Chapter 24
“Thank God you’re here,” Paul shouted above the protesters forcing their way into the store.
Chants of “We are here; deal with it”, filled the air as the group made their way around the store, knocking items off the shelves and breaking glass jars on the floor.
When Silas pulled in the parking lot of the grocery store, he saw a group of about twenty protesters forcing themselves through the double door as others gathered in front of the store. He immediately called the Sheriff’s Department for help then he called Doug.
“Doug, get to the grocery store, NOW.”
Once he had pulled up by the group gathered outside, Doug pulled into the parking lot then came and parked next to Silas.
Silas got out of his pickup and waited as Doug got out of his cruiser. “Doug, watch this group until the deputies from the Sheriff’s Department arrive. I’ll be inside.”
“Damn it, break it up!” Silas shouted while forcing himself through the door.
“What the hell is going on here, Paul?”
Paul was beside himself with fear. In all his years of owning the local grocery store, he had never had anything such as this happen.
“I don’t know, Silas. They just stormed the store and started trashing it. I didn’t know what to do, so I called you.”
A man strolled up to Silas and looked at him, giving him a challenging gaze, daring him to do anything about what they were doing.
“You; come here,” Silas ordered.
The man looked at Silas and laughed, “What are you going to do, arrest me?”
“As a matter of fact, yes I am. Are you the ringleader here?”
“What if I am? We have the right to protest, so you can’t do anything about it,” the man looked at Silas defiantly.
“This isn’t a protest. It’s a riot. You are destroying private property, and threatening the citizens of MY town.” It took all the willpower Silas could muster not to slug this jackass right between the eyes.
A movement from the side of Silas caught his eye, and when he turned, he saw a news cameraman standing there with the little red light on the top of the camera glowing.
“So, that’s what you’re doing. You’re trying to get some film of me roughing up you and your friends aren’t you?”
The man looked at Silas and chuckled, “It would help the cause if you did. However, we don’t need that because there are plenty of people in your town who don’t want my people here. Look how they’ve been treating the newest residents of your little community here.”
Silas knew what he was trying to do, but he wondered how he could prevent this from erupting into something as what had happened in other towns across the country.
“The residents of Sandley are only reacting to what the federal government forced upon them. Besides, how does destroying this store prove your point?” Silas looked at the mess spread all over the floor.
“It proves that we will not take abuse from a store owner. Our people should be able to come into this store and not harassed by the owner. He even banned several people from shopping here,” the man bellowed.
Silas noticed that the protesters who were vandalizing the inside of the store were now standing close by and watching the confrontation between the man and himself. He was about to respond to the last statement when he heard the sounds of sirens of several cruisers pull up in front of the store.
“Well, it looks like my backup has arrived,” Silas grinned when he saw the glib look on the man’s face transform into one of anger.
“Go ahead and arrest us. This will not end here. We are here to stay, and there is nothing you or your stupid little town can do about it.” The man stepped forward, daring Silas to react.
Silas held his ground, never breaking eye contact. He knew what was happening, and honestly, he did not want to add fuel to the fire.
The sound of several officers entering the store broke the standoff. Doug stepped up by Silas and nervously looked at the crowd gathered around, watching Silas and the man with anger in his eyes.
“Bridges and his guys have things under control outside. We thought you might need some help in here, but it looks like you’re doing fine without us,” Doug nodded at the six deputies standing behind him.
“Yeah, we’re not having any problems, are we?” Silas looked at the man, letting him know their time together was over.
Several tense moments had passed before the man stepped back. “No, we don’t.”
“Good.” Silas looked at the people standing behind the man. “Why don’t all of you go outside with the Deputies, and they’ll let you know what to do next.”
The man began to leave with them when Silas held out his arm. “They can go, but you need to stay here.”
The man looked at Silas, unsure of what he meant, as the others went outside.
“Paul, come here. Is this man the leader of this group?” Silas smiled when he saw the look of apprehension appear on the man’s face.
Paul stepped up next to Silas, trying to stay out of the line of the camera filming everything happening between Silas and the man. “From what I could tell, yes, he is. He was the first one through the door shouting orders to the others.”
“Good. Then he should be the one to do the clean up in here,” Silas grinned when he saw a look of defiance appear on the man’s face.
“You can’t make me do that. I have rights…”
“Sure you do, and you also have the right to spend a nice long visit in our county jail. You know, I’m sure that I can come up with a long list of offenses you’ve committed here today. I’m also sure it might take some time to get you before the judge so that he can set your bail. After all, he’ll be busy with all of your friends out there as well. We both know that I’m going to arrest you. How you act from this point forward depends on how long you’ll sit in our jail.”
The man was about to protest again then decided it was best to leave things as they were. “Fine, I’ll clean this up, but I want the news cameraman to stay in here with me. I think people need to know how you abuse your prisoners.”
Silas looked at the man and rolled his eyes with laughter. “You have got to be kidding me? No, the cameraman will be joining everyone outside. I will be staying with you.”
The man stood his ground with a look of anger on his face.
“What’s your name?” Silas asked.
“My name is Alejandro Munez.”
“Well, Alejandro, I wouldn’t want you to do a half-assed job of cleaning up this mess, so I’m going to stay with you. Is that alright with you, Paul?”
Paul glanced at Alejandro and smiled. “Yes, that would be just fine with me.”
“Good. Then let’s get busy.” Silas nodded, letting Alejandro know to follow him over to the canned vegetable display that was scattered all over the floor.
“I’ll get the mop bucket and some trash bags,” Paul said, as he walked to the back of the store.
Damn, I can’t believe he’s making that guy clean up in here: Paul silently chuckled.