Chapter 10

Roger let them in. He looked so old that nobody would recognize in him the man who once ran the Collins business, martinet fashion.

"What do you want?" he asked sharply

"We have to talk to Carolyn." Sabrina said.

"About what?"

"Business."

"What kind of business? Roger stared hard at the trio of Barnabas, Chris, and Sabrina "No, you come for something else. It has to do with that Torrance man. You do not like that Carolyn stood up to him..."

"It is more complicated than that. Carolyn may be in trouble."

Roger reacted violently to those words of Barnabas.

"In trouble? Will you make trouble for her? Will you do to her the same thing you did to Nixon?"

"I did nothing to Nixon."

"Didn't you? You'll try to make me believe that you spent the day lying in a coffin, when I know what you were really framing Nixon."

Barnabas turned, speechless, to Sabrina.

"Come on, Roger. Stop acting stupid" she said.

"And you too... Why won't you take me as a client?"

"You'd be wasting your money."

"You say that because you are in the conspiracy too... You want me to believe that Nixon wasn't framed. You are all in it. You, your husband, my bloodsucking cousin here, Maggie Evans..."

"You have told it all before. It does not make it true."

"You think I am crazy. You tell people I am crazy. Well, let me tell you, I am not. I haven't run away to a commune. I haven't married my son's fiancée. I don't grow fur on full moon nights. I don't need blood on a regular basis. And I am not crazy."

"Please Roger..." Barnabas pleaded, helplessly.

Sabrina looked at the walls. Carolyn had done little remodeling since becoming the new mistress of Collinwood. But she had taken off Barnabas's portrait off the wall. She hadn't replaced it with any other picture nor tried to cover up the marks on the wall. She had expelled him and did not want anyone to forget it Also gone were the portraits of her mother. Sabrina guessed that all the photographs of Elizabeth and David had been purged off the family album. Carolyn was very thorough in her hatred.

"Well will Carolyn be back?" Chris was conciliatory.

"I will not let you hurt her.."

"We don't want to hurt her" There was condescension in Chris's voice.

"Don't talk to me as if I was an idiot. You are lying and I know it."

"You are right" Barnabas said "Carolyn is in trouble. We are trying to keep her out of jail."

"You are framing her" Roger went white. "Same as Nixon,"

The sound of a car in the driveway reached them. They turned their heads momentarily to follow the sound. When they looked at Roger again, he was brandishing a gun.

"Out of here, the three of you!"

"Leave the gun, Roger" Sabrina inched up towards him "You might hurt yourself."

"I might hurt one of you. In fact, I will hurt one of you if you don't go now."

Carolyn was parking the car outside. Chris moved towards Roger on the side, ready to grab the gun.

"Don't move, you mangy dog "Roger said to him, slowly "or I'll blow your brains off. Nobody here tries anything or I start shooting."

"Roger" Barnabas advanced "please give me the gun."

"No. I won't. Let me tell you what I think. I am sick and tired of putting up with you, bleeding heart liberals. You take away all that's ours, little by little, and order us around as if we were dirt. And we take it. I want everyone to know that at last here is someone who stopped taking it. I want them to know that they too can stop taking it..."

He couldn't finish. Sabrina jumped him from the side and kicked the gun off his hand. Chris picked up the gun as Carolyn opened the door.

"What is going on here?" she asked.

"Roger pulled a gun on us." Sabrina told her.

"You come all the way here to make Roger pull a gun on you?"

"No, we want to talk about Frank Torrance."

"Torrance?" she feigned unconcern.

"Can't we talk in private?"

"Why can't Uncle Roger stay?"

"Because he might have yet another gun." Sabrina said, cruelly.

"I see. All right, then." she turned to Chris "since all you seem to be doing is staying around, you might as well do some work and take Roger away."

Roger tried to protest, but Carolyn patted in in the shoulder, affectionately.

"Go with Chris, uncle. Don't worry about me. I will handle them.

Roger let Chris lead him out of the room. Carolyn turned to face Barnabas and Sabrina.

"Apart from telling me that I should commit Roger, what else have you come to tell me?"

"I think that he should have therapy" Barnabas said, softly "before a gun goes off."

"When I want your opinion about Uncle Roger, I'll ask you for it. Anything else?"

"Yes. Frank Torrance."

"What about him?"

"I went to Washington and met him there. He told me what you and Megan had done to him."

"Did he?"

"Stop playacting" Sabrina was harsh "he knows the whole story. And so do we. You'll be in the Federal Pen for this one, unless you cooperate with us."

"Are you threatening me?"

"Don't get cute " Sabrina continued. "I wouldn't mind it a little bit if you got jailed. But when you involved Megan in this you made it possible for Chris and me to be sent there. You understand the situation?"

"And what do you propose to do about that?"

"I have read Torrance's report" Barnabas intervened "Nothing will happen if you carry out the improvements he said are coming"

"And if I don't?"

"Then you'd be destroying not only your freedom, but Torrance's career and be putting Chris and Sabrina in danger."

"If everybody kept quiet about it, nothing will happen."

"Too many people know about it. And," Sabrina indicated Barnabas with a twist of the head "at least one of them has a loose tongue."

"You would not turn me in" Carolyn dared Barnabas.

"Don't make me do it."

"He has few choices, darling" Sabrina's words hit with the precision of well-sharpened knives "He puts up with a lot of trash from you. But this is different. He would hate to have to hurt you. He will hate it all the while he is doing it. But he knows it has to be done, and he will do it."

"You wouldn't dare! Carolyn screamed at Barnabas.

"If he doesn't I will. I do not want to go to jail. And the only way I can save Chris' neck and mine is to turn you in. Of course, " she added seeing how Barnabas reacted to her words "there is another solution."

"What solution?" Carolyn continued her bluff.

"He can do to you what Megan did to Torrance."

"He wouldn't!"

Barnabas didn't know how to react to Sabrina's words. When they had agreed to face Carolyn, he said did not want to go as fat as that. But the way Sabrina put it... Was it better to let Carolyn go to jail? He knew that they could not afford her there, telling everybody about him and other Collinsport residents. They wanted to scare only Carolyn. But Carolyn refused to be scared...

"I'd rather you just started improvements on the factory on your own" he said, gently.

"I have no intention to do so."

"It is no use, Barnabas" Sabrina said softly "we just have to turn her in."

"Sabrina... please...I think that I can convince her."

Chris came in at that moment.

"How are we doing?"

"She won't give in. Barnabas does not want to send her to jail. Of course, as he himself said, going for her throat is out of the question. Maybe we should forget the whole thing."

"Why not forget it? Carolyn purred, thinking she could make an ally of Chris.

"How much?" Chris asked.

"Five to ten in the Federal Pen" answered Sabrina, looking at Barnabas.

"I am not the only one with something to hide." Carolyn reminded them.

"Well, what do you wan us to do?" Sabrina turned to Barnabas. "Do we go home and forget about the whole thing? Do you go to Torrance and tell him that it's all his fault, that next time he should be smart and let himself be bribed? What's so damn important about safety rules, anyway?"

"If there should be a fire.."

"The factory is safe, and you know it." With those words Carolyn made Barnabas' decision for him.

"It is not true." he took a step towards Carolyn. "I love you. I love you even if you hate me. But I cannot let you get away with it. You understand? I do not want to hurt you. Do not force me to."

"You wouldn't dare!"

"Don't push me. For pity's sake, don't push me!" He took another step.

"Well, he finally figured it out" muttered Sabrina under he breath.

Barnabas moved closer to Carolyn. There was no other way. he understood now that Sabrina had known it from the start. He realized how she had pushed him into accepting it. No matter. It had to be done.

One more step and he could grab her arms. He took it.

Carolyn screamed and tried to fight him off. It was too late. He held her tight and forced her head back...

"I guess it is done now "Sabrina sighed "now if we could get Megan to cool off with her under-the-table jobs..."

"I'll try to tell her that." Chris answered.

Barnabas let Carolyn go, making sure that she fell on the sofa as he released her. Her face was pale, reflecting her shock, as he fell.

Barnabas turned towards Sabrina. There was a trickle of blood at the corner of his lips and tears forming in his eyes.

"Are you happy now?" he asked Sabrina.

"I am not" She put her arm on his shoulder "I am just relieved that thing were not worse."

"She will never forgive me. She will keep on hating me..."

"Never is too big a word. Who knows what will happen in six months? Let's go home, and be glad that the worst is over."