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Gil and Lili arrived at the Greenfield Country Club and were shown to the banquet room where the others had gathered. “Apparently Mayor Jakoby is making this an opportunity to show off to other politicians,” said Lili.
“As long as there’s food, I’m okay with that. Everybody’s taking a chance on COVID without their masks, though.”
“Well, we only live once!” said Lili.
Karen made a beeline for them when they entered. “Hi, guys. Come with me.” She dragged them over to a woman in a gray pantsuit with a dark blue blouse and an American flag lapel pin. “Mayor Martha, this is Lili D’Amico from the crime lab and Gil Novak, our consultant.”
“I’m so pleased to meet you,” said the mayor. “This is a great day for law enforcement! What a great example of state and city departments working together. Mr. Novak, I’ve heard all about your exploits here. It’s an unbelievable story!”
“It hasn’t all sunk in for me yet. But, it’s been great to be back in my old stomping grounds.”
Martha took his hand, winked at him, and said, “Well, maybe you’ll move back to your stomping grounds. We could always use some more smart people.”
“It’s been an honor to meet you, Mayor,” said Lily, then she steered Gil away. “Apparently I’ve got some competition.”
Karen followed behind. “Oh, that’s just Martha’s way of getting votes. She’s actually happily married, as far as I can tell. By the way, Social Services identified our burn victim as a homeless woman named Sharon Gilly. Her local nickname is Lightfoot, but nobody knows why. She’s going to be okay.”
Gil stopped and faced Karen. “There’s one thing I still don’t understand—well, maybe a lot of things. How did Mark Breen know who I was and that I’d be riding on Route 2 the day he almost killed me? And why was Moraine involved in any of these things at all?”
“Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you the rest of that story. You heard during Mark’s interrogation that Moraine, who is Mark Breen’s friend, is also a friend of Officer Jupe. It turns out that soon-to-be Ex-Officer Jupe was freely sharing information to impress his friends. When Dwayne and the chief questioned Jupe, he told them everything. Dwayne doesn’t think he intended to help anybody commit a crime. It’s too bad for Jupe. He didn’t know the ramifications of his casual chats. As far as Keith Moraine’s motive, I think he just thought of all these crimes as a game.”
Gil laughed. “Dwayne? Dwayne Phillips? This is the first time I’ve heard that Sergeant Phillips had a first name!” Just then, Gil got a major slap on his back, causing him to cough hard. “Hi, Eddie.”
“Gil Novak, I’d like to introduce you to my friend Pam Leone. Oh, but I hear you’ve already been spying on her and secretly meeting with her behind my back. Perhaps I should challenge you to a duel! Perhaps we should joust! Where are my gauntlets?”
Gil smiled. “We’ve already met, but it’s so nice to meet you without all that formality going on. I’ve been dreaming about you my whole life. But, I guess that sounds a little weird.” Pam smiled. “You’ve already met Karen and Lili. Lili, this is Eddie Locke an old friend of mine.”
Pam said, “This whole situation is so confusing to me, especially meeting my mother again.”
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During the party, Chief Reyes brought his people together. “I wanted to thank you all for pursuing this case. In the end, we never really figured out what happened to Julian Foy, but I don’t think there are any more related threats out there. This investigation actually ended up encouraging more people to commit crimes, and we’ll bring them to justice. We also solved some unrelated murders. Violence was committed against Gil and Karen, and I regret that. But I’m especially grateful to Gil for volunteering his help.”
“I’m honored that I was able to help. This whole situation was really surreal. I think the best thing that came out of it was that we reunited a family that was torn apart so many years ago. I can’t imagine what these girls are feeling.”
Lili gave Gil a shove. “They’re women, Gil, not girls! By the way, Pamela and Susan said that they’re going to meet their half siblings from Maine. I think that would be a very intriguing discussion.”
They stopped talking when Pam’s band, Soundslip, started to play. Gil was transfixed by Pam’s beautiful voice and stage presence. She chose a song called “Mother.” He felt Lili looking up at his face, and he smiled.