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“Are you all right?” She glared at the man who was helping her. “I’m only asking because a woman your age cannot afford to break a hip.”
If she hadn’t had to hold onto the table to stand up, she would have slapped the piss right out of him—the nerve of some people. Glaring at him didn’t seem to work either, as he wasn’t looking at her face. Finally, she felt something hard hit the back of her legs, and she plopped down. It was undignified, but she was sitting rather than holding onto a wobbling table.
“I’ve called an ambulance.” She told the judge it wasn’t necessary, she was fine. “Perhaps you should look at the piece of wood that has become a part of your body, Ms. Holloway. You’re bleeding badly too.”
Looking down, she saw the sliver of wood that was indeed in her calf. It was making her ill again, so she looked away. The blood pooling under the table and chair was bad enough, but the wood sticking out both sides of her leg like an arrow was too much. Getting dizzy now, she felt sick and thought she might pass out as well. Damn it all to hell, she thought. This was going to drag things out longer than she wanted.
~*~
Jude watched the proceedings. The ambulance drivers were trying their best not to puke on their patient, while the others in the room were using their phones to send what had happened out to the masses. She wondered briefly how they’d gotten their phones in here. She’d been asked to leave hers in the car.
Not that she didn’t feel bad for Hanna being hurt. She had been teasing her, and that had made her angry. That was what she wanted, not her being hurt to the point she had to be taken away in an ambulance. Getting up, careful of the men working, Jude slipped out of the courtroom and into the bright sunlight.
You seem pissy right now. She told Mercy she wasn’t so much pissy as disappointed. Having her in jail and awaiting trial couldn’t have happened to a more terrible person if you ask me. They’re still pulling blankets from the ground over here. So far, they’ve unearthed three dozen blanket wrapped bodies. That’s fucking sick.
Are you just standing there watching them? She told her she was in a tree looking down on them. I’m sure that’s not scary or anything. I’d be scared if I looked up into a naked tree and saw a large falcon sitting there staring down at me.
No one has noticed me. I think they’re set on this job. Did you hear that her brother George has been hospitalized? She told her that she hadn’t. I guess he’s some kind of germophobe. When one of the officers touched him to cuff him, he went berserk. After they took him to the jail, giving him his bottle of hand sanitizer back to him, he drank it. He was heard saying it was the only way to get all the germs off him. He’s also being treated for his hands. I guess they’re a mess as well.
This is one fucked up family. Hanna is on her way to the hospital as well. Jude told her what had happened. It was sort of my fault. I was having fun with her when she was startled while turning in her chair. I’m not really sorry about it. Hanna deserves what she gets. However, I think this might be a good thing. They might have all the bodies accounted for by the time she’s ready to come back. Didn’t she have two brothers? Harland, I think that was the other one’s name.
That’s right. He’s not competent to stand trial. The officer that arrested him while he was in the yard got socked in the face when George started screaming. The officer wouldn’t allow Harland to go to his brother, and that caused a ruckus. When the doctor at the hospital was treating his wounds—the other officers took him to the ground, and he was cut—and started talking to him about what had happened, the doc said he could barely comprehend anything that was going on around him. Even his last name was something he wasn’t able to think of. Jude asked her if Hanna had been talked to, to see if she had any mental instabilities. Not that I’m aware of. But then, she was in a jail cell when the other two were arrested. I would guess they should test her, don’t you think?
I think it’s a given that she’s nuts. Mercy laughed. The thing is, I’ve been through her mind. She’s all right with being arrested. In fact, she’s thinking of it as a kind of vacation.
Along with the trip in her mind, I have found out where her money is. And she’s amassed a fortune, too. I have an idea it should be used for the burial of these children. Barring that, perhaps a fun set up for children that have been adopted out in the last few days. All of them have been, did you hear?
I did. I think finding anyone who would know about the dead will be next to impossible. They are finding records with each body, but very little information. I don’t know that I mentioned it to you or not. To me, it looks like she went to a great deal of trouble, making sure she didn’t get caught with the files on the children after they were dead. Jude asked if she could see what sort of paperwork it was. Nothing much, it looks like. A name if she had it. The ones she didn’t, it looks as if she put a number on them. Like the number the hospital would have assigned the infant when it was born.
There wasn’t any other way to look at this but to call it like it was. Murder. Jude had no idea how the children had been killed—she wasn’t even sure she wanted to know. But they were bringing them out to be identified if they could. Otherwise, Jude knew Hanna would just be blamed for the death of Jane or John Doe, with a number after their names.
Heading to Castle Dante, the name they’d given their home, she thought about all the things she had going right now. None of it was earthshattering. It was just things she’d been putting off for too long, and now she had to hit them dead on. Damn it, she wished she had more time in the day.
Knowing more time wasn’t in her future, Jude decided to enlist the help of some of the villagers of New Town. Most of them, if not all, knew more about what was needed to improve the place where they all lived. All she knew for sure was the town needed a new bank. The one there now was part of a bank system that was closing some of its branches, including the one they had in town.
Jude had spoken to the bank president, the one in charge of such matters, and he told her they were closing the branch because it was much too far for people to travel to work when the bank needed extra help. Jude had asked him when was the last time anyone had to be called in to work.
“Never. But that doesn’t mean it won’t happen.” Jude asked him how long this particular branch had been in operation. “One hundred and sixty-seven years. We’re immensely proud of that here at home office. Not a single robbery, either.”
“In all that time, you’ve never had to have extra help, and now you’re closing the place up because it still might happen? That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. You have to see how much this bank is needed. You’re the only one for a hundred miles.” He told her that was precisely it. “What is? That you’re the only business in a hundred miles?”
“Yes. Now you can see that it’ll be much too much of a hardship for anyone to go out and fill in should they need it. My decision is made. The people there can continue to make their payme
nts on outstanding loans via postal service. And we’ll take deposits in the same way. It’s not like we’re abandoning them completely, Ms. Castle. They’ll still be able to reach us by Internet and the phone. It’s been a profitable venture in having our bank there all this time.”
So the very next day, after speaking to the man, she gathered everyone up who had any business with the closing bank. Then she lent them the money to pay off their existing loans. After that, it was easy to have them close all their savings accounts as well as any other reason they might need the bank. She’d gotten a frantic call from the same bank president just this morning.
“The bank there, it has no business. Everyone in town is telling them they’re going to a different bank. What have you done?” She told him what she had done, not leaving anything out. “Do you know you’ve cost my company a great deal of money, Ms. Castle? By paying off their loans early, those people have made it so we won’t be getting the interest of the entire loan. That’s a great deal of money for the banks.”
“And? What’s your point? You were going to hang them out to dry if they needed to get some money out of the bank for an emergency. I had to make sure my people were covered. Apparently, the bottom line is more important to you than the convenience of having good loyal customers.” He told her they’d be able to get money, just not right away. “I guess you should have thought of that when you decided, quite arbitrarily, that this bank wasn’t worth your time.”
“But don’t you see? That money coming from them was helping the bottom line for all the other branches. Not having that income, interest in the form of loans, and the savings account money, it hurts all the banks. Even the main one that I’m employed at.” Jude hadn’t said anything to him. “Don’t you care what you’ve done to all of us here?”
“I care no more about how this affects you than you did about telling my people they have to wait ten business days to get money out of their account. Then to make a special effort to mail their checks to some bank thousands of miles away in time to get their loan paid off so as not to incur late charges.” She laughed. “You should have thought this through, at least to the point of having someone here that is much smarter about money and people than you are. As the holder of the property of the bank you closed down, I will expect you to have the building cleared off the land within no less than thirty days of the date you close your doors.”
“What do you mean, the building cleared off? Surely you meant to say cleaned out. There isn’t any way I’m responsible for having a building taken down. You jest.” She told him it was in the contract his company had signed all those one hundred and sixty-four years ago. “I will have to look into that. I cannot believe anyone would sign something so ludicrous as that.”
“Nor would I think that a lunatic would close up a profitable bank when there was no reason for it. But that’s the way it goes at times.”
