Dear Montgomery Community Bank,

We sincerely thank you for your kindness and generosity, and for welcoming us to your town with open arms. Now that we have entered into a mutual agreement to share our resources and talents, both of our institutions will remain well positioned to meet the complex financial needs of our customers and effectively serve all of the people in Montgomery.

Sincerely,

The First People’s Bank

“What the hell?” Kyle said.

“They’re consolidating power.” Durl glumly took back his newspaper. “Now I can’t even try to refinance with Montgomery Community. They’re all working together as one big happy family.”

“This isn’t right.”

“I’m not even sure it’s legal. Aren’t there anti-trust laws and things?” Durl’s hatred of government regulation seemed to have disappeared entirely. “I’m not sure how chummy they’re actually getting, but this needs to be investigated. I’m going down to the paper after this and tell them to look into it.”

Kyle couldn’t resist. “You mean those enemies of the people?” he asked with a slight smile.

“Sure. Kick a man when he’s down.”

“Sorry,” Kyle said. “You’re right.”

“Can dish it out but can’t take it, huh? Man up. I’m just joking. But we do need another bank here. People can’t be driving all the way to Globe or Randall if they want to go to a different bank.”

“There’s the credit union.”

“If you’re a federal employee and you belong.”

“What about those online lenders? Have you thought about looking into that?”

Durl sighed. “Even if I qualified, which I don’t, I can’t afford their kind of interest. Face it, I’m screwed no matter which way I turn.”

Kyle was about to say something in response, when there was a muffled boom from somewhere across town. Seconds later, the windows rattled gently, as though there’d been a minor earthquake. Above the roofs of the buildings across the street, from what looked to be someplace near the highway, a cloud of smoke began billowing upward.

“What was that…?”

Durl’s phone was already out. “Gotta make sure my wife’s all right.”

Neither Anita’s work nor Nick’s school were in that direction, so Kyle didn’t have that concern, and instead, he quickly called the sheriff’s office, hoping to get through and find out what happened before other calls started flooding in.

He did get through.

And he found out what happened.

The Federal Employees Credit Union had been firebombed.

2

Jen looked as terrible as Anita felt.

Both of them had had a hellish week, and Anita found herself coming to work earlier each day, partly to get out of that house (her suspicion that there were still undiscovered cameras had not gone away and had led to her behaving like an automaton in her own home), but also to commiserate with Jen, whose own house troubles were just as creepy and unnerving. Anita had never heard of anything like what was happening to her friend, and when Jen had taken her over to the house one lunch hour to show her The Room, she had experienced its eeriness herself. There definitely had been something in that room, and the mere fact that she considered it a something rather than a someone told her all she needed to know about the house.