Chapter 22 - The Falls

Tom had begun to worry back down in the tunnel so he decided to come out and take a look. A few minutes later, he saw Rusty push Lee and Sam onto one of the Farm's buses. He knew he had to get out to the falls or else neither of the men would be alive soon. Tom ran to the police station and hurried up to the front desk. Tom asked to talk to the officer on duty and after telling his story, they got into a police cruiser and headed for the falls together. Tom prayed that they wouldn't be too late.

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Rusty pulled into the falls parking lot and gestured for the two men to get out of the vehicle. He then told them to go ahead and head towards the falls but not to pull anything funny. As they began walking, Lee decided to try to stall Rusty.

"So this is a pretty interesting setup you all have here. Let me see if I have it right. Johnny is the big boss. His sister is his right hand lady and they arrange these little tourist trips for some of the most dangerous terrorists out there. They hire you and Stewart to make sure they go smoothly and leave you both to take the fall if something goes wrong. Do I have it right?"

"Hey big shot. You think you are pretty smart don't you? Well it just so happens that there is a lot more money to be made doing this than some stupid Halloween amusement park. Old Man Spencer originally just wanted to get his family out of Russia. After he found out how easy it was to bring them into this country using this little hole in the wall, he decided to offer his services to others. He knew that someone would become suspicious if they realized he was Russian so he changed his name to Spencer. No one would think that a man named Spencer would have Russian ties. It soon got too big for him to handle though so he brought in Johnny to help him. Johnny was a young kid dying to make a name for himself. Spencer had already gotten smart and turned the Halloween Park over to Mary to run. No one would suspect sweet Mary of doing anything wrong. Meanwhile her kids became more and more involved in the underground part of the operation. Then one night, Mary walked in on one of the people being moved. That was back before they used the inn as a place to hide them as they were first brought in. They would bring new people back to the farm and pretend they were employees. No one ever paid any attention but Mary was too smart and knew right away that something was wrong. She was the first person that the falls helped make disappear."

"Oh my God, her own kids killed her?" Lee asked in amazement.

"Yes, Johnny brought her up here himself. I don't think she believed he would do it and so she egged him on the whole way. Johnny always did have a bit of a mean streak though. It didn't take long for word to get out that he had killed his mother and no one messed with him. Since Johnny is a big shot lawyer in town, he is very respected and has a lot of connections. It soon became known that you better not cross Johnny because you would be the falls next victim. Those connections also allowed him to keep tabs on the other people in town so he knew if anyone was looking to harm his operations."

"Is that why Dan died?" Lee asked.

Rusty chuckled. "Oh poor misguided Dan. He was so clueless. Johnny had convinced him for years that he was involved in a witness protection program and that all these people were being sent to him to be given a new identity and life. Dan never questioned him and was a huge help all that time. He would clean them up, change their appearance, give them a whole new look so no one would recognize them. Johnny would give him money for it and he accepted it, never realizing who any of these people were. Then one day, Stephen Popov was in his barber chair and he was telling Dan about how he hated the American people and he wouldn't shut up. Dan went back to Stewart and asked him why this man was there if he had such hatred for Americans and Stewart told him to just do his job and never mind. Well Dan had started to be suspicious for a while so he told Stewart that he didn't want to help anymore. Stewart tried to smooth things over but Dan wouldn't hear of it. The next morning, Dan had a heart attack. What no one realized was that Johnny had slipped a nice cocktail of drugs into Dan's iced tea that night and those drugs caused him to have his heart attack. Johnny had been dying to kill someone without involving the falls and poor Dan became the perfect guinea pig.

"What about Dennis?"

"What about him? You mean, is he involved? No, he's just a big idiot who does everything Bubba wants him to do. I have wanted to take Bubba out for a long time but Angela won't let me do it. She keeps saying that it will cause everything to blow up around us. That man thinks the sun rises and sets because of him. Someday I intend to show him that it doesn't."

"Sounds like you have a lot of anger Rusty. Some jealousy perhaps?"

"Why don't you shut up Mr. Know it all? I can't wait to be rid of you. I knew that there was something different about you as soon as you and Amanda showed up but no one believed me. You had everyone convinced that you were who you said you were. No one fools ole Rusty."

"Gee, Sam did." Lee smugly taunted Rusty realizing this might be the way to get him riled up so that Lee could try to overpower him.

"Oh yes, and then there was Sam. Maybe I should just shoot him and get it over with. We don't like pig cops sticking their noses into things."

The men had all stopped to take a break from climbing up the falls and Rusty leveled his gun to point at Sam. Before Lee could stop him, Rusty pulled the trigger and Sam collapsed to the ground. Now Lee was angry. This man was out of control and needed to be stopped.

"I was tired of having to worry about watching both of you. This makes my job easier. Now get moving!" Rusty said to Lee. Giving Sam one final look, Lee continued up the trail ahead of Rusty.

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Margaret and Amanda hurried up the trail, both praying that the men they cared about were still alive. About halfway up, they found Sam laying off the side of the trail. Amanda ran to him to check to see if he was breathing just as he began to sit up.

"SAM! Are you okay?" Amanda asked.

"Thank goodness for bullet proof vests." He answered. "Rusty has Lee. He is taking him to the falls to dispose of him. We have to get up there." As Sam began to stand up, he felt dizzy and suddenly crashed onto the ground. The bullet hadn't hit him but the impact had knocked the wind out of him. The ladies decided it was best to continue without him. They continued walking up the trail and could soon hear Rusty and Lee talking.

"So tell me Rusty, how did you get involved in all of this?"

"Me? I was one of Stewart's best friends as a kid. Stewart came from a low class family that was always in trouble so he learned from an early age to find ways to make a buck and he soon took me under his wing. My parents realized he was bad news though so they sent me to work with Mary. They had been friends with Mary for many years and even attended the same Church together. They didn't tell her about Stewart though so it was easy for me to get him hired there too. Originally we were going to see if we could start a pick pocket business among the stupid tourist but it didn't take long for Johnny to realize that he could sway us into becoming part of his business. It's been a fun ride until people started poking their noises into things."

"So I understand that Claire was also swayed to come join the business by Stewart. Is Claire involved too?"

"No, Claire was actually just a passing fancy for Stewart. He had hoped to get her into his bed but soon found out that she was too prim and proper for him. She was good at baking though and it made him look good that he had brought her back, so she was left alone. Does that answer all your questions hot shot?"

"I guess. I just can't figure out why you would want to hurt your country so bad."

"My country? My country hasn't ever done anything for me. I sure couldn't make a living and enjoy the finer things in life if I didn't make all this money helping out the Russians. No, I have no love for my country, I just love money."

The men had stopped walking as they neared the top of the falls. Lee couldn't help but look down and realized that he had to figure out some way to save himself because there was no escaping the falls if Rusty pushed him off the bridge. Rusty noticed that Lee was looking down the falls and laughed.

"I'm sure Mary had the same reaction as you Mr. Stetson. You are all brave talking until you realize the end is near. Mary didn't go easily. Johnny said that she fought the whole way with him and in the end, he had to knock her out once he got her on the bridge and then he shoved her body off. Surely, you aren't going to prolong it like that though, right? Come on, get moving onto the bridge."

Rusty motioned with his gun for Lee to keep moving. Meanwhile Amanda began looking around for something to distract Rusty with. She knew that he wouldn't fall for any kind of story from her so she had to find a different way to get his attention off Lee. Suddenly she spied a good sized rock and picked it up. It was a little heavy but she could manage it if she could get close enough. She motioned for Margaret to stay hidden while she quickly used the bushes to get as close to the two men as she could. Just as they were stepping out on the bridge, Amanda threw the rock with all she had and it hit Rusty in the back.

"What the ?" Rusty sputtered just as he felt Lee's fist connect with his jaw. Lee had been sure that he had seen the ladies falling them up the trail and had kept an eye out to see if Amanda would give him a distraction that he desperately needed. Rusty recovered quickly and slung a punch into Lee's stomach. Lee bent over from the impact but came up with a right hook to Rusty's chin. The two men continued to exchange blow after blow as Amanda stood there not knowing what else to do to help but hoping Lee could win the fight. Suddenly there was a gun being fired several times which caused the fight to end as quickly as it had begun. The Police Officer Cortz had been hiding in bushes nearby with Tom and decided to try to stop the fight the easy way. He came out of hiding and told Rusty to put his hands up. Rusty realized that he had been beat and slowly raised his hands. Lee grabbed them and put them behind his back and the officer happily cuffed him.

"Did you get all of that Bubba?" Lee asked as he looked in the direction of some young saplings.

Bubba came out with a tape recorder and said "Every word of it. It is amazing how much Rusty liked hearing himself talk."

"Why you little…" Rusty spewed

"Awww, now I told you that you seemed to have a lot of anger built up there, didn't I? Perhaps you can work on that in prison." Lee Chided him.

A moment later, Sam appeared at the top of the falls.

Lee smiled and said "you are alive. That's great."

"Yes, it was good that I decided to wear my special vest today. I just had a feeling that I couldn't trust the snake in the grass. I just got off the radio before I came up here and found out that they have peacefully arrested Johnny, Angela and Stewart and everyone is heading to the police station. Looks like you get a huge reunion with your buddies, Rusty. I can't wait to hear how happy they will be that you shared all their secrets with us. Of course you could agree to testify against all of them for a lighter sentence. Your choice."

Rusty had continued to glare at them the whole time.

"Well why don't you think about it as we take a little ride to the station." Sam Suggested.

Amanda walked over to Lee who looked at her and said "I thought I told you to stay at the farmhouse."

"Lee, I couldn't do that and not know if you needed me or not."

Meanwhile, Bubba was giving the same speech to Margaret.

Lee winked at Bubba and said "Looks like we both have our hands full with partners who don't listen. What do you think their punishment should be?"

Bubba caught the wink and said "I'm envisioning a nice juicy steak cooked medium rare just for me while my woman waits on me hand and foot tonight. How about you, Lee?"

"A nice and juicy steak sounds great. I also haven't done any laundry since I have been here."

"Fine, I'll cook you a steak and do your laundry. Do you think we could go home tomorrow?" Amanda asked.

"I think that can be arranged." Lee answered. "Let's get back and I'll call Billy and let him know what is happening. In the meantime, maybe you should call your family and tell them you are coming home."

"Thanks Lee, I think I will."

They all began walking down the trail together to the parking lot. It had been a good day.

TBC