“They need jailers,” Dalton says. “Not cops.”
“Or we could be mistaken, and they’ve decided that a town like Rockton isn’t profitable enough to sustain in any form. It doesn’t matter, because whatever they do, none of us will be on the invitation list.”
“Is there anyone here who’d go to a new Rockton under those conditions?” Petra says.
Muttered epithets and eye rolls all around.
“I’m presuming we have two options,” Isabel says. “We accept this, or we try to stop it. Is there any point in stopping it?”
“I believe there is,” Phil says. “We have the infrastructure here. The town is built and well established. The alternative is starting from scratch.”
“Which will be both difficult and expensive,” Isabel says.
“Very. It makes good fiscal sense to work within the current parameters.”
“The current parameters being living among killers.”
Phil’s gaze slides to Anders.
“I don’t mean Will,” Isabel says. “I have no issue with him nor any issue with anyone here who might have something in their past, something worse.”
“Why are you looking at me, Isabel?” Mathias asks.
“Pure coincidence, I’m sure. I’m talking about the dangerous offenders who’ve been sent here and continued to commit dangerous offenses. We’ve had serial killers, rapists, unrepentant murderers, for whom being here only solidifies their sense of entitlement. They aren’t being punished for their crimes. They received a free pass to a wilderness town where they can do as they like.”
“I wouldn’t say it’s free,” Phil murmurs. He lifts his hands. “Which is not your point.”
“My point is that I’m not going to live in this damned town anymore,” she says. “You were almost killed by a man who tried to attack me for the terrible crime of trusting him. Yes, Brandon doesn’t have a history of violence, but he was driven to his actions by Conrad, a known blackmailer who came to a town ripe for blackmail. As I know very well, having used it myself to extend my stays.”
“You are looking at me again, Isabel,” Mathias says. “If you continue that, you may make Philip jealous.”
“Phil knows exactly why I’m looking at you, since he’s the one who negotiated both our blackmail-infused extensions.” Isabel turns to us. “I’ve had enough, and I frankly do not understand why we are trying to keep Rockton alive. This ship is sinking, Eric. I am very sorry to say that. But it’s sinking, and the council isn’t willing to make repairs. It hands you teaspoons for bailing out the water, and then complains when we have flood damage.”
Silence. Beside me, Dalton holds himself tight, listening. I’m thinking of that blood on the back patio. It caught my eye and dragged with it a sense of deep exhaustion.
Blood soaked into the wood of this town. Blood we’ll never get out, and all we can do is replace the boards, knowing it does nothing to solve the problem.
Not every murder here has been the council’s fault. Stopping the inflow of unrepentant criminals wouldn’t solve everything. But it would untie our hands. Let us chart our course, not rely on navigators a thousand miles away who don’t give a shit where we end up.
Isabel turns to Phil. “I understand the infrastructure issue. I really do. If someone offered me the Roc instead of building a new saloon at my own expense, obviously I’d take the existing structure. But this isn’t that. They’re offering me a free bar built on quicksand and infested with rattlesnakes. This town is poisoned. We cannot save it.”
She turns to Dalton. “I know how hard that is for you to hear, Eric. You’re the one with the greatest stake in this. But this entire town is built on quicksand, infested with rattlesnakes, and it’s about to be set afire.”
Dalton grunts. That’s it. Just a grunt.
“Could we buy it?” Kenny asks. “I have no idea where we’d come up with the money, but it’ll cost them to dismantle this place. We can offer to take their rattlesnake-infested town off their hands.”
It’s Petra who shakes her head. “émilie has tried to buy Rockton multiple times. She made them a massive offer when the dust settled on the hostile issue. They turned her down flat.”
“Liability issues,” Phil says. “To extend Isabel’s metaphor, they will be afraid that if they let us take the rattlesnake-infested town someone will get bitten and—” He waves a hand. “Forget the metaphor. They’re afraid that if your version of Rockton was exposed, it’d come back on them. This isn’t a rattlesnake-infested town. It’s a highly illegal operation.”
“They think we’ll screw up, and they’ll be caught in the fallout,” Kenny says. “Better to burn it down and salt the earth.”
“Yes,” Phil says. “You say they’d need to pay to dismantle it. To them, that’s insurance.”
“We need to build a new Rockton,” I say.
Everyone turns my way, and I feel the weight of those eyes as I continue. “When I first came here, I told Eric that if the council ever shut us down or kicked us out, we’d rebuild. Our own Rockton. Our own rules. I came to realize just how naive that was. As Phil will happily tell us, there is so much infrastructure involved here. Not just the buildings, but the procedures and policies. We can copy those—at least the ones that work for us—but it’s like thinking we can open a bed and breakfast in the middle of the wilderness and people will somehow find us. I don’t even know how to think about that part. We need to find people in need without risking exposure, and we need to ensure we aren’t tricked into admitting exactly the kind of people the council has been sending us.”
I take a deep breath. “But Isabel is right. There’s poison here. We can’t keep living like this. She called it a sinking ship, and we’re being given teaspoons for bailing. It’s worse than that. It’s an ark, and we’re being given teaspoons to bail or we risk the lives of people who trust us to keep them safe. If we fight to keep the council’s version of Rockton, we’re complicit in what they do to those people.”
I realize what I’ve said and turn to Dalton. “I didn’t mean—”
“No, you’re right. We’ve been trying to keep the boat afloat, and the damage keeps getting worse. At some point, we need to evacuate and save who we can. We’ve reached that point.”
Dalton lifts his head to look out at the others. “Does anyone think we’re being premature here? Well, other than Phil. We know where Phil stands.” His gaze lands on Petra. “You thought we were acting in haste before. Still agree?”
She shakes her head. “I hoped my grandmother could fix this. She can’t. To me, that was our only chance. émilie buys Rockton, and we run it the way we want. The way it was always supposed to be.”
“Anyone else?” Dalton says.
Headshakes all around. He turns to Phil. “You want to state your case for staying?”
Phil’s quiet for a moment. Then he says, his voice soft, “I don’t believe I have one. Isabel and Casey are right. We’re trying to save a sinking ark, when what we need to do—what you need to do—is build a new one.”
TWENTY-TWO