Read A Murder In Milburn Book 2 Death Of A Deputy REVAMPED June 2016 SCRIVENER for Free Online Page B

this crowd.”
    There was a lot of noise outside. A mob was walking down the street towards them, headed by Alan Bridges, whose eyes were glinting with joy. They were marching down, giving occasional shouts, with hands pumping the air.
    Sean just sucked on his tooth and shook his head. “This is ridiculous.” He grabbed a shotgun from a drawer and racked it. Dean gulped and pulled out his own revolver.
    “Sean, you can’t greet them with a gun!”
    “These are hooligans, Nora. They don’t listen to words. There’s only one thing they respond to - action.”
    Nora put her hands on the shotgun, pushed it down. “You put that gun down and meet them outside. Calm them down if you have to.”
    “Oh look, your friend’s here too,” Sean said, his voice barbed with glass. “I’m guessing he’s going to be doing all the talking.”
    Nora peeked out again, and her heart sank. Marching with Alan, looking absolutely, improbably, handsome in an olive shirt and grey jeans, was Harvey Nathaniel himself. How had she missed him earlier? He must have caught up with the crowd just right now.  
    As the crowd reached the office, Harvey and Alan ran up the steps, with Harvey raising his hands to quiet the crowd. Knocking the door, he slipped inside when Sean opened it up.
    “Listen, Sean, it’s not good,” Harvey said, his face drawn. “I’ve been talking to the men outside, and they’re mostly … well, they’re mostly full of people who you’ve been unkind to in the past. I know, I know, that’s what your job’s all about. You need to be the tough guy. But some of these men and women carry grudges. They’ve carried them ever since you fined them for speeding or told them off for being too loud or whatever it is you did.   They’ve got a chance to get back at you now, and Alan’s riling them up so that they do.”
    “They can all go to--” Sean was cut off by a look from Nora.
    “Sean, we aren’t pals,” Harvey said. “But Alan’s plan is to dissolve your office and call on the citizen’s rule. According to town charter, that’s something he can do.”
    “What?” Nora looked confused. “I’ve never heard of this.”
    “If a majority of the townspeople feel that their elected official is unworthy of his post, they can dissolve his office and through a show of hands immediately select a replacement,” Harvey said. “Now, it’s an old and arcane law, but it holds up just the same. Sean, these people are here to fire you.”
    Sean’s face paled for a second, then his jaw tightened and his nostrils flared. “Fine,” he said. “If that’s all the loyalty I get for serving this town so many years, then let that be it. They don’t need to fire me, I’ll resign.” He threw the shotgun on the desk, scattering papers about. “They can just hire that criminal Alan to lord it over them. See how that works out.”
    “Sean, be serious here,” Harvey said.
    “What do you care? You must be thrilled,” Sean said. “You didn’t care about Wallis, you just wanted me out of office. And very soon, I will be.”
    “You’re a capable man, and so was Wallis,” Harvey said. “I’m too smart a businessman to have some corrupt fool like Alan, or any idiot that Alan chooses, rule this town. So no, I’m not doing this out of fondness for you, but out of the best interests of this town.”
    “Where’s Mayor Almand when you need him?” Dean Elbert squeaked from behind them.
    “Mayor Theodore Almand and his wife May Almand were two people who supported you, by the way,” Harvey said to Sean. “But Ted’s not going to engage with this crowd.”
    Outside, looking pleased, Alan was standing at the crowd’s head and shouting, “Now, people, we’ve got to make some demands. We’ve got to demand that we get justice. We got to demand that the death of a man like Wallis isn’t just dismissed because it suits those in power. I say we exercise our birth-given right to vote, and--”
    “There’s no need,”