Chapter One Hundred and Two: Hotting Up

“It's so HOT!”
Daniel waved a junk mail catalogue in front of his face to fan it.

“One of the hottest
summers on record, and it's only beginning!” Petunia groaned,
spraying herself with a water-bottle.

“I just hope that
Demon gets his act together with those prisoners soon, because I know
for a fact that the gaol isn't air-conditioned.” TJ growled.

“Belle's working on
it! Give her some breathing room!” Charlie snapped.

They were sitting in
front of the Masters and Begly residences, trying to keep cool under
the tree. Unfortunately, it seemed both temper and temperature were
up at that particular junction in time.

“BREATHING ROOM? Most
of those prisoners don't even have enough room to blink let alone
breathe!” TJ jumped up, angry. “Meanwhile Belle gets to sleep in
her nice, comfortable room with plenty of air flow and an air
conditioner!”

“What more do you
want her to do!?” Charlie also got up and towered over TJ, who
flinched slightly.

“ENOUGH!” Daniel
got up. “We're all hot and bothered and things are tense. There's
no need to make it worse. Teej, enough with trying to shift your
guilt onto other people. Charlie, stop being so oversensitive about
your girlfriend.”

“BELLE IS NOT MY
GIRLFRIEND.” Charlie growled.

“Sensitive.”
Daniel booped Charlies nose.

Just
then, Belle pulled up in the Elantra, looking hot, sweaty and
dejected.

“The
air-con has gone in the car again.” She groaned. “And Demon is
being a complete and total arse.”

“What
happened?!” TJ had to be restrained by Petunia to stop him from
grabbing the overworked lawyer.

“He
says that it's a clerical error that got those people put in prison,
not out and out racism. He's not going to do a thing to Dingbat.”
Belle looked close to tears. “And he won't let Sammy out.”

“WHAT?!”
Everyone cried in anger.

“How
did you NOT get Sammy out of gaol?!” TJ nearly screamed at Belle.

“I
tried!” Belle sobbed, the tears starting to fall.

“Clearly
not hard enough!” TJ snapped.

“BACK.
OFF. NOW.” Charlie looked ready to kill.

“I've
got this.” Tammy suddenly appeared, making everyone jump.

“Where
did YOU spring from?!” Daniel had to grin a little at his friends
ability.

“TJ,
be sure to stop around my place before you go to work tomorrow
morning. I'll get all the dirt you need on Dingbat. Also, apologize
to Belle.” Tammy said, with a small smirk.

“But-,”
TJ started.

“Sammy
is my TWIN BROTHER Theodore.” Tammy shot him a filthy look. TJ
stepped back with a growl and muttered an apology.

And
the heat still sat on Pleasantville.

—

TJ
didn't know how Lady Silent did it, but she managed to spend the
whole day in plain sight in the police office, yet no one noticed her
recording everything they said about their work.

“Brilliant
Lady Silent!” Giggles took the recordings from her at the end of
the day when they met at the tip. “Once these are all over the
city, Demon will have no choice but to put the pressure on Dingbat.

“And
then they'll let Sammy go!” Lady Silent beamed.

“I'll
distribute these, you get Sammys place ready for him to go back to.”
Giggles said, preparing to take off.

“Just
be careful and don't land in Lake Pleasant again.” Lady Silent
grinned.

Giggles
took off, making sure that the recordings got onto every radio
station in the city.

Well,
at least the pro-PRO ones.

“Not
content with making this city unbearable to live in, now you're
spreading slander too?!” One particular DJ screamed at Giggles when
she tried to pass the recordings along.

“It's
not SLANDER, it's plain facts! Demon is working with a racist police
force!” Giggles snapped.

“You're
nothing but trouble! Get out of my sight!” The DJ slammed his
office door shut.

Giggles
grimaced, enjoying the last of the air-conditioning before heading to
City Hall.

—

Charlie
was feeling extremely left out. He loathed how Demon had one over on
him, especially as it was his dead grandfather.

Charlie
had never forgiven himself for letting Charles Howzat get killed. He
had never forgiven Demon either. He had tried, because he knew he was
leaving himself wide open to get baited, but he couldn't. He was
useless.

He
sat in the tree by his window, trying to ignore the sweltering heat.
He decided to put the radio on, and chill out to some music. That
would take his mind off things.

“I
can't believe our Mayor is actually allowing Wallace Dingbat to keep
his position. This is untenable.” He heard one talk show saying. He
groaned, and changed the channel.

“Chuckles
and Giggles seem to be on a crusade against common-sense and law and
order. Honestly, it doesn't surprise me that they sunk this low as to
fabricate controversy against our law enforcement.” Another station
blared out.

“Oh
go AWAY!” Charlie groaned. He switched off the radio and rested his
head on his favourite branch. Across the road however, trouble was
brewing.

“How
DARE you let that PRO rubbish litter MY lawn!” A young lady was
yelling at the older lady who lived next door to her.

“You're
not involved in that PCC stuff? Surely not! I thought you'd know
better!” The old lady replied.

Charlie
groaned again, and turned away. Then he heard a smash. He sat up,
smacking his head on a higher branch, but that was nothing to what
had happened to the young lady. The old lady had gotten her son
involved, and he had bottled the younger lady across her head!

“Oh
no, this is getting bad.” Charlie jumped out of the tree and bolted
across the street to stop the young lady's husband from getting into
a fistfight with the son.

“Easy
everyone, let's just go inside and not inflame the situation
further!” He tried to separate the two men.

“I'm
calling the police!” The old lady declared.

“After
you allowed them to be slandered?!” The young lady yelled back,
blood pouring down her face.

“That
woman attacked my mother first!” The son yelled.

“She
wouldn't ever do such thing!” The husband yelled back.

“Please
calm down!” Charlie tried to stop the two men from throwing fists.

This is bad, real
bad. Charlie thought as he
finally gave up and the two men attacked each other. I'm
starting to think my great idea wasn't so great after all…

—

“What
this evidence shows is that our Chief of Police, Wallace Dingbat, has
allowed his racism to take over his work and honestly, I don't think
I want that sort of person in charge of law and order in our city.”
The radio blared. Wallace Dingbat reached over and turned it off. He
turned to the room full of his officers, all of them tense.

“Well
then.” Dingbat started. “Looks like we have someone in the force
who isn't fond of my methods.”

All
of the officers in front of him gulped.

“And
instead of talking to me like an adult, they've gone crying to
Chuckles and Giggles, our resident vigilantes who have zero respect
for the law.” Dingbat continued. He began to pace in front of the
group, enjoying their discomfort.

“Tell
me, who is the one person in this room who is strongly suspected of
having a connection to the allies of Chuckles and Giggles, those
Knights of the Last Order?” Dingbat asked.

It
was like a wave. Everyone made haste to move their chairs away from
TJ, who sat in silent fury.

“Officer
Jacobs. Anything you'd like to share with us?” Dingbat walked over
to his prey.

“What
did you expect to happen when you threw my best friend into the
slammer? That we'd become bosom buddies and go out on double-dates?
Get stuffed you racist, useless piece of bureaucratic trash.” TJ
let the venom out. He was rewarded with a solid punch to the jaw. TJ
hit the ground hard. He barely had a second to register what had
happened when he was jerked back up again by two of his coworkers,
who held him up while Dingbat got in a few more cheap shots.

“Lock
him up.” Dingbat commanded once the torture was over. Bloodied and
dazed, TJ was dragged to the cells.

“Hmm?”
Sammy looked up as his cell door was unlocked. He had to quickly jump
out of the way as TJ was thrown in next to him, looking extremely
worse for wear.

“Teej!”
Sammy cried as the cell door was slammed shut and locked.

“I'm
fine.” TJ coughed and struggled to sit up. “At least they didn't
take my protein bars, right?”

“True.”
Sammy grinned.

The
cell door unlocked again. TJ was hauled up, shaken down, the protein
bars removed, and locked back in the cell again.

“Well
that was rude.” Sammy was NOT impressed.