Gasps echoed through the crowd.
Sheriff Crowe held up one hand. “I’ll take questions at the end of my statement. Right now all I can say is that Harold’s death has been ruled a homicide and there is an active investigation into the crime. We currently have no suspects in custody, but we’re working several leads and will continue to keep residents and the, uh, press” — she glanced at the reporter named Daphne — “updated as new developments arise.”
“We all knew who did it!” Rosie said, standing and pointing at Victor. “Who else had as good a motive as Mr. Ames?”
Victor looked nonplussed, like he wasn’t surprised by Rosie’s accusation.
“We haven’t arrested anyone in Harold Pembroke’s murder,” Sheriff Crowe reminded the crowd, “and I think we’d all do well to remember that everyone is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.”
“Court of law my ass!” an elderly man leaning on a cane yelled from the back.
“You’re telling us it’s a coincidence that Harold was murdered when he was fighting against that snake’s project?”
Rosie was sounding more than a little hysterical, but the crowd ate it up, murmuring while they shuffled in their seats.
Lena grinned as if to say,See? I told you this would be wild.
“I’d like to remind everyone that the Hearthstone Gated Community represents a wonderful growth opportunity for the town, an opportunity that?— ”
“Growth opportunity? You mean a profit opportunity — for you!” Lyle shouted. “Take your project and get out! No haven for Hearthstone! No haven for Hearthstone!”
“Stop trying to make that stupid chant a thing, Lyle!” someone shouted.
“Yeah, you don’t speak for us!” a middle-aged woman in jeans shouted.
“Hearthstone Haven will bring much-needed tax dollars to the town of Blackwell Hollow,” Victor said into the microphone in front of him. “The town will benefit through the infrastructure upgrades agreed to as part of the project. Your property values will rise and?— ”
The crowd got louder, and I felt a push from the people standing behind Lena and me.
I didn’t blame residents for being mad. Big developers always thought infrastructure upgrades should make up for their negative footprint in the community, like the community should be grateful to trade affordable housing and local flavor for upgrades to roads and bridges that they should have gotten anyway.
Still, I was getting nervous. The residents of Blackwell Hollow were really mad. Their anger bubbled like a volcano ready to blow, and Lena and I were trapped between the people in chairs and the ones standing behind us.
Sheriff Crowe stepped aside as Mayor Penbury approached the lectern.
He banged his gavel repeatedly on the podium. “Please,” he said weakly, “let’s remember we’re neighbors!”
Behind the nameplate readingDoug Haversham,a doughy man with a circular fringe of pale hair around his bald head started to read from a stack of papers in his hand.
“Statute 451, Section 9, paragraph 2 reads, “'The zoning board may approve new development within Blackwell Hollow’s city limits provided infrastructure and environmental studies are completed and concerns addressed.’” As Victor has stated, infrastructure upgrades will be paid for from funds generated by the project?— ”
“Thecompound, you mean!” Rosie shouted, getting to her feet.
Victor leaned in to speak calmly into his microphone. “The community.”
“Okay, thefancycompound!” Mayor Biscuit’s leash slipped from Rosie’s hand, and the dog disappeared under the sea of chairs. Rosie looked around frantically. “Mayor Biscuit!”
Someone behind Lena and me laughed.
“How will the town provide water for the new development?”
The question, called out firmly over the sound of Rosie calling for Mayor Biscuit, came from an old man at the center of the standing crowd: Walter Finch, the duck farmer I’d seen when I’d taken flowers to Aunt Evelyn’s grave.
“Our studies show that the water table can more than provide for the additional development,” Victor said into his microphone.
“How will the ducks get to the water with all those houses between them and the lake?” Walter asked.
Victor leaned forward again. “The economic revitalization will?— ”