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"Wish we had some more information on the old boy," I added impatiently. |
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"Well," Brenda purred, "why don't we just wait for your little petwhat's her name, Lucy? I'm sure she'll be calling you back soon." |
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Madden's open village council came off as planned. By the time two o'clock rolled around, we had driven back into Chambers Bay and located the old community school building where 70 or so people had gathered in the drafty old gymnasium. |
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Jake, along with Harlan, Caleb and a stern, square-jawed, blue-faced man in the smartly pressed uniform of the RCMP, sat at a small table on a riser at one end of the room. B.C. and I located two seats up front and prepared ourselves for more research. |
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We hadn't been on the scene more than 48 hours and already we had a pretty good handle on some of the locals. B.C. spotted the combination hostess/waitress/owner of the diner with the name Vernice stitched on her brown and yellow polyester uniform, and I located Bert Johnson standing nervously along the far wall. Polly wasn't with him. Equally conspicuous by his absence was young Mr. Kelto. I was about to put the Widow Austin in the same category, but the old woman slipped in at the last minute and took a chair in the far corner of the room. |
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