“It’s supposed to be opening in an existing space in the old downtown,” he pressed. “Next to a bookstore. You sure you haven’t heard anything?”

“No,” she said.

There it was again.

She was lying, and when he tried to think of reasons why she wouldn’t be honest with him, the one his mind kept coming back to was that Evergreen Title was planning to deal exclusively with the new bank. He thought about her previous warnings that Montgomery Community was being audited.

Should he say anything to Shanley?

Not yet. He needed more intel before he started formulating theories and making accusations. Heck, he didn’t even know the name of the bank, which was the minimum information required if he was going to conduct any sort of research. Coy talked to Cal and Maggie, the tellers, even the security guard, but no one seemed to know anything, although Maggie said she was pretty sure there was a “Coming Soon” sign in the window that spelled out some of the details.

So his first order of business was to check that out. He let the manager know he was going, then drove down Frontier to Main, to the location where their rival would be opening.

Opening?

It was already open, and Coy was surprised to see a line of people on the sidewalk, waiting to get in. Driving by, he looked at the crowd. It had to be social media. There was a whole new world of below-the-radar advertising that passed him by and he knew Shanley was going to be upset that half the town knew about the bank’s debut before they did.

Circling the block at the end of the street, Coy drove slowly back up Main, searching for a parking spot. He finally found one on the side street next to Ray’s Photo and walked down the sidewalk to the new bank.

The First People’s Bank it was called, and Coy mentally took off points for the generic name. Montgomery Community. Now there was a name for a bank. It connoted stability and local involvement.

Still, now that he had the name, he could start looking into the bank’s background. As a loan officer, it was his job to dig into the financial histories of those who were applying for loans, and if he did say so himself, he was good at it. Successive Republican congresses had made it easier for companies to hide their financial shenanigans, but the information was there if you knew where to look, and he did.

But that applied to the greater institution. Shanley also wanted him to learn what he could about this specific branch, their immediate rival, and Coy walked inside to collect names and business cards, get the lay of the land.

There was a line of people waiting to get blue cloth bags and pick up pamphlets that were being passed out, and another line of people in front of tables stacked with food and drinks. He recognized some of them as—