Lee Wolf said, “Put me on speaker.” McKinney did and held the phone in his lap, and Wolf seemed to hear the difference. He said, “We’re just taking precautions, doing our due diligence. Keep it slow, Joe. I want to see everything.”

The two cars went past the Public Safety Building, and Wolf said, “Well, that looks reassuring. There are four, no, five cars in the police parking lot at this moment. It’s seven-thirty and the whole police force is taking the night off.”

The cars drove along the street for two blocks and passed city hall. Three people were standing on the front steps by the open doors. There was a woman in her sixties with short, curly hair wearing a black dress with a pattern of big white flowers and carrying an armload of papers fastened in identical-looking navy blue folders; a middle-aged man wearing a short-sleeved shirt in a faint-blue plaid and khaki pants; and beside him, a fat uniformed policeman who looked about the age of the woman.

The hallway beyond them was brightly lit, and the old marble floor shone with fresh buffing. At the end of the hall was an open door to a lighted meeting room in which a few other people were visible. The cars swept past city hall, and the view was behind them, but they passed another pair of men walking toward the old stone building.

“There seems to be something going on in city hall tonight,” Lonny Mann said.

“Yes, there does,” said Lee Wolf. “Keep going out to the highway and turn south away from the prison. Then stop at that turnoff we passed on the way in. We’ll talk.”

Leah closed her office door at the station in the Public Safety Building but didn’t lock the door in case one of the night shift officers needed something out of it. She walked past the front counter and called out to Danny, who was stationed there tonight to deal with the public, “The boss is going to a council meeting. You can tell the girls to bring in the liquor and get the party started.”

“Yes, ma’am,” said Danny. “I’ll do that.”

Then she was out the door. The sun was lower now, but the rays were still bright and strong. Leah had to protect her eyes from the glare. She walked along the street carrying the six files she had picked out. Her long legs brought her to city hall, where she took the steps two at a time and went inside.

Tim Munson, the old police sergeant whose actual job during business hours was courthouse bailiff, was on duty for the special council meeting. “Evening, Leah,” he said.

“Hi, Tim. Nice to see you again. Everybody in there?”

“I think so,” he said. “They’re all anxious to see you.”