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“I don’t want a normal life,” Rachel said. “If I wanted a normal life, I’d have done what my mother wanted and married Phin.”

  “Phin?” Leo scowled at her. “Phin’s not right for you.”

  “I know that—” Rachel began, and then stopped as she realized somebody was standing by their table.

  “You the guy that made that movie?” the man said, looking red in the face.

  “No,” Leo said. “Why?”

  “Because whoever did that is a fucking pervert, that’s why,” the guy said.

  “What?” Rachel said.

  “Kids are watching that filth,” the man said, and glared at Leo. “Are you sure you’re not the guy?”

  “I’m positive,” Leo said mildly.

  “Well, you should just be glad you took your daughter out for dinner tonight instead of watching that trash with her—”

  “We have to go,” Rachel said, getting up.

  “My daughter?” Leo said, and Rachel leaned over and said, “Now, Leo.”

  Leo watched as the man stalked away. “She’s not my daughter, you putz.”

  “Leo.”

  “Showed the wrong movie, did they?” Leo said, and Rachel said, “I think they saw the old Cherished instead of the clean cut that Amy made, and I need to talk to Sophie now.”

  Leo dropped his napkin on the table. “Okay. But I’d still like to hear—”

  “Now,” Rachel said, and dragged him from the diner.

  “I bagged the tape and sent it to Cincinnati,” Wes said two hours later when he and Phin were finally alone in the bookstore. “Maybe we’ll get some prints.”

  Phin shook his head, more tired than he could ever have imagined. It took a lot out of a mayor to have to deal with that many screaming citizens.

  “Phin,” Wes said. “Pay attention. We have to find out who took the tape. He violated the FCC up, down, and sideways, and we’ll get him.”

  “I can’t even think,” Phin said. “I’ve been explaining the unexplainable all night. Where the hell did that tape come from?”

  “From the farm,” Wes said. “According to Amy, it was Leo’s cut of a tape they’d made. I gather they made several versions.”

  “So whoever took that tape knew which one would do the most damage.” Phin felt anger rise, cool and clean. “Somebody at the farm—”

  “Not necessarily,” Wes said. “Amy said when Rachel saw what Leo had done to the movie, she took the tape and wrote ‘Smut, Smut, Smut’ on it in bright red marker. Anybody who wanted to sabotage the movie would have picked that one up.”

  “So somebody went out there and sorted through the tapes—”

  “No,” Wes said. “Somebody went out there and took all the tapes. As soon as the movie started, Amy went running to look. They’re all gone, even the documentary she was working on. Somebody just backed up a car while we were all at the hospital this morning and took every one of them.”

  “Who?” Phin said, but even as he said it, he knew.

  “Stephen’s got this movie tied to your tail,” Wes said. “This is a big break for him, just six weeks before the election. Six days would have been better, but six weeks isn’t bad. And he’s the only one I can see getting anything out of this.”

  Phin thought about Sophie. She’d gotten something out of it—out of making that damn movie at least. He heard his own stupid words coming out of Rob’s mouth and felt like a fool.

  Wes said, “You want to come to Stephen’s with me?”

  Phin thought of Stephen’s smug, red face, and the pain cleared and his rage focused. “Yes.”

  “Thought so,” Wes said.

  Stephen answered the door, trying to look innocent and only looking smugger as a result. “I saw the premiere on television,” he said to Wes. “That was a shocking thing. I certainly hope—”

  “Forget it, Stephen,” Phin said, as he pushed past him into the living room where Rachel sat on the couch in patent misery. “You knew all about it.”

  Across the room, Virginia looked up from the phone she was clutching and lowered her voice. Spreading the good word as usual.

  Meanwhile Stephen was waxing indignant.

  “What do you mean, I knew about it? You think if I’d known that kind of disgusting pornography was going to be broadcast to the people of this town—”

  “Forget it, Stephen,” Wes said. “The only voters here are the ones who know what really happened.”

  Rachel jerked her head up. “What did happen? I couldn’t find Sophie to find out. That wasn’t our film—”

  “Young lady, you had nothing to do with that film,” Virginia said from the phone.

  “I worked on that film,” Rachel said. “I’m proud of that film, but that film wasn’t my film.”

  Virginia said, “I have to go,” into the phone and hung up. “You had nothing to do with that disgusting movie, so you stop even pretending you did.”

  “I’m not pretending, I worked hard on that,” Rachel said, and Virginia pointed her finger at her and said, “Enough. You’ve caused enough trouble acting up and from now on, you’re going to be the daughter I raised. You’re going to get married and settle down and be a good woman.” Virginia’s eyes slid to Phin.

  “She’s not marrying me,” Phin said.

  “She certainly isn’t,” Stephen said. “You’re responsible for that porn going out to all of Temptation, corrupting—”

  “Stephen,” Wes said. “I told you. You can knock off the speeches. Everybody here knows you switched that tape—”

  “Daddy?” Rachel said.

  “That’s the most ridiculous thing I ever heard of—” Stephen began.

  “—and we’re sending it to Cincinnati for a forensics check. The fingerprints will nail you if nothing else does.”

  “We’ll just have to wait and see, then, won’t we?” Stephen said, smug as ever, and Phin said, “Fuck. You wiped it before you played it, didn’t you?”

  “Phin!” Virginia said, and when Stephen said, “Well, that’s the kind of language I’d have expected from somebody who’d consort with the whores who made that trash,” Phin grabbed Stephen’s throat and shoved him against the wall.

  “About Sophie,” Phin said, rage making his voice shake. “You damned near killed her, you bastard, and I never came after you for that—”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Stephen choked, wide-eyed.

  “You shoved her in the river and almost drowned her,” Phin said, gripping him tighter, and Rachel said, “Daddy!” at the same time that Wes said, “Let him go, Phin.”

  “You hurt her.” Phin gripped his neck harder. “From now on, you come after me, you son of a bitch, not her, and not the people of this town—you do not show porn to kids to bring me down, do you understand? This is between us.”

  Stephen didn’t say anything, but he turned blue, and from behind him, Phin heard Wes say calmly, “He’s sick and smaller than you are and older than you are and not worth it. Let go of him, or I’ll break your arm.”

  Phin looked into Stephen’s sly, stupid, blue face and thought about all the crap Stephen had gotten away with because nobody had fought him—because I didn’t fight him, because I played it safe, because I was too damn lazy—

  Wes jerked Phin’s left arm up hard behind him, and the pain knifed into his shoulder, and he let go of Stephen and his own pent-up breath at the same time.

  “Thank you,” Wes said, releasing his arm as Stephen slid down the wall, an interesting shade of purple.

  “Ouch,” Phin said, and eased his shoulder back.

  “It would be bad if you killed him,” Wes said. “Understandable, but bad.” He looked at Stephen on the floor, trying to fill his lungs. “That ‘whore’ bit was a dumb move, Stephen. Don’t do that again.”

  Phin rubbed his arm and watched Stephen get his breath back. “Well, at least the short-term pleasure was great.” He leaned over and said softly to Stephen, “If you ever try to hurt Sophie again, I’ll let Wes bre