Parrish frowned and the color drained from his face.

“Earl Baumer was fired because of this…” Gabe waved at Uriah to start the video.

The room went silent as the video showed Baumer and four other men crossing the parking lot. Their faces were easily identifiable…as were the weapons they carried. They all put on their ski masks. When Baumer pulled brass knuckles from his pocket, gasps ran through the room.

As the five men flattened themselves against the wall, Uriah said loudly. “The fools were there a long time. Seems they didn’t realize how many hours a day our chief puts in.” He fast-forwarded.

The time of day showed on the screen as Gabe stepped out of the building. The man with the club swung. Gabe dove forward—and the brawl began.

The video stopped. Voices protested.

“It gets violent,” Uriah said, “and we have minors in the room. After the meeting, I’ll play it for any adult who wants to see the rest.”

The objections died.

A man yelled, “Besides Baumer, at least two of those bastards are in the PZs. Parrish, did you sic them on our chief?”

Our chief. Seems he had been claimed by the town. The warmth around Gabe’s heart expanded.

Parrish was busy denying everything, doing damage control, spinning for all he was worth. Asshole. This’d shut him up for now, but the fight wasn’t over. Parrish had too much invested in the area to leave.

The noise increased. People were getting too riled up.

Gabe moved to the center of the room. Dammit, he wished Parrish and his PZ people weren’t present—but they were, and this was the only chance Gabe had to reach almost everyone in town. “I have a request that’s a bit unusual.”

He waited as the noise died down, then Tucker shouted from the back, “Let’s hear it, MacNair.”

Mentally, Gabe crossed his fingers for luck. He pointed to Audrey who sat in the back beside Regina. “Most of you know our librarian. When she arrived, she told us her name was Julie because she was hiding from a Chicago murderer by the name of Spyros.”

Hearing her name, she jerked straight.

“You’ve seen her trying to make a living, working in Dante’s grocery, at Bull’s Moose, and now running our library.”

The buzz of approval made him smile.

“When they caught Spyros, she told a lot of us the story, and that her real name is Audrey. However, last night, Spyros escaped. You might have seen it on the news?”

Those that had caught the story began sharing it.

Gabe waited for the racket to die down. “Audrey was the one who, when fighting for her life, deprived him of that eye.”

Gasps.

The man closest to him muttered, “She’s tougher’n she looks.”