“Better not keep them waiting.” She unbuckled the belt carrying her badge, pistol, handcuffs, and pepper spray, and handed it to him. Then she gave him her phone and stepped through the arch of the metal detector.

The sergeant opened the gun safe and put her belongings inside, as the nearly 150-year tradition of Weldonville demanded. Firearms had never been allowed in the city council chamber. Phones hadn’t been prohibited until about two years after they’d been invented and begun going off everywhere.

As she stepped through the doorway into the council chamber, Linda Harris seemed to spring at her, throwing her arms around her in a tight embrace. “Leah, I’m so glad to see you.”

“It’s good to see you too, Linda.” Leah was a head taller, and could see over her. When Leah was playing sports in high school with Kathy Harris, Linda had been the mother who volunteered for everything, brought snacks and drinks, and supplied rides to distant tournaments in the off-season. At the time, Leah had wondered how such a short woman had produced Kathy, who had been as tall as Leah. The absent father must have been something.

Mayor Donaldson was next. He shook her hand with great formality and said, “Lieutenant, thank you for coming.”

“Mr. Mayor,” she said.

After him came the others—City Attorney Phil Haymes, Nora Fields, David Hall, City Comptroller Nell Hoagland, and the insurance broker Mark Stein, arriving last with his suit coat on but his tie loosened. Mayor Donaldson closed the council chamber door, walked to the conference table, and sat at the end. One by one, the others took their seats.

“The meeting is called to order,” he said. “Who has questions for Lieutenant Hawkins?”

Phil Haymes said, “Leah, we’re interested in a general outline of what’s happened since we saw you last. Just tell us what you can. There won’t be any notes or recordings. I’ve already written the draft of the minutes of the meeting, and they’ll contain no information about personnel matters.”

Leah took a deep breath. “As you know, I left town a couple of months ago to learn new police techniques and organizational skills. But since then, some information has been forwarded to the police department by the FBI that the council would like to know, and the mayor thought it would be worthwhile to come and report on it.”

“Wonderful.” said Nell Hoagland. “We can’t wait.”

Leah said, “There’s been some progress.”

“Amazing,” said Nora Fields. “Two years and two months after the nineteenth.”

Leah shrugged. “You can never tell when an old case will suddenly come alive again.”

“I’ll say,” said Mayor Donaldson. “They got five so far, by my count.”

“Six, actually,” said Leah. “The ones who have been accounted for were Becker, Panko, Ortega, Bysantski, Duquesne, and Weiss.”

“I missed one,” said Donaldson. “I didn’t see anything in print about Weiss.”