Home Invasion - J. A. Johnstone [32]
“You’ll tell somebody, all right, my little friend, “Ford said as he laid the barrel of his gun against the prisoner’s cheek and made the man quiver and cry even more. It was a shame to scare him that way, but it had to be done. “You’re going to tell us everything you know.”
CHAPTER 15
In the two months since Jorge Corona and Emilio Navarre had invaded the McNamara home, things had indeed settled down. Nobody in Home had forgotten about the tragedy, but summer was winding down, school was about to start again, and people had to carry on with their lives. The high school football team was already practicing, and so was the marching band. Some families got in last minute vacations.
For Chief Alex Bonner and the rest of her small police force, the remainder of the summer had been quiet. A few wrecks out on the state highway, some vandalism by bored teenagers, the occasional drunk and disorderly or domestic violence call.
No murders, and no burglars gunned down by homeowners. Alex knew now to appreciate that tranquility.
The interest of the news media had flared up once again in mid-summer, when the district attorney announced that he was dropping the attempted murder charges against Navarre. The man would be prosecuted for trespassing and for possessing a weapon illegally, as well as violating immigration laws, but that was all.
The announcement prompted outrage in Home, and a few people even took to the streets to protest. Alex could have told them it wouldn’t do any good. The camera crews would just take pictures of them and the reporters would make it sound like the protestors were more violent and intolerant than the KKK and the Nazis put together, when all the people were doing was expressing their legal right to make their opinions known.
But in this warped version of what America was becoming, tolerance for the opinions of others only cut one way.
At least the district attorney had withstood the continuing pressure from Clayton Cochrum, who still wanted Pete McNamara charged with murder and attempted murder. Cochrum wasn’t the only one beating that particular drum. The Mexican government had made a formal protest concerning the death of Jorge Corona and the wounding of Emilio Navarre and demanded that the United States Justice Department launch an investigation into whether or not the civil rights of the two men had been violated. Several prominent Hispanic groups within the U.S. echoed that call, as did numerous international civil rights organizations, and the government of more than one European country, although what business it was of theirs, nobody seemed to know.
The whole thing was crazy … and it was exactly what Alex had expected.
But at least the story wasn’t front page news everyday anymore. The administration in Washington was busy looking for something else to take over. The big targets—the banks, the auto industry, the insurance business, and most of the hospitals—had already been grabbed by the previous administration. The talk now was that because some school districts had more money than others, that was unconstitutional and local and state control of the public schools should be abolished so that the federal government could establish a nationwide school system with strict control over financing and curriculum … “to make everything equal,” you know. The politicians and the news media were already lining up to support the idea, because, after all, they said in their most sincere tones, it would be good for the children, and that was what it was all about, wasn’t it? Of course, anyone who dared to deviate from that line, be they parent, educator, or local administrator, was swiftly derided and accused of being racist, unpatriotic, homophobic (whatever that had to do with anything), and just plain big ol’ meanies.
To people who had even the least lick of common sense, it was the biggest bunch of bullcrap anybody had ever heard. But of course, no one ever listened to them….
But it kept the Navarre