To: 
From: "Jay  P Hailey" 
Reply-To: trekcreative{at}yahoogroups.com


Title: Long Arms
Author: Jay P. Hailey (jayphailey{at}tic1.net) and K.A. Strickland Series:
Vista City/Four Corners
Part: 12/13
Rating [PG] (Some Violence)

 The car ahead of the them was a brown Plymouth Duster.  It had fat rear
tires and the rear end was raised quite a bit.

 Mosley reached out with his lower left hand and flipped the siren on.
Scott could barely hear it through the sound proofing of the car.  They
slid up behind the Duster.

 Through a big turn they slowed quite a bit.  Even so, the Duster slid and
wobbled.  Out of the turn, though, the Duster began to pull away.

 "I guess that's John Stanley's car."  Mosley said.

 "What is he doing?" Scott asked. He hated being in the passenger seat
during a car chase, but did his best to handle it professionally.

 "My guess is that he's trying to beat us to Kyle Warner in order to warn
him and keep you from arresting him."  Mosley said.

 "Why?"

 "During one of the drive by shootings we had here a couple of years ago,
John lost his sister.  Since then he's had it in for the two armed
world." Mosley said.

 Scott reached down and grabbed the radio. "This is Mayor Mosley's car
calling dispatch."

 There was no answer.

 Scott had to hang on while the two cars entered another turn.  Mosley held
a tighter line and tried to go inside the Duster.  They were neck and neck
coming out of the turn, but the Duster again began to pull ahead as the
turn straightened out.

 "Mayor Mosley's car to dispatch, come in dispatch."  Scott said again.

 Still no answer.

 "Hold it up."  Mosley ordered.  Scott leaned over and held the microphone
up to Mosley.  "C'mon, Evie! He's not kidding! Answer us!"

 Silence.

 "Hell!" Cursed Mosley.  Another turn loomed.

-*-

  A block away from the court house a black and white patrol unit pulled up
next to Angelo and Sonja.

 Crenfield got out.  He said.  "Hold up a minute."

 Angelo and Sonja stopped.  Suddenly about a dozen people appeared from
behind a corner two blocks down.  The two detectives recognized a number of
people who had accompanied John Stanley out of Alex's.

 "Uh, Deputy, I'd sort of like to avoid a confrontation here, and-" Angelo
began.

 "Then why did you come to Four Corners?"  Crenfield asked.

 "We're looking for the person who murdered Marlene Summers."  Angelo said.

 "Then go back to where you come from and look into your own heart.   The
outside world.  The world of people like you is what killed Marlene. If
she'd stayed here, where she belonged, nothing would have happened to
her." Crenfield said.

 "Aren't you interested in discovering the truth?"  Sonja asked. 
She wanted
to ask more but restrained herself.

 "I already know the truth.  The truth is that Four Corners is the only
place where I can live free.  Four Corners is my home.  And I don't want
people like you feeling like you can come in here, stirring up trouble
whenever they feel like it."  Crenfield said bitterly.

 The crowd caught up to them.  "Have you got 'em Roy?"  One woman asked.

 "Oh, yes. " Crenfield smiled.  "We got 'em."

-*-

 A hand stuck out of the driver's side door of the Duster as the Duster and
the Lumina slid through another turn.  Scott noticed an object in the hand.

 "Gun."  He warned.  Scott pulled out his own weapon and checked it.

 Mosley focused on holding the smoothest line through the turn that he
could. The object grew a tongue of flame and there was an audible popping
noise.  The Lumina made a thunking noise.

 "Hell." Mosley said.  "If you can, I'd like you to return fire."

 Scott rolled down the window.  The noise of the two bellowing motors washed
over them.  "Is this trip really necessary?"  Thought Scott but
he said nothing.

 Stanley's gun popped again and the Lumina gave another thunking noise.

 "Any time you're ready."  Mosley said.

 Scott fired three shots at the Duster in quick succession.

 The turn ended and although it wobbled badly, the Duster stayed in control
and started opening up distance again.

-*-

 "You are all under arrest." Angelo said.

 Sonja would have yelled but she was used to Angelo by now.

 "Surrender or you'll only make things worse."  Angelo said.

 "That's hard to imagine."  Sonja commented.

 Crenfield drew his gun out of its holster.  Several people in the crowd
took guns out.

 "Me and my big mouth."  Sonja said.

 "Are you people more interested in counting arms or finding out what really
happened?  Ask yourself, what if Kyle did hurt Marlene?  Why did she leave
so suddenly?  Who told you that she was too ill to speak with anyone after
things calmed down two years ago? Kyle did.  What do abusive husbands and
lovers do? They isolate their victims!  None of this is unusual or hard to
believe!" Angelo said.

 "For your people, no." Crenfield said.  "I could believe it
easily.  But
we're not like you."

 "We're different.  We're better.  We don't treat each other the way you
people do." One of the crowd added.  A general chorus of agreement erupted.

 "Yeah.  I believe that." Sonja said quietly.

 "It doesn't matter what you think or believe or say, Short."  Crenfield
said.  "You're on your way out of Four Corners one way or another."

-*-

 Scott stuck his reloaded gun out of the window.  The Duster was speckled
with bullet holes.  None of them seemed critical.  The Lumina was missing
its windshield and making an odd noise in the motor.  However, it was still
keeping up with the Duster.

 As they entered a particularly sharp left hand turn, Stanley realized that
he was going into the turn too fast.  He pumped the brakes firmly and the
Duster screamed turning slightly sideways.

 "Damn!"  Mosley cursed. He downshifted and steered with his other three
arms.  The Lumina also started to skid and slid sideways into Stanley's Duster.

 Scott's right arm was caught between the two cars and crushed.

 Moving much more slowly the two cars separated and slid.  Both Mosley and
Stanley regained control and began to accelerate away.

 "Are you okay!?"  Mosley yelled over the noise.

 Scott looked at his arm.  The cybernetic limb was crushed out of shape.
He'd have to undergo serious repair work on it.  There was an ozone smell
and the arm went dead.  "My arm is broken and I've lost my gun!" 
Scott yelled.  "Otherwise I'm fine!"

 Mosley did small double take but then had to focus on driving.  The engine
began to throw steam.

 Two head lights appeared down the road.  The Duster's motor howled as it
pulled away.

-*-

 "You're a better type of people, huh?" a voice said from the crowd.

 Every one turned to look and see Bodine Macabee.  He was an older man with
a serious presence.

 "Bodine, we have this under control.  You don't need to bother yourself."
Crenfield said.

 The older four armed man came and stood next to Angelo and Sonja.  "If
you're running people out of town for being different tonight, then you
might as well include me on that list."

 The crowd hesitated uncertainly.

 Crenfield looked irritated.  "You've lived here all of your life, Bodine.
You're one of us, not them."

 "Thank you very much, Sir, for the thought." Angelo said. 
"But this is a
police matter.  If you'll please step out of the way."  He tried to
gently move Bodine out of the way.

 Bodine didn't move. "Roy, you idiot.  You standing there yakking about
being superior and yet here you are at the head of a lynch mob. You look
like any other bunch of racist morons to me."

 The crowd murmured uncertainly.

 Sonja plucked at Bodine's sweater.  "Angelo and I are cops."  Sonja said.
"We volunteered for this and we're wearing kevlar.  There's no need
for you to get shot, too."

 "Thank you, very much, miss. But I don't think they have the balls to shoot
me, too."  Bodine said quietly.

 Crenfield raised his gun to point at Bodine.  "It's us or them, Mr.
Macabee!  You've always said so!  Now is the time to get them the hell out
and claim this place for us alone!  You're either for us, or you're against
us!"

 Angelo's gun appeared in his hand.  "Don't do it!"  He pointed it at
Crenfield.

 Crenfield shifted his aim slightly to point his gun at Angelo "Drop the
gun, Short!"

-*-

 The two cars screamed down the road at the oncoming car.

 The Duster was ahead and pulling away.

 "It doesn't matter!  He can beat by ten seconds if it's that important to
him!" Mosley yelled "Then we'll arrest them both!"

 Stanley took another shot at the Lumina.  Instead of making a thunking
noise like all the other hits, this impact made a banging noise.  The
steering wheel jerked to the left and the Lumina slewed sickeningly to the
side.

 Steve held on for dear life as the mayor's car slid sideways.  Then the
leading wheel dug in and the car flipped into the air...

-*-

 Sonja slowly pulled out her gun and leveled it at Crenfield.  "You may win
the war, but this battle's going to be a bitch."  Her heart was
hammering in her chest and felt like she could barely breathe.

 Guns were raised and pointed.

 "Can you really justify shooting me, Roy?  Do you think anyone will believe
it?"  Bodine asked.

 Crenfield resumed his aim at Bodine.  "Us or them!"

 Angelo stepped in front of Bodine.  "Don't shoot the civilian."

 "Shut up!"

 "Shoot him and you'll have to shoot me too."  Mollie the waitress from
Axel's said.  She walked through the crowd and stood next to Angelo and Sonja.

 "Please leave!" grated Angelo.  "Please get away and take
cover!"

 "Why should we?" Bodine asked.

 "Because I'm not doing my job if you get shot, Mr. Macabee!" Angelo was as
close to shouting as Sonja had ever heard him get.

 Bodine turned to Crenfield.  "See?"

 Two more people appeared at the edge of the crowd.

 Cody Macabee and his fianc‚, Dr. Teresa St Thomas joined them.  "Us, too,
Roy."

 "No!"  Roy yelled.

 "Yeah!" Angelo seconded.  "Get the hell out of the way!  Do
you want to get
shot?!"

 "Short loving bastard!  This is all your fault anyway!" 
Crenfield raged at
Cody "If you'd hadn't crashed then none of this would have ever happened!"

 "But it did happen.  You can't put the genie back in the bottle Roy." Cody
said.

 "I bet that crash wasn't even an accident!  What did you do, meet your
short lover there and offer her us in order to make her career?" 
Crenfield yelled.

 "Roy, you've got this weird idea that we could live without the two armed
people." Bodine said.

 "Why not?  We did it for fifty years.  Nobody knew!  Nobody bothered us!
We were safe!  We knew what might happen so we stayed quiet and we were
safe!" Crenfield said.  "Until you ended it!"

-*-

 Scott managed to undo his seat belt with his left hand.  Once more he
reminded himself to practice doing more things with his only remaining natural hand.

 "Jim! Jim, Are you alright?" Scott called.  No answer.  He laboriously
turned around in the upside down passenger seat and saw Mosley hanging
limply by his seat belt straps.  "Jim! Mr. Mayor!

 Reaching over with his left hand was a challenge, but Scott managed it.  He
felt for a pulse. There was one.  It was good and strong.  Good.  Maybe the
Mayor would survive this.  Scott shook Mosley roughly.

 "JIM!  WAKE UP!"  Scott bellowed at the top of his lungs.  No response.
"Problem." Scott said to himself.  He looked at the way Mosley
was arranged in the seat.  Unconsciousness could result from a head injury.
Scott realized that if he managed to unbuckle Mosley working with only one
arm, then the four armed man would fall immediately onto his head. 
"Not good." Scott spoke to himself.

 The only thing to do was to try and get help.

 Scott wriggled free and began to exit the car.

-*-

 "Is that what you think?  Do you honestly believe that we lived in some
splendid isolation before?"  Bodine said harshly.  "You couldn't
be more wrong, Roy!"

 "Huh!  You mean I was daydreaming the first twenty five years of my life?"
Roy sneered.

 "From the beginning of this town to the very end, we have been depending on
people with two arms to help us out, Roy.  Hell Mama Dozier has two arms!
Would you run her out of town?" Cody said.

 "Son, you can't have four armed people without the two.  The two armed
people are starting to figure out just how valuable we are to them, but
it's not like you can build a wall and have it mean anything."  Bodine
said.

 "Mealy mouthed apologizing for the shorts."  Roy sneered. "Eventually
they'll try to kill us, old man."

 "Then they'll be killing themselves too.  Because there is no 'us' or
'them.'  The four armed people and the two armed people are stuck together
now.  We always have been.  We always will be.  We're like what they used
to call siamese twins, Roy.  We can't separate out now. It was to late to
begin with." Bodine said.

 More people were joining the group in the middle.

 Frank Swearlow came hobbling in.  "I only have two arms, Roy. Are you going
to shoot or deport me, too?"

 "Mr. Swearlow, you're one of us.  You were here in town before this all
started."  Crenfield said desperately.  "You're different."

 "Nope."  The eighty year old man said.  "If it's racial
purity you're after
then count me in the 'other' category, along with all the rest."


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