Murder in Magnolia
The author conveys no rights to anyone to publish or display for money.
Chapter 9: "The Sheriff"
In the fifteen years since he had helped railroad his best friend into prison, Johnny Wilkins never got a good night's sleep. When the guilt he was caring had became too much for him to handle, he started drinking. And the drinking cost him his marriage.
When his wife Liz, left him, taking their son Scott, with her, he found himself all alone and began to wonder what it had all been for?
In the devil's bargain he had made, Johnny had secured his future. He owned his home and even old Doc Harris could never take that away from him. Jack had been killed answering a domestic dispute about eight years after Ethan went to prison. And true to his word, old Doc Harris saw to it that Johnny was elected sheriff. But without his family, he didn't even care about the job that he used to love. He really didn't care about anything any more.
He forced himself to stop drinking, but it was too late, Liz refused to take him back. He guessed she'd finally had enough. Deep inside, he couldn't blame her. He had made her life a living hell.
Johnny had never told her the truth. Hell, he'd never told anyone the truth. He was too ashamed to. Keeping it bottled up inside him like a cancer had torn him apart and his guilt had just grown stronger and stronger with every passing day. Finally, early one morning, he found himself sitting of his living room holding his service revolver pointed at his head with one round in the chamber.
He hadn't slept at all the night before; his mind filled with the faces of the friend he had betrayed, his wife and the sixteen-year-old son that he didn't even know.
But he hadn't pulled the trigger that morning even though he wanted to. It was a blur to him now. He remembered having his finger on the trigger and slowly squeezing it. But at the last moment, something made him point the gun upwards just as the hammer fell. The round missed him, instead leaving a hole in his ceiling.
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