Jane was a little teed off now, ready to leave the topic of Tobe Phillips. But under that, Sunny caught a flash of loneliness in the pretty vet’s eyes as she turned back to her patients.
*
They chatted a little longer while Jane finished up at the pet hospital. As they stepped outside, Sunny glanced at the sky above. Clouds were gathering, but she still considered suggesting that they stop off for a cup of coffee. Maybe they could even stop at Spill the Beans and have a whoopie pie. But her finances argued against that course. After bribing a tobacconist and shelling out for a breakfast that Will didn’t even eat, Sunny couldn’t take on any more unaccustomed expenses this week. And no way was she about to let Jane treat her again.
As Jane’s BMW pulled out of the parking lot, Sunny sat behind her wheel for a moment, thinking. Then, instead of heading home, she steered for downtown Kittery Harbor and the offices of the
The long, narrow room housed the newspaper operation and Ken’s printing business. Sunny was never sure which supported which. An ancient rolltop desk housed a fairly modern computer, which Ken used for writing and composing. Scattered around the room were generations of different printing presses. That wasn’t surprising. Howells had been printing and publishing in here since before the Civil War.
Ken had a house somewhere. Her dad had even told Sunny he’d visited there. But the newsroom was Ken’s home. If he wasn’t out distributing papers or gathering news, Sunny usually saw him in the office. Today he had a practical reason. One of the presses was clattering away, spitting out some sort of newsletter. In order to make ends meet, Ken not only printed the paper, but also took on all sorts of other printing jobs.
When he spotted her coming in, Ken gave Sunny a companionable nod and pointed at the chair beside his desk. For him, that was a warm welcome. He’d been almost hostile a year ago when Sunny had approached him about a reporter’s job. But that ice had been broken. They’d worked together on a couple of stories and developed a healthy respect for each other’s abilities. The sad fact of the matter was that a local weekly couldn’t afford to take on Sunny, or anyone else, full-time.
After a few minutes, the clattering stopped and Ken came over, wiping his hands on a rag. “What brings you down here on a Sunday?” he asked, white eyebrows rising on his long, spare-fleshed face.
“Moneylending,” Sunny replied.
Ken looked at his shoes. “I wish I could help,” he began.
“I mean professional moneylenders. Or rather, loan sharks.” Sunny quickly jumped in.
He jerked his head up, his eyes sharp. “My advice—don’t get involved there. If the Elmet Bank won’t help you, try a credit union. I think your dad—”
“It’s not for me,” she promised. “I’m just trying to get an idea of where people would turn. Are there operations that could take over whole businesses?”
“I’ve heard about that,” Ken said slowly. “But bear in mind, this is pretty much a blue-collar town. The loans are small, comparatively speaking, and so are the sharks. The big business these days involves mortgages, screwing people out of their homes, or quasi-legal deals like payday loans. Which seem to me like going after people in a bad position and trying to make things worse.”
His eyes took on a speculative gleam. “Maybe there’s something to write about there. We’ve got a lot of people around town hurting in this economy, and they’ll do really foolish things to try and stay afloat.”
He looked a little self-conscious. “To tell the truth, I nearly did it myself a couple of years ago when the bottom first fell out. I looked around for a loan to keep the paper going. Banks were no help—they were afraid to lend money. One of my horse-player friends set me up with a guy in Portsmouth. He looked straight out of
“When I looked at what the deal would finally cost me, I realized I’d never get out from under. That was probably the idea. Most payments we get are in cash, so they could play with the books.”
“Money laundering,” Sunny said.
Ken gave her a brief nod. “And then Ollie Barnstable came along, offering to buy in. He was bad enough. I didn’t need anyone else trying to make me an offer I couldn’t refuse.”
He straightened his storklike form to its full height. “But I really considered the idea for a while, crazy as it was. That’s the problem. You’ll do crazy stuff for something you love.”
14
