“Your first mistake was actually believing that Meade would ever do what he said he would do. Have you ever known him to show up for work on a beautiful fall day like this?”
Orville still looked angry for a moment, and then he laughed too. “You’re right, of course, Vera,” he replied. “I don’t know what I was thinking. Imagining that I could count on him to do anything that I asked. Seriously, I was going to wait until he retired in a few years before I ran for police chief, but when I saw him drinking cider without a care in the world, I just lost it.”
“You’re going to win this election,” Vera said with conviction. “You are already doing the job anyway. You might as well have the title and the salary.”
Just then, she saw the figure of a skunk standing about twenty feet away. He puffed on a cigar and his gaze bored directly into Vera. “Oh, dear, BW wants a word.” BW Stone ran the newspaper, and though Vera liked him, he talked only business…and it was her day off.
“Skip it,” Orville suggested.
“No, he’ll just hound me until he says whatever’s on his mind. I won’t be a minute. Meet you in the music tent?”
“Sure. Oh, actually, I just remembered I said I’d stop by today and see Professor Heidegger. He thinks someone snuck into his house and rearranged all his books.”
“What? Just rearranged? Not stolen?”
“That’s what he said.”
“Heidegger lives about forty feet off the ground,” she objected. Granted, plenty of creatures could access the owl’s lofty home if they really wanted to, but it seemed unlikely that they could do so while Heidegger remained unaware of it. “Oh, well, I’ll want to hear all the details. Let’s say we’ll find each other in the music tent in an hour.”
With that, she left Orville and moved toward BW. He was a fast-talking, cigar-chomping skunk who loved a good headline. Vera did not always agree with him, but she liked and respected him, and she enjoyed her job at the paper. But she suspected that this conversation was going to annoy her.
“Vera, how’s it going this fine day? Some news about your special friend’s running for chief, huh?”
“It was an impulse,” she said, wondering if BW was simply put out that Orville didn’t make his announcement via an interview with the paper. “He’s always toyed with the idea of running, but he made his decision right before he went onstage.”
“Not a moment too soon, if you want my opinion!” (BW Stone always assumed that everyone wanted his opinion.) “Meade’s a good bear all around, but he’s been police chief for approximately seventeen centuries, and it’s time for a change.”
Privately, Vera concurred. Chief Meade was known more for his fishing skills than his dedication to duty, and when things got sticky—such as when dead bodies showed up—it was Orville whom the town relied on to solve the crimes.
“Now listen up, Vixen. I’ve got an idea for coverage of the election.”
Vera stood there and wished she had about five more of Ben’s maple cookies while her boss outlined his idea. She knew better than to try to respond until he was finished. There was no stopping Stone when he was on a roll.
“The way I see it, you’ve got an inside track,” he was saying. “I want to hear all of the info on Orville’s campaign. Who better than you? This is going to be a hotly contested election. Meade has run unopposed for years. We don’t want the Herald to miss out on the story. What do you think?”
There was silence for several seconds before Vera realized that BW had stopped talking.
“Oh, I don’t know, BW,” she said, when she realized her boss was still waiting for an answer. “I’m a reporter, and I’m supposed to be unbiased. Folk wouldn’t trust my take on things anyway. They all know Orville and I have been seeing each other.”
“Why don’t you take the rest of the day off and think about it, Vera?” Stone urged. This was not as generous as it sounded, since Vera already had the day off to attend the Harvest Festival.
She strongly encouraged BW to go sample some of the Cold Clay hard apple cider, secretly hoping that the skunk would “sample” so much he’d pass out and forget he ever asked her to cover Orville’s campaign.
Having almost an hour before she was to rejoin Orville, Vera finally got to a table filled with books, the festival outpost of the local bookstore. A small head popped up between two tall stacks. “Morning, Miss Vixen!” a mouse squeaked.
“Hi there, Violet. Where’s Lenore?”
“She flew back to the shop to pull some more books. We’re really selling through them today!” Then Violet turned and greeted another customer who just walked up.
Vera decided to run over to the bookshop to see if she could help Lenore. She didn’t think that the raven had ever taken off a whole day in her life. She tried to keep the store open as much as she could. There were always creatures coming in to browse and buy a few cards or paperbacks. Lenore hired a few locals to help out at the front counter on the busiest days, but she was the sole owner of the store, and for the most part, she handled everything herself. Vera worried about her friend working too hard and never having the opportunity to take a vacation, but Lenore was in good health, and right now the bookshop was her life. It was also an important part of the community in Shady Hollow and provided a place for the village folk to gather and talk about books. When Lenore was able to schedule author events and book signings, there was great rejoicing in the town.
In general, there was not a great deal for local creatures to do in the evenings, and attending a book signing was far preferable to having to endure a concert at
