Another Dead Republican (36 page)

After ten minutes Veronica said, “Tom, please stop.”

I said, “There’s a great deal more to show you, but maybe I can summarize. Edgar knew about stealing the election. He was threatening you, or blackmailing you, maybe for money, maybe for respect, maybe for a lot of things. Zachary Ross’s notes and e-mails confirm this.”

Mr. Grum said, “If you know all this, why haven’t you called the police. This is bullshit.”

I said, “Dewey told Edgar about the Ducharmés’ scheme to steal the election.”

“I did not.”

“Who told Dewey?” Mrs. Grum asked. Her gaze of baleful daggers landed on Barry.

Barry stood up. “Edgar came to me. He threatened all of us. He was going to destroy the family. He knew everything. Him and that reporter had figured it out. I didn’t know Dewey had talked. Why the hell did you tell Edgar?”

Dewey said, “I did not.”

I said, “We have the accusatory notes of two dead men.”

Dewey was up and raging, “You’ve got nothing. I always get accused of things in this family. I didn’t do anything.” He pointed at Barry. “You were the one who always wanted to please the Ducharmés. You were the one that wanted to follow their marching orders. You were the one who fucked this all up.”

Barry pointed his finger, “You’re just as stupid as Edgar. I told you, and you couldn’t keep your mouth shut.”

Mrs. Grum’s voice snapped and bit. “He should never have been told.”

“Which he?” I asked. “Edgar, Dewey, or both.”

The Grums ignored me.

Charles Dudley Grum stood up. “We should leave and discuss this at home.”

I said, “No. It gets discussed now. Two people are dead. Your schemes for stealing the election have come crashing down. There will be arrests and indictments.” I hoped that was more than a bluff.

Mr. Grum said,
“There’s nothing you can prove. You can’t attempt to hold us here. That’s kidnapping. That’s unlawful restraint. It’s you who will go to jail. Along with your faggot buddy.”

Veronica arose from between my parents and rushed at him. She jabbed a finger onto his chest.
“You will not speak to my brother that way. There are no words vile enough to call you. You killed the love of my life! And you don’t care! He was your son! And you don’t care!” She began pummeling, gouging, scratching, spitting, and screaming. He recoiled and stumbled backwards.

Scott, my Dad, and I rushed over. I held Veronica gently, and led her away from him. She wept. My dad said to my mother, “Maybe we should take Veronica away from here.”

Veronica gulped and spoke in a savage whisper. “I’m staying for this.”

Mr. Grum said, “I told you she was out of control. She killed…”

I interrupted him. “No, Veronica did not kill anyone. I wanted to get every one of you lying shit-for-brains in one spot. You are pigs who would lie, steal, cheat, and kill for any nonsensical gain your imaginations could conjure.” I was nearly out of control. Scott stood next to me, but he did not stop me.

Gasps and protests from a few of them. Several stood up and turned to the door.

I got in their way. “Yes, kill.” I was furious and on a roll. “My brother-in-law is dead. My sister is without a husband. Their children are without a father. And you shit-for-brains don’t care who you kill or who you hurt. That poor reporter died.”

Barry Grum said, “He was a spy for the opposition. So there’s one more dead Democrat? So what?”

“So what,” I thundered. “So fucking what? You moronic pig.”

I realized my breathing was coming in great thunderous gasps. The Grums yelled and screamed back at us and at each other. The dog yapped continuously.

Chaos reigned.

When things began to settle and glaring at us all the while, several Grums tried moving toward the door. When Mrs. Grum attempted to heave her bulk off the couch, the dog became dislodged and scrambled into a corner.

Scott, Lionel, and Darryl placed themselves between the Grums and the exit. I waited for quiet from them and for myself to calm down.

Mr. Grum said, “How dare you?”

Scott’s deep voice thrummed. “We’re all going to sit down.”

Slowly the Grums backed away from him and my brothers. Seats were taken.

When everyone was at rest, Scott stood in front of them. He said, “Murder has been done. One of you pulled the trigger. Edgar was a threat to all of you with his schemes and plots and plans. You cannot change reality. You will not deny reality.”

Mr. Grum said, “Denying reality is not a crime.”

Barry Grum said, “Whose reality? Yours or ours?”

Scott almost smiled. “You all have shown an innate inability to process reality.”

Barry Grum said, “Y
ou’re the weird one. You and your sick boyfriend. We always have to tiptoe around you.”

I said, “It works both ways. I’ve had a whole lot of things I’ve wanted to say to all of you for years.”

“Like what?” Barry demanded.

This was a mistake. I said, “I’ve got a list.”

Scott said, “Tom, stop.”

I looked at him. He came to me and took my hand. “There’s no point. They’re the killers, and they’re going to jail.”

Barry Grum said, “We have powerful friends. You’ll never get away with this.”

Scott said, “The Ducharmés have abandoned you.”

Barry took out his phone and pressed several buttons. He looked surprised as it continued to ring and ring.

I said, “They’re not taking your calls. The Ducharmé brothers are out of the country. You’re on your own.”

Mrs. Grum thrust herself against the back of the couch in an attempt to rise. She made a move toward her dog, but it took off through the doorway into the kitchen. She said, “We’ve only ever needed our own family.”

Scott said, “It’s not enough, is it?”

I said, “You sold your soul for political gain. You sold your son to win an election.”

A silence lengthened uncomfortably.

Scott and I stood together between them and the door. I said, “Who was Edgar’s knowledge the biggest threat to? You, Mrs. Grum. Barry reported Edgar’s threats to you. Edgar could destroy all you’d built up for your entire lifetime.”

Mr. Grum said, “I didn’t know anything about Edgar making any threats.”

“No,” I said. “Barry told Dewey. Dewey told Edgar. Edgar made his threats to Barry. Barry reported to you, Mrs. Grum. You decided something had to be done. Edgar must have mentioned Zachary Ross the reporter to you as part of his threats. You weren’t sure what the reporter knew, you didn’t even know he was a reporter or a spy at the time, but you decided to eliminate Zachary, a decent man.”

Dewey got down on his knees in front of his mother. He said, “I only told Edgar. I didn’t do anything wrong. I didn’t do anything wrong.”

Mrs. Grum turned her icy glare onto her son. Her voice hissed and snarled. “You fool. You stupid, stupid fool.”

Dewey said, “I didn’t kill anyone.”

I said, “But you came to find Edgar’s notes.”

“They told me to.”

“From things Edgar must have said, you had suspicions about Zachary. Your suspicion of him was enough to get him killed. But like Edgar, he made notes. You all desperately wanted to hunt through the office and the gun shed and Frank Smith’s place and Ross’s apartment because you didn’t know who had what where. You knew Edgar had records because he said so. He did. We also have Ross’s records. We’ve got everything. We can show the rest of it to you here and now. To be safe we’ve given copies of all of this to our attorneys. Edgar also had the goods on your electronic cheating, from both the machines the Ducharmés had set up to how you were going to rig those precincts in Harrison County.”

Mrs. Grum blurted out, “Edgar didn’t know about that.”

Veronica wrenched herself from where she’d been in the background between my parents, marched to the couch, and stood in front of her mother-in-law. My sister put her hands on her hips and leaned toward the old harridan and snapped, “Pray now, you bitch.”

FIFTY-EIGHT

Monday 7:00 P.M.

The Grums rushed to blame each other.

Scott and I and my brothers listened to the Grums deteriorate in grand style. Their behavior could have fueled a whole anger management industry.

It was Barry who had arranged the murder of Zachary Ross. Edgar had told him that Zachary was in his confidence. Barry didn’t want another possible witness running around. He’d lured him to a meeting on the bridge promising to talk over the situation. The reporter had gone hoping to break the story completely.

Barry had also arranged all the break ins at Veronica’s house, at the gun shed, at Frank Smith’s house, and Ross’s apartment. They’d been looking for the proof that Edgar had said he’d hidden. They also thought Zachary must have information as well, but they couldn’t get to it.

Mr. Grum confessed that he ordered the cops to be sent on Friday to arrest us. They were meant to scare us away.

In the throes of their heated emotions, it was Mrs. Grum who was the most ghastly. In a gap in their screaming, she said, “All of you shut up.” She rearranged her black dress around the folds of her fat and spoke. Her husband and sons gaped at her as she told the story that one, some, or all of them must have known. “I didn’t mean to. That night Edgar was always so out of control. He wouldn’t listen. He wouldn’t shut up. I grabbed the gun. He was always waving around those stupid guns. For a while he even shoved it in my face. Me! His mother!” She paused to gasp for breath. “After he put it down, the gun was just sitting on the desk. He laughed and sneered and threatened to ruin me. What choice did I have?”

A moment of hideous truth was not the time to debate the choices we face in the universe. As the words tumbled out, she sat on the couch in Veronica’s home and wept some more. At that moment I didn’t have any sympathy for her tears.

She’d confessed to Barry who had helped her conceal her crime. Dewey and Charles Dudley Grum had gone along with all the cover up activity, if nothing else, out of the perverse Grum need for secretiveness.

Early on I summoned Todd Bristol and Enid Achtenberg. Later the police, the Grum’s attorneys, and law enforcement personnel from a variety of jurisdictions showed up.

FIFTY-NINE

Monday 11:23 P.M.

That night while getting ready for bed, Scott said, “She killed him but she wept for her son.”

“Maybe it was guilt, maybe it was loss. It was probably a lot of things, all horrible and terribly sad. Edgar had threatened her with exposure and disgrace. Her whole life was dedicated to politics and being prominent in Harrison County politics. He was going to destroy all of that.”

“But what did he want?”

I said, “He needed money. Maybe he wanted control of the family Trust so he could bankrupt them too.”

Scott said, “Whatever he wanted, she couldn’t give enough of or didn’t want to give it or was incapable of it whether it was love or money or respect or recognition.”

EPILOGUE

The Grums’ and the campaign’s computers were all confiscated. It all came out. Including Governor Mallon’s role in the election cheating. She was arrested along with several of her staff and the lieutenant governor. If the Ducharmés stepped foot in this country again, they would be in trouble. Maybe their money could get them out of it, maybe not.

§ § §

Janet Cristal, the
Chicago Sun-Times
reporter from Friday night, and a host of national press had descended on the state. As arrests and the possibility of more indictments flew, it looked like the Grum reign of idiocy would come to an end as it was exposed to the harsh light of reality. The Ducharmés and their money were nowhere in evidence to attempt a right wing spin to the madness.