The Legend of Bastien - Chapter 19 – The Town That Didn’t Exist – Part 2 of 2

 

The Legend of Bastien

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 19 – The Town That Didn’t Exist – Part 2 of 2

 

Ten minutes later, the state policemen were amazed to drive into a nice-looking town, complete with a large town square.  They both looked around, wondering about it.  Fred drove directly to Tess’s house where there was now a large crowd gathering out front.

“What the hell is going on in this place?” Clemson asked before they got out of their car.

McNally only looked at him before he opened his car door.  As the two of them headed for the front door of the small house, the crowd seemed to close in around them, blocking their path.

“Police!  Let us through!” McNally ordered.

“Not yet!” one woman told them.

“Let us through!” McNally ordered again.

“Not till I’ve had my say first!” the woman demanded.

“And me!” another person shouted.

“Me too!” someone else yelled.

There was a lot of noise, most of it agreement from the entire crowd that the two policemen now realized was still growing as they saw more people walking toward the house.

“There’ll be time for questions later!” McNally told them.  “We need to check on the suspect.”

“Chrissy Moore isn’t going anywhere, and neither are you…until you talk to us first,” one of the men replied.

“There’s no time!  We need to secure the suspect!” McNally yelled.  “Now move!” he tried to push his way past the woman, but he was immediately stopped by at least a dozen men.  “What the hell are you doing?  I can arrest each and every one of you.”

“You’re not talking to Chrissy until I’ve had my say!” the first woman told him.

“And me!” another man added.

“You’re not going in there until you’ve talked to all of us first!” someone else told the two policemen.

With that many people standing against them, and all they wanted to do was talk, McNally realized he had no choice.  “Okay!” he said, his irritation evident.  “Now what the hell is your problem?”

“Sheriff Bastien murdered my husband,” the woman said.  “He, his father, and all the Bastien’s have murdered lots of people in this town.  Chrissy Moore finally got us justice!  We don’t want him arrested or punished in any way.”  There was a loud voicing of agreement from the entire crowd.

“The sheriff murdered your husband?” McNally said, not believing it.  “What was your husband doing at the time?”

“Tending the cows.  Feeding them.”

McNally shook his head.  “So you’re saying that the sheriff shot your husband for feeding some cows.”

“No!  He shot him because he made the mistake of complaining about the way this town was run!”

McNally shook his head, not understanding or believing it.  “Fine!” he said.  “Now let us through so we can get to the suspect.”

“No!” another person in the crowd said.  “Don’t you dare arrest Chrissy Moore.  He got justice for all of us today.  We’ve all had family murdered by the Bastiens.”

“What do you mean you’ve all had family murdered?”

“That’s just what I said!” the man reiterated.  “I’m the high-school principal, and the Bastiens have been keeping us under their thumb for five generations now.  Chrissy Moore just freed us.  All of us.”

McNally still wasn’t sure what to make of that.  He finally shook his head.  “Someone with more authority than me is going to have to take statements from…all of you I guess.  Trust me, you’ll all get your say.  But I can’t let anyone who’s murdered someone, just go free.  We have rules and regulations we have to follow.  Now I promise you.  Someone will be glad to talk to all of you, but not until we take care of securing the suspect, and then we’ve got to find some way to phone out of here for assistance.  Now please, let us through.”

It was a moment, but finally the crowd moved out of the way, but nobody seemed to be leaving the front of the tiny house.  The two police officers climbed the few steps to the front door and opened it.

Inside they saw Fred Tucker standing next to a woman, and another woman sitting on the floor holding a girl who was holding a gun to her head.  As they came in, both McNally and Clemson saw the girl pull the trigger.  But the gun only clicked.

“I thought that guy said it was a boy who did this,” Clemson noted.

“He did,” McNally replied.  He held up his hands and approached the woman and the girl slowly, never taking his eyes off that gun, even though it was empty.  “Easy now,” he said.  “Just give me that gun.”

“No!” Chrissy screamed violently as he raised the gun to his head again and pulled the trigger, producing nothing more than another click.

McNally moved in quickly and tried to take the gun from him, but Chrissy was too desperate and struggled madly against him.  “Give me that gun!” he ordered.

“No…” Chrissy cried bitterly.  “There’s still one bullet left.  One more.  For me!  My bullet…for me.”  He broke down in tears.  “I have to die.”

McNally finally got a good hold on Chrissy’s wrist and with a lot of struggling, wrestled the gun away from him.  “It’s empty!” he yelled, his irritation evident after finally getting the gun from the desperately struggling girl.  “See?”  He raised the gun in the air and pulled the trigger.  The loud gunshot shocked all of them as the gun that wouldn’t fire, fired.

“No!” Chrissy screamed.  “No!  No!  No!  That was my bullet.  That one was for me.  I have to die!”

“Shh…” Tess hushed him as she grabbed him and held him tighter.  “No you don’t.  It’s all over now.”  But Chrissy only sat there on the floor, sobbing.

“What’s your name miss?” McNally asked.

“His name is supposed to be Chris,” Tess answered for him.  “But by town law, it was changed to Chrissy,” she told the officer angrily.

“Town law?” McNally asked, not understanding.

“Yes!” she replied.  “That’s why he’s dressed like a girl.  That’s why he has to wear d….  Oh hell!” she finally said.  “You’re going to have to find a copy of the damn law and the addendum that came after to believe it.  The whole thing was…ridiculous!”

“So the bottom line is that this is Chris, and he’s a boy,” McNally said, just to be certain.

“Yes, but I guess it’s legally Chrissy now instead.”

“Okay.  Chrissy,” McNally said, not caring that much.  He looked at Chrissy.  “Chrissy,” he said.  “According to what Mr. Tucker here told us, you’ve had a busy day.  You’ve killed a few people.”

Chrissy looked up at him, for the first time, his eyes gaining a bit of real focus.  “Finally!” he said.

“Who did you kill?” McNally asked.  “We just need to be certain.”

Chrissy sighed and looked away before speaking to the corner of the room.  “It started when Deputy Phillip dropped me off at Deputy Mike’s house so I could wait there until Mom got off work,” he started.

“I used to be the bank teller,” Tess explained.  “Until recently when the Bastiens decided I should be Mike and Liz’s maid instead.”

McNally wasn’t sure about that, but he turned his attention back to Chrissy.  “And what happened there, at Deputy Mike’s house?”

Still speaking to the corner, Chrissy said, “After I put my purse in the house, I wandered out to the barn.  Deputy Mike was there working on his tractor.  I picked up a metal bar and hit him over the head…enough times that I killed him.  I took his gun inside and shot Judy and her mother.”

“You killed all of them?” McNally asked.  “Are you sure?”

“They’re dead!” Tess replied.  “And thank God!”

“Okay?” McNally said.  “Anyone else?”

Chrissy turned his head to look at him.  “Anyone else?  Are you kidding?”  One by one, he accounted for everyplace he went and how he went about killing every person.  Each and every one.  It was a long list, and both police officers were completely aghast. 

“Is there someone here who knows where each of those places are?” Officer Clemson asked.  “We’re going to need to check.”

“I can show you,” Fred volunteered.

McNally stood up.  “In the meantime, I need to find a telephone that will let me call out.”

“I need to stay here with Tess,” Betty said.  “But I saw Hugh Pomeroy outside.  He’s the high school principal.  He can help you with the phone.”

“You’ll probably have to use the one in the sheriff’s office like I did,” Fred told him.

McNally pulled the handcuffs from his belt.  He got no further than that when Tess grabbed Chrissy’s arms and pulled them in tighter.

 “No!” Tess yelled.  “No!  You can’t arrest him!”

“Ma’am,” McNally said, “He killed people.  Lots of people.  I lost count there were so many.”

“You can’t arrest him!”

“If I may make a suggestion,” Betty spoke up.  “Chrissy isn’t going anywhere.  In fact, because of the bridge, he can’t go anywhere.  Leave him here with us.  Besides, if the crowd I saw out front is any kind of indication, they’re not going to let you arrest him.”

McNally considered the situation, then shook his head.  “Sorry, I can’t!”  He reached out and grabbed Chrissy, pulling him forcibly away from his mother. 

Chrissy put up no kind of resistance, but Tess did…for a moment.  Tess sobbed as she watched him handcuff her son’s hands behind his back. 

“I’ll leave him here for now,” McNally told her.  “But I’ll be back later to take him in.”  He didn’t add that he was hoping that when the time came, there would be no crowd out front.  He looked toward Fred.  “Now where’s that phone?”

“I’ll introduce you to Pomeroy,” Fred told him.

Ten minutes later, Clemson was driving around the area with Fred Tucker, and Pomeroy showed McNally into the sheriff’s office.  McNally quickly checked the two bodies.  Without a doubt, dead.  It was looking like there might be more truth to the girl’s…boy’s story than he thought.  “Where’s the phone?”

“Should be in the sheriff’s office back there,” Pomeroy told him.

A few minutes later, McNally picked up the phone and tried to make a call, but he got the woman manning a switchboard instead.  A woman who refused to patch him through.  He pressed the other button on the phone and was relieved to be able to make his call.  Moments later, he heard Sergeant Enroy’s voice.  “Sergeant Enroy?  McNally here.”

“McNally?  Finally!  What’s the scoop on that Bastien thing?” Enroy asked.

“Sergeant, you better patch me straight through to the captain.  Bastien does exist, and so far I’ve seen three dead bodies myself.  The sheriff and two of his deputies.”

“You mean there is such a place?”

“So are the murders.  We need help out here.  A lot of it.  So please, the captain is going to need to know about this, and from what little I know right now, there’s a lot here that’s way over my head.”

“Murders.  Multiple.  Okay.  I’ll patch you through.  He and I were making bets on whether the place existed or not.  Looks like I lost.  Hold on.”

A few seconds later, another voice came over the phone.  “McNally!  What the hell is going on?”

“Captain Grey.  Listen.  Not only does Bastien exist, but it’s a nice-looking place, complete with a nice town square, a couple of stores, an elementary school and a high school.  I’m calling from the sheriff’s office on the town square right now.”

“So why has nobody ever heard of it then?” the captain asked.

“Beats me.  But I can tell you that there was one dead body right on the other side of the bridge leading into the town and there’s two more right here in the sheriff’s office, including the sheriff himself.”

“So there were three murders.  That’s a lot, but not like that guy was trying to tell us.”

“No Captain.  The suspect spelled out every last one of them for me.  I lost count long before she finished, but I’m guessing somewhere around twenty…if she’s telling the truth about it.  Clemson is off checking on them now.”

“Twenty?”

“Look, it’s confusing.  But that’s as close as I can come, it sounded like about twenty…so far.  Look, this whole thing is confusing, and there are things going on here that are way above my pay grade.  We need help out here, and a lot of it.  We have the suspect in cuffs right now, but I’m not sure anyone will let us take her out of here.  It seemed like the entire town was outside in front of her house when we got here, and every last one of them seem to think that the girl who did the murders, saved them.”

“A girl?”

“Oh.  No.  Well actually, I guess it’s a boy.  He just looks like a girl and has a girl’s name.”

“One of those!” the captain stated.

“No.  That’s another screwy thing we came across.  It seems the town passed a law requiring him to dress like a girl.  Shit Captain.  Just send us some help.  Lots of it.  There so much weird stuff going on here that I can’t explain any of it.  And like I said, I think it’s all going to be way above of my pay grade.”

“Okay.  Where is this place?”

“It’s way back in…  Look, I’ll have to meet everyone out by the highway where the turnoff is.  And it’s nothing but a tiny dirt road that goes miles and miles back through the woods.  Better not send anyone with a big heavy vehicle though.  There’s this wooden bridge that you have to cross to get here and even the town people warned me to go slow over the thing.  Just give me about thirty minutes to get back out to the highway turn off.  Hopefully, I’ll at least have some kind of cell or radio coverage there.  This place is so remote there’s literally nothing but an old landline phone system, and only a few phones have the ability to call out of the area.”

“They what?”

“Just send someone!” McNally said.  “A lot of people!  Captain, I’m telling you this entire place needs someone way above my paygrade.”

 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

 

Only four police cars arrived in Bastien an hour later.  Three hours later, six more vehicles arrived carrying all kinds of police and forensic personnel.  At two o’clock in the morning, McNally took Chrissy from his house and put him into the back of his police car.  Tess sobbed bitterly.  McNally and Clemson drove Chrissy out of Bastien.  It was so dark along the road that Chrissy couldn’t see anything of the outside world.  He just shut his eyes and wished he could die.

Why hadn’t that bullet fired?  It should have.  It did for the policeman.  Why wouldn’t the gun fire for him?

 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

 

The first time anyone got a look at the metal cock restraint locked onto Chrissy was when they took Chrissy’s clothes away from him and let him take a shower.  Despite how uncomfortable both the guards and Chrissy were about it, they studied it carefully, and finally gave up trying to get the thing off him.  All they could do was to report it and let someone else come up with a solution for it.

With so many murders under his belt, Chrissy wasn’t allowed near any of the other juveniles in their system.  He was stuck straight into a jail cell where he wouldn’t be near anyone else. 

Dressed in the prison clothes, without a diaper, no matter how hard Chrissy tried, he couldn’t seem to keep from peeing all over himself.  It just happened too soon, too fast, for him to do anything about it.  He had been in diapers so long that he had almost no control at all, and holding back was simply impossible.  After another shower and another changes of clothes, the guards were forced to supply him with some incontinence underwear.  That at least worked much better.