“Amen,” Aneeta said, picking up her purse. “Come to lunch. My friends want to meet you. And don’t worry about the newspapers. It’s a good thing that they’re covering your case.” She winked. “It will keep those kids from breaking into any of our houses!”

Lunch was at a restaurant set in a converted nineteenth-century train station. Maja sat with Aneeta and her friends at a table set into an alcove. Lorraine had kids who played soccer with Aneeta’s sons, and Naomi was a real estate agent whom Aneeta knew through her house-flipping business. Sun poured in through the windowpanes as they sipped iced tea. “This is really charming,” Maja said.

“Isn’t it great?” said Lorraine. “When I was a kid, this building was a little general store. They sold old-fashioned hard candy, and I used to beg my parents to come here.”

“You grew up here?” Maja asked.

“I did. I went to college up in Boston, but I ended up back here. After you’ve lived here, it’s hard to find anywhere that compares. You should have seen this town back then. It was a lot funkier, but it was great.”

“It’s pretty nice now,” Maja said. She’d been making an effort this week to try to refocus on the positive. They’d walked down Main Street on their way to lunch, passing a pottery studio and a gallery selling Impressionist-style oil paintings of the river. She’d noticed an empty shop with a for rent sign in the window. It was small, but it had great light, and a prime position right on Main Street. She’d filed this information away, thinking that she’d find the listing later and send it to Louis. She still hadn’t given up on her idea of trying to talk him into opening an outpost of his gallery in New Falls. Although right now, when she was missing so much work, was probably not the best time to bring it up.

“I’m glad you can still see the bright side, after everything that happened,” Naomi said. “I read about the case in the Inquirer. I can’t believe that Dominic Finch’s son would destroy a house. His father must be beside himself.”

“Shhhh!” Aneeta said, drizzling just a little of her dressing, which she’d ordered on the side, onto her salad. “No house party talk.”

“No, it’s fine,” Maja said. “I’m just glad that the DA’s office finally brought charges. For a while, we weren’t sure it was going to happen.”

“From what I read in the paper, I think Hal Buckley should step down,” Lorraine said. “How can we trust him when his campaign was funded by the families of the people he’s supposed to be prosecuting?”

“I saw him on the local news saying he believes in second chances,” Naomi said.