by Kathi Daley
Denise tossed the can of tuna she’d had in her hand when I’d walked up into her cart. “I guess a first step would be to appoint new council members. There is a rumor going around that James Kingston is circulating a petition which would require the town council to be elected by popular vote rather than appointed. To be honest, I’m not even sure he can do that, but apparently, he is trying.”
I paused to think about Kingston’s plan. “Currently and in the past, the sitting council has voted amongst themselves to fill any open seats. I know Kyle is working on doing that. I don’t know for certain what the bylaws say, but I assume there is some sort of a provision which allows residents to add measures to the local ballot. I’ll have to ask Kyle about it,”
“My first thought was that Kingston wasn’t even a resident, so he shouldn’t be able to add items to our ballot. But then a friend pointed out that he does own property within the town limits. A lot of it. My friend seemed to think that owning property entitles him to vote, but I’m really not sure if she is right or wrong about that.”
“I think that voting is based on residency and you can only be a resident of one state, county, and town, but I might be wrong. I’ve never looked into it.”
“Kingston seems like a smart guy, so I imagine he must have looked into the legalities of circulating a petition to have a measure added to the ballot,” Denise pointed out. “Of course, the next election isn’t until June, but I suppose he saw an opening and decided to jump on it.”
“I guess he might have.”
“I support the idea that anyone who has enough support can ask that an issue is put out to the voters, but you know Kingston is doing what he is because he thinks he can fill the council with men who will vote the way he wants them to vote. Having said that, I do think an elected council is a good idea. In the past, the council has always been a governing board made up of longtime residents who want things done a certain way, but, if you ask me, it’s time for a change. If the measure does make it to the June ballot, I will vote for elected seats on the council with term limits, but I can guarantee you that I won’t be voting for anyone who supports turning our little town into a tourist mecca.”
I could see that the idea of electing town council members was going to be an emotional one on both sides, and while I didn’t disagree with Denise, I really didn’t want to get into a political debate right here in the middle of a crowded grocery store. I was about to suggest a topic change when Denise announced that she had to run. After Denise scurried off, I finished picking up the items I needed and then got into the long line at the checkout counter. I wondered if Kyle knew about the petition Kingston was circulating. I wondered what he thought about the idea if he did know. Kyle was a pretty open-minded guy. I actually thought he might support the idea of an elected town council.
After I finished my errands, I headed toward Kyle’s home, where I found him chatting with Jeff. I was thrilled to see that Jeff was doing better. During those first few days when everyone was in the hospital, I wondered if any of the council members other than Kyle would be able to return to active duty with the town.
“You look a lot better than the last time I saw you,” I teased.
Jeff put a hand to his face, which still bore evidence of the cuts and abrasions he’d suffered. “Hunter has assured me that while I may have a few scars to serve as a reminder of the horrific night, I should make a full recovery.”
I gave Jeff a careful hug. “I’m happy to hear that.”
“Jeff and I are trying to figure out what needs to be done to keep the town open,” Kyle said.
“Which is going to be harder than it might seem,” Jeff added. “Harriet, who has been the mayor’s secretary and town clerk for decades, is gone, the mayor in charge is barely out of the hospital and in no shape to be bothered with town business, and the other two senior town council members are either dead or unconscious. I’ve only been on the council for two months and Kyle for two years, but at this point, we are all the town has.”
I sat down across from the men who were sitting at the dining table. “Can I help?”
“Maybe,” Kyle answered. “At this point, not only do we need to figure out what needs to be done, but we also need to come up with a plan to do it. If you stop and think about it, the town is completely crippled. There are independent contractors to pay, proposals before the town council to be voted on, and day-to-day decisions to make. It will be months and months before the council is able to follow through with any of the projects we were in the middle of implementing or vote on any of the issues we’d been discussing.”
“Which, if you stop to think about it, has benefited James Kingston quite nicely,” I added.
“It does seem that the timing of everything that is going on has worked out for the guy,” Jeff agreed.
“I ran into a friend at the market who told me that James Kingston is circulating a petition to change the town’s bylaws so that the seats on the town council will be elected positions with term limits. Had you heard about that?” I asked Kyle.
“After the dust settled following the explosion, Kingston came to me with a list of names of men he wanted to see added to the council to fill the three open seats,” Kyle informed us. “The men on the list were all on his payroll, and it seemed apparent to me that none of the men he supported would care about town business beyond the vacation rental issue. The town really needs council members who will care about the town as a whole, so I thanked him and told him that I was going in another direction. He told me that he had read the town’s bylaws which allowed for any resident to add a measure to the local ballot if they were able to gather enough signatures. He threatened to support a change to the bylaws which would require an elected council with term limits if I didn’t play his game.”
“Kingston isn’t a resident,” I pointed out.
“Maybe not, but he has employees who are. He’d just need to put their name on the ballot.”
“So is this a real threat?” Jeff asked.
“Not as far as I’m concerned,” Kyle answered. “In my opinion, if the majority of the town’s residents want to see elected positions, then maybe it is time for a change.”
“Maybe but you know that Kingston is just trying to stack the council with people who will support his business ventures,” Jeff pointed out.
Kyle nodded. “I know that stacking the council is his goal, but keep in mind that the citizens who live here still have to vote for the change in the bylaws, and even if that change passes the popular vote, the registered voters still need to elect the candidates they feel would do the best job. I think we should trust the people who live in the area to know what is best for them.”
Kyle was right. It did seem that the residents of Serenity would be able to figure out that Kingston was up to no good. I picked up an envelope that had been sitting near Kyle’s elbow. “What’s this?”
“It is a certified letter that was dropped off this morning.”
“Certified letter from whom?” I asked.
“Kingston’s attorney,” Kyle answered. “He is threatening to sue the town and the individual members of the town council if a ban on vacation rentals is put into place. The letter is dated October 31st.”
I narrowed my gaze. “Lloyd had lunch with Kingston on the day of the explosion, so Kingston must have given him a heads up about his plans to sue everyone which might very well be why Lloyd decided to call the emergency meeting.”
“It seems like it could have waited,” I said.
“Maybe,” Kyle agreed. “Not only was Lloyd Kingston’s friend and colleague, but he was also a town council member. After meeting with Kingston, Lloyd might have decided to let the council members know what was going on before the letter could be delivered.”
I paused to let this sink in. “That does make sense. As a developer, Lloyd was very much against the ban. He may have gotte
n together with Kingston to make a power play. If I had to guess, Lloyd asked Harriet to call the meeting at which time he planned to present a grim picture of a lengthy court case that would cost the town as well as the individual town council members thousands of dollars.”
Kyle nodded. “Lloyd was a very articulate and impassioned man. I’m sure he would have made a heck of a case that the council should just drop the idea of banning vacation rentals before it ended up costing everyone a lot of money.”
“So why is this letter just being delivered to you now?” I asked.
“Once the town hall was destroyed, there was nowhere to deliver mail, so it has been held either at the post office, as in this case, or by the courier service. I spoke to Hazel yesterday, and we opened a post office box for the US mail sent to the town. I have let everyone I can think of, know if they have deliveries or packages to take them to the post office as well. I’m sure it will take a while for word to get out about the temporary address. I anticipate that mail and deliveries will continue to trickle in for months.”
“I can’t say for sure that Kingston would blow up the town hall, but everything does seem to be circling back around to him,” Jeff pointed out. “At the very least, I think we should try to get a look at his banking and phone records.”
I looked at Kyle. “Did you ever find out who had been calling Lloyd in the days leading up to the explosion? With everything else we have been juggling, I forgot about the calls until Jeff just brought up the subject.”
“The calls were from a burner that had been purchased by Lloyd.”
“Lloyd. Why would Lloyd be receiving calls from a phone he purchased?”
“I guess he bought it and gave it to someone for the purpose of communicating with him,” Kyle answered.
That did make sense. I should have thought of that. “So the calls are a dead end?”
Kyle nodded. “Unless new information is made available to us, then I would say yes, the calls are a dead end.”
“We do have a lot of evidence to suggest that Lloyd and Kingston were in cahoots to a certain degree,” Jeff pointed out. “Maybe that information can be used to strong-arm Kingston into telling what he knows.”
Kyle bobbed his head slightly. “I suppose that Roy might want to take a closer look at Kingston, and it does seem possible that he knows more than he has said at this point, but the reason we are meeting today is to come up with a plan to get the town back in business.”
“You’re right,” Jeff agreed. “It is easy to get distracted. Where do we start?”
“It seems to me that the first step is to appoint new members to the council,” Kyle answered. “We need to find replacements for Lloyd, who is definitely not going to be back, and Hank, who is most likely not going to be back, and we still have that open seat to deal with.”
“Okay,” Jeff agreed. “Any suggestions?”
“What about Brandon Halliwell,” Kyle said. Brandon owned one-half of Guns and Roses, a combination flower shop and guns and ammo store, along with his sister, Rita.
“Brandon is a good choice,” Jeff agreed. “He has lived in the area for a long time, he seems to know most of the locals, and he has a good head on his shoulders.”
“What about Rita?” I asked. “She is all of those things as well.”
“I don’t think that it would be a good idea to have a brother and sister team on the council, but both would make good candidates,” Kyle answered. “I think we should add both Brandon and Rita to our list. What about Nick Grainger? He has lived in the area longer than almost anyone.” Nick owned Grainger General Store along with his wife, Emma.
“Nick has the background that would make him a good candidate, but he is getting on in years, and I know he is looking to sell the store so he and Emma can retire,” I informed the men. “What about David Harris?” David owned the local pharmacy.
“David would be a good option,” Kyle said. “We’ll add him to the list as well.”
The room fell into silence as we all considered the question at hand. I could hear the tick-tock of the old grandfather clock that had sat at the foot of the stairs since before I’d first met Zachary. There were actually three council positions to fill in addition to finding a mayor, and finding the best people to fill those positions was going to be key.
“What about Greg Remington,” Jeff suggested, after a moment. “He hasn’t lived in the area as long as some of the others, but he is a hard worker who is well-liked and respected in the community.” Greg was the principal of the high school where I worked. We all agreed that he’d be a good candidate.
The three of us continued to discuss options. It was decided that if Bookman was up for it, Kyle and Jeff would make a list and then discuss the options with him before they tried to put the men and women on the list in any sort of order. As for the town clerk/mayor’s secretary position, Kyle suggested that they post an advertisement for the position and see who applied. Once the list of candidates seemed complete, I decided to ask Jeff about his memories of the night of the explosion. I knew that Kyle wanted to focus on town business, but in my mind, finding the person who killed Harriet and Lloyd was the most important subject of all.
“Harriet texted me about the meeting. I was just closing up my shop, so I headed directly over. When I arrived, Lloyd was already in the council chambers. I asked him what was up and he said he didn’t know, although I had the distinct impression that he did know and just wasn’t ready to talk about it. Bookman came in shortly after, and Harriet came in a few minutes later. Hank came in next, and then you and Kyle came in last, but no one ever did say why we were there. My impression was that whatever was going on was a big deal, and Harriet wanted to wait to fill us in until everyone was there.”
“Did you notice a package or backpack in the room?” I asked.
Jeff shook his head. “No. I wasn’t looking for one, but nothing stood out as being odd. Harriet had that big purse she always carries. She put it in the drawer of her desk, but I didn’t notice that anyone else brought anything in with them.”
“Was anyone in attendance acting oddly?” I wondered. “Unusually nervous or perhaps impatient?”
“No,” Jeff answered. “Lloyd had a serious look on his face, and his tone of voice was sort of flat, but Lloyd can be taciturn at the best of times. Bookman was his usual happy self, but Harriet seemed sort of distracted. I had the feeling she wanted to hurry things along. When Hank first walked in, he seemed irritated about being pulled away from the restaurant, but then he started joking around with Bookman and lightened up considerably.”
“And during the time you were there, did anyone else other than council members enter the building?” I asked.
“Other than you, no.”
Chapter 9
After Jeff left, Kyle and I entered into a discussion about how we wanted to spend our day, but shortly after Jeff drove away, Roy pulled up in his police cruiser, so we put our plans on hold in order to speak to him.
“Do you have news?” I asked after inviting Roy in and offering him coffee.
“I do,” Roy confirmed. “Most of it is good, but some is not so good.”
I sat down on the sofa across from where Roy sat next to Kyle. “So what’s up?”
Roy took a sip of his coffee and then set the mug on the table in front of him before he answered. “First of all, Hank woke up.”
I smiled. “That’s great. When I spoke to Hunter the other day, he told me he wasn’t sure he would.”
Roy rested his elbows on his knees and based on the expression on his face, I had to assume that the not so good news was actually bad news. I figured it was best to give Roy the time he needed to work up to saying what he needed to, so I just sat quietly.
“According to Hunter,” Roy began, “while Hank is conscious and responsive to verbal cues, he has a long recovery ahead of him. Not only is he p
aralyzed from the waist down, but at this point, he is unable to speak, although it is Hunter’s opinion that he will regain the ability to speak over time. As for walking, he isn’t certain. They are moving him to a larger hospital off the mountain where they can deal with his long-term care better. Hunter shared with me the fact that he won’t be at all surprised to find that Hank will never again be able to resume normal activities such as running the restaurant or sitting on the town council.”
Poor Hank. “I guess we should be happy that he pulled through, but if he doesn’t regain the use of his legs, it is going to be tough on him.”
Roy sighed. “Yeah. It is difficult to think of the big Texan in a wheelchair. Still, I imagine that life in a wheelchair is better than no life at all.”
“Were you able to ask him about the night of the explosion?” I realized the odds of him knowing anything were slim, but I still felt the need to ask.
“I tried. I hoped he could nod in response to my questions, but he just looked confused when I brought it up. I don’t think he remembers anything. At least not at this point.”
“Maybe with time.” I glanced at Kyle, who had a look of contemplation on his face. “Anything else?”
Roy bobbed his head slowly. “I was able to speak to the crime scene guys who did have a few of the pieces we were missing. The most interesting thing I discovered is that it looks like the bomb was brought into the building in the purse Harriet was carrying. We don’t know for certain that the bomb was in her purse, but we do know that the explosion originated from the location where her purse was stored.”
“Jeff mentioned that she had brought her purse into the meeting,” I informed Roy. “He said she put it in her desk drawer. Wouldn’t she have noticed the additional weight if it had been added to her purse?”
Roy answered. “The bomb wasn’t all that large and most likely didn’t weigh all that much, but the raw materials that were used made it a powerful one. At this point, we are assuming that the device was made by someone with a background in munitions. What we don’t know is if the person who made the bomb was the one to plant it in Harriet’s purse, or if the person who did the planting simply purchased the bomb from a dealer of some sort.”
