Chapter 6 - The Desperate Liquidation
By Thursday morning, Leonard Walker was a fugitive from his own life.
After being driven away from the roadside motel by angry protestors holding signs that read *JUSTICE FOR OLIVIA*, Leonard and Melissa had taken refuge in the cramped, water-damaged basement apartment of Leonard’s second cousin—the only relative in the state who hadn't blocked their calls.
Leonard sat at a wobbly laminate table, clutching a landline phone. His face was gray, his robe replaced by a stained flannel shirt he had borrowed from his cousin. Across the room, Melissa sat on an old sofa, staring blankly at the wall, her phone dead because she couldn't afford to pay the cellular bill.
"Listen to me, Gary!" Leonard barked into the receiver, his voice hoarse from two days of screaming. "I have six classic cars in the detached garage at Ashwood Lane! The 1968 Shelby GT500 alone is worth two hundred grand! I’ll give you the titles right now for seventy thousand cash! Just wire it to my cousin’s account!"
On the other end of the line, Gary, a local vintage auto dealer who had done business with Leonard for a decade, sounded terrified.
"Leonard, are you insane?" Gary replied, his voice tinny through the receiver. "The sheriff’s office served an injunction on every auto broker in three counties! Elena’s lawyer filed a lis pendens on every vehicle registered to your name or the trust! The moment I touch that Shelby, I’m receiving stolen property from an active felony investigation! Don't ever call this number again!"
The line clicked dead.
Leonard slammed the heavy plastic receiver down so hard the cradle cracked. "Cowards! Every single one of them! I gave that man fifty thousand dollars in business over ten years!"
"Dad..." Melissa whispered, her voice lifeless, hollowed out by three days of terror. "What are we going to do? The news said the grand jury is voting today. They’re going to indict us for attempted murder. Attempted murder, Dad! That’s twenty years!"
"Shut up!" Leonard roared, standing so violently his chair toppled backward onto the linoleum. "Nobody is going to prison! It was an accident! You slipped, the kid fell, I held Elena back so she wouldn't jump in hysterically and drown them both! That’s the story! We stick to the story!"
"There’s a video, Dad!" Melissa screamed, suddenly springing to life, her eyes wild with hysteria. "The whole world saw it! You didn't save anyone! You sat on your ass and drank whiskey while the baby sank! They’re calling me the Pool Monster on CNN! My life is over! I can't even walk to the gas station to buy water without people screaming at me!"
"I said shut your mouth!" Leonard lunged forward, grabbing Melissa by the shoulders and shaking her violently. "We have the warehouse inventory! Vanguard has eighty thousand dollars worth of imported copper wiring sitting in the south depot! I have the master key! We go there tonight, we load it into a rental box truck, and we drive to Mexico! We cash it out across the border!"
Melissa stared at him, terror freezing her tears. "Mexico? Dad, I don't speak Spanish! I don't have a passport! Elena took my purse from the house!"
"Then we cross without passports!" Leonard hissed, his sanity visibly unraveling. "You want to sit in a women’s penitentiary for twenty years eating cold beans while Elena spends my money? We leave tonight!"
At that exact moment, the small basement window near the ceiling shattered inward with a violent crash.
*BANG.*
A black canister rolled across the linoleum, spewing thick, acrid white smoke.
"Sheriff’s Department! Search warrant! Nobody move!"
The basement door at the top of the stairs was kicked off its hinges with an explosive splinter of wood. Heavy tactical boots thundered down the steps. Four SWAT officers in full tactical gear, assault rifles leveled, flooded into the smoky room.
"Get on the ground! Face down! Hands behind your heads! Now!"
Melissa screamed, diving behind the sofa, covering her ears.
Leonard, blinded by smoke and driven mad by pride, grabbed a heavy brass floor lamp from the corner and swung it wildly toward the lead officer.
"Get out of my way! This is my property!"
The taser deployment was instantaneous. Two metallic probes struck Leonard square in the chest, delivering fifty thousand volts of neuromuscular incapacitation.
Leonard’s body locked rigid as a wooden board. The brass lamp clattered to the floor. With a heavy, sickening thud, the patriarch of the Walker family crashed onto his stomach, convulsing helplessly as the electricity surged through his limbs.
"Target secured! Cuff him!"
Within seconds, heavy plastic zip-ties bound Leonard’s wrists and ankles. A second officer dragged Melissa out from behind the sofa, pulling her arms roughly behind her back as cold steel handcuffs snapped around her slender wrists.
"Melissa Walker, you are under arrest pursuant to an indictment issued by the Grand Jury for attempted second-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and aggravated child abuse," the arresting sergeant recited calmly, pulling her up by her elbows.
"I didn't do it!" Melissa shrieked, tears and mucus streaming down her face, her designer blouse torn by the carpet. "It was my dad! He told me to push her! He said she was an obstacle! It was him! Don't arrest me!"
On the floor, Leonard rolled his head toward his favorite daughter, his face pressed against the dusty linoleum, his eyes wide with disbelief as the girl he had spoiled, protected, and elevated above everyone else handed him to the executioner without a second thought.
"You... little... viper..." Leonard wheezed through bloody lips.
"Get them out," the sergeant commanded.
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They were dragged up the concrete steps into the harsh glare of the midday sun, where three television news vans and twenty neighborhood spectators were waiting with cameras rolling.
***
