Page 12 of Falcon

Ross nodded at Noah, who took the girls to a nearby stall. “Is everything okay?” he demanded, dropping the jovial mayor front.

“Someone vandalised our bikes, and it’s frustrating because we’re no closer to identifying them,” I replied.

“Christ, I don’t understand this, Falcon. Most of the town is happy you’re here. You’ve brought growth and visitors. Revenue is up, and most businesses are reporting an increase in profits. This makes little sense,” Ross responded, frowning.

Agitated, I tapped my patch, and Ross shook his head. “Surely people aren’t prejudiced over that?”

“Those damn TV shows did a lot of damage.”

“Don’t viewers understand they’re fictional?” Ross gasped.

“Clearly not. And obviously, we had the MC wars of the eighties to contend with.”

“That’s forty years ago!” Ross exclaimed, and I shrugged.

Yeah, it was, but the public remembers, and now TV programmes show us in a bad light for the sake of drama.” I sighed; there was nothing we could do except stick to the path we were walking.

“And the townies are worried about how many businesses we own,” I added.

“People need to stay in their own lanes and worry about their own concerns and not everyone else’s!” Ross stated, outraged.

“I quite agree,” Mrs Maple stated from behind, and we turned like naughty schoolboys caught skipping school.

“Mrs Maple, Miss Jones, Mrs Bunton,” I said, acknowledging the three women standing there.

These individuals, all near seventy, were a force to be reckoned with. Initially, when we moved here, Calamity and I found the idea of the book club quite funny. To us, they’d been old biddies getting together to discuss dirty books. Hell no. The club soon learned that these women were different.

While Ross was the acknowledged mayor, the book club was the powerhouse in Ortonville. They were aware of everything, literally everything. If somebody farted downtown, they’d find out within minutes. Someone lost their job, they’d have one in a week if they wanted to work. Down on your luck? Get ready for a slew of cooked meals to be delivered. If someone died and the family couldn’t afford funeral expenses, they had the money donated in two or three days.

While the members were disruptive, loved gossip, and stuck their noses into everything, they all had hearts of gold. Aggie quickly became one of them and was just as bad. If the book club disagreed with something, they ensured it didn’t happen. They were clever, skilful, wily and frightening.

Mrs Maple fixed me with a stern glare, and even though I was an adult, I squirmed. “Falcon, I hear somebody harmed your bikes.”

“They caused damage,” I said.

“I’m unimpressed. The Book Club shall deal with this,” Mrs Maple stated. The book club was called Book Club, and when capitalised, it carried a wealth of power. Mrs Maple had just capitalised it.

Ross and I nodded, and Mrs Maple strode away with her minions on her heels.

“That woman terrifies me,” Ross admitted, and I chuckled.

“They’re all a force of nature,” I agreed. What more could I say? My phone rang, and glancing down, I saw it was Wayne. “Excuse me.”

Ross waved me goodbye and headed back to join his family.

“What’s up?”

“We’ve got a corpse.”

“What?” I could have sworn Wayne said there was a body.

“Veep, a body has washed up. It’s been in the water a few days,” Wayne replied.

“On my way.”

I turned and jogged to my bike. I’d check this out before informing Calamity. It was highly unlikely that Wayne would mistake a stiff, but you never knew. It didn’t take me long to reach home, and I passed through the gate where Chris stood on guard. The gates rolled back, and I stopped.

“Stay alert,” I ordered, and Chris jerked his head. “Where’s Wayne?”