At the office, she hung her coat on the hook by the front door, letting it drip onto the rubber mat below it, shucked off her winter boots, and slipped into her office shoes.

  Nancy handed her a cup of coffee and the agenda for the Monday morning call on Zoom with all the independent attorneys and contractors that worked with her. Not for the first time, Judith wondered how she could ever manage without Nancy.

  She didn’t think she’d ever have to find that out. Although Nancy and Steven—despite his actions towards Daniel’s father—had kept up a relationship, Nancy had assured Judith that she had no intention of leaving Spring Falls or her job. It wasn’t until Nancy had assured her she was staying that Judith realized she had been worried.

  Smiling again at Nancy, Judith glanced at the agenda and headed into her office, pushing the office door open with her hip, the coffee and agenda occupying her hands. She was looking forward to the call, but then she always looked forward to these calls. What’s not to like, she thought. Putting things in order and making things right was fun for her, and it was a joy to be part of a team that did all of that for Spring Falls.

  Besides, she enjoyed each member of her team as a person, and loved the community feeling they had built together. However, today she was a little nervous because there would be a new member of her team on the call. How Tanner Foster would fit in would determine whether she would ask him to return.

  Tanner was a young accountant who had already built a small private practice. But he had contacted Judith, expressing a desire to be part of something bigger than just himself.

  He and Judith had met a few times before she agreed to let him come to a Monday morning call. She had stipulated that he could take part in the meetings, work with her privately, but she wouldn’t assign anyone new to him until she got used to working with him, and the group had accepted him.

  Tanner had agreed, explaining that he often had questions about things that came up with clients and thought that working with Judith and her community of accountants and bookkeepers would be of great help to him.

  He assured Judith that he understood that he was on probation. Even though every member of Judith’s team had their own practice, they were committed to the standards that Judith set. They shared information about clients, if their interests overlapped, so it was critical that everyone was honest and upright. So if the team didn’t trust Tanner, then he would not be invited to return.

  When Tanner had called requesting a meeting, Judith had looked into who he represented and discovered one of his clients was a developer in town. For that reason alone, she was happy to have Tanner join her team. Spring Falls was her town, and she wanted it to remain the beautiful place that it was.

  Judith knew a developer motivated only by profit often built ugly things and hurt people in the process, and she didn’t want that in Spring Falls. If she could stop them behind the scenes, with the help of her team, she would do it. Each member of her team believed in fair practices and sustainability for every person living in Spring Falls.

  Judith knew that keeping Spring Falls beautiful and providing a good life for every citizen was a tall order. But it was something she thought she could do, and anyone who knew her believed she could do it too.

  Closing the door behind her, Judith paused for a moment to take in her office. She loved this space. It was always orderly and clean, and as beautiful as she could make it with a vase of flowers, one of Cindy’s paintings, and soft lighting. Of course, there was also a ring light on her computer, so she was lit well for the call, but that was a necessity in today’s world.

  Closing the blinds behind her so only a soft glow formed behind her head, she turned on the computer and set up the meeting.

  Tanner was there the minute she logged on.

  “I’m so glad I got you before everyone else comes on,” he said. Judith thought he looked a little pale.

  “Are you alright?”

  “Yes. At least I think so. Could we talk after this? I could come by your office later.”

  Judith glanced at her appointment schedule that Nancy had left by her computer and found a time later that day.

  By then, other people started filtering in and Tanner did what she requested, listened, asked a few questions, and shared a little about who he was. She could see that he made a good impression on the group.

  Ninety minutes later, they had covered everyone’s questions and concerns, and Judith was ready for a break. Although she had loved every minute, she found the meetings exhausting. Nancy always scheduled breathing room after every Monday morning meeting so that Judith would have time to herself.

  Lying back on her couch, Judith closed her eyes and let herself briefly float away. It was an important part of her day. Often, she would wake up with solutions to things that were bothering her. Today she hoped she’d have a better sense of what was different about Marshall on Saturday night.

  She hoped he was enjoying himself on his warm vacation because Tanner had asked a question in the meeting that worried her, and she thought Marshall might be connected with it. She couldn’t wait to question Tanner and Marshall about it.

  Six

  Emma Drake spent a few minutes warming up before starting her run. Her mother thought Emma was crazy to go out running in this kind of weather. But Emma felt she knew herself well enough to know when she needed to get out of the house for a run. Otherwise, moods built up, and that was never a good thing.

  Besides, the wind and snow had stopped, and now it was just cold. A few minutes of running would warm her up. Besides, she wasn’t careless about running in this kind of weather. She had chains on her running shoes and was wearing the warm weather gear her uncle Daniel had given her for her birthday. Or maybe it was for Christmas. It was probably a combination of both, since she knew how expensive each item was.

  Emma had always hated having her birthday so close to Christmas, but with her newly-developed sixteen-year-old wisdom, she decided she would be grateful she got to celebrate twice in such a beautiful season.

  But now it was February, and it was not her favorite month. It was the mud and slush mixed with icy winds and snow season. She couldn’t wait until March arrived. At least in March, despite some snow, and the mud and slush, there were hints of spring.

  On one of their walks in the woods together, Bree had told Emma that there were hints of spring in February too. You just had to look. Birds were searching out nesting sites and tiny shoots of early spring bulbs were visible.

  But today Emma wasn’t looking for signs of spring, she was looking for inspiration for her art. A few months into Cindy’s art classes, Emma had started looking at the world entirely differently. Now she saw a world filled with beauty in small and unexpected places. Now she could look at tree lines and building lines against the sky and could find beauty in both.

  What she wanted to learn was how to express in her art the feelings that all that beauty in unexpected places brought out in her.

  Cindy had told Emma to try out many styles, to not get locked into anything. That’s why they not only painted in art class, but they sculpted, drew with charcoal, made collages, and did weavings. Emma thought Cindy was scouring the internet for ways to make art and then making them try it out.

  At first, Emma didn’t like it. She wanted to paint with actual paint, not watercolors. She hadn’t wanted to sculpt or stick stuff onto cardboard. But she had noticed that trying all those mediums had changed how she expressed herself. Not just in her paintings, but in her dance classes with Marsha.

  Even Marsha had noticed the difference in her. The other day, Marsha complimented Emma on how well she was doing in ballet class. Emma thought some of that improvement could also be attributed to the yoga class she and her mother took together once a week from Marsha.

  Life was so much better than it had been when they first arrived in Spring Falls. She had made a few friends her age, something she had never had before, and the Ruby Sisters kept providing opportunities for her. Plus, she had an uncle now, someone she had admired even before she found out they were related.

  Daniel was like having a fairy godfather. He had bought them a house in town and had transferred some of the money from his father’s estate to them.

  She still worked part time at Cindy’s gallery, even though they could pay for her classes now, but she liked the work. Mimi and Janet were showing her how Cindy’s art business ran and she thought it was fascinating. Everything in her life was better than she ever thought possible.

  As Emma stepped outside, she yelled back to her mother that she was going, and heard her mother yell back, “Stay safe!”

  At her mother’s request, Emma had put the Find A Friend app on her phone so her mom would know where she was when she was out exploring. It seemed a minor concession in return for being on her own much more, and secretly she was glad that someone always knew where she was. It did feel safer that way.

  Today Emma was heading off to what Judith called the Nature Safety Zone, because it was a place where all nature could flourish. It was a band of land that would eventually circle the town, keeping Spring Falls a beautiful place to live. It was really called the Green Zone, but Emma liked Judith’s name better.

  When Emma first found out about it, she thought it was a joke. What town would keep part of its valuable land safe from developers? She and her mother had lived in many ugly places. Towns and cities where developers had built ugly buildings, strip malls, rows of look-alike blocky houses. Sometimes it hurt her just to look at the things around her as they drove down the street.

  It was one reason she had fallen in love with Spring Falls. It tried and succeeded, for the most part, to be beautiful. Sure, there were places that needed to be fixed up, but on the whole, the town was beautiful. There were entire neighborhoods that felt like wonderful places to live. Each house was unique and yet fit in with one another. Like the people I’ve met, Emma thought

  Judith had explained that the circle wasn’t complete yet, though. Some of the land was still owned by families. What Judith and other members of the Green Zone Trust community had done was convince each of those families to deed the land at their deaths to the Trust that protected the land. If they wanted to, they could also sell the land to the Trust while they were alive but continue to live on it for the rest of their lives.

  It took a lot of money to do this, all of which came from donations, because no one would get wealthy from the land. Plus, it needed to be maintained, which was also expensive. Emma knew Judith was instrumental in getting the donations for the purchases and the maintenance, and she was the treasurer of the committee that watched over the Trust. Judith was constantly promoting the value of keeping Spring Falls beautiful to her many clients.

  Emma had decided to make it her business to know that strip of land well. And when she got famous, she would dedicate a portion of her sales from her art to the Trust. It was something she knew Cindy had set up in her business, and Emma assumed that every Ruby Sister was doing the same thing.

  As for being famous, Emma had no doubt she would be. She was only sixteen, but she had known who she was and what she wanted since she was a little girl, and now she no longer needed to hide it from anyone.

  Emma knew her mom would say she was still a little girl, but she knew she wasn’t. She was young, yes, but not a little girl. Bree told her she had the heart of a lion. Emma wasn’t exactly sure what that meant, but she liked it. She would repay all the kindness the town had shown her since they had moved in by making sure it remained beautiful.

  With one last glance back at the house they were living in now, a house that Daniel had bought and Cindy and Seth were renovating for them, she waved to her mother standing in the window, and headed towards the Green Zone. She wanted to know the Green Zone well, and she would do it one section at a time.

  Seven

  It was the cleaning crew hired by the realtor who found him. According to the schedule, they had arrived at 10:00 a.m. Monday morning to prepare the house for sale—dusting, scrubbing, and ensuring the property was in tip-top condition.

  The realtor was the only person in on the secret that Marshall would never return to Spring Falls. That while the town prepared for his retirement party, he prepared to leave them forever.

  What the realtor was blissfully unaware of was the sly satisfaction that Marshall harbored about his secret. He had been relishing the fact that he was departing town, leaving behind what would become a chaotic storm. This storm, this mess, would unravel the moment the first reader flipped open his book. And when it did, it would take far more than a diligent cleaning crew to restore peace and order.

  For months, Marshall had slowly sold everything of value in his home. He never had visitors in his house. It was a rule of his. He held all his meetings in public spaces. His home was his sanctuary. No business was allowed in it. This rule had ensured that on the off chance someone dropped by, they would not have noticed the changes as he and his realtor staged it for the sale.

  By the time Marshall had gone to his retirement party, there was nothing in the closets or cupboards. Nothing personal remained in the house but the clothes in his suitcase, and his computer. That was all he needed for his new life. Where he was going, he would be a wealthy man and he would buy what he needed when he got there.

  For Marshall, the most tantalizing aspect of his impending journey was the promise of a warmer climate. There would be no need for a cumbersome overcoat or the insulation of snow boots. No more laborious snow shoveling or the endless mowing of lawns. He would be truly free. He would hire help for any necessary tasks.

  Marshall was looking forward to shedding the facade of a modest lifestyle sustained on a meager mayor’s salary. Now, he could finally indulge in a life of comfort and ease. At first, he had planned to live an unassuming life when he moved, but soon realized that he wanted to be known as a very wealthy, self-made man. No one had ever given him anything. He earned every penny, and he deserved it.

  Marshall had a plan. He’d wear his heavy winter coat to the airport, a symbol of his past life, and then simply discard it in the waiting room. The act would be akin to shedding his skin, much like a snake. This analogy pleased Marshall, for he knew he was indeed a snake. Not an ordinary garden variety, but a poisonous and dangerous one.

  That he had slithered unnoticed through the community of Spring Falls, subtly poisoning their town, was a source of astonishment even to him. He had successfully executed his venomous plot without a hint of suspicion. He had gotten away with it. No one knew what he had been doing for forty years.

  That wasn’t quite true. A few individuals had been privy to the darker aspects of Marshall’s activities, but only because they assisted him. Or because he bribed them to help by holding their crimes against them. They remained silent because their complicity served their interests. Some of them, Marshall felt, were as serpentine as he was.

  He pictured their meetings together as a gathering of snakes, coiling around each other, hissing, flicking out forked tongues, and rattling their tails. Yet they never dared to bite him. He was the dominant serpent in this reptilian hierarchy, and they were well aware of it.

  He had pledged to guard their secrets, and they had every reason to reciprocate. It was a code of honor among thieves. But they lacked the foresight to realize that once he had ensured his own safety from any fallout, he would expose them, reveling in their naivete.

  That was his plan. And it was a good one. There was no reason for Marshall to suspect that his plan would backfire, that his forty years of service and the admiration he had inspired would all dissolve in an instant.

  So when the cleaning crew found him at the bottom of his stairs—his winter coat spread out underneath him, the red silk lining hiding the pool of blood that surrounded him, his eyes wide open—they screamed, and then cried. And continued crying as they called 911. Their beloved mayor was dead.

  Later, describing the scene to Bree, Booker told her that Marshall looked astonished. And he was. In that last minute, as life drained out of him, Marshall realized he had misjudged the person who had pushed him down the stairs. And all the work he had put into becoming a wealthy man was for naught. He couldn’t take it with him.

  In the final moments of his life, Marshall could only watch as his attacker absconded with his computer and his carefully constructed novel, and he knew he had failed. Those he had intended to expose would continue to thrive in their positions. The possibility even loomed that one of them might step into his shoes and continue what he had begun.

  The individual who now possessed his computer held all the necessary information to devastate countless lives. The illicit wealth they could amass from Marshall’s painstaking efforts felt like the ultimate betrayal. His life’s work would become someone else’s tool for personal gain.

  Not fair, was Marshall’s last thought on earth.

  Eight

  The news rippled through the town like a shock wave. Within an hour, the death of their beloved mayor had become the source of discussion everywhere. Word had gotten out initially through a member of the cleaning crew who, overwhelmed by the shocking discovery, had confided in a friend. From there, the news spread like wildfire. Neighbors huddled on porches, texts spread with lightning speed, and the town’s gossip mill went into overdrive.

  However, the only information available was that the mayor had been found dead, presumed to have fallen down the stairs. By the time Booker reached the scene, it seemed that half of Spring Falls was already aware of the devastating news. Any attempt to control the media narrative was futile at this point. The news was too far spread, the town too abuzz.

  What Booker hoped for now was that, amidst this frenzy, they could glean some valuable information about Marshall’s family. As the media turned its spotlight on the mayor’s sudden death, it seemed inevitable that it would uncover more about his private life.