The council meeting had ended at nine, but it was after eleven before they finally broke up and went their separate ways, with what amounted to an assurance from the mayor that he would do what he could to make a town-owned municipal bank a reality. With everything he’d heard, Coy found himself becoming increasingly paranoid driving home, and he kept checking the rearview mirror to make sure he wasn’t being followed. He had to pass the newest branch of First People’s on the way to his street, and though the parking lot was empty, he could see what looked like a lone candle, or perhaps a dull flashlight, moving slowly behind the building’s tinted windows. Shivering, he sped past.

Arriving at his house, he half-expected a toothless feral Florine to jump out of the bushes and attack him, but he made it to the front door unmolested and, once inside, he locked the door behind him and went room to room, making sure he was alone. The phone rang, but he ignored it and got ready for bed. He was still planning to go to work in the morning, although he had no idea how that was going to play out. Would he still have a job? Would The First People’s Bank invoke some sort of hidden clause in the two banks’ participation agreement and fire him?

Would he be killed or made to disappear?

Anything was possible, but he was so tired that even those thoughts were not enough to keep him awake, and he fell asleep moments after his head hit the pillow.

In his dream, he discovered a secret room in his house, and from behind the locked red door that was its entrance, he heard the eerie sound of Julius Pickering chuckling softly.

3

The council meeting last night had been an eye opener, and for the first time in a long while, Kyle saw a ray of hope.

A municipal bank.

The upside, as Coy Stinson would put it, was that it seemed like a legitimate, doable plan. The downside was that it would take time to implement. He knew nothing at all about the details of how to start a community bank, but he knew that there were rules and regulations that would have to be followed, not to mention the fact that a physical location would have to be found, a building equipped with the necessary materials and machinery to do business. Money would have to be obtained as well, actual money, a lot of it, coins and bills, money that people would be able to withdraw.

That ray of hope started to fade.