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  “I’ll call the roll,” Hildy said. “Garvey.”

  “No,” Stephen said. “This is—”

  “Garvey,” Hildy said over him, and turned razorlike eyes on Virginia.

  Virginia looked down the table, and raised her eyebrows, as smug as her husband.

  And Liz nodded with Hildy.

  “Garvey,” Hildy repeated viciously.

  Virginia swallowed. “Yes.”

  “What?” Stephen turned on his wife, white-faced. “Have you lost your mind?”

  “Virginia votes her conscience, Stephen,” Hildy said crisply. “Now stop trying to intimidate a council member. Lutz.”

  “No,” Frank said. “They ruined my life and I want them to pay.”

  “That’s very adult of you, Frank,” Hildy said. “Mallow—yes. Tucker.”

  “Yes,” Liz said, and Phin thought, I have no idea what’s going on here, but I like it.

  “Yarnell,” Hildy said, and before Ed finished his “yes,” she said, “The motion passes.”

  “That pretty well wraps this up,” Phin said, and Stephen said, “Oh, no it doesn’t. Somebody showed pornography to our citizens and they should pay.”

  “And as soon as we find out who switched the tapes, Chief Mazur will arrest him,” Phin said. “But until then—”

  “What about the people who made the pornography?” Stephen said. “What about the person who abetted them? What about—”

  “Okay, I’ve had enough,” Sophie said, and Phin turned to see her standing up in the front row in her pink dress, looking like Gidget the Fury.

  Don’t do this, he thought, going tense in his chair, We were almost out of here.

  “I can speak, can’t I?” she said to Hildy. “As long as it’s on the issue?”

  “No, you can’t,” Stephen said, leaning forward to expound at the same time Hildy said, “Sure, go ahead.” Hildy turned back to Virginia and said, “Shut your husband up before he violates her freedom of speech.”

  Virginia stiffened and then said viciously under her breath, “Shut up, Stephen. This is all your fault anyway.”

  Stephen sat back, stunned, and Phin sympathized. He didn’t know what the hell was going on, either.

  Sophie cleared her throat, and Phin thought, Keep it short. He’d save her from the mob if he had to, but it would be a lot easier if she just apologized and sat down.

  “My name is Sophie Dempsey, and I’m responsible for the tape you saw last night.” The crowd began to murmur, and Sophie raised her voice. “I’m responsible, because I knew somebody had cut those obscene parts into the beautiful love story we made here, and I didn’t destroy that awful tape. And because I didn’t destroy it, somebody broke into our farmhouse and stole it and played it to you all last night. That was a horrible thing, an unforgivable thing, but I believe that your police chief will ultimately find out who was to blame. You have a terrific police force here.” The majority of the crowd stared back, hostile, but a couple of people nodded, and Amy folded her hands and put two fingers out, smiling to herself.

  “So I apologize for my mistake,” Sophie went on smoothly. “You see, I love Temptation so much and I feel so safe here, I didn’t even lock my doors so it was easy to steal from me. That was stupid of me and I won’t make that mistake again.”

  A couple more people shook their heads at how dumb she’d been, but they looked vaguely sympathetic, and Amy extended three fingers.

  “If I could, I’d show you the real tape because Temptation looked wonderful in it, but unfortunately, whoever stole that vile tape to sabotage the premiere, also took everything we had. Cherished is gone forever.”

  Thank God, Phin thought, and kept a wary eye on the crowd.

  “However, to make it up to you, my sister and I would be more than happy to tape your next theater performance so that can be shown on your cable channel.”

  Frank sat up at that, looking vaguely cheerful for the first time in weeks, and Amy looked surprised. She looked down at her hand and extended her fourth finger.

  “The most important thing now, though,” Sophie said, “is to help the police find the pervert who thought it would be a good idea to show pornography to schoolchildren.” Sophie sounded outraged, and Phin wondered if that was real or con. He was pretty sure the rest of it was a con, but at least the populace wasn’t trying to lynch her.

  “So what I’m asking you all to do, is to think about who has the most to gain from this,” Sophie said earnestly, and one or two people began to look interested.

  “The mayor did it,” the heckler said from the back, and Sophie said, “Why? That would be political suicide, I’ve even heard some people are so shortsighted that they’re talking about not voting for him, but they can’t be thinking this through. He’d have to be crazy to play that tape.”

  “He is,” the heckler shouted back, and Sophie said, “No, he isn’t, and you should be ashamed of yourself for just shouting things out instead of standing up for what you believe in, the way your mayor does. The people of this town don’t like cowards and they don’t like cheats, which is why they’re not listening to you and why they’re going to find out who really did this. The people of Temptation are too smart to fall for this. You’re all upset now, but pretty soon you’re all going to be asking yourselves the smart question: Who has the most to gain? It’s your civic duty to ask that question, all of you.”

  She let the silence hang there, and Phin thought, Don’t look at Stephen, let them get there on their own.

  Sophie nodded. “You all know this town so much better than I do, you’ll figure this out, and then I know you’ll punish the culprit properly. Thank you.” She sat down abruptly, and Phin could see her hands shaking.

  Amy held out five fingers and said, “You got everything but the smile.”

  “I can’t work miracles,” Sophie said, and Phin thought, The hell you can’t.

  Because she’d made porn, and she was getting away with it. Stephen couldn’t get her for it because he’d stolen the tapes, and if he produced them to get her, the townspeople would know he had been responsible for the debacle the night before.

  Hell of a woman, his Sophie.

  Phin leaned over. “Not bad,” he told her, and she lifted her chin, still shaking, and said, “I was magnificent.”

  “I want to know what she was getting at,” Stephen was blustering loudly, and Phin leaned back and said, “No, you don’t, that’s the last thing you want to know. I declare this meeting adjourned.”

  Hildy said, “Works for me,” and stood up. “You can all go home now,” she told the crowd. “Show’s over.”

  “Wait a minute,” Stephen said, and Virginia turned to him with loathing.

  “This is all your fault, all of it,” she told him, and got up and left, leaving her stunned husband behind her.

  “Some days are like that, Stephen,” Phin said, as he stood up to go.

  “Sit down, I want to talk to you,” Liz said, and Phin nodded as he watched the crowd. Most of them were still throwing him dirty looks, but one or two looked at Stephen with some curiosity.

  Sophie went out with Amy and Hildy, and nobody said anything to her, nasty or otherwise, so she was going to be fine. Better than fine, if he had anything to do with it.

  Then Wes came to stand in the doorway and caught his eye, motioning to him as people filed out around him.

  “Make this fast,” he told his mother as he nodded to Wes. “I have things to do.”

  Rachel sat by the garden at Leo’s house, marveling at where she’d ended up. It looked like paradise. Leo’s tiled pool sparkled blue in the sunlight, and there were palm trees, real palm trees, and blooming hibiscus, and up by the hot tub there was a lemon tree that really grew lemons.

  She couldn’t wait for Sophie to see that. She could pick them right off the tree and make lemonade.

  Leo came out and sat down on the chaise next to her, still looking slightly stunned, and handed her a glass of what looked like sludgy