"You have no
legal responsibility. They can't force it on you," Beau insisted, patting
Jane's shoulder. "As the Ghost, you are there to handle large accidents
and emergencies. Floods and tornadoes, water main breaks, fires, that sort of
things. Not to retrieve improperly disciplined boys from trees twenty times in
a day and protect idiots from their own stupidity." He folded the newspaper
in half and slapped it on the desk in front of him for emphasis, tumbling
several scones off the pile with the force of the blow.
Beauregard might have
been white-haired and paunchy and wrinkled, but he still had a lot of oomph
left in him.
"However..."
Jane sagged, knowing
she was in trouble when Beau used "however." She had overlooked
something, and he had seen it. The fine print, so to speak, in her unwritten
superhero contract with the town of Fendersburg.
"Well, part of
this problem, you brought on yourself," he said, softening his voice.
"Kick the girl
while she's down, why don't you?" Demetrius grumbled. “We did it to
her, sending her there to bait the Rivals. The same stupidity that lets these
half-wits shift all responsibility to her is what we depended on to keep our
enemies stymied.”
Jane sighed. She knew
he was right. She also knew she was stuck in Fendersburg until the Rivals got
so frustrated they carelessly left clues for Hoax to track them to their
headquarters. If that ever happened, they could at long last settle the problem
and the war the Rivals had declared with their actions, if not words.
"If she wouldn't
wear herself to a frazzle pulling their nuts out of the fire, day in and day
out, if she'd just let them fall down and bloody their noses a few times, they
might learn to stand on their own two feet and not sit around on their fat backsides,
expecting her to come to their rescue." Beau gestured with his scone.
"You have to admit I'm right, Janie-gal."
"Yeah, you're
right." She sank into a chair. "But honestly, it's easier to take
care of the mess right away, instead of listening to them scream and whine and
make it even worse."
"You're stuck, Cookie,"
Demetrius growled, twisting around in his overstuffed chair to turn it without
actually getting out of it. "I’m sorry, but that’s how it is.”
“Is she?” Beau said.
“Every lead generated from her acting as bait has evaporated. No suspected
Rivals have come back, and no newcomers have been spotted in town in nearly
four months. I’m inclined to think they’ve given up.”
“Or?” Jane said,
hearing the unspoken qualifiers.
He sighed and seemed
to deflate a little. “Or they’ve moved on to more fruitful hunting grounds.”
“Neighborlee?” she
whispered.
“Who can be sure? None
of the other potential arrival spots for Gifted have panned out. You were the
last one from Neighborlee.”
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