“No!”
The voice from below was filled with fear and rage. We moved to the side of the platform. Rita Skinner had escaped the carnage. Somehow, she’d made it to the raised wooden platform in the center of the cage, clear of the water, insulated from the electrical storm I’d unleased. She lay there, silhouetted in the moonlight from the rear entrance.
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Leeanne was already gone. She pushed the hinged side of the platform up, and slid down the square metal corner post of the lift frame. She moved silently across to the cage. Skinner lay weeping.
“Where’s my baby, bitch?” Leeanne screamed. She leaped onto the platform.
The mayor went from a huddled mass, to a warrior almost instantly. She tore off the suit jacket she always wore, then the shirt, leaving her in a tank top and leggings and even in the dim moonlight, what we saw surprised us all.
Where there had been a frail, but friendly looking grandmotherly type, stood a muscled, lean athlete. The mayor was ready.
“Take a good look,” she growled. “I want you to understand what is about to happen to you. See, in your arrogance, you never once stopped to think how I got where I was. See, sweetie, I didn’t just survive the farm, I dominated it. I killed my way to the top of the ladder.”
Then she was on top of Leeanne. From where we were, we couldn’t see much. One half of the platform was nearly invisible in shadow, the other half, lit by the moonlight flooding through the door.
Leeanne twisted, tossing Rita Skinner up against the wire. Skinner bounced back, wiping blood from her cheek with the back of a hand. She balled up her fists and launched another attack, wind milling into Leeanne. She landed blow after blow, in a blinding fury.
Leeanne disengaged and circled around the mayor, staying just out of reach.
“You’ll never see that child again,” Rita said.
She circled opposite Leeanne, keeping the distance. Leeanne feinted left, Rita moved to meet her, Leeanne slid right, taking her legs out from under her, as Rita’s head met the hard wood of the platform. She lay dazed for a moment.
Leeanne scrambled across the platform on all fours, into the tunnel leading to the holding pens. She slammed the door, the room was in near absolute darkness now.
Rita laughed, “Sure, princess, play in the dark. I’m game,” she said. “I’ll tell little Dexter how brave his mother was.”
There was a sickening smack, then a gurgle.
“Now, bitch, before I finish this, you’re going to tell me where my son is,” Leeanne said.
Rita was crying. “He’s with Boots,” she said. “They’re at my house. Please, don’t do this, I’m begging you.”
“Sorry,” Leeanne said. “I can’t hear you.”
There was another gurgle, then silence. We waited for any sign of life.
“Leeanne?” I called.
There was nothing but silence.
“Do you think they’re all dead?” Fred asked. “Even Ben?”
“Fred, I don’t think…” I said.
I couldn’t finish.
“I know,” Fred said. “It was a lie. My whole beautiful life was nothing but a lie.”
“I think I see Leeanne,” Sarah said.
There was a snap, then a hum. The lights in the main barn started to glow.
Silhouetted in the light was the most beautiful site I’d ever seen, Leeanne was walking towards us. On the platform behind her, the lifeless mayor lay, a darkening pool growing around her.
Leeanne reached the bottom of the lift tower and found the control. She pressed the down button. Nothing happened.
“It must have shorted out from the lightning storm you caused, Dalton,” she said.
“It’s a mess down here. These gators may not be fully dead, I think one just moved.”
“The firetruck,” I said.
“What?”
“Beside the barn, there’s a firetruck. See if you can get the ladder,” I said.
Leeanne disappeared toward the front door of the barn. A minute later she was back with a big white ladder. She stood it up and pulled the rope to extend it, resting the top of it on the bottom rail of the lift platform.
I pushed the hinged side of the cage out and helped Sarah onto the ladder. She made her way down cautiously. I helped Fred onto the ladder. He hadn’t seen Ben’s body yet. He made it to the floor, then screamed.
“No!” he knelt beside his dead lover.
No matter what the man had revealed in his final moments, Fred could probably never wrap his mind around it.
