Page 8 of Booth

“Not to me.And not anyone else around that would get their heads out of their asses and know that accidents happen.That’s what insurance is for.Just you judge on them so that they all go away, and I’ll be as good as I can be driving.That’s the best that I can offer you, as I know that there are going to be idiots out there that are going to cause me to lose my temper again and have to take matters into my own hands.”He was told to watch his language.“Yes, sir, I can do that.Can you do this for me?”

“I’ll need a couple of hours.You know what you’re saying, don’t you?That you want me to judge you on all these pending cases so that they’ll not be hounding you to go to court, is that correct?”He said he was correct.He just wanted them to go away, and with his help, it’ll happen.“All right.Court is adjourned until one o’clock.That should be enough time for me to get a good accounting of what this paperwork says.Unless you have a rundown, Mr.Dixon.”

“I do as a matter of fact.The costs, too, that the accidents have incurred to road damage and other personal damages that were a part of the accidents.”He handed him some more papers.“As you can see, there is a running total on deaths that were caused, damage to property, both city and private, that was incurred.Also, the date and times of the accident and the trial dates that are pending.You’ll see there that Mr.Fullner has three pending for the next month.”

“Thank you.Give me a few moments to go over this, and I’ll be right back.”When the judge stood up and left, Arnold sat down.Finally, things were going his way and he’d be Scott free on all this pending shit.He looked at his attorney, the boot licker, and told him that was how you got things done.

“You think you’re going to get off from all of this?”He said he was sure of it.“I don’t.I think he’s going to read over this list that he was given and throw the book at you.And I hope he does.”

“There’s no reason for you to be such a sore loser.You’ll still go down as the winner in this case.That’s all you attorneys know is winning, right?”He asked him if he was an attorney too.“I suppose I have the paperwork to be one but I wouldn’t know shit from shit if I had to go to trial.It was an easy five years for me to get what I wanted.And I do.Get what I want every time.You need to learn to be more aggressive if you want to win any more cases after this one.However, this will look good for you.How you’d gotten a good standing senator out of a bad situation.Not that I’d ever admit that it was bad for me.Grease a few palms and voilà, I’m out again to do what I do best.Make me look good.”

“You honestly think that this is going to end in your favor.”It wasn’t a question, but he answered that he was going to get what he deserved.“I hope you get what you deserve and more.I hope he throws the book at you and you’ll be in prison for the rest of your natural life.”He told him there was no reason for him to be nasty about it.“Nasty?I’m stating a fact.And if for some reason you get off, I’m going to quit being an attorney and become something that you seem to hate with a passion, I’m going to flip burgers for a living.”

“Well, I guess time will tell.”The room was hushed now, and he realized that everyone in the room was looking at him.He was in such a good mood that he decided that when this was over, he was going to treat everyone here to lunch.Not that he paid the bill, but someone would from the committee that put him in office.Someone somewhere might even get their asses reamed for him doing it too.“When this is finished, I’m going to take you all to lunch.My treat.As soon as I’m free, we’ll meet atthe deli across the street from here, and I’ll purchase you all lunch.It’ll be fun for us all after having to sit in here for most of the morning.”

He could see the confusion in some of their eyes.He got it, too.They were confused that someone as great as he was had said he’d buy them lunch.It was probably the first time any of them had had such a treat in a long time.Yes, he was going to be getting votes for this, he’d make sure he did a little campaigning while he was doing it, too.Not that he’d be eating with them, he wasn’t that crazy, but he’d buy theirs for the fun of it.Yes, they’d remember him at the poles when the time came.

~*~

Sherman sat in stunned silence while the judge ordered Arnold to be taken away.The sentencing was nothing that he expected, but it was better than he thought he’d get today.When someone patted him on the back, he turned to look at the stranger and wondered who they were.Finally, when they told him he was his son, Booth, he hugged him tightly to him and told him that he’d not expected that.

“No, I can tell.I don’t think Fullner did either.”Sherman laughed a little and said that was for sure.“The fact that the judge has seized his home and properties tells me that people are going to get their money too.There is no way he is going to be able to fob anyone off any more than he had either.”

“It’s a good day for the people that he terrorized.”Sherman looked at his son and asked how Dee was taking the sentences.“She’s all right with her being lumped in with all the other cases, isn’t she?”

“Yes, she’s very fine with it.She said it’s wonderful to know that everyone will be getting something out of this rather than just heartache.”Fullner was also going to be responsible for her hospital stay, as well as any other long-term hospital stays for any other victims of his driving.

The judge had sentenced Fullner to twenty-three life sentences to be run back to back for each person that he killed.Ordered him to pay for all damages to property and taxpayers’ money on needed police, fire, and all.Fined him several million dollars for his part in all accidents to cover the cost of funerals and any other out-of-pocket monies that had been needed because of the accidents.He’d even suspended his license, not that he’d ever be driving again while in prison.Fullner was taken away to begin his prison sentences now, with the time that he’d been in the local jail not counted as his sentencing.

“Dad, this calls for a celebration.You’ve done something that nineteen other lawyers couldn’t do.You got a deadly driver off the streets and into prison where he belongs.”Sherman blushed a little.“You worked really hard on this, and if anyone says you went overboard in what you were able to find, they don’t deserve to be called a friend.You did just what was needed to be done at the right time.I think the judge was a little overwhelmed when he first got the paperwork.You could tell by the look on his face that he thought that you were joking before he got it.Then it was like, what am I supposed to do with all this information?”Booth laughed.“Dad, I’m very proud of you on this work.You always go the step beyond, and it paid off for a great many people.It doesn’t matter what the man said on his way out.I love you for your work in getting justice for Dee and the rest of the people who had been victimized by him.”

“Thank you, son.You’ve no idea how much that means to me right now.”And it did mean a great deal to him because it had come from one of his sons.Booth made him feel like a million bucks just then, and he couldn’t have been happier about it.“I’ve been keeping in contact with your mother, she’s about to bust her buttons.She told me that she’s so proud of me, too.”

“She should be, we’re all proud of you, and Dee is the most of all.She was sure that his status was going to get him off like all the other times.I’m surprised that he’s not been put in jail before now.Did the system fail us, or did he just keep falling between the cracks?”Sherman said that he was blaming it on the overworked system that he was a part of.“Status shouldn’t have been a part of it, but it looks like he was getting off too because he was a bully.”

“That he was.When he was sentenced in the first case, he went to see the other family that had been involved and paid them a large, undisclosed amount of money.They said that he threatened them with higher taxes, as well as their voting rights would be revoked.He isn’t a good person by any stretch of the imagination.”Booth agreed with him.“He’s finally been brought to justice, and I’m thrilled tohave been a part of this, catching up with him this time.”

Sherman decided that he was going to keep all the information that came with this trial in the event that Fullner appealed the decision.He could and probably would, as it turned out, and if he got out, well, Sherman was slightly worried for all the people that had been involved in his demise.Fullner wasn’t the type of person to forgive or forget.He was the type to take vengeance out on someone for something that might have happened decades ago.And it would be all the harsher because of the time that had lapsed when it happened.

After lunch with Dee and Booth, along with his lovely wife, Betty, they decided to walk home.The weather was turning colder by the day, but today, along with the chill in the air, the sun was shining, and it looked like it was much warmer than it felt.He loved days like this and was going to shift into his gorilla and enjoy some time in the woods with Betty so they could burn off some steam.Maybe he’d even chase her around a bit and get a little ape time in, he thought with a laugh.

Once they were home, they decided to take a nap.He could live with that, he’d been stressing over this trial for the past three months and was glad that it was over now, and he could go on with his life.Not that he didn’t enjoy it, he had a great deal, but now that it was over, he didn’t think he’d take on something this large again.It was too much for himself to be an attorney for the family, and he’d let the younger kids do it.Although there weren’t any attorneys in his immediate family, there was enough in the troop that he could find someone else to take on the hardship of representing the family.

It was nearly midnight when he made his way up to the bedroom.Betty had gone up an hour ago or so, and he’d been in the middle of purging his desk of all the paperwork that he’d used to convict Arnold Fullner.He’d made himself so many notes over the last few weeks before the hearing that he could have written a book on it.He was sure that there would be a market for such a book, how to not get into trouble with the law when you drive like a fool, he thought, was a good enough title, and even thought about writing it himself.It would be fun just to get his notes in order for this project, rather than the one where he’d had to sit in a courtroom all day for three days.

After locking up the house, glad now that he had indeed gotten out with his gorilla for at least an hour, he decided that he was going to sleep the sleep of the dead tonight, being that he had had so many restless nights before tonight.He also thought that he could sleep around the clock, but knew that he’d never sleep past six in the morning as he’d been getting up at that time for the last fifty years or so.

“Did you see tonight’s paper?”Sherman told Betty that he’d not seen a paper for the last few weeks.“Well, this one you should read.It talks about the trial today and how Arnold had finally gotten what he deserved.It also talks about his attorney and how the young man had asked to be quitted of him weeks before today.They said that justice was finally given to the people that he’d been harassing since he’d first gotten his license.I didn’t know that things for him had dated that far back.”

“They did, but since they were all settled out of court, I only mentioned them in the listing of things that he’d done when I gave the judge the paperwork for it.”He took the paper from her when she handed it to him.“Front page too.It must have been a very slow news day for them to have put this on the front of it.”

“I think there are a lot more people glad that he’s in jail, other than the ones that he put into a world of hurt when he was driving around like a fool.”Sherman told her that property damage alone was more than he’d thought possible for a man who had only been driving for the last twenty-four years.“Are you saying that he’s only forty years old?”

“Forty-five.He was a late driver, and that was more than likely because he couldn’t get his license until he was seventeen because of a tractor accident that he caused some trouble with when he was only fifteen.”She asked him what he’d done.“Tipping cows and driving through a field of corn before it was ready to be harvested.It was a lot of money that the Fullners had to pay out to keep him out of jail then.It is a good thing they had money, or there is no telling what would have happened to the younger Arnold back then.Then he had to wait on his next birthday before he could apply to get his license.It seems like he’d not learned a thing from all the terrible things he’d done in the past.”

“I think that it was a shame they had money.Had he had to pay that one off, he might well have learned a lesson about what was going to happen when he drove things like he did.”Sherman told her that there was that.“Those poor people.I’m so happy that they’re getting what they need to be able to move on.I know that I would.And I’m betting that Dee is happy to have all this off her shoulders as well.I think she was more afraid of him coming back on her than he might well have been going to jail.He seemed like the type of person who would try to get even with someone for some of his misdeeds.Or what everyone else perceived as his misdeeds.To think that no one but you had the balls to take him to task.I said this before, and I’ll say it daily.I’m very proud of you for taking the man on and winning.You are the best there is, my dear heart.”

Long after Betty went to sleep, he laid there thinking about the newspaper.Finally unable to sleep, he took the paper to the bathroom and decided to read the entire thing.Just as he was finishing up the three-page article, he knew that he’d never get the sleep he needed now.There were people asking for him to run for the judge position that was empty right now, and he didn’t think that he’d be up for it.He enjoyed his quiet time too much to want to run to court daily to see what other idiots got themselves into.

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