Escaping From Paradise by Gary Whitmore - HTML preview

Chapter 22

Three hours later, the thirteen West Palm County deputy sheriff’s had taken all the statements from the seventy town folk in the saloon.

The deputies took statements about the suicides, rapes, and hangings of the townsfolk.

Anita allowed the deputies to search the mansion where they found the files Blaine Fisher kept on all the cowboys. This provided evidence that some of them were on the lamb from different states. One of them was Tony Moore, who was profiled on that TV show “We’ll Find Ya.”

Two hours later, the thirteen deputies arrested Marshall Fisher, his cowboys, and Chief Merijildo. Josh helped transport them back to the reality of jail time.

At Fisher’s West Palm mansion, they were loaded to a bus that transported them to the county jail to await their trial for rape, kidnapping, and murder.

A West Palm Beach County Crime Scene Unit was in the land of Paradise. They dug up the dead bodies of Mindy Stone, Jerry Barrow, Bob Jackson, Willard Peabody, Nora Norris, Kent Paul, and Irwin Ulrich.

The next day was the day for the town folk of Paradise to return back to reality if they so desired, and everybody desired to get out of Paradise.

The next day, all talk of the rape, kidnapping, and murder in the fantasy land of Paradise was all over the major news networks around the world.

This worked in favor of Anita, as it was free advertising for her idea of turning Paradise into a fantasy vacation place.

A few weeks later and Josh and Jenny moved in together in his place in Orlando. But discussions were held with Anita, and she wanted them to join her back in West Palm Beach with an excellent job offer. Since Josh and Jenny were unemployed, they decided to take Anita up on her offer and moved down to West Palm Beach and moved into Fisher’s mansion.

During the next four weeks, Anita, Josh, and Jenny started planning and implementing the “Old West Paradise Vacation” idea with the land of Paradise. Anita figured that the publicity of the upcoming trial of her father and the cowboys would be free advertising.

The Paradise vacation spot kept some of the old western ways with the outhouses and lack of running water to give it that old west feel.

The Dining Hall was upgraded to include more options for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

People had the option of being Indians, where some real Seminole Indians were hired to head up that option.

There was the option of joining the Cavalry, where retired Army guys headed up that option using fake gunfights that occurred with the Indian vacationers.

There was also a cowboy option where you could move a heard of cattle through the desert and camp out under the stars.

There was an option where you could be the Marshall or one of the five deputies of Paradise, where some paid actors pretended to be the outlaws. Besides robbing the stagecoach, they would rob the bank.

And then there was the option of just being everyday ole town folk of Paradise with dances and other parties.

When arriving into the land of Paradise, the stagecoach still took the vacationers into town where the actor outlaws pretended to rob you, but without any violence.

Plus, the Paradise Express still ran down the tracks through the land of Paradise for enjoyment.

You can’t forget the Saturday night dance that would be held inside the Dining Hall.

The chefs, waiters, hotel workers, etc., were all paid employees with benefits. Plus, there was an agreement with the West Palm Beach sheriff’s department where they could pop in at any time for a quick check.

Anita placed her website on the Internet, offering an old west vacation in Paradise for $1,000 a person for seven days. The website allowed people to register where there were one hundred slots per week. The vacationers would arrive in Paradise on Sunday night and leave the following Sunday morning.

A week later and she had one year of reservations filled and had the potential of this turning into a six million dollars a year business. She was elated and made Harold, Josh, and Jenny equal partners. With the potential earnings of six Million dollars a year, Anita discussed with Harold, Josh, and Jenny the idea of a Medieval Times type of vacation place with Knights, sword fights, jousting, etc. They all agreed and projected that might come along in five years.

During the first week the old west Paradise vacations started, there was a wedding in the Dining Hall where Anita married Harold fulfilling her childhood dream.

Two more months had passed, and the vacation weeks in Paradise were a hit, and the vacationers had a ball.

Then one Sunday evening at 5:00 p.m., Josh stood by the counter in the lobby of the Fisher mansion, where the vacationers would report to start their week. Above the counter was the “Old West Fantasy Vacations” banner and off on the nearby wall hung a “Medieval Times Fantasy Coming In Near Future” poster.

“Hi Josh,” Kathy’s voice was heard while Josh looked down at the list of vacationers for this week.

Josh turned around and saw Kathy walking toward the counter.

“Hi Kathy,” he replied and appeared disinterested in seeing her.

Kathy looked up at the banner above the counter. “Ricky told me about your new job here.”

She walked over to Josh and gave him a kiss on his lips.

Josh pushed her away. “What do you want, Kathy?”

Kathy got close to Josh and cuddled with him. “I’m so sorry for the way I treated you. I thought we could start all over again?” she said while getting flirty with him.

Josh pushed Kathy away. “I thought you were seeing Paul?” he asked her.

Kathy looked sad. “He cheated on me with Becky down in finance.”

Josh smiled, knowing that Kathy was finally at the receiving end of that scene.

Jenny walked up to Josh and kissed his cheek.

“Kathy, meet Jenny, my fiancé,” he said with a huge grin.

Kathy looked rejected.

“Oh, you must be that girl. Well, thank you for giving me such a great man,” she told her with a smile.

Kathy walked away, sad.

Jenny looked at the list of vacationers for this week while a couple walked up to them where the man picked the Cavalry option, and his wife chose the living in Paradise option.

Kathy watched from the front entrance while Josh and Jenny processed that couple, and she looked like she could kick herself in her butt for screwing up with Josh.

Three months had passed. The trial for Marshall Fisher, his cowboys, and Chief Merijildo was over. They were found guilty of rape, kidnapping, and some were found guilty of murder. They would never be set free on society again and got what they deserved.

Then during the following week, Josh and Jenny stayed in Paradise, and they were married in the desert with the beautiful sunset and one hundred and fifty vacationers as guests. The reception party that followed was impressive.