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For Joe - or See No Evil - the world was always rosy, an odd outlook for a fire chief. However, there weren't that many fires in Lake Bluff, and the ones that we did have weren't serious. People lived too close together and minded one another's business too well for a fire to ever get out of hand.
The room went silent as all eyes turned to me.
"Oops," Joe murmured.
I wasn't sure what to say. I'd left because I had to. Needed to. Come back for the same reason. But I didn't want to discuss that with them.
I straightened. If I meant to be the mayor and not just play at it, I needed to be the mayor. Now was as good a time as any to begin.
"All right. " I rapped my knuckle on the tabletop twice. "We've yapped enough. "
"Aye?" Malcolm cupped his ear.
"No more talking!" I shouted. "We vote. Tonight. Make a decision. That's why you were elected. "
"A vote?" Wilbur asked. "You sure? We usually just talk about stuff. "
"Not anymore," I said. "Gentlemen, grab your pencils. "
Fifteen minutes later the old business was settled. New sidewalks in front of the school, since the ones there had crumbled into a hazard, and slightly higher taxes to pay for them.
"That was fun," Joe said. "Let's do it again!"
Wilbur slouched in his chair. "I'm not sure we should have decided on anything so soon. "
I ignored them both to ask, "New business?"
Everyone looked around, shrugged.
"We've been so busy worryin' about the old business, we forgot to think up new stuff," Wilbur admitted.
Thank God, although I was certain that wouldn't last. They didn't have much to do except think up stuff.
"Your father never made us vote," Hoyt grumbled.
"Maybe he should have. "
All four of them gasped. I tensed, waiting for the lecture. I really had no business criticizing. Dad had done just fine for thirty years.
"We're adjourned," I said.
"What?" shouted Malcolm.
The other three made a beeline for the door, no doubt smelling the Bud already. Malcolm saw them going and took off, too. I glanced at my watch. The meeting had been completed in a half an hour. I was so damn proud of myself I nearly danced. Maybe I could do this job after all. It just might take a little time.
Chapter 4
As I shut and locked the front door of town hall behind me an hour later, dusk hovered on the horizon. Joyce had left at six, speed walking the mile and a half home as she did every day.
My own commute was considerably less than Joyce's. My father had left me the largest house in Lake Bluff - a white rambling two-story, with a veranda that encircled the first floor, jutting out into a deck that overlooked the backyard. All I had to do to get home was turn in the opposite direction of the Center Street shops and head uphill for three blocks.
The streetlights hadn't come on yet. The setting sun cast tendrils of shadow across the pavement.
My heels clicked, a lonely, somewhat creepy sound emphasizing my isolation, but I had nothing to fear. Crime was virtually nonexistent in Lake Bluff. The only time it did exist was during the festival and it could always be traced to outsiders. There hadn't been a murder here in decades.
So why did I suddenly get the shivers and increase my pace to a brisk power walk?
The mountains rose in the distance, huge and navy blue. Whatever happened, those hills would always be there. The sight of them calmed me.
