Dennis Lee didn’t regret sending Collin after the mayor tonight. The man had to die. It was a simple matter. They all had to die. It was fitting that the man credited with saving the city from the storm died during another.
Carl Buchanan was next.
Carl was his. A thrill of anticipation went through him as he imagined what would happen.
He’d fantasized about killing Carl off and on since they were young boys.
He should have killed him when they’d been children. Sharing a small bedroom in his damned alcoholic father’s bungalow, terrified the man would come in and strike more blows. For the smallest of offenses. Nothing he or Carl did was ever good enough.
Carl sure had tried.
Dennis Lee hadn’t bothered.
Dennis Lee’s daddy sure had liked to use his fists on his son and stepson. Nothing Dennis Lee or Carl had done could make it stop. Until Carl’s momma had that baby, and they’d wanted the room the boys shared for her.
Thirteen and fourteen were old enough to make their own ways in the world, they’d both been told. They’d given them twenty dollars each and showed them the door.
Family sentimentality had been all that had kept him from targeting Carl before now. But fuck that. Carl wasn’t his family. Family didn’t screw each other like this.
Jenny, his Jenny, had had no business climbing into Carl’s bed like that. Carl had to have convinced her, had to have tricked her. Just to take her from Dennis Lee.
Why else would Jenny have chosen Carl?
Dennis Lee should have been enough for her.
No, he was going to do some housekeeping tonight. He wanted the mayor gone. Just to get things finished in that regard. The city had lost a mayor before; they’d survive losing Barratt.
Dennis Lee might just step into the roll himself.
Punish Jenny by taking that position from her.
He knew how badly she wanted to be the mayor someday.
Dennis Lee wanted Carl to suffer. First, he’d tell Carl himself exactly what had happened to the man Carl had always considered like his son. He’d take Barratt away from him, just as Carl had taken Jenny.
Then he’d shoot Carl, fill that damned dried-up old body with as many bullets as he could.
He just wanted to make Carl suffer for taking his Jenny.
Dennis Lee really loved that woman.
Just how much was finally becoming clear. It was time to make Carl pay for everything he’d ever done to Dennis Lee.
Dennis Lee stood, then tucked his .38 into his pocket. It had never failed him before. It wouldn’t fail him tonight.
It had been the only thing of his father’s he’d ever had.
Fitting that he used it tonight.