Three Weeks Later...
"... and City Engineer Gregory insists that Evergreen Harbor's Port Promise Bridge will reopen in a few days," anchorwoman Lynda Cho said brightly. "The Bridge has been closed due to damage taken during last month's surprising earthquake."
"Turning to political news, embattled Representative Rohan Elderberry has resigned from the Lower House and dropped his bid for reelection," anchorman Walter Daniels said in his signature deep, confident voice. "Elderberry, who has become embroiled in the growing Crossing scandal, is under investigation for graft, corruption and ties to organized crime."
"Viewers will remember that this is not the first time accusations of impropriety have been brought against the Axis party representative," anchorwoman Lynda Cho added with barely suppressed glee. "Two years ago, Elderberry was implicated, but never charged, of being involved with imprisoned crime boss Nick Alto."
"Axis party leader Elias Friend declined to comment directly on Elderberry's resignation," Cho continued, "saying only that the Axis party was committed to law and order and was intent on rooting out corruption wherever it might be found."
"In his resignation speech, Representative Elderberry did not address the ongoing investigation," Daniels said, "saying only that he needed to spend time with his family, during this difficult period."
"Tonight at 8:00, our own Nadine Lane will be speaking with the person who first broke the Crossing scandal - San My Herald reporter, and Representative Elderberry's eldest daughter - Genie Elderberry," Lynda Cho said with a vicious gleam in her eye. "Turning to entertainment..."
--------------------
"Hey, Genie," Miranda said. "How are you doing?"
"I'm fine," Genie lied. "A little stressed about this interview tonight. I don't know why I let my editor bully me into it..."
"Yeah, I'm sure you'll do great," Demarco said encouragingly.
"Where are Mariah and Etta?" Genie asked.
"They'll catch up," Demarco smiled. "They were having a kind of intense debate about the possibility of a Vampire Slayer reboot."
"It's good they're getting along," Miranda said. "It is good that they're getting along, right? I shouldn't be worried or anything... should I?"
"I would be," Genie chuckled weakly.
In the tense silence that followed, Miranda and Demarco exchanged a look.
"So, Genie," Miranda said at last. "About your mom..."
"She's good," Genie said with false brightness. "The doctors upgraded her condition to stable and say she should make a full recovery. She'll need to stay in the hospital a while longer and probably need physical therapy. She lost a lot of blood..." Blood, crimson against her mom's white dress. Blood, hot and sticky on Genie's hands. "... but she'll be fine.
"She's actually pretty chill about everything," she continued. "You know that the Bank removed her from the Board... and she's being investigated for money laundering in addition to everything else with Crossing."
Almost everything, Genie thought to herself. Not the murder. The recording of The Call had vanished from her mom's computer before the Agency took it into evidence. That recording now only existed on a flash drive in Genie's pocket. Apart from the other people on the call, Jenny Poole was the only other person who knew about it. She hadn't said anything, and Genie still hadn't decided what to do.
"Mom seems weirdly OK with it all though," Genie sighed. "At least, she's talking to me... really more than she has in years. Which is a nice change from the twins.
"I told my sisters everything." Almost everything, she thought again. "They deserved to know. Debra and Blair both accused me of betraying the family to advance my career. Now they won't speak to me. Kassidy believes me and now she won't speak to our parents. My dad is just in denial. I think he's basically pretending there is a completely different Genie Elderberry who works for the Herald.
"I tried to talk to him about the svartalves, to find out more about them," Genie continued. "He acted like he didn't even know what I was talking about."
"Gwen did say the svartalves had a kind of mind magic," Miranda mused. "That they could alter people's thoughts and memories. If I was involved in a conspiracy and had that kind of magic, messing with the memories of someone who might spill the beans would be the first thing I'd do."
"This magic stuff is unfair," Genie muttered darkly.
"So Mariah tells me," Miranda sighed.
"So apart from your wife and your ex bonding, how are you?" Genie asked. Anything to throw the spotlight off herself for as long as she could.
"Fine," Miranda groaned. "Our Agency handler is working on relocating us. I can't say where. I can say that she's basically said that since we obviously don't understand the concept of 'laying low' she may as well put us to work. So that's... kind of scary.
"Gwen took our evidence to the Council," she continued. "She managed to convince Baron Charm that the Dark Court wasn't responsible for Shannon's murder. Unfortunately, now he wants to take revenge on the svartalves. The Council is sending a delegation to the svartalf Leadership to negotiate a weregild."
"Yeah, you might want to suggest that to Jake," Demarco said.
"I'm trying to stay out of Moonwood Mill for right now," Miranda sighed. "After... you know..."
"No one really blames you, you know," Demarco said with a slight grin. "Those buildings were structurally unsound to begin with... and you did rescue everyone in the library."
"Yeah, but still..." Miranda sighed. "Anyway, what's going on that I should be suggesting diplomacy to Jake?"
"Rory is on the warpath," Demarco said with sigh. "You know that Jake let Mr. Hand and his commandos go. I mean, he kind of had to. He couldn't keep them locked up in the town root cellars forever. Unfortunately, Rory feels that giving them a stern talking to and sending them on their way doesn't really make up for people getting terrorized and shot. A lot of folks in town agree with her."
"What does she think he should have done?" Miranda asked.
"She stops short of saying," Demarco said, "but she's got patrols out watching for svartalves and she's asking Etta and me a lot of questions about them. At the risk of using one of Etta's movie quotes - I've got a bad feeling about this."
"Great," Miranda sighed. "What do we do now?"
"We make the world a better place," Genie said seriously. "Because, even though my mom is probably crazy, and the stuff she did was very wrong, she was right about one thing. This war needs to end... but first we need to keep it from getting worse."
----------------------
"Rory Oaklow?" the man asked.
"Who's asking?" Rory snarled.
"My name is Darrel Charm," he said with a smile. "You and I have a problem in common. I believe we can help each other."
"You've got my attention," Rory smiled ferociously.
