Sirens and flashing red lights meant that the fire trucks had arrived, but the street was blocked by sheriff’s vehicles, and deputies started scrambling to move their cars out of the way. Kyle glanced fearfully toward Brave New World, but there was no sign of any conflagration encroaching on it. Indeed, there seemed to be few flames left within the darkening windows of the bank. To his left, the sheriff was still holding Theo, the limp form in its archaic clothes looking like little more than an oversized rag doll. Kyle met Brad’s eyes, not even needing to speak, and the sheriff shook his head.

The boy was dead.

The street was becoming ever more crowded. Commotion always attracted an audience, and the sirens had led onlookers onto Main. Among the newcomers, Kyle saw Coy Stinson, and he hailed the banker over.

“What the hell happened?” Coy asked.

Kyle was not exactly sure. He described the crate in the locked room and the discovery of the aged boy in the antique clothes who had demanded to be taken to his bank, where Pickering and Worthington had called him “Mr. Gianopuolos.”

Would it ever be possible to piece together what had really occurred? He thought of the sheriff’s quote: “Sometimes the god of money demands terrible sacrifices.” From what Kyle could gather, the child had prayed to some sort of god that had enabled him to open a bank, intending to help poor people like his family. Pickering and Worthington had somehow imprisoned him and then used him to open up new banks as they travelled across the country. He tried explaining this to Coy the best he could but realized even as he was talking that it sounded completely ridiculous and made no logical sense.

What the hell did these days?

Still, Coy did not disbelieve.

There were questions Kyle had as well, practical questions about the bank’s dissolution, and he asked Coy what was going to happen to all of the people who had accounts with First People’s.

“Well, if you continued to bank with Montgomery Community, everything’s safe. We might have had a connection to First People’s, but we’re FDIC insured, and no one’s going to lose a dime. I’m not so sure First People’s followed all the rules and regulations, but there’s no way to know until we get some auditors out. Maybe our business relationship will mean that we’re on the hook for some of it, maybe the government will be left holding the bag, maybe those people will be shit out of luck. Hard to say at this point.”

“So they could go broke? What happens, then? Will we have our own mini-recession here in Montgomery?”

Coy shrugged. “Uncharted waters.”

Lane arrived, pushing his way through the crowd, and Jen ran over to him.

“Do you think we still need a municipal bank?” Anita asked Coy.