“You pointed Hadley toward him,” Booker argued. “You’re the one who gave her his name.”
“Because she mentioned a serial killer,” Marjory shot back. “He didn’t even jump to my mind first. Hadley can attest to that. I only came up with him as an afterthought.” She took a bold step toward Booker and I was suddenly on alert. I didn’t expect the cupid to throw down with his best friend’s mother but stranger things had happened. “I could have kept the information to myself. I tried to help.”
“Helping would have been telling us about the cemetery and your part in hexing it from the beginning,” Galen barked. I hadn’t realized he’d stopped walking until he doubled back and was practically on top of us. “How could you keep that from us? I told you I was worried about Hadley parking herself outside that window to see her mother a year ago, but you didn’t say a word!” He ended the diatribe on a roar.
Marjory blinked. “I didn’t consider that we had a part in what happened to the cemetery until last night.”
Galen looked taken aback. “How is that possible?”
“The two things seemed unrelated. We … that is to say the people of the island … had used the spell before.”
I jerked my chin up. “Bogdan.”
Marjory shifted her wide eyes to me. “How do you know that name?”
“We’ve been busy little beavers,” Galen replied. “We’ve been digging for days. It never made sense that Declan became a homeowner despite not having any ties to the island that we could find.”
“He faked his ties,” Marjory replied. “He pretended to be a nephew of Bogdan and had documents to back it up. We were ready to release Bogdan’s property back to the DDA but that didn’t happen. It is why we cut down on the timeframe.
“Islanders used to be allowed to come back for their property fora full century,” she continued. “After Declan showed up and took property that had been sitting vacant for more than seventy years, we decided that was a bad idea.”
“All of it is a bad idea,” I fired back. “We’re going to look at property ownership requirements. There are going to be some changes.”
Marjory narrowed her eyes. “You’ll get pushback.”
“I don’t care. Enough is enough. The rich on this island created the property rules to keep the poor under their boots. That ends now.”
Booker gave me an appraising look. “This is why it was a good idea to make you mayor. Not only aren’t you afraid of the past, you don’t respect it.”
“She’s doing a good job,” Galen agreed. His gaze was still on his mother. “Tell us from the beginning. Don’t leave a single thing out.”
Marjory glanced around. We were still on the sidewalk, out in the open for anyone to see. “Not here.”
Galen, ramrod straight, nodded stiffly. “You can tell us in the cemetery, where it all began.”
Marjory rolled her eyes. “Can you not be so dramatic? The story isn’t as bad as you think.”
“Why else would you keep it secret?”
“We made a pact.” Marjory said.
Galen didn’t look impressed. “Well, this one is over.” He resumed his walk toward the cemetery.
Marjory stared in his wake. “He won’t understand.”
“That doesn’t matter,” I said to her. “It’s time for the truth to come out. He’ll understand when he’s ready.”
She sighed. “I really was trying to protect the island.”
Probably, in her mind, she was telling the truth. “Your form of protection — that is to say the DDA’s form of protection — was never about protecting the island. It was domination.”
“You don’t understand.” Marjory insisted. “You’re an outsider. Youcan’tunderstand.”
She might not have meant it as a rebuke but it stung. “You have to make me understand.”
She didn’t respond, instead turning on her heel and following Galen.
At the cemetery, Galen used his key to enter. The magical forcefield was still working, and I felt it humming. Nothing was out of place and yet things felt different.
