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“I don’t want to hurt anyone.” Regan’s voice could be heard next.
“You’re not hurting her,” Anita whispered back in a placating voice. “You’re just sending a message that it’s time for her to go.”
From the crowd, Frieda started seeing people’s mouths begin to drop as they continued to listen silently.
“Birgit is a good person. I changed my mind. I don’t want to help.” Regan spoke.
This time as Anita responded, her voice was not sweet or calm, but gritting and demanding.
“If Birgit and her sisters don’t pull out, then we all lose out on this much-needed investment,” she hissed. “What do you think I’ve done all of this for? The hot chocolate? The vandalized painting and pools? The bear?”
Suddenly Jimmy’s voice cut off Anita’s.
“Don’t forget the fire,” he pointed out.
“That was an accident!” Anita hissed back at him. “You were the one who was supposed to put the candles out! You almost got us caught!”
Anita’s voice suddenly grew so loud and sharp that caused a low whining to come from the speakers, and then they all heard a soft gasp.
“Oh my God,” Frieda murmured as her sisters and friends all slowly turned toward her. “I did it. We did it.”
“Is your mic on?” Jimmy asked, his voice quivering.
“No,” Anita breathed, followed by the sound of her gathering fabric. “No, no, no, no.”
Frieda watched as two security guards came walking up to the curtain that Anita, Jimmy, and Regan were behind, and pulled it open. The look of horror that was frozen on Anita’s face as she turned toward everyone made Frieda feel a little bad for her. Jimmy wasn’t too far off, looking like a deer caught in the headlights of a big rig truck, and there wasn’t even one thought of moving. Regan was the only one that didn’t look stricken with fear, and eagerly put his hands up before he was asked.
ChapterSeven
“How are you feeling Frank?”
It was nearly three hours later, and Frank, along with Frieda and their group, had remained at the venue while police began to sort things out. Shouting between Jimmy and Anita broke out shortly after the security guards found them hiding with Regan behind the curtain. Anita swore that she was an innocent victim and began pushing Jimmy away from her, to which he responded that the plan was all her idea and that he had trusted her with everything they had. At one point, Anita lunged for Jimmy, but was stopped by Regan, and it was only then that they moved in to arrest them.
Officers Normandy and Dawson, who had refused to help Frieda and her sisters with the case in the beginning, suddenly acted as if they were the heroes when they stormed the stage with handcuffs. Immediately, Anita demanded to know what they were doing and publicly outed them to be on her payroll when they came at her with handcuffs. The two officers were able to play it cool until the state troopers arrived, but then they were arrested as well.
Frank turned wearily toward Frieda, the two of them sitting in a row of chairs at the back of the room. He was a handsome older man, but now he just looked withered, thin, and hopeless.
“I’m going to go to jail.” He sighed tiredly.
Frieda gave him a compassionate look, and reached out to rub his back.
“Just tell them the truth,” she urged softly. “You may not.”
Frank looked away from her and shook his head.
“I deserve to go, though,” he replied. “Even if I don’t want to go, I know I deserve it. You can’t just be a witness to evil things being done and not get punished for it. What’s that saying?”
“The world is a dangerous place,” Frieda answered, quoting Albert Einstein, “not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.”
Frank nodded his head. “That one. I may not have helped them with what they were doing, but if I would have just been strong enough to speak up at any time…If I would have somehow gotten Anita to accept that we were broke?—”
“Frank, wait,” Frieda urged, immediately hung up on what he’d just said. “What do you mean you’re broke? You own half the town!”
“Usedto own half the town,” Frank explained. “We started having financial troubles a couple of years ago. We would have been okay then if Anita could have lived with just a little less for a year or two. But she couldn’t. In fact, she started spending even more, going out more, and shirking her responsibilities in both the businesses and the town. I tried to give her her space, thinking that she would mellow herself out.”
Frank sighed and shook his head.
“Then, one night a few months ago, she didn’t come home. I was worried about her, so I went looking for her and found her with Jimmy.”
