And Liz nodded with Hildy.
“Garvey,” Hildy repeated viciously.
Virginia swallowed. “Yes.”
“What?” Stephen turned on his wife, white-faced. “Have you lost your mind?”
“Virginia votes her conscience, Stephen,” Hildy said crisply. “Now stop trying to intimidate a council  member. Lutz.”
“No,” Frank said. “They ruined my life and I want them to pay.”
“That’s very adult of you, Frank,” Hildy said. “Mallow—yes. Tucker.”
“Yes,” Liz said, and Phin thought, I have no idea what’s going on here, but I like it.
“Yarnell,” Hildy said, and before Ed finished his “yes,” she said, “The motion passes.”
“That pretty well wraps this up,” Phin said, and Stephen said, “Oh, no it doesn’t. Somebody showed  pornography to our citizens and they should pay.”
“And as soon as we find out who switched the tapes, Chief Mazur will arrest him,” Phin said. “But until  then—”
“What about the people who made the pornography?” Stephen said. “What about the person who  abetted them? What about—”
“Okay, I’ve had enough,” Sophie said, and Phin turned to see her standing up in the front row in her  pink dress, looking like Gidget the Fury.
Don’t do this, he thought, going tense in his chair. We were almost out of here.
“I can speak, can’t I?” she said to Hildy. “As long as it’s on the issue?”
“No, you can’t,” Stephen said, leaning forward to expound at the same time Hildy said, “Sure, go  ahead.” Hildy turned back to Virginia and said, “Shut your husband up before he violates her freedom of  speech.”
Virginia stiffened and then said viciously under her breath, “Shut up, Stephen. This is all your fault  anyway.”
Stephen sat back, stunned, and Phin sympathized. He didn’t know what the hell was going on, either.
Sophie cleared her throat, and Phin thought, Keep it short. He’d save her from the mob if he had to, but  it would be a lot easier if she just apologized and sat down.
“My name is Sophie Dempsey, and I’m responsible for the tape you saw last night.” The crowd began  to murmur, and Sophie raised her voice. “I’m responsible, because I knew somebody had cut those  obscene parts into the beautiful love story we made here, and I didn’t destroy that awful tape. And

because I didn’t destroy it, somebody broke into our farmhouse and stole it and played it to you all last  night. That was a horrible thing, an unforgivable thing, but I believe that your police chief will ultimately  find out who was to blame. You have a terrific police force here.” The majority of the crowd stared  back, hostile, but a couple of people nodded, and Amy folded her hands and put two fingers out, smiling  to herself.
“So I apologize for my mistake,” Sophie went on smoothly. “You see, I love Temptation so much and I  feel so safe here, I didn’t even lock my doors so it was easy to steal from me. That was stupid of me and
I won’t make that mistake again.”
A couple more people shook their heads at how dumb she’d been, but they looked vaguely  sympathetic, and Amy extended three fingers.
“If I could, I’d show you the real tape because Temptation looked wonderful in it, but unfortunately,  whoever stole that vile tape to sabotage the premiere, also took everything we had. Cherished is gone  forever.”
Thank God, Phin thought, and kept a wary eye on the crowd.
“However, to make it up to you, my sister and I would be more than happy to tape your next theater  performance so that can be shown on your cable channel.”
Frank sat up at that, looking vaguely cheerful for the first time in weeks, and Amy looked surprised. She  looked down at her hand and extended her fourth finger.
“The most important thing now, though,” Sophie said, “is to help the police find the pervert who thought  it would be a good idea to show pornography to schoolchildren.” Sophie sounded outraged, and Phin  wondered if that was real or con. He was pretty sure the rest of it was a con, but at least the populace  wasn’t trying to lynch her.
“So what I’m asking you all to do, is to think about who has the most to gain from this,” Sophie said  earnestly, and one or two people began to look interested.
“The mayor did it,” the heckler said from the back, and Sophie said, “Why? That would be political  suicide, I’ve even heard some people are so shortsighted that they’re talking about not voting for him, but  they can’t be thinking this through. He’d have to be crazy to play that tape.”
“He is,” the heckler shouted back, and Sophie said, “No, he isn’t, and you should be ashamed of  yourself for just shouting things out instead of standing up for what you believe in, the way your mayor  does. The people of this town don’t like cowards and they don’t like cheats, which is why they’re not  listening to you and why they’re going to find out who really did this. The people of Temptation are too  smart to fall for this. You’re all upset now, but pretty soon you’re all going to be asking yourselves the  smart question: Who has the most to gain? It’s your civic duty to ask that question, all of you.”
She let the silence hang there, and Phin thought, Don’t look at Stephen, let them get there on their  own.
Sophie nodded. “You all know this town so much better than I do, you’ll figure this out, and then I know  you’ll punish the culprit properly. Thank you.” She sat down abruptly, and Phin could see her hands  shaking.

Amy held out five fingers and said, “You got everything but the smile.”
“I can’t work miracles,” Sophie said, and Phin thought, The hell you can’t.
Because she’d made porn, and she was getting away with it. Stephen couldn’t get her for it because  he’d stolen the tapes, and if he produced them to get her, the townspeople would know he had been  responsible for the debacle the night before.
Hell of a woman, his Sophie.
Phin leaned over. “Not bad,” he told her, and she lifted her chin, still shaking, and said, “I was  magnificent.”
“I want to know what she was getting at,” Stephen was blustering loudly, and Phin leaned back and  said,
“No, you don’t, that’s the last thing you want to know. I declare this meeting adjourned.”
Hildy said, “Works for me,” and stood up. “You can all go home now,” she told the crowd. “Show’s  over.”
“Wait a minute,” Stephen said, and Virginia turned to him with loathing.
“This is all your fault, all of it,” she told him, and got up and left, leaving her stunned husband behind her.
“Some days are like that, Stephen,” Phin said, as he stood up to go.
“Sit down, I want to talk to you,” Liz said, and Phin nodded as he watched the crowd. Most of them  were still throwing him dirty looks, but one or two looked at Stephen with some curiosity.
Sophie went out with Amy and Hildy, and nobody said anything to her, nasty or otherwise, so she was  going to be fine. Better than fine, if he had anything to do with it.
Then Wes came to stand in the doorway and caught his eye, motioning to him as people filed out around  him.
“Make this fast,” he told his mother as he nodded to Wes. “I have things to do.”
Rachel sat by the garden at Leo’s house, marveling at where she’d ended up. It looked like paradise.
Leo’s tiled pool sparkled blue in the sunlight, and there were palm trees, real palm trees, and blooming  hibiscus, and up by the hot tub there was a lemon tree that really grew lemons.
She couldn’t wait for Sophie to see that. She could pick them right off the tree and make lemonade.
Leo came out and sat down on the chaise next to her, still looking slightly stunned, and handed her a  glass of what looked like sludgy orange juice.
“What is this?” Rachel said, looking at it with deep suspicion.

“Vitamin citrus smoothie,” Leo said. “Drink it. It’s good for you.”
Rachel sipped it. It wasn’t bad. “It’s great.” She looked at Leo over the glass. “Thank you.”
“I’m going to hell for this,” Leo said, and Rachel knew he wasn’t talking about the smoothie. “Your  father is going to come after me with a shotgun.”
“He doesn’t have a shotgun,” Rachel said. “He has a nice rifle, though.” Which he would probably use if  he had any idea of the things Leo had done to her in his bedroom. Amazing, the things older men knew.
Not to mention how much longer they lasted.
She grinned again, the silly, satisfied grin that she couldn’t keep off her face even though it made her look  like a dork. She was in L.A. now. She was supposed to be sophisticated. A producer’s mistress wasn’t  supposed to grin like somebody who’d just had the first great sex of her life.
“Twenty years old.” Leo shook his head.
“I am not the first twenty-year-old you’ve slept with,” Rachel said. “Cut me a break. How dumb do you  think I am?”
“No, but you’re the first twenty-year-old I’m going to marry,” Leo said. “How dumb does that make  me?”
Rachel straightened. “Marry?”
Leo sighed. “Yeah.”
“You’re going to marry me?”
“I think it’s best for the kids. Especially if one of them’s going to be mayor of Temptation someday. You  know how those people are.”
“Leo.” Rachel felt tears come to her eyes, which was ridiculous because she hadn’t even realized she  wanted to be married. But she did. Her mother would be so happy.
Leo’s face softened. “I’ll take care of you, Rachel. You’ll never be sorry.”
Rachel nodded through her tears. “And I’ll take care of you, too. You think you don’t need it, but you  do.”
“I’m sure I do,” Leo said, patting her hand.
“No, really.” Rachel put the smoothie down and went into the house for her bag. When she came back  out she said, “I was going to use this to convince you I should have that production job, but now it can  be a wedding present. Although I still want that production job.”
“You’ve got it, you’ve got it.” Leo peered in the bag. “What have you got?”
Rachel pulled out a videotape and handed it to him and watched his face go slack with surprise.

“Don’t tell me—”
“Yep.” She patted his arm. “It’s Cherished, the last version. I found it in Daddy’s car, along with all the  other tapes when I threw my bag in the trunk. I called Wes and told him where we left the car so he can  find the others, but I knew you’d want this one.”
Leo looked at her with wonder. “You’re amazing.”
Rachel nodded and crawled onto the chaise with him. “I’m beginning to see that. And that’s just in
Temptation. Imagine what I can do now that we’re in L.A.”
“Imagine,” Leo said, putting his arm around her.
Rachel looked out over the lemon tree and the palm fronds and the hibiscus and thought, This is all  mine. I’m going to be Rachel Kingsley. A movie producer. Then she narrowed her eyes at the  hibiscus.
“Leo, who weeds this place?” Rachel said.
“The gardener,” Leo said.
“Fabulous,” Rachel said, and relaxed into her new life.
At roughly the same time, Davy watched Clea come out of Suisselnvest Limited of the Bahamas, cross  the street, and slump down onto one of the brightly painted benches that lined the edge of the beach. It  had taken her long enough to get the bad news. If he’d thought he had a couple million in a bank  somewhere, he wouldn’t have dawdled.
She wasn’t dawdling now, she was in shock. He was sympathetic. So were any number of men who  slowed as they went by her. Time to get a move on. He crossed the street and sat down beside her.
“Hey, Clea,” he said. “Heard you’re broke.”
She jerked her head up and then her eyes narrowed. “What are you doing here?”
“Saving your life, which is more than you deserve,” Davy said. “In fact, if you didn’t have something my  sister wants, I’d probably let you rot. You’re a fairly miserable human being, you know.”
“What are you doing here?” Clea said again.
“That’s good. Focus.” He put his hands in his pockets and stretched his legs out. “Let’s see. You just  went into that bank and found out that the bank book you took off Zane’s body is for an empty  account.”
Clea looked around to see if anyone was listening. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“When Zane was fibrillating on the dock,” Davy said slowly and distinctly, “you went through his  pockets and found the bank book. And then you sat there and watched him die. And I stood on the