Rose’s voice dropped even lower. “I don’t know. But if I were you, I’d leave and never come back.”

Nodding, the two of them handed her their menus and scooted to the edge of the booth, standing.

“If you hear of any openings anywhere, let me know,” the waitress whispered. “I gotta get out of here, too.”

“I will,” Jen promised.

Walking out, they were aware that the other waitresses were watching them with hostile eyes. Anita hadn’t paid attention on their way in, but she saw now that there were no other customers.

She wasn’t aware that she’d been holding her breath until they were in the open air and she was able to breathe freely. “What…was…that?”

“I don’t know,” Jen said, looking up at the workers installing the new sign. “But let’s get out of here.”

“Juan Wang’s?”

“Juan Wang’s.”

3

The bank sprang up overnight.

Such a thing was impossible, but there it was, gleaming windows set in new white walls, standing in what had been the vacant lot next to Derrick Montoya’s law office. The mayor spotted it the second he turned onto Manzanita Street, and for a second he thought he was still asleep and dreaming. Because there was no way an entire building could be built in one night. Even if a hundred workers had somehow shown up after he went home at six, cement could not have dried in time, nor could paint, nor could the macadam of the brand new parking lot. Not to mention the installation of plumbing and electrical wiring. The entire thing was a complete impossibility.

Yet there it was.

An unfamiliar shiver traversed the length of his spine.

Fear.

According to a backlighted sign affixed to the wall above the double doors, this was another branch of The First People’s Bank, although Derrick had no idea how that could be. The Planning Commission had not signed off on it, and the council had definitely not approved its construction.

Or had they?

There was a nagging sense in the back of his mind that in their last meeting they had voted to allow an expansion of the bank, but the memory was hazy and there were no specifics attached to it. How could that be? He tried concentrating, going through in his mind everything that had happened at the meeting as though he were confirming the minutes, but he could remember nothing they’d discussed or voted on that had in any way involved the bank.

Still…

He drove into what was now the expanded parking lot he shared with the bank. One thing he did know for sure: a council meeting was scheduled for tonight, and there was no way this wasn’t going to come up. Local businesses had been up in arms about the first bank. The appearance of another branch was going to really set them on the warpath.