In the morning's mail she discovered an envelope,
addressed to her, from Gavin Barnes. She opened itto find a
ort but well-written letter of apology to the whole town,
a small note attached asking her if she would please
w%h
123.
124Melody Carlson
print this in the newspaper. His letter to the town seemed sin-
cere and remorseful and she saw no reason not to print it,
but decided to run it past Clyde first. She found him put-
tering around in the printing room. "Hey there," she called.
"Got a moment?"
He set his push broom aside and dusted his hands on the
sides of his faded black work pants. "Always got time for
you, Maggie girl. What is it?"
"I got a letter from Gavin today. Actually, it's for the town.
It's an open letter of apology for all that drug-trafficking busi-
ness. As you can see, he doesn't take personal blame for the
actual drugs, only for opening the door-and for that he
seems truly sorry, don't you think?" She handed him Gavin's
letter and waited for him to adjust his glasses and read.
Finally he folded it and handed it back. "It's up to you-
you're the editor." He sniffed. "Don't know as I'd believe
every word myself. Don't know that a snake can change his
stripes that easily."
She frowned. "But you said you were going to give him a
chance."
"It's one thing, me giving my own nephew a chance. He's
my own flesh and blood, what else can I do? But it's some-
thing else altogether in encouraging the whole town to take
the same kind of chance."
"Well, like you said, I'm the editor. And I happen to be
willing to take this chance with Gavin. If he somehow blows
it, well, then printing his letter will be on my head-right?"
Clyde grinned. "Seems to me you've got a lot riding on
your head these days."
She lifted her brows. "Meaning?"
"Meaning, I heard some good ol' boys yacking away at
the hardware store yesterday. Seems everybody's real taken
with this California developer man. And seems that some
folks think a certain newspaper editor's all wet in reporting
on him the way she did."
She exhaled in loud exasperation, and then threw up her
hands. "Well, what am I supposed to do, Clyde? Just believe Looking for You All My Life125
everything this guy says and forget about everything else I've
heard and read that's contrary to that?"
"Not as long as I'm around! I want you to stick to his
trail like a hound on a coon. Don't you be taken in with all
his fine, smooth talk."
"He invited me to go down and see some of his develop-