Yesterday was Election Day. I was ready. The ballots had been printed
secretly. We staged it to make it look like they’d arrived in the appropriate
way so there would be no questions. The church was chosen as the only polling
place for our little town. And we had volunteers who had no idea what was going
to happen to their leader.
Not that he knew what was going to happen, either. It was no secret that
Leroy’s burden by the curse was his low self-confidence, and his biggest
symptom was his frequent drinking. Since I appointed him in charge of the
volunteers, Leroy had been seen visiting the Rabbit Hole much more, being cut
off at Granny’s or taking a brown paper bag home from the drug store after
work. Sidney had really done all the work organizing the volunteers and he was
not happy about it.
So it shouldn’t have been a surprise to me to find out that Leroy hadn’t
even shown up to the polls yesterday morning as I placed the first ballot in
Storybrooke. It should not have irked me that he didn’t come in to help in the
afternoon when I called to see how things were going. And I shouldn’t have been
upset that I had to call his apartment from the church when I arrived there
after work, but I had a plan in place and I needed my sacrificial lamb!
My lamb was there by the seventh ring. Leroy burped into my ear before
groaning his hello.
“I’m disappointed, Leroy. I was going to have you and I hand the ballots
over to the men from Portland who would take them and officially count them.
Now I’ll just have to meet them by myself.”
“No, please, Madam Mayor! Let me come with you! I won’t screw this up, I
promise.”
“All right. The polls close in an hour. You better hurry up and vote. I’ll
meet you with the ballots at the library. That’s where they’re meeting us.” I
hung up the phone on the wall. When I turned, I almost walked right into Deputy
Sanchez.
“Excuse me, Madam Mayor.” The deputy seemed to be everywhere I was,
lately.
“It’s all right. Looks like you had to work today after all.”
“Yes. I wanted to vote before it was too late.” His eyes wouldn’t stay
on me as he spoke. “I was on my way out, but I couldn’t help but hear the last
of your conversation. I could accompany you, if you like.”
“Thank you, Deputy, but that won’t be necessary. Sheriff Graham will be
meeting us over there, too.” It was only a half-lie. Graham would be at the
library after I called him to tell him what happened to Leroy.
“I could help you carry the ballots to your car.”
“Sidney will be doing that, thank you.” I nodded goodbye to him, since
he said he was leaving. He nodded back
at me and left the church.
Leroy rushed in and voted. He came to apologize to me and smelled like
he’d had the decency to take a shower. I told him there was no need, just to
relax and to meet me at the library after the polls closed. He looked at the
other volunteers, but they ignored him since he really hadn’t taken part. Leroy
left the church too, I don’t know where to.
Finally it was eight o’clock. We gathered the ballots into boxes,
thanked the volunteers and sent them home. Sidney and I loaded the boxes into
my car before we went our separate ways.
I only had to drive a few blocks from the church to reach the library. I
took the skeleton keys out of my pocket and used the one for the library. Once
inside, I left the lights off and set to work. I dragged a metal waste basket
to the center of the floor and pulled over a chair for me. I pulled a few
ballots from my purse and threw them in the basket. Then I pulled out my
matchbook and waited for him. The rest of the ballots were in a box in my trunk
of my car. They’ll be great to have this winter. Nothing warms a house better
than the voice of the people.
It’s been a long time since I’ve enacted an evil plan. I’d been working
on this one for most of a year, and I was really worried it wasn’t going to
work. There are a lot of things to consider: weather, time of day, who could
potentially discover you.
One key to the success of an evil plan is not to have the intended
victim have enough time or sense to think about what is happening. No asking
where the officials were to take the ballots from us. No asking why I was only
burning a few ballots with a match into one of the library’s metal waste
baskets while I’d carelessly thrown the rest down the elevator shaft into the
mine below. Any answer I gave would make about as much sense as peasants voting
for their ruler anyway. You need to have a sense of urgency without looking desperate.
The haze of Leroy’s hangover would cloud his judgment, but he was one of Snow
White’s friends deep down inside. I knew he’d try to stop me.
But Leroy had only been my planned victim for about a week after I’d
first appointed him in charge. I’d already put him in his place and the curse
had been doing the rest since then. He was no longer a threat. My real
sacrificial lamb was more persistent, and when I turned to the sound of his
footsteps and was blinded by his flashlight, I knew my plan would work.
“Since the beginning.” Deputy Sanchez lowered it so I could see him
better once my eyes settled. “I heard your conversation with Sidney at the
diner back in June. Then I decided to follow you and overheard your
conversation with Leroy. I listen to my gut a lot and my gut was telling me
something wasn’t right. So I’ve kept an eye on you this whole time. I found
your copies of ballots at the printing press for the Mirror. Nice try, but I
knew exactly what you were planning.”
“And that was?”
“You were going to turn off people from voting and from the library, by
using one of the loudest advocates of it as an example.”
Not bad. “Go on.”
“Leroy was the only volunteer you invited to help you take the ballots
out of our precinct. But wouldn’t you just take them across the town lines? Why
would you go to the library? Because there’s a mine underneath that leads out
of town! You were going to make sure it looked like an act of self defense.
That he attacked you and tried to steal the ballots.”
Close enough. “Well, you’ve found me out.”
“I know these few are for show.” He pointed to the burning ballots. “Where
are the rest of them?”
I didn’t say anything. Instead, I glanced at the elevator door. He saw
me look and then I did something to make sure he wouldn’t ask questions: I ran
for the door. He reached me before I got there, pulled me back to the chair and
handcuffed me to it. Then the deputy ran over to the elevator and turned the
wheel to open the doors. They opened with ease and Deputy Sanchez stepped
inside. He nodded at me for the last time before the doors closed.
I’d sat in my chair for only a couple of minutes before the ground
trembled. Then a loud BOOM rocked the library and knocked most of the books off
their shelves. I wasn’t sure whether or not the floor would cave in, but then
Graham ran in, followed by a stunned Leroy, and the ground became still.
“Why are you here?” I honestly couldn’t figure out that the sound from
the library may have made him come and not my command.
“It’s good to see you, too.” The sheriff unlocked my handcuffs. “Deputy
Sanchez called me for back up. Where is he?”
I pointed to the elevator. By now, the smell of the air had changed from
old books to sulfur and something burning. Graham walked over to the elevator
turned the wheel. The gears on the other side of the doors chugged as they
tried to start up, but by the third time they whirred and pulled the elevator
up to the main floor. But when the doors opened, Deputy Sanchez wasn’t
standing. He was slumped in the corner, very charred and very dead.
No comments:
Post a Comment