After some argument we decided I should go to the city council meeting that night, while LuEllen went to the animal control complex with the gun.

“What if somebody wonders what you’re doing there?” LuEllen asked.

“I just tell them I’m hanging out, that Dessusdelit was a friend. Shit, at this point I don’t care. Hill and Ballem will be there, if only to quit. But I’ve got to see them. If something went wrong

“

“OK.”

“I’ll call you from City Hall. If Hill and Ballem are there, you can drift the boat down, tie off on that wall. If it’s clear, you go in, dump the gun - put it up in the ceiling maybe - and get out. Coming in from the river, at night, you should be OK, if you’re careful about scouting it out

“

“I’d rather go without you anyway,” she said. “Safer that way.”

“Yeah. And as soon as I see what’s going on at City Hall, I’ll cruise animal control, just in case. If there’s a problem, turn on a light. If everything’s OK, get out. I’ll see you back here.”

“And we leave tomorrow morning.”

“As soon as I get the car back.”

The meeting was scheduled for seven-thirty. I left the boat fifteen minutes early, expecting a mob at the City Hall. When I pulled into the lot across the street, there was already a crowd on the sidewalk. Neither Hill nor Ballem seemed to be around, but I waited, watching, until people began drifting inside.

The city council chamber was a small semicircular auditorium with seats for perhaps fifty people. Folding chairs had been brought in, and thirty lucky spectators were occupying them. Another dozen people were standing against the wall. The air-conditioning couldn’t keep up. The temperature inside must have been in the nineties, and the sweating townspeople used stacks of agendas from the last meeting to fan themselves. Nobody was giving up a seat.

Marvel and Matron Carter, the basketball coach who’d be the fifth council member, were sitting together near the front. John was absent; still a little nervous about showing his face, he was waiting at Marvel’s.

The word about Dessusdelit had gotten around, and it was the major topic of conversation as we waited for the council to show. The wait went on for ten minutes, fifteen. Then Bell came in through a side door, looking harassed, and said to a long groan that the meeting would be delayed until eight o’clock.

I stepped outside, relieved to be in the relatively cool hallway, and walked down to a pay phone and called LuEllen.

“Wait,” I said. “I haven’t seen either Ballem or Hill, and they’ve delayed the meeting. I don’t know what’s going on.”

“I’ll wait,” she said.