New plan

Ok, so I know the story isn't exactly matching the title anymore but some things have changed since I started writing it. So I'll change the title later but for now try not to get too caught up in the discrepency. And I realize there seems to be a big gap between the last post and this one but I had writers block so I moved on and hopefully I can go back later and fill in the middle.

Rance nearly fell off his chair trying to answer the phone before it woke Corri or Brandon. "Hello?"

"Rance, this is Jess. What are you doing?"

"Nothing really. Why?"

"I need to talk to you. Meet me at Martha's in say 30 min."

"Alright. Whats going on?"

"Just meet me at Martha's."

As Rance drove into town he couldn't help but anticipate the worst. Everyone was on edge with Evans trial. Now that Andi was dead if Evan wasn't found guilty he would have custody of Brandon, and from what Jess had heard things weren't looking good. When Rance pulled into the Martha's parking lot Jess motioned for Rance to get in the pickup. "So what's up?"

"The jury just came back with a not guilty verdict. I haven't told Sam yet, she'll be devastated." Rance didn't know what to do. He'd been prepping himself for this but somewhere in his mind he had been convinced that the jury would find Evan guilty. "I think we should get the girls together when we tell them. They'll need each other."

Rance sat in silence for a few long moments before he was even able to think. "What are we going to do? Evan can't have Brandon back, he'll just kill him too. It'll kill Corri to give Brandon to him. We have to do something Jess."

"I know. That's why I called you. Sam and I weren't on board with your plan before but now it doesn't seem so drastic."

Rance was shocked. "You mean killing him? You really want to kill him?"

"Didn't Moses say an eye for an eye?"

"Yeah. I mean I agree with you, I just didn't think you'd ever be the one to say it. So you want to stick with the hunting accident?"

"No. It would be too obvious. Every one knows we think he's guilty and if we were suddenly taking him hunting with us and then he turned up missing rumors would start to fly. We need to have a realistic story to fall back on."

Rance examined Jess's expression. He could tell that Jess had a plan.

Jess waited. He knew Rance was mulling it all over, probably trying to decide if Jess had a plan or not. He did have a plan but he wasn't just going to blurt it out. He had spent all morning working on the details, as if he were working a murder, trying to find the faults and the holes. He wanted to make Rance work through it with him, just to give him another chance to examine the whole idea.

"So how you want to go at it? Suicide, drowning, just disappearance, what?"

"Well, what do you think will look the most accidental?"

"Well, I don't know." Rance just thought about it for a long time, trying to think over what people might believe would just happen to Evan. "Well he likes to fish so we could probably pull off a drowning. On the other hand a lot of people in town figure he killed Andi so maybe we could stage a suicide and people will think his conscious got to him. But then I don't know maybe just killing him and hiding the body is the best bet."

Jess could see that Rance wasn't just going to work it out like he had hoped. "OK, well I do have an idea. I want you to work it out with me though because my kids are not growing up knowing their parents are in prison. We have to work this so it can't be solved. Disappearances are hardly ever just that and its nearly impossible to hide a body and know for sure that it won't be found. Suicide is a plausible story but there's a lot more chances to screw up and leave evidence that way."

Rance considered what Jess said. He hadn't pointed out any faults with the drowning. "But how will we know when and where he'll be fishing? We can't very well call and ask. He'll never tell us plus then they could link our conversation to what happens."

"Right. We can't call him and we can't talk to him in any public places and your probably right about him not talking to us." Jess could tell that Rance was catching on. He liked hearing someone else work it out because it gave him a chance to look at the plan from an outside perspective.

"We could follow him on Saturday mornings and hope he was headed fishing."

"We could but someone might see us. Or he might notice us."

"Wait. Every year doesn't he go fishing the day before Thanksgiving. Something about fish being a more traditional meal for his people?"

"Yeah he does."

"Well I know his favorite place to fish is the south side of the reservoir. Corri made me go with him a couple of times. We could just be there waiting for him. And the bank is nearly a cliff there so a tumble wouldn't seem strange." Rance thought over what he had just proposed. He was pleased with it. The fine details would need to be worked out but it seemed that the general idea was good.

"Your a step farther then I was. I didn't know where he like to fish. We'll have to work out the details so we don't leave a trail but I think so far we've got a cut and dry accidental death. That is as long as he dies. If he doesn't he'll be able to identify us and we both go away for attempted murder."

"If he survives that fall he'll be a miracle. The waters down this year and he'll have to fall over 20 foot of bolders before he hits water. Even if the fall doesn't kill him he'll be cold cocked and drown before he wakes up."

"Now we just get the girls to agree and work the details and then we'll get rid of the little creep."