Bruce had watched the exchange, intrigued, sipping his coffee. He and Judith had been through many adventures together, some light-hearted and others gravely serious. He always admired her ability to balance her dedication to her profession with her personal life with him and the Ruby Sisters.

  And although she hadn’t said anything, he knew she thought what Pedro and Emma had to tell her would confirm what they already had begun to uncover. It meant that they were on another adventure together. But a part of him was more worried than usual.

  Despite both of them being worried, Bruce and Judith enjoyed their meal together. They laughed at shared jokes and discussed plans for the weekend. They decided that maybe they’d even go to the theater to see a movie. Something they hadn’t done before.

  But behind the casual conversation, Bruce could see Judith’s mind working diligently, trying to connect the dots and prepare herself for the meeting with Emma and Pedro.

  After lunch, Bruce walked Judith to her office, stuck his head in the door to say hello to Nancy, and then walked to his office to meet with his next client. It was someone who wanted to make sure his land went to the Green Zone Trust at his death. Bruce smiled to himself as he wrapped his coat around him and ducked his head at the chill wind.

  The sidewalks had been shoveled, but they were still wet and a little slippery, so he was extra careful as he walked. The last thing he needed to do was fall and hurt himself, because as soon as the snow melted and it warmed up a few degrees, he planned to start running again. He had run in his youth, but had given it up a few years before meeting Judith, thinking he was too old to be running. But hearing about the runs that Daniel and Emma often took together inspired him to begin again. He didn’t want to run far, maybe just to the Green Zone.

  The Green Zone was one of the many reasons he loved Spring Falls. He knew that the circle it made around the town was almost complete.

  There were just a few more tracts of land to add to it, and then the land around Spring Falls would be preserved forever as a place for nature to thrive. It would remain undeveloped except for the walking trails. He and Judith had explored some of the trails in the summer, and he couldn’t wait to go back to enjoy them again.

  Bruce was grateful that he could play a minor part in completing the Green Zone. But when his client arrived and Bruce saw the look on his face, something told him it would not be as easy as he thought.

  Thirty

  By Tuesday afternoon, Margaret was exhausted. She shouldn’t have let Colin come over at all. Should have turned him away at the door. Colin and his “I Know More Than You” intellectual attitude had always made her want to strangle him.

  But he had once been useful, and sometimes fun. Not anymore. Once she was mayor, she would start cleaning out the Council. New blood. Hell, she could start now. She was acting as mayor. Now she was glad that yesterday Colin never got around to approaching the two people she had picked. She had been wrong. What she really needed were people who were beyond reproach. The goody two shoes of the world were going to be her new best friends. If the people of Spring Falls trusted the Council, they’d trust her as their mayor.

  Which meant that she would not hide from Marshall’s death and what could be revealed because of it. Instead, she’d get out in public and start talking. A press conference was a good start. This way, it would look as if she was in charge of finding out what happened. And when news started to leak out about the developments—which she was sure would happen at any time—she would be ahead of it and could control the narrative.

  All she had to do was lie convincingly. Besides, even if someone realized she was lying, she’d just lie more. After all, she had sufficient evidence to prove that many people believed liars long after they knew they were lying, as long as the lies suited their agenda.

  All she had to do was appear as if she was looking out for the common folks. She’d make them believe she cared about them and their tiny, insignificant lives. And when, and if, what she had done leaked out, she’d call all of them liars and accuse them of persecuting her for their own agenda. She’d model her actions after the person doing it now in her own country. It worked for him, it would work for her.

  Margaret knew well that eventually what she and the Council had done would become public knowledge, and that’s why there were only two possible courses of action: run or declare that she was innocent. It was a no-brainer of a choice. She wasn’t running. She had spent her whole life preparing for this moment, and no one was going to take that away from her. The only solution was to claim innocence.

  If Walter or Colin choose to run, that only made them look guilty, not her. She almost wished they would. Having them around could complicate things.

  But even though she would claim that she was innocent and knew she could pull it off, she wasn’t stupid. Since the moment Marshall had died, she had begun destroying anything that might point to her. She had been shredding and burning documents for days. She was burning them because Margaret knew that there were machines that could put shredded documents back together. And even though there couldn’t possibly be one in Spring Falls, she wasn’t taking any chances.

  Right now, her living room fireplace was full of shredded documents going up in smoke. That was one good thing about the snowstorm and the cold. No one would wonder why there was smoke coming out of her chimney. She had logs in the fireplace with the paper so that the smoke looked like wood smoke. If she had to stay up all night to make sure every trace of what she had done was gone, she would. She had destroyed the online documentation first. All of this was because she was sure Booker would soon come calling.

  As for Walt and Colin, she wasn’t really worried. They had no official documents, and if they kept their own records and tried to release them, she’d accuse them of fake news. That included all the other people they had bribed to look the other way, or to change zoning requirements. No one actually ever saw her. It was always Marshall. And since he was now dead and his records were gone, he couldn’t accuse her of anything.

  Margaret knew it meant all the developments they had been doing and were planning were over. Margaret was sure Booker would soon find out enough to have all construction stopped. But it was over anyway the minute Marshall died. Actually, she had seen the end of everything months before when Tanner started asking questions. She thought she could control him, but it didn’t take long to realize she had made a mistake with him.

  Stretching her long legs out as she sat at her desk, she sighed. She hated shutting everything down. What a loss of money it was going to be! But perhaps once this was all over, she could begin again, legally this time. In the meantime, she had enough money put away where no one could find it that would last her a lifetime if she wasn’t too extravagant.

  And even if they found the corporation and the money that Marshall had taken, it didn’t affect her. And Marshall had stored it safely away where no one in any country could touch it. Eventually, she might find a way to get to it, but she was going to let it go for now.

  What was important was that she was Acting Mayor now, and would soon be the Mayor. All of this was just a stepping stone. So whatever it took to get elected, she would do it, and that meant first getting rid of all the evidence that she had any part in Marshall’s scheme.

  Part of her wanted to apologize to Marshall. She had been his friend and partner for years. But she stopped herself from feeling any guilt. After all, he was the one who had betrayed her. He had been planning to leave town and never come back. Leaving them all with the mess he made—setting all of them up to take the hit for what he had started.

  Well, he had underestimated her. Everyone always had.

  Thirty One

  By 2:45, Veronica, Pedro, and Emma were at Judith’s office, having decided to all go there together. Pedro was grateful that Veronica and Emma included him. This whole thing made him nervous. Would Judith believe he found the cufflink and didn’t steal it?

  A cluster of comfortable chairs made up the waiting room in front of Nancy’s desk, and the three of them sat there, not saying anything. Emma got her phone ready to show Judith the pictures. With nothing else to occupy her time, she shuffled quickly through her Instagram, stopping to look at dancers, birds, and videos, barely noticing anything else.

  At exactly 3:00, Nancy, efficient as ever, ushered them into Judith’s office, made sure they had what they wanted to drink, and closed the door behind her, wishing she could have kept the door open. She wanted to hear what was happening. She knew something was up, something different. Nancy couldn’t wait to have Judith fill her in on what it was about.

  To Nancy, it felt that ever since they had found out that Marshall had died, everything was out of place. His death was like a massive wind storm sweeping through life in Spring Falls, reordering some things, toppling others, while revealing something rotten inside, like an old tree.

  In Judith’s office, Pedro was having trouble sharing. Everyone waited patiently until Judith said, “It’s okay, Pedro,” and he believed that it just might be. Sighing, he reached into his pocket, and with a trembling hand gave the cufflink to Judith.

  “I didn’t steal it. I found it.”

  “Well, of course you didn’t steal it,” Judith said, smiling at him, feeling the heft of the cufflink in his hand, thinking he was worried over nothing. But then, seeing how serious he was, she paused. She didn’t live his life. A life where some people assumed people like him were thieves.

  “I’m sorry, Pedro, that you would need to worry about such a thing. Tell me where you found it. And it feels like you have more you would like to tell me. Don’t be afraid. I’m listening.”

  Looking at Veronica and Emma for encouragement, Pedro told Judith where he had found the cufflink and had simply slipped it into his pocket, forgetting about it and taking it home by mistake. He explained he was worried that if he returned it now, his boss wouldn’t believe him and would accuse him of stealing.

  And then, taking a deep breath, he also told her that he and his neighbors were being told they had to find some place else to live, but none of them had enough money to move. And even if they did, where would they go? Each day brought them all closer to being evicted, and they were terrified.

  As he talked, Judith felt anger override the worry she had been carrying around. Controlled anger was something she treasured. It meant there was something she could do. Worry never seemed to bring a solution to anything.

  “This is wrong, Pedro. I promise to find out what is going on, and if at all possible, put a stop to it.”

  “These pictures might have something to do with it,” Emma said, holding out her phone.

  “This is in the Green Zone?” Judith asked, her voice tight.

  “I think so. It’s why I brought it to you. Perhaps I’m wrong. But what if I’m not?”

  For Judith, things began to click together. What Barbara and Tanner had told her, Pedro being forced to move, and now construction where there shouldn’t be. Finally, she was seeing how all of it connected. Now, she had to prove a crime had been committed and stop it from continuing.

  And she was sure this was why Marshall had died. Someone thought they could cover it up. But they couldn’t. Because she was going to do something about it.

  Pedro stared at Judith. He had heard that when she got angry, her red hair flared and thought it was a myth. But now he saw it was true, and he was extremely glad that it wasn’t him that her anger was directed at.

  He almost felt sorry for who she was angry with. Almost.

  Thirty Two

  Judith walked Emma, Veronica, and Pedro to the door, assuring them she would take what they told her and do something about it.

  “I am sure I’ll still need your help, but don’t worry, we’ll stop what’s happening.”

  As she buttoned her coat, Emma told Judith that once the snow cleared, she was planning to go back to the Green Zone and take more pictures. Both Veronica and Judith wanted to tell her not to, but knowing that she’d do it anyway, made her promise to be careful. When Emma said she’d ask her uncle Daniel to go with her, they were both relieved.

  Pedro shook her hand and said, “Thank you for helping us.”

  “I have done nothing yet,” Judith answered.

  “But you will, I know,” he said, smiling, adding to himself, I hope it’s in time.

  Judith walked back to her office, closed the door, and placed a phone call to Booker. When he answered, she said, “I have more information to share with you about what we think Marshall and the town council have been doing. Did Tanner and Barbara come to see you?”

  There was a long silence. Judith looked at her phone to make sure the call was still there.

  “Booker?”

  “Yes.” Booker answered so quietly that she could barely hear him. “Yes, Tanner is here. But Barbara is dead. Tanner found her.”

  Tanner sat in the police station holding his head in his hands, bent over, his elbows on his knees, trying to keep himself as still as possible. Breathe in, breathe out, he was saying to himself. It was a trick his mother taught him.

  Inside, he sobbed the word, “Mom.” When he was in school and bad things happened, she was always the first one there to comfort him.

  “It’s okay,” she would say to him, holding him tightly when he was young, and patting him on the back as he got too old to be hugged. Or so he told her then. But now, he’d do anything to have her be there, enfolding him in her arms.

  And that it was impossible for his mother to ever comfort him again made him want to cry. Out loud. Not care that he was in a police station.

  When he felt a hand patting his back saying, “It’s okay,” for a minute, he almost believed that he was wrong. His mother hadn’t died years before. She was there now. For him.

  But then he recognized the voice and knew it was Judith. Tanner still wanted to turn and sob into her arms, but he stopped himself. He barely knew her. He was a grown man.

  Still, she kept her hand on his back until he was able to sit up and look at her.

  When she said, “I’m sorry, Tanner,” he believed she was. But why did people say that? They did nothing wrong. What were they sorry for?

  Still, he had been trained to be polite, so he said, “Thanks.” And once again, his brain asked him why he said thanks to something so stupid. Thanks for being sorry? No, he was thankful that she was there.

  So he said, “Thanks,” again, adding, “For being here.”

  News of Barbara’s death spread like wildfire through Spring Falls, just as it had the day before over Marshall’s death. With whispers now suggesting Marshall’s death was no accident, rumors ran rampant. Had Barbara met a similar fate? The town, once shaken by Marshall’s incident, now trembled with anxiety and unease.

  In Judith’s office, the phone rang non-stop. Nancy patiently responded to each call, reiterating that Judith was out, and they had no more information than anyone else. She tried to reassure the callers, promising that Judith would get to the bottom of it and all would be well.

  But internally, doubt gnawed at Nancy. She suspected Judith might be holding back some details. And, given the sudden shift from a harmonious town to one clouded in fear, Nancy felt the residents’ dread might not be misplaced. The conversations between Judith, Tanner, and Barbara worried her. Had they missed a crucial opportunity to intervene?

  She imagined Judith grappling with guilt and questioning if they could’ve done something more to protect Barbara and Tanner. The snowstorm had falsely lulled them into thinking they had time. They were blindsided by the harsh reality that time was, in fact, running out.

  Yet each time the phone rang, Nancy’s professional demeanor didn’t waver. She comforted and reassured, emphasizing Judith’s commitment to the townspeople. With every repetition of “Yes, all is well,” she felt a small flicker of hope. By day’s end, she almost believed her own words. Almost.

  Thirty Three

  Margaret heard the news from Colin, who had heard it from a friend in the police station. He thought she’d want to know right away. She did.

  When he called, she was still sitting at her desk in her home office, having never made it out of her house. There had been too much shredding, burning and deleting to do. She thanked Colin for the call, hung up, and then allowed herself a minute to feel sorry for Barbara. But she had no time to think about sorrow. Everything was falling apart.

  She needed to make a plan for the Council that would work. Now she needed to replace three people. The only bright spot was that she had already decided to recruit people who questioned nothing and were not greedy. Compliant and not greedy. How many people did she know like that? Not many. But she’d find them and that was that.

  In her heart, Margaret knew she was doing the right thing by closing down what they had been doing with Marshall. She didn’t want to, but she had to. She was on her own now. There was no one she could trust.

  Within minutes of Colin’s call, her phone rang again. She ignored it. It rang again. She ignored it again. But then, glancing at the number, she recognized it as the manager of her restaurant. Annoyed because he had other people he was supposed to call, and never call her directly unless it was an emergency, she answered with a harsh, “What?”

  After a long pause, when Margaret had almost hung up on him, he finally said, “Heard through the gossip going around the restaurant that Barbara is dead.”

  In her head, Margaret said all the swear words she could think of, but to her manager, she quietly said, “Thanks for letting me know,” and hung up. Furious. How did that news get all over town so quickly?