Election Night marked the end of an era for me. Once I’d formally handed over my Sheriff's Badge to Sue-Ellen in front of the whole team that afternoon and had bought everyone a drink, I completed my time as Sheriff of Custer County.

The day wasn’t over for the department as for the first time in twenty years, the post of County Commissioner was being contested, and it was the task of the PD to be present when the results are declared. This activity dates right back to the late 19th Century when a sore loser shot dead the winning candidate right in front of the whole town. The culprit almost made it over the State Line into Colorado before he was apprehended. After a brief trial, he was hanged in front of the Courthouse. The town whole saw him commit the crime, and the whole town saw him die. Since then, all of PD has to be present when the results of contested elections are declared.

The incumbent, Seth Norton, had been challenged by a farmer from the east of the county, named Tony Higson. To many, the result was a foregone conclusion. Tony Higson had campaigned on just the one topic, the state of the roads in his part of the county.

Seth and Tony were old sparring partners, and Seth had never forgiven Tony for stealing the woman he wanted to marry, Mary-Beth Tomlinson. Mary-Beth and Seth had been prom king and queen in their final year at high school.

Seth had asked Mary-Beth to marry him right there on stage after they had been crowned king and queen. Mary-Beth had laughed and told the assembled masses,

"I will never marry you, Seth. I'm not going to be the wife of an undertaker.”

Then from the audience, Tony called out,
"Marry me, Mary-Beth?"

Everyone turned to look at him when Mary-Beth called out, "Yes, I will marry you, Tony."

There had been an almighty fight in the car park afterwards, and the two men had been enemies ever since.

That feuding had continued in the election campaign. Seth had never let Tony finish answering a question during their Q&A session at the Town Hall. Seth jeered and changed the subject every time a question was asked, that he didn't agree with.

My last briefing as Sheriff had been to warn the team that Tony had a real chance of getting elected given Seth's intransigence over so many things in recent years. If Tony won, then Seth and his family might not take the defeat lightly.

Sue-Ellen agreed with me 100%. Everyone other than my good self would be on duty that evening for the declaration of the results. For the first time in over ten years, I’d just be a normal citizen of the county. It was going to feel very strange, but I wasn't going to change my mind anytime soon.

---

At Seven that, evening and a small crowd had gathered for the result. Judge Cooper had come over from Clark County to supervise the counting of the votes.

A retired Judge was deemed by everyone, to be suitably independent by both parties to supervise the counting of the votes that had been cast in the election.

At three minutes past the hour, the Judge emerged from inside the hall. The two candidates were glaring at each other as usual.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, I have great pleasure in announcing the result of the election for the next Custer County Commissioner.”

He looked down at the sheet of paper he was carrying before continuing.

“Anthony Higson received fourteen hundred and sixty-eight votes.”

“Seth Norton received eleven hundred and two votes. There were six spoilt ballot papers.”

“I do declare that Anthony Higson is elected County Commissioner.”

“Rubbish. The vote was rigged,” shouted Seth.

Sue-Ellen stepped forward. She’d witnessed the counting of the votes.

“Seth, both you and I watched the votes being counted and recounted. Every operation was carried out, according to the rules. If you have a complaint, then as per the election rules, you have seven days to file a formal complaint in writing."

“Seth, you lost. At least you could do is lose gracefully,” said the new Commissioner.

"I will never lose gracefully, where you are concerned."

Seth stormed off, followed by his small clique of supporters.

Sue-Ellen had a word with Tom, who nodded and followed Seth. Given the history of ill-feeling between the two men, I would have done the same thing had I still been Sheriff.

Seth never appealed the ballot, but his family vowed to get even sooner or later. Some people just can't accept defeat graciously.

---

After the excitement of the Election had died down, I busied myself with chores around the home. Busied is probably the wrong word. Buried is much more accurate. My big 'Four Zero' birthday was fast approaching, and I didn't want a fuss, but I had a feeling that I wasn't going to get my wish.

Now that I was no longer part of the PD, the team were free to plot and scheme my downfall. Their plans were to be delivered, at the party, that was planned for my birthday, at Harry's place. Harry had called me to give me the heads up, for which I thanked him profusely.

My dedication to the many jobs around our home didn’t fool Ma for even a minute.

"Matt Harker! You can't fool me. You gave up a perfectly good job, with no idea about what to do next? You are just as bad as your worthless brother."

"Ma! Do not associate what I may or may not do now with Walt. Haven't you been after me to do all these chores for months and months? Well, I'm doing them now. When I'm done with them, I'm probably going into partnership with Danny SWA so I won't be idle. Besides, this is a nice therapeutic break from the Police."

“Don’t lie to your Ma! Danny told me that you had turned down working for him on our little trip to Sin City.”

“I did turn him down then. What he didn't say after that trip was that I was still working on an idea. Since then, I have approached Danny and offered to go into partnership with him. He needs a new heavy tow truck. I’ve offered to go in 50/50 with him on it. That good enough for you?”

For probably the first time in my life, I saw Ma lost for words.

“If you don’t me, call Danny right now. He’ll back me up.”

Ma gave me one of her looks that said clearly ‘I don't like smart asses, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt just this once."

I got on with washing down the siding on the rear of the house. It was perfectly true that I had offered Danny a partnership, but I told him to think about it until the new year when we would get together to work things out.

This would give me a break from work and time to think things through a lot more. This delay wasn’t my idea but was all down to Kelly. She’d kept on at me to ‘take a break from work’. She was perfectly correct. I needed some time to think about the future without having to worry about the Police Department.

Kelly had matured a lot since she’d arrived in Custer County. The 'thing' that I'd seen in her at that first interview had blossomed. There were times when I felt sorry for her family back east. They didn't know what a great Police Officer she had become due to their bigotry.

---

The weather held long enough for me to get all the more important jobs done around the home. This included getting rid of the dozen or so rotting hulks of the many and varied cars that Walt had bought and literally ran into the ground. Danny came with his crane truck and loaded them all onto a flatbed. There were nine in total. One even had an Apple tree growing out of its empty engine bay. Six rusty engines and several tons of other detritus was carted away.

I prodded Danny for any gossip relating to my forthcoming Birthday. All he'd say was that there was going to be a surprise. As long as that surprise was not finding out that I had a child living in some foreign land, I would be happy.

With the outside in decent shape, and the weather turning a lot colder, I turned my attention to the inside of the house. More than once, Ma commented that I was only doing it to make the place saleable. There was more than a modicum of truth in her words, but it never hurts to freshen up a home, and as I had time on my hands, it would be silly to waste it and besides, many of the jobs that I was doing were long overdue.

On the eve of Thanksgiving, everything changed.

I was out in the stables grooming the horses. Kelly and I had been out for a ride when her phone rang. She'd gone into the house for something, so I answered it.

“Kelly’s phone?”

“Oh, hi Nancy. How are you?”

“Good. We are doing fine. Kelly’s not around for a minute or so. Can I help?”

“They have? I bet that has caused waves in your neck of the woods.”

“Oh, I see. For how long?”

“Nancy, I’m no longer Sheriff here. I didn’t stand for re-election. Kelly is still with the department.”

I listened to Nancy explain the situation in her town.

"I'm not interested but, I'm sure that I could twist Kelly's arm a bit. She'd make a great Chief."

"Yes, I am serious. She most certainly has what it takes. If there had not been a perfect replacement for me already with the department, I would have suggested that Kelly run for Sheriff."

I laughed at her next question.
"At the moment, I'm decorating the house. It hasn't been done in at least ten years."

“Thanks for your call Nancy, I’ll tell Kelly what has happened.”

“Sorry Nancy, Kelly is her own woman in these sort of things. She’ll make up her very own mind in due course."

"Thanks, Nancy. I'm sure we'll speak again very soon."

I hung up the call, and slowly a smile appeared on my face.

Kelly returned from the house carrying a knife.
"I can't find the Hoof Pick, so this will have to do," she said, holding up my old hunting knife.

I said nothing about the call from Nancy. I just watched while she cleaned the hooves of our horses. When she arrived in the county, she hardly knew one end of a horse from another. This was just another area where she'd come on a long way in a short time.

With the grooming done, we headed back to the house. The sun had set. It was going to be a clear cold night.

“You had a phone call while you were in the house,” I said as we removed our boots and coats.

"Who was it, and I'm not buying anything."

That was a standing joke between us. For some reason, her phone received lots of cold callers trying to sell her all sorts of things while, for some equally odd reason, I received none.

"It was Nancy. She's fine, so there is nothing to worry about."

Kelly smiled.
“So?”

“The Mortensen’s have all been arrested. Not only them but the Judge and all the officers at the PD. Corruption, Tax Evasion, Money Laundering and more.”

"Wow. Nancy and the others in the town must be happy."

"They are, but that wasn't the reason for her call. She wanted to know if I was interested in becoming their next Chief of Police.”

Kelly laughed.

“To which you said?”

"Not interested. I mean it, darling. I really am done with being an officer of the law."

“I guess that wasn’t the answer she was expecting?”

“Correct. Then I said, I know someone who would be perfect, you!”

“Me?”

"Yes, you, my darling. You would be perfect for the job."

“Are you pulling my leg?”

"Not at all. I told Nancy that you would be ideal and that we'd discuss it, and you'd make up your mind if you were interested or not. That's how I left it."

Kelly sat down at the kitchen table. The smell of fresh paint was ever-present.

“I don’t know. It is a big step.”

I sat opposite her and took her hands in mine.

“If Sue-Ellen hadn’t been in the frame for Sheriff from before you came to Custer County, I would have suggested you for the job.”

Kelly raised her left eyebrow. She wasn’t convinced.

"I mean it, and I'm not saying this because you are my wife."

“But… what about?”

“No need to tell unless they ask. It is your private life.”

“But…? The Internet will expose me.”

“They won’t be looking for the old Kelly. They’ll be looking for Kelly Beecher, won’t they?”

“It would mean moving. What about Ma?”

I smiled.

“Don’t worry about Ma. Think of yourself for once.”

She shook her head.
“I did rather a lot of that back east. Now I have you and Ma to think about.”

“So, think about it. In the meantime, it is time to get dinner on. Ma will be back from getting her hair done very soon. Don’t say anything to Ma until you have had time to think about this properly.”

Kelly laughed.
“That’s easier said than done. She can smell a rat from a mile away.”

"Just try. I don't want this to get in the way of our first Thanksgiving as a proper family, ok?"

"Yes, boss!"

I kissed Kelly to seal the deal.

---

The deal lasted until the day after thanksgiving. Ma collared me almost as soon as Kelly went off to work.

“Ok, out with it?”

"What do you mean, Ma?"

"Something happened on Wednesday, and ever since then, Kelly has acted as if she has the whole world on her shoulders. When were you going to tell me what it is?"

"That's very much down to Kelly."

Ma glared at me.
"It is true, Ma. She has some things to work out in her mind, then she and I will discuss them."

“Where are you two going to swan off to then?”

“Ma! It is not like that.”

I got another ‘I don’t believe a word you are saying’ look from Ma.

"It is true Ma. When we have decided, you will be the first to know. You know that has always been the case, and it isn't going to change now."

---

About an hour later, I made an excuse to go into town to get some lumber. This gave me the chance to have a word with Kelly. Luckily, I knew that she was going to be working in the office all day while the rest of the department were on duty on the Interstate. Thousands of people were going home after Thanksgiving. Tired and hungover drivers were always a problem in past years, and I doubted that this year would be any different.

"I can tell that this isn't a social call," said Kelly as I walked into the office.

"Why do you say that, my darling?"

Kelly laughed.
"The look of death on your face, that's what. Has Ma been on the warpath?"

“Yeah. She knows something is up.”

Kelly sighed. Then she smiled.
“I think we’d better tell her then.”

“What about telling me first?”

“You are no fun you know.”

Then she got serious.
“I only decided on the drive into town earlier. I had to scrape the windscreen again this morning. I got to thinking that living close to the coast again might be a nice change.”

“There… that wasn’t so hard was it?”

"A fat lot of help you were!"

"This was something you had to work out on your own. I didn't want to pressure you into going for this. Isn't it a decision that you had to make on your own? You know that I'll go along with any decision you make, but you have to be clear in your own mind and that it is what you want as your next step."

Kelly didn’t answer for quite a bit. She looked out of the window at the scene outside. After a bit, she turned back to face me.

"You are right. I've decided to go for the job. It is something that I have to do for myself. Do you understand that?"

“I do. I do understand perfectly well. I had to join the army for me. It was something that was not for others but just for me."

I took hold of her hand.

“That’s three hard decisions you have made in your life. Coming out, leaving New York and now this.”

“What about marrying you?”

"That, my dear, was a no brainer."

Kelly relaxed. Then she laughed.
“It was more like… what is taking him so long.”

"Well, then it wasn't hard, was it?"

“When do we tell Ma?”

“We? What’s this ‘we’ thing?”

“Aren’t we in this together?”

"We are, but it needs to come from you. Then Ma will know that it is your decision and yours alone."

I squeezed her hand gently.
"I'll be there, but you will have to tell her. Then we can plan where we go from there. It is only the start, you know.”

“What do you mean ‘only the start’?”

I smiled.

“Let us just suppose that you were offered the job. What then?”

“Ah! You mean Ma?”

“Exactly, Ma.”

“Why didn’t I think of that?”

"Because that is my job. My job here is to think of the bigger picture. That lets you work on the detail of you and what you want, knowing that I've got your back from here to death us do part."

Kelly laughed.
“There you go being all Sheriffy on me again!”

I chuckled.

"Someone has to take the weight off your pretty shoulders at times like this, don't they?"

Kelly kissed me.

“See. That’s why saying yes to marrying me was a no brainer!”

“Now get on that phone and call Nancy. She will be going crazy until you let her know what you have decided.”

---

“Ma, I have something to say that could affect all of us,” said Kelly after we’d finished dinner that night.

"About time too. When are you two moving away, and where?"

I tried hard but failed to stop my eyes from rolling.

“Don’t give me that look!”

“Ma, I may have a job interview for the position of Chief of Police. It is where my cousin Nancy lives in California.”

Ma didn’t say anything for a bit. Finally, she asked,

“What about me? I can’t look after this place on my own, now can I?”

Kelly looked at me for some help.

"Ma, firstly, Kelly hasn't got the job, and secondly, we are not going anywhere without you."

“Don’t give me that.”

"I mean it, Ma. We aren't going anywhere unless you are coming along as well."

Ma didn’t say anything for nearly a minute.

“When?”

“In the new year at the earliest.”

"That's the worst time of the year to sell this place. You know that don't, you? Then what are you going to do for money? It does not grow on trees you know!”

"We do, but it won't be a problem. We have my cousin Lol's legacy. We can use that to find somewhere and then sell this place in the spring,” said Kelly,
"Always assuming that I get the job, that is.”

Ma smiled for the first time in days.

"That job is yours if the locals have any sense at all."

"Are you ok with this then, Ma?"

"Not really. As I see it, the only alternative is to go into a retirement home, and that will only be done over my dead body. Which means I’m the third wheel in this family I’m going to have to go along with whatever you do.”

“Ma… It won’t be all bad. There is a club where they play bingo twice a week,” said Kelly.

Ma just glared at Kelly.
"Bingo isn't the only thing I want from life, you know."

Then I had an idea.
"Ma, have you ever seen the sea? You know for real and up close?”

“You know full well that I have not. We went to Florida with your Mother when she was a teenager, but we drove all the way. Your grandfather wanted to see a rocket launch at the cape before he died. That was his last trip apart from in the hearse to the Cemetery. I think we went close to it near Tallahassee, but we were in a bit of a hurry, as we'd been held up in East Texas because of a blow-out. We just made it. I saw the rocket launch, at which point and turned around and came back. Don’t want to do that again. Yes, I caught some glimpses of the sea, and if I go to my grave not having seen any more, I won't miss it.”

“Going to California would allow you to see it.”

"Why? It is cold and wet, and there are things in it that want to kill you. No thanks."

“You mean like the rattlers that love sunning themselves on the back porch?” I argued.

“That’s what the baseball bat is for. I can see them and deal with them. I watched Jaws you know. Those things come up from below and wham, you are dead.”

That’s when I knew that we were not going to get anywhere tonight.

“I think we should all sleep on this,” I said more out of hope than anything.

No one disagreed, so Ma disappeared off to her bedroom.

Kelly and I sat silently for a good ten minutes before Kelly said,
"That didn't go very well, did it?"

"It went as well as I could have hoped. Now that the cards are on the table, we can get on with getting you the job. You aren’t having second thoughts, are you?”

Kelly didn’t reply right away.

“I don’t want to take the job if Ma isn’t coming with us.”

“Then we’ll have to work on Ma at the same time, won’t we?”

[to be continued]
[Authors Note]
This piece was originally drafted in 2019. Any coincidence with what has been alleged to have happened at other elections since, is purely that, a coincidence.