer to get the flashlight they kept there.

It might be Terry coming back from the storehouse, or April or his mom pottering around the house unable to sleep. It might even, the thought filled him with a surge of hope, be his dad safely home.

He limped towards the noise, flashlight ready to flick on and point at whoever it was he heard. He wanted to wait until he had a clear view at least in case it was an enemy, since shining a light around would reveal his position and make him an easy target.

When he reached the kitchen he realized the noise was coming from the pantry, so he cautiously made his way over there. He could see light filtering out from beneath the closed door, and the hair on the back of his neck prickled. They hadn't used the pantry since Ferris's first inspection because there was nothing in there.

Holding his breath, he groped for the doorknob with the hand holding the flashlight, getting his Glock ready. Then in one quick surge he threw open the door, stepped back, flicked the flashlight on, and aimed both the light and the gun inside the small room.

Wide green eyes stared at him with a deer in the headlights expression and Matt drew in a startled breath. “You.”

Mandy Townsend slowly set down the empty #10 can she'd been peering inside and turned to fully face him, doing her best to appear calm. “Oh hey. Matt. Good to see you're okay.” She started to step forward, extending her hand as if to shake.

“Don't!” Matt said sharply, easing the slack on the trigger until it was nearly on the point of firing. Mandy froze, but just to be safe he took a few steps back to put some distance between them.

To be honest he wasn't really surprised it was her. She'd lived in the house so she knew her way around it, and from everything he'd heard about her from Sam and his parents, as well as his own observations the few times he'd had the misfortune of seeing her, sneaking into the house of people who'd been kind to her to burglarize it in the night seemed right up her alley. And after she'd lied about Trev and his promise to let her stay in town Matt had zero sympathy for her.

“You've heard Mayor Tillman's new policies, right?” he demanded. “The punishment for anyone caught committing theft is exile.”

Her green eyes widened further in a nearly convincing show of confusion and dismay. “Policies? Theft? I don't know what you mean. I just came to beg your folks to let me stay here again. I have nowhere else to go and you've been so kind to me.”

“Doing that begging in our pantry?” Matt asked sarcastically. “How stupid do you think I am? Also did you honestly think you'd find food in there after Ferris has been all over this place?”

“It's not like that!” Mandy insisted. “One of Razor's guys, Teddy, has been hassling me. After Ferris left I had no choice but to go back to the refugee camp and he basically grabbed me and-” she broke off with a shudder. “Anyway he forced me to break into your house and look for food. He said he'd hurt me
and
you guys if I didn't. You don't want to hear what he threatened to do to Sam.”

Matt felt his anger boil over, not because he believed her but for the exact opposite reason. She was blatantly trying to exploit his feelings for the woman he loved to push his buttons and manipulate him. After what Sam had been through during Razor's attack and
because
of his feelings for the dark-haired woman, Mandy's tactic was unforgivable. “So which is it, you came to beg us to let you back in or this Teddy punk is making you steal from us?”

“Both!” she insisted. “When I saw you didn't have any food I knew he was going to punish me, so I was planning to beg you guys to protect me.” She hunched over slightly, hands fluttering in front of her stomach, and gave him a pathetic look. “I can't go back out there and I don't have anywhere else to go.”

The blond woman's deceptions were almost convincing enough to be believable, mostly because she seemed to believe them herself. No wonder she'd been able to turn everyone in Aspen Hill against Trev even though everyone knew and liked him. She was willing to make completely outrageous claims and fully invest in making people believe them.

Too bad they were so transparent. “A few problems with your story, Mandy. First off we were told Razor's gang hadn't gone back to the camp, any of them. Second of all we headed there not long after the attack and invited the refugees to come into town. I notice you didn't mention any of that, though. Have you even been out to the camp at all today?”

“Matt?” Sam hissed, padding into the kitchen. Matt glanced over just long enough to see her clutching the revolver she'd gotten off the looter. “What's going on?”

“Your boyfriend's pointing a gun at me, Sam!” Mandy shouted from the pantry.

“Shut up!” Matt snapped. He turned towards his girlfriend just long enough to answer. “It's Mandy trying to rob us.”

“You've got to be kidding me,” Sam said, expression darkening. “After everything we've been through today we have to put up with her now?”

“Not for long. I'm going to take her to the storehouse to see what the Mayor wants to do about her.”

Sam pocketed the small revolver. “I'll come too.”

“I'd feel more comfortable if you were here to guard the house while me and Terry are both gone.”

“Oh, right.” Sam came over and gave him a quick kiss, glancing into the pantry at Mandy as she did. Without saying a word to the blond woman she turned and made her way back into the living room.

Matt reached into the drawer where his mom kept twine for tying up herbs to dry and pulled out a length, then bound Mandy's hands behind her. “Ooh, I feel like such a dangerous criminal,” she said sarcastically over her shoulder.

“A criminal, at least. Although you're definitely more dangerous than you look, especially to your friends.” Matt put away his gun and prodded between her shoulders. “Come on, out the way you came in. Let's get this over with.”

The blond woman stomped towards the back door, where Matt had to open it for her, then shine the light down the stairs to keep her from tripping. They walked across the yard in silence, but once they reached the gate Mandy turned to glare at him as he opened it. “You think your precious Samantha's any different than me?” she asked, voice dripping with spite.

Matt fought the urge to laugh. “Yeah I do, actually. You guys are just about complete opposites.”

“Oh really?” The blond woman gave him a contemptuous look. “You took her in, fed her, and gave her everything else she needed. The only difference is that you're such a sucker that she just had to bat her eyelashes to get everything she wanted from you, while I've had to work to survive.”

Now he did laugh. “Do you have any idea how sad it is that you think the only value you could possibly have is sex, and you think Sam's the same? You couldn't be more wrong. Sam's part of the family, and she's earned her place through hard work, kindness, optimism, and determination. She reminds me every day that bad as the world's become there's still more to life than hardship and suffering.”

“If you believe she's like that you really are stupid,” Mandy snapped. “But even if she's the saint you claim what does that make you? You're helping her hoping to get something in return and you know it.”

If he were less secure in himself or his feelings about Sam then Mandy's toxic accusation might have gotten to him, at least a little. But as it was he just gave her a pitying look. “I wouldn't want to look at the world through your eyes. Are you even capable of finding good in anyone or anything?”

She wiggled her bound arms, then jerked her head towards the storehouse as if to remind him of the earlier attack. “Look around. Any good in the world was just an illusion, waiting for the first real disaster to show that it never existed at all. You of all people should know that by now.”

Matt was already forming a counter argument, that the good was in people not in the world and because she lacked it in herself she couldn't see it in anyone else. But he was frankly sick of talking to her so he just walked on in silence.

He trusted the new Mayor to stick to her guns, and he really hoped that started with exiling Mandy.

Chapter Nine

New Arrivals

The week following Ferris leaving and Razor's attack was much more hectic for Matt, but in many ways also far less tense.

The entire town quickly started to show new energy now that the people were back in charge of things. Now they were able to seek food without having to worry about Ferris stepping in and confiscating it, and for that matter weren't encouraged to sit around completely reliant on the ration line for their meals. And Matt felt far safer with a gun at his hip and the knowledge that all his trusted friends and neighbors were armed too. The entire town felt safer, and people actually started wandering the streets once more.

They dealt with the captured members of Razor's gang the next day, just as Mayor Tillman had promised they would. Chauncey radioed Price first thing in the morning asking about bringing the prisoners down to them for justice, but after some debate between the Price city government and the FETF coordinators they'd come back and insisted that, while they were accepting all newly arrived refugees, criminals were another matter.

Between that and the residual ill will Price had for Aspen Hill after their refusal to help the refugees, either their own or those gathering in the massive camp outside the county seat, the result had been that Chauncey was told they'd have to deal with the prisoners on their own. When the retired teacher pressed for details about just what exactly that entailed the people on the other end had effectively washed their hands of the issue and signed off.

Which meant Catherine's fears that the town might have to resort to executions were realized. The new Mayor announced trials soon afterwards and the town agreed on Hubert Peterson, one of the two remaining councilmen, as judge. Bert was one of the oldest people in town, who'd retired to a simple life after a long career as a lawyer. He also had a reasonable temperament and had a reputation for weighing the facts fairly, and most agreed he was a good pick for the job.

The trials were fairly straightforward. Witnesses were gathered to testify against each individual member of Razor's gang, from among both the townspeople and the refugees, about any crimes they'd seen that man commit either during the attack or at any point after arriving in the refugee camp. The witness standards were fairly rigorous, since the intended sentence was death by firing squad and the crimes had to be severe enough to warrant it.

It turned out that wasn't an issue. Every single man they'd captured had been involved in Razor's attack and had attempted or carried out rape or murder, and for most there were also plenty of refugee witnesses to similar crimes out in the camp. It only took a few hours for Bert to settle on a guilty verdict and a sentence of execution for every single prisoner except Al, the man Lewis and Trev had captured a month ago who'd been sitting in prison beneath town hall all this time. Al was sentenced to exile.

Although Matt still had reservations about the executions, if it was going to happen he couldn't justify asking others to do it while he stood by and watched. So he joined a dozen other men in the firing squad while the prisoners were lined up against a wall a short distance away.

Scott Tillman had stocked a few boxes of blanks in his store before the attack, and as he passed out rifles in the appropriate caliber he assured them that half the guns would be loaded with live ammo and half with the blanks. Matt knew that was fairly standard practice in firing squads, to help the consciences of those doing what had to be done, but even so the thought that he might end up with blanks was a bit reassuring.

He'd had too much of killing the day before.

Once the task was complete he discovered his leg was at the ends of its strength. He felt a bit guilty being unable to help with the shoveling for the graves, both the mass graves for the attackers and the individual graves for the townspeople who'd lost their lives, but even if those who cared about him had allowed him to do something that would certainly reopen his wound he could admit to himself that physically he wasn't up to it.

One bright note was that one of the refugees who'd been working for Razor assured him that even though the man had cut dozens of people with the weapon he was also obsessive about keeping it clean. Matt hoped that meant his chances of infection were lower, although he did feel feverish for the next few days.

After talking it over with Sam and his family Matt sought out Catherine before the funerals for the citizens of Aspen Hill that evening and told her he would take the job leading the town's defenses. His leg wasn't up to anything active, but with the help of the new Mayor and a few others, including a similarly wounded Carl Raymond who was off his feet, Matt organized the construction of new roadblocks, planned patrol routes, and began organizing volunteers into shifts for both.

It turned out there were far more volunteers now than there had been back when the town had seen to its own defense before Ferris came. Not only were the residents of Aspen Hill much more invested in defending their town after the attack but the remaining refugees seemed serious about policing their own to prevent someone like Razor from forming another gang. Matt had hundreds of volunteers to work with, most of whom had some experience with firearms.

While he couldn't go out and about he could carry out interviews for everyone applying, which he did with the help of Chauncey Watson and Scott Tillman. The other two men only thought interviews necessary for refugee applicants, but Matt insisted he wanted to speak to everyone, both out of fairness as well as pragmatism. They'd be entrusting these people with firearms from the storehouse, after all.

Although for that Matt had to coordinate with Catherine about the use of the weapons: finding food was as important as the town's defense, in some ways even more important. From the first day the new Mayor armed as many people who were good with a rifle and could be spared from defending the town as she could find and sent them out in hunting parties, with equal numbers of townspeople and refugees.

In the last week a few parties had already returned with deer and elk down from the mountains to escape the snowstorms, and one sent word back that they'd found a small herd of sheep unattended in the higher foothills and were bringing them down.

Between that and some of the livestock Ferris had gathered but never got around to butchering the town wasn't going hungry, although portions had to be spread thin among so many people. True to her word Catherine had returned a lot of that livestock to their rightful owners, but any that remained unclaimed or were donated to the town provided a vital boost to Aspen Hill's perilously low stores. Matt and his family counted themselves among those that needed that assistance, although he assured Catherine that he'd repay the food once they could get at the cache.

Until then they weren't going hungry, and busy as Matt was with organizing the town's defenses his worried thoughts constantly turned to his dad, who they hadn't heard from since he disappeared the night of Ferris's first inspection. He was asking the people he sent out on patrols to keep a special eye out, but so far there'd been no luck.

Even more worrisome, the patrols reported sightings of some of Razor's gang who'd escaped after the attack roaming the area outside of town. Matt had considered forming a group to go out and track the bandits, but he wasn't in any condition to lead it and when he ran the idea by the Mayor and a few others they decided after a bit of debate that the town should just focus on defense until things had settled down.

Which left him no choice but to worry and hope that his dad would find a way safely back home.

The seventh day after the attack put them on the day before Thanksgiving, and Matt finally decided his leg was healed up enough that he could start following the patrol routes to personally check them out and see if he could recommend any adjustments.

Sam was watching the boys while Terry and April were out. Sometimes it was April watching while Sam helped Terry with the sick and wounded, and on busier days they both went while Matt's mom watched her grandsons.

After the attack Matt had argued that Sam was still recovering from her beating at the hands of the looters and needed to rest. But he didn't really have a leg to stand on considering that he was pushing himself hard with his own duties defending the town even though . . . he didn't have a leg to stand on.

Sam had staunchly brushed aside his objections and insisted on helping. At least the physical signs of her injuries had disappeared after a few days, aside from lingering bruises, and he could reassure himself that she was doing just as well as she claimed.

Before setting out Matt kissed Sam goodbye and hugged his nephews, leaving them waving on the porch as he strode out of the yard. His first stop that morning was to the storehouse, which now also doubled as a more permanent clinic where Terry and whoever was assisting him waited ready to treat those in need of medical care.

It was a decent setup in a way, since now that April's family had moved into their parents' house even when Terry was off duty resting he was still only a block away if someone really needed him. Matt didn't envy his brother-in-law that sort of burden of responsibility, although he supposed he had responsibilities of his own now.

Matt had come to get his sutures removed, as well as to ask whether an extended walk was all right. He'd healed up well over the last week and was now moving around with barely any twinges of pain as his leg got stronger, so he thought it would be. Terry agreed, although reluctantly.

The storehouse seemed oddly deserted now that Catherine had moved back to the town hall to run the city from there. But there were still guards to watch over the supplies, at the moment Scott Tillman, Tam Raymond, and Chauncey and Rick Watson.

Matt thought Rick had developed sort of a hero complex after watching him bust out of the back of the store like a crazy person. Matt considered himself lucky he hadn't been shot or had his face smashed in with a sledgehammer, but the slightly younger man didn't see it that way.

Chauncey's son came over to chat while Matt was having his sutures removed, as well as to gawk at the wound caused by the gang leader's famous razor. Since he was there Matt decided to get some updates on what Rick's dad was learning about the outside world on the radio.

It turned out there was some fresh news to share there. For one thing Ferris's decision to cut and run from Aspen Hill hadn't been sanctioned by his superiors in Price. They hadn't even realized the administrator and his soldiers had left until Chauncey called in asking what to do about the prisoners the morning after the attack.

Whatever blowup they'd had over that news when they heard it from Chauncey they'd kept to themselves all last week. It was only last night while the town's radio operator was giving a followup report on how they'd dealt with the criminals that he realized the topic had shifted to Ferris's departure, and the FETF agents down in Price were subtly grilling him about why the man had left.

They should have known why he was gone if they'd given him the order to leave, and after a bit of questioning of his own the retired teacher was finally told that Ferris was acting off script. Since the coordinators down in Price didn't know why he'd left they obviously didn't know where he'd gone or what he planned.

In the last week they'd tried to find those answers on their own with no luck, which was why the FETF in Price finally decided to closely question Chauncey over the radio about Ferris's activities in the town over the last month.

Although the retired teacher was on the receiving end of the questions he was able to learn quite a bit from what he was asked. For one thing it sounded like while Ferris was overseeing Aspen Hill the administrator had gone far beyond his authority in numerous ways, including confiscation of food storage below the two weeks mark, confiscation of other valuables, allowing his soldiers to form romantic relationships with women from the town and refugee camp and turning a blind eye to less legitimate forms of companionship, using lack of compliance as an excuse to deny access to the ration line, and everything to do with his informal deal with Razor.

Ferris's authority had also only been meant to extend to relief efforts and coordinating with the town on keeping the peace. The fact that Ferris had completely taken over running Aspen Hill and formed his own little dictatorship on top of all his other infractions made the FETF coordinators down in the county seat very, very displeased.

The long and short of it was that they wanted to know where he and his soldiers had gone, and according to the retired teacher were communicating with every radio operator in Carbon, Sanpete, and Emery counties looking for him, and sending feelers even farther.

Terry shook his head when Rick finished. “We thought FETF was just overstepping their authority in general, but Ferris was playing by his own rules the entire time. Why didn't we ever think to ask anyone about what he was doing?”

Matt shrugged. “He was in charge, and he was FETF. Also Turner and Anderson both got behind him. Besides, even if he went way overboard it's not like FETF is all that great either. We know that from personal experience. We saw what we expected from them so we didn't question it.” He turned back to Rick, wincing slightly as another suture was pulled. “Any other news?”

It turned out there was. And while the news about Ferris had more to do with Aspen Hill the next thing Rick had to share was more pressing and much, much worse.