Page 96 of Old Fashioned
A burly man holding the large video camera that had blinded Patrick through the window came in behind her, and she pointed at him over her shoulder.
“Have you met my friend, Shadow? He works in Nashville for Channel 2 News. As you know, we don’t have a video crew for our little newspaper here in town, but when Sydney came to me with this juicy story? Well, I justhadto be prepared. And we’ve been listening outside thisentiretime, my dear.”
Patrick just shook his head, over and over, his eyes scanning the room in disbelief.
“Oh yeah, buddy,” Miranda said. “You’re goingdown.”
For a moment, Patrick just stood there, stricken, with everyone’s eyes on him. Then, he laughed, though the worry slipped through every crack in his façade. “This is absurd. I didn’t agree to you recording me,” he pointed out. “You can’t air this, let alone use it in a court of law.”
“Youwouldthink that, wouldn’t you?” Miranda asked. “But, you see, Tennessee is a one-party consent state, and everyone in this room consented to me recording them other than you. Therefore, this video and audio is protected, andyes,it can be used in a court of law.”
Patrick looked to Mary, and Miranda nodded.
“Yes, even your wife — which solidifies this more than anything.”
Patrick eyed Miranda, and then the deepest, most primal growl ripped from his throat. He was like a cornered animal, and in a flash, he crossed the room, ripping open the top drawer of his desk and whipping out a pistol.
His eyes were wild and murderous as he raised it. Sydney gasped, and Mary reached for Mallory, holding her close as if to protect her and the baby. But Patrick didn’t have time to pull the trigger before Logan and Noah pounced on him, sending him flying to the floor and the gun spiraling away from him. I grabbed it, emptied the chamber, and held both the bullets and the gun in my hands as Patrick writhed in my brothers’ grips.
“Oh, please say you got that, too,” Miranda said, giddy as she turned to Shadow. “That will look justperfecton the evening news. Oh, by the way, Patrick,” she said to him next. “The cops are already on their way. And not your shady Stratford cops either — who, by the way, we’ve been investigating undercover for years now. We already have a case building against Randy Kelly, and this is just the icing on the cake.” She smiled victoriously. “You’re all going to pay for what you’ve done.”
Noah and Logan looked at each other, at Mikey, at me, and in that moment, the weight we’d carried on our chests for a decade was lifted, and I swore I felt our father in that room with us.
Noah smiled, still holding Patrick firmly, and Logan looked up at me with tears in his eyes.
“We did it,” he said, shaking his head. “We did it, brothers.”
Mikey made his way over to me then, and I wrapped him in a bear hug as chaos ensued.
First it was the sound of sirens, and then Patrick being hauled away while more cameras and reporters showed up at the Scooter residence. It would have been comical, watching him struggle against the officers, throwing a fit in their grips and saying, “Do you know who I am?”over and over again, had I not been in shock. He even tried to throw a punch at one of them when they finally shoved his head into the squad car, the rest of him following suit, and then they slammed the door shut.
My brothers and I were clinging to each other in the front yard when our mother showed up, wide-eyed and riddled with worry, until we told her everything.
It was over.
It was all over.
Andfinally, we had justice for Dad.
A quiet, calm kind of numbness settled over me as we talked to police officers and reporters and filed statements. It wasn’t the relief I thought we’d find, because as much as we’d finally found answers, we still didn’t have our father.
He’d still died a horrible death, at the hands of a monstrous group of men.
I didn’t know how late it was when the yard finally started to clear, and Sydney slipped her arms around my waist, and I held her against my chest, resting my cheek on the crown of her head.
“You okay?” I asked her.
She nodded, hands fisting in my shirt. “I’m shaken up,” she admitted. “And confused. And heartbroken. And I still have no idea what I’ll tell Paige, but… I’m relieved that it’s over. I’m relieved that we can finally all find peace.”
I kissed her forehead as my chest tightened, because peace seemed so far from my grasp.
“Areyouokay?” she asked, and I knew she could feel my anxiety.
I just held her tighter in response, willing her without words to not let me go.
Because Iwasn’tokay.
I was far from it.
