The Sickle

"We like you, Tammy. We like you the best," the boys said as they smiled at me and left.

Wasn't exactly sure what they meant but as long as they liked me, I was happy.

Later that day, Bo stopped by to see me. I told him everything seemed alright, but I still wanted him to keep an eye on the property. I asked him if they made any progress on either Glen's or Brett's death.

He told me that someone might have messed with the brakes on my car. It looked like my brake lines were severed but only enough for a slow leak. That way it wouldn't be noticed by the driver till they were headed down the mountain and too late to do much about it. Bo did say that all the accidents and murder cases were staying open till solved.

I know he was attracted to me. A woman can sense it. I thought he was a great guy too but I wasn't interested in any relationships right now. I did my best to put Bo out of my mind except as a deputy and friend.

Before going to bed that night I took a sleeping pill and checked the night stand to make sure the gun was there. I nodded off to sleep. I heard a noise and looked up and there stood Doris in a nightgown holding a sickle with her arm raised. I started screaming and wanted to wake up. I didn't want another nightmare. The problem was, I was awake and Doris was standing there with a sickle in her hand. I wasn't dreaming this time. I went to move to the night stand to get the gun but I had to move the other way quickly as Doris swung the sickle at my head.

I screamed out over and over. "Why are you doing this? Why are you doing this to me?" I rolled off the bed and hovered over in the corner waiting for my fate.

"You took my boyfriend, my lover, from me, you slut."

"Doris, he was your brother! Don't you understand?"

"I loved him. First, it was the babysitter, then his first wife Amy, now you. I got rid of them both just as I'm going to get rid of you," she said to me as she kept swinging the sickle at me.

I screamed and the next thing I saw was the twins bursting into the room and grabbing Doris. The sickle flew out of her hands. I moved quickly trying to get to the night stand when she grabbed my ankle and I fell. She went for the sickle but one of the boys beat her to it. He raised it and brought it down on her back cutting her wide open.

I saw a patrolman in the doorway aiming his gun at one of the boys.

"Don't shoot, don't shoot! He saved my life. Please don't shoot." Bo had followed the first patrolman in. He told him it was alright, and not to shoot. I asked Larry to drop the sickle which he did. The two boys came over and sat next to me. I was crying; I couldn't stop.

"We like you, Tammy, and we saw Doris take the sickle and came over here. Glen told us to watch over you when we first saw you. We did what Glen said. Is Doris dead now too, Tammy?"

I hugged both boys and kissed them on the forehead. Bo said he would have to take the boys in. He didn't have a choice.

"Ryan, the boys saved my life. You can't put them in a jail cell. Please, Ryan, see what you can do."

The boys started crying. They said they didn't want to go to jail. By this time, there were two ambulances there: one to take Doris's body and the other to take me to the hospital. I never noticed it but Doris must have cut my arm and I was bleeding pretty bad. I must have lost a lot of blood as I passed out.

I awoke hours later in the hospital. The nurse told me I had been through a lot and to lie still.

"Where's Deputy Ryan? Where's the boys? What happened to Doris?" I asked.

The nurse said she was supposed to contact Deputy Ryan when I woke and that he would answer my questions. In about fifteen minutes, Bo came in.

"Hi, Tammy. How are you feeling?"

"Where are the boys? You didn't send them to jail did you? Please tell me you didn't, Bo."

"Easy there, girl. You've been through a lot. I had to take the boys somewhere. After all, even though they saved your life, they killed Doris."

"I killed Doris; the boys didn't have anything to do with it. Let them go. I confess."

"Easy, Tammy, you don't need to lie for them. They're okay. They are at the mental civic center. They're being taken care off. It's like a hospital but only for patients like them, adults that have minds of children. You will be able to see them tomorrow."

"Bo, Doris told me she killed Glen's first wife and also a sitter. Does that help anything? Maybe they can link their deaths with my car and killing Glen."

"Tammy, we figured Doris had something to do with the missing girl but have never found her body. We figured she or Glen had something to do with the killing of Glen's first wife. We just don't have any proof that would hold up in court. I hate to say it but your word isn't enough; I wish it was. I'd love to close these cases."

Bo stopped by the next day and picked me up from the hospital. We went to see the twins. When they saw me, they came running to me. Two grown men with minds of a child. I started crying and hugged them.

"We miss you, Tammy. Can we go home now?"

I looked over at Bo and he explained to the boys that they would have to stay at the civic center for awhile till I could get things figured out. It might be a few weeks. I did ask them if they liked the center and they said that there were other kids to play with just like them. I promised them that I would be by to see them regularly. I turned around and saw Hilda. She came to see the boys too. They went and hugged her also.

-----------------------

I did go visit the twins about every two days. I took a leave of absence from the bank till I could get my life in order. I called my friend Rita and she said she would come down and stay with me for a couple of weeks. It sure was nice having her there. Things were finally coming to a close.

I contacted the insurance company and they gave me a check for my car and another for Glen's life insurance that he had with them. It was over a hundred thousand dollars. I deposited it in the bank. Rita and I went over and picked out a new car. I got another PT Cruiser the same color as my first. As Glen had said, it matched my hair.

A couple of days later, there was a reading of Glen's will. I now owned a mountain and the big old house and all the contents. I did own the new house but the boys had a right to live there. I wasn't sure what to do about that. Maybe I should just give the boys the house but they weren't mentally capable of owning it. Some of the businesses that were partially owned by Glen like the stores in the burg were turned over to Glen's relatives.

I didn't quite understand all this. How can I own a mountain but the building on it like the church and other businesses be owned by someone else. The attorney explained it to me. I did own the mountain but not the businesses. They all owned their own businesses. They also owned their buildings but I could charge them all rent for the space the building sat on. It was still pretty confusing and I'd let the attorney handle it.

I told Bo that I didn't know anything about business and I was lost. I needed some help here. I didn't want the old house and I wasn't an antique person. He gave me the name of one of Glen's relatives who ran an auction agency. Bo suggested I have an auction and get out from underneath a lot of the problems.

"Bo, I own a mountain. I have no idea what that means."

Bo laughed and said, "It means you are a multi-millionaire."

"What? It's just a mountain."

"The logging companies would pay to get some of these trees. On the other side of the mountain, the coal company would pay for the right to mine the land."

"Oh, my God! I can't believe this. I'm rich?"

I talked every couple of days with the twins. I told them that they would be back home eventually but I had things I had to do to make sure they were taken care of. They really didn't understand but said they just wanted to be with me. I wasn't sure what to tell them. I didn't even know who their guardian was now. I'd have to find out. Up to this time Hilda was paid out of a trust that Glen's dad had set up. I guessed it was still good.

I looked at the two boys. They looked a little sad. I knew what would cheer them up. "Hey, Boys, want to go out for some ice cream?" Their faces lit up and I got permission to take them out for a couple of hours.

I contacted Glen's cousin and we set up an auction. I told him to sell everything in the big house and even parts of the house if he liked. What ever was left, I was tearing down. Too many bad things happened in that house.

On the day of the auction, I couldn't believe how many people showed up. There were hundreds of people on the hillside. Were all these people interested in antiques? Rita and Clark even came to the auction.

I asked Clark why so many people came to an auction on the mountainside in West Virginia. He told me that half the people were collectors of antiques and the others were collectors of memorabilia. In this case, murder and crime scene. You won't believe what they will pay for a piece of the house. Just saying it came from Ravens-Glen will bring a high price.

Bo showed up and was bidding on some of the old photographs. I couldn't believe it after what Clark just said.

"Bo, if you wanted the pictures, all you had to do was ask. I'd gladly have given them to you."

"Tammy, it's not for the reasons you might be thinking. My grandfather had taken some of these pictures years and years ago. He was their photographer. I'm picking them up as a surprise for him. Isn't there one thing that you would like to keep? You can bid on it too, you know."

I decided there was thing I wanted. We brought a lot of Doris' things over to sell. Most of it was going for top dollar. She owned a vanity that was real old but was so beautiful. It was passed down from her grandmother. I loved it but never told anyone. I called Rita over and asked her to bid on it for me.

"How much are you willing to pay for it?" asked Rita.

"I don't know about stuff like this. Maybe a hundred dollars?" I told Rita.

Rita started laughing as she walked away to bid on the vanity. She came back about a half hour later.

"Well, Tammy, you own the vanity. I need you to write a check and pay for it."

"Great, I really do like it. How much did we have to pay?"

Rita looked at me and started laughing. "Three thousand dollars."

"What?" I yelled out. "You bid three thousand dollars for a vanity. How much is some of that stuff going for?"

"Let's just say it will be more money than you can spend. You can have a party every weekend for the rest of your life and not spend it all."

I couldn't believe it. A year ago I had nothing and now I'll be worth millions. The attorney told me I was Glen's next of kin along with his brothers. The only request was that the boys be well taken care of and never want for anything.

Rita was right. The Glen estate went for nearly a million dollars. People bought wood off the home and even the front steps. One man made a bid to buy the shell of the house for fifty thousand dollars. Another man offered a hundred thousand for it. It ended up selling for two hundred thousand dollars. A man was going to dismantle it and rebuild it elsewhere. To top it all off, I still owned the mountain.

I got a call from the lumber company offering to buy the lumber rights. I decided not to sell the rights right now. I told all the mining and lumber companies in the area that if I ever decided to sell that they would get first chance. I didn't need the money and I still had to figure out something for the boys. This mountain was the only home they ever knew.

I called the lawyer and he said I could have custody of the boys and become their legal guardian since I was their sister-in-law. I gave a call to Hilda and asked her if she wanted to be the boys' full time sitter with a raise in pay. She agreed to watch them for now until she could talk it over with her husband.

I lived in the new house for now and the boys had their own rooms. Hilda had a room of her own also. I decided I was going to have a house built on the old house site as soon as the man finished dismantling it. I decided I was going to stay. I really had nowhere better to go.

I was sitting at the vanity one day and opened one of the drawers. The drawer stuck and I had trouble opening it. I messed around with it and found it had a false bottom in it. I pulled out the false bottom and found a kind of diary. It wasn't exactly a diary but a small book that someone had written remarks in. It belonged to Doris. It looked old but had been recently written in.

I pulled out the book and spent the next couple of hours reading pages of it. Oh, my God, most of the rumors were true. I called Bo and showed him the book. He started reading it and said it would close a lot of cases. He asked if he could take it. He promised he would return it.

A few days later he brought the book back to me and told me he got commendations for cracking open so many cases. My friend Rita and Clark were there; they came to see me when I told them the shit was ready to hit the fan. I promised Clark a look at the book when Bo brought it back. He was going to be popular in his newspaper office when he showed them copies of the book.

Rita asked Bo if he could give them the short version of what all happened.

Bo began telling the story about Doris's book. "Ten years or so ago, Doris' Grandpa Raven caught her having sex in the back of the house. He called her a whore and a slut and said he was going to send her to the mental hospital to get straightened out. At that time, Doris and Glen lived with their grandparents and the twins lived with their mom and dad.

"Anyway, Doris was sent up to a mental ward for six months. According to her writings she vowed revenge on her grandpa. One day shortly after she returned home, she hit him over the head with a bottle and knocked him out. She tied him to a chair and then her grandma came in and screamed at her. 'Dear God, what are you doing?' She then forced her grandma into a chair and tied her up also. As they were pleading with her, she went outside and brought in a sickle and cut their heads off. She threw things around to make it look like a robbery. She did take some of their money but that's all she said she took.

"She then cleaned off the blood and changed clothes. She walked over to her parents' house; they were waiting for her. They were going to the fair. She spent the whole day with the family. When they got back, she had her parents find the bodies of her grandparents. Of course, she screamed and cried like everyone else. They thought someone had broken in and killed and robbed the grandparents."

Rita asked Bo why nobody suspected her. He told her that she made sure she stayed with the family all day. Glen was her biggest alibi and everyone believed Glen.

"Do you think Glen knew?"

"Not at the time, but we think she told him later. He always said that family takes care of family and was mad when she was sent away. "

"What about her parents? Did she kill them also?"

"She had a part in it. It looks like Glen had a part in it also. According to her story that day - or I should say - night. They spent the night at their parents' place. Their dad caught Doris riding Glen. In her story, she said she was fucking her lover. We believe her lover was Glen. When she was caught by their father, she said she jumped up and pushed her father down the stairs. The commotion woke up their mother and they pushed her down the stairs also. According to her diary, she went out and got the sickle and nearly cut off their heads. The parents bled to death.

To cover up the murders, we believe they got their tents and fishing gear ready and woke the boys and took them out the back way. Of course the boys wouldn't have thought anything about it. They loved to fish and they would go in the early mornings. Sometime in the afternoon, Doris came back to the house and started a fire that ran from the fireplace and engulfed the whole house. Later that day, they returned and saw the burned down house. They reported it and they all lived in the grandparents' house till their new one got built. She wrote in her book, 'Family always takes care of family.'"

I asked, "Bo, what about the baby sitter? You know, the girl that came up missing that took care of the boys."

"Her name was Missy. According to Doris, she came home one night and found Glen fucking Missy. Glen was a pussy hound. He used to screw every girl in sight. I'm sorry, Tammy, but it's the truth."

"I know he was. It's just that I didn't see it before we married. It just makes me feel so stupid."

Bo continued, "One day Doris followed Missy to the burg. She wrote that she killed her and brought her body back up here and, when Glen saw her, he shook his head and they buried her up in their cemetery. They hid her body until after the search and then buried her. We are going to have to dig up a couple of graves that are suspect."

"Bo, there are crosses for two dead animals that the boys had. I think one of those graves might be Missy."

"Thanks, Tammy, we'll check it out tomorrow. The next person she wrote about was Glen's wife – well, first wife. It was pretty much the same as your situation, Tammy. Glen was gone and one day came home married. She caught Glen screwing Doris and jumped in her car but had no brakes. You just can't stop going down that mountain. She hit the guardrail and went over the embankment and into the river. Of course she drowned.

"The only thing she said about you, Tammy was that you were next. The only thing was she didn't expect for Glen to be driving your car."

"What about Brett? Why did she kill him?" asked Rita.

Ryan responded, "I don't know, she never wrote about it."

I asked Ryan why she would keep a dairy and let everyone know she did it.

"I don't know. She was a mental case; who knows how they think? Maybe she was proud and wanted everyone to know. She wasn't hiding the fact that she came after you that night. People do strange things."

We were all sitting around now thinking about somewhere to go this weekend. Bo mentioned that a friend of his was having a costume party and told him to invite everyone he saw.

"Are you guys up to it?" asked Bo.

"Sounds good to me," said Clark."

I told them, "I don't know, guys. I'm not over the Halloween one yet."

Rita spoke, "Tammy, you have always fought your fears. You need to fight this one. I say we go. After all, we'll all be together."

"Okay, I guess. Do you think it would be alright to wear my Tinker Bell outfit again? I really did like it."

"Hell, yes," said Bo. I heard a lot about that outfit and would like to see for myself."

Rita and Clark dressed as The Lone Range and Tonto. Rita looked sexy as a female Tonto in her tight Indian dress. Of course I dressed in my green Tinker Bell outfit and believe it our not, Bo dressed as a cop. I asked him about wearing his uniform instead of a costume. He informed he that it was a city cop outfit. He was a Sheriff's Deputy. I just told him okay, even though the rest of us couldn't tell the difference.

The party was a lot of fun. It was fun having a costume party even though it wasn't Halloween. I looked around for a witch wondering about the past. I did see one but it was a lot heavier woman. As Bo and I were dancing, I shuddered when I saw a person dressed in the same kind of costume that Glen had worn. Bo asked me what the problem was.

I explained to him that the costume was similar to the one Glen had worn. It made me shudder. After that I wasn't having as much fun. I walked off to the drink table to get myself something when the ghoul started to approach me. I screamed when I noticed the sickle was real. I backed up against the drink table as the ghoul raised the sickle.