“I don’t give a shit who you are. What gives you the right to tell people to steal from me?”

“That’s not exactly what I said.”

“What else do you call taking shit that someone else paid for? And who the hell are you, anyway?”

Victoria decided to ignore the second half of his question. “I’d be happy to give you my credit card for everything you have on your shelves.”

“The hell am I gonna do with a credit card?”

“You’d prefer cash? Greenbacks? So that you can pay for your next reorder?”

Ben Barnett gaped as the rest of the room squirmed in their seats.

“Mr. Barnett, I’m not trying to put you on the spot, but are you seeing my point? For the foreseeable future, rich and poor are the same thing. So I leave it to you. Is it better that your perishables rot in your possession and help no one, or might they be put to better use by being either preserved or consumed?”

Barnett looked like a kid who’d been caught in a lie. He wanted to protest, but instead looked away. “Why not in my place, then? Why bring it all the way over here?”

“I understand that you have a security issue at your store. I haven’t seen it, so I may be wrong.”

“Goddamn right I got a security issue. Some assholes broke out my windows and stole everything they could carry.”

Victoria sat back down and gestured for Barnett to join her. “I’m very sorry to hear that. May I call you Ben?”

“Sure.”

“Call me Vicky. We’re in the process of organizing various groups to take care of food preservation. We’ll need to move on to finding ways to get medicines to those who need them. There’s much to be taken care of. And Maggie’s Place here seems like as good a headquarters as anywhere. Plus she has the commercial-cooking equipment.”

“Excuse me, Vicky, but I have a very nice kitchen, too,” said a young lady who was extraordinarily pregnant. “I’m happy to help.”

“Thank you . . .”

“Carol Robinson.”

“Thank you, Carol. I’m going to have a devil of a time remembering first names. I know I’m going to lose the last names.”

Carol smiled.

Victoria returned her attention to Ben Barnett. “So, what do you say, Ben? We’ll have around-the-clock security teams here to make sure what’s left doesn’t disappear.”

There was that look again. He so desperately wanted to say no. “All right, fine. I’ll start with what’s refrigerated and work down to what’s frozen. We have some time with that.”

Victoria thrust out her hand again. “Thank you, Ben. On behalf of the entire community, thank you.”