The whispering started before I could answer. Arthur Vance finally moved his cane, his eyes fixed on the floor as he bypassed my row entirely.
In the lobby, the heavy oak doors shut out the sound of the council returning to their agenda. Evelyn was waiting by the water cooler, her wool cardigan pulled tight around her shoulders. She immediately began polishing her reading glasses with her cardigan hem, her movements quick and repetitive.
“They did not even look at the request, Evelyn,” I said.
“They had their answers ready before you opened your mouth, Margaret,” Evelyn said, her voice precise and perfectly grammatical. “The entire room seemed to expect you.”
Two men from the public works department walked past us toward the exit. They looked at the floor as they went by, their work boots squeaking on the polished tile.
“Do you think they knew?” I asked.
“Knew what, dear?” Evelyn asked, holding her glasses up to the light before putting them back on.
“About Thomas’s car,” I said. “About why it was parked near the rest stop that afternoon.”
Evelyn looked toward the closed double doors of the council room, her face pale under the lobby lights. She did not answer.
By one o’clock, the wind had picked up, rattling the loose pane in my kitchen window. I was standing on the gravel driveway when Walter walked up the path, holding three yellow envelopes. He was wearing his county identification badge on a blue lanyard, and his clipboard was tucked under his arm.
He did not look at me directly. He tapped his yellow pencil against the metal clip of his board, a rapid, nervous beat.
“These came in the noon delivery,” Walter said, his voice dropping to a quick whisper. “Just your regular electric bill and a flyer from the hardware store.”
“Thank you, Walter,” I said. “Did Thomas ask you about the logbooks?”
Walter stopped tapping his pencil. He looked down the empty street toward the corner where Elm Lane began, his shoulders tense.
“He called the records desk ten minutes after the meeting ended,” Walter whispered. “He wanted to know who had been looking at the 2006 archives.”
