The Midcoast: A Novel by Adam White

Author:Adam White [White, Adam]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2022-06-07T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

—

Steph showed up at the police department several days after Allie’s game in Wiscasset with two Chicken Ranch sandwiches from the Schooner, EJ’s favorite.

“This is a surprise,” EJ said.

They ate the sandwiches. Or EJ did. Steph wasn’t hungry.

“How’s the weekend looking?” Steph asked.

“What do you mean?” EJ’s mouth was full.

“You got any big plans?”

“Nope.”

“No dates?”

“Nope.”

“You should go down to Portland, hit the bars.”

“I’m on duty.”

“Well, I don’t see how you’re gonna meet anyone when you’re working every weekend.”

“But then if I don’t work, I don’t have any money to hit the bars—that’s the big conundrum, isn’t it?”

Steph looked around the office, then suddenly pretended to think of something. “Hey,” she said, “you know those maps you mentioned?”

EJ was about to take a bite of the sandwich, but he stopped, put it down. “Uh-huh.”

“Think I could see them?”

“They’re over there,” EJ said, nodding to a wall on the far side of the office. The wall was covered almost entirely in corkboard, and on it were flyers for federal fugitives, missing pets, and the annual Police vs. Firefighters Basketball Cup. But in the middle of the corkboard were two big maps of Maine. One was covered in red dots, the other in blue dots. Steph went to the maps, looked them over.

“What are all the dots?” she asked.

EJ joined her, stood beside her. “Red dots are thefts. Blue dots are significant narcotics arrests.”

On the red map, most of the incidents were along the coast. On the blue map there were higher concentrations around urban centers—Portland, Lewiston, and Bangor.

“So this is good,” Steph said.

“Sure,” EJ said.

“Look at us,” Steph said, pointing to Lincoln County on one map, then the other. “Pretty damn clean.”

“Yup,” EJ said.

“You know who’d be interested in maps like these?”

“Nope.”

“New home-buyers.”

“I wouldn’t know about them.”

“I would,” Steph said. “Maps like these could really attract interest.”

“Who says we want interest all of a sudden?”

“Why wouldn’t we?”

He shrugged.

“What?”

“I don’t know, I just think most people around here like things the way they are, Mom. Most people aren’t trying to bring in all kinds of newcomers.”

“Well, what most people don’t understand,” Steph said, her voice beginning to rise, “is that if we want to keep things the way they are, we need a budget to make improvements, and that budget comes from property taxes, and unless we want to pay higher taxes, we need people to buy more property.”

“So in order to keep things the way they are, we have to make changes?”

“Exactly.”

“Sounds pretty crazy to me.”

“Well, it’s not!” Steph said, trying not to sound crazy. But this is exactly what she found so infuriating. This inability to see the big picture. Nobody around here understood that she was trying to save Damariscotta from itself. “It’s not crazy, it’s complex,” she said.

“Just be careful, Mom. People don’t like complex. People like simple.”

“I know what people like,” Steph said. “Don’t forget—I got elected mayor.”

“Manager. You got elected town manager.”

Steph took another long look at the maps. “Okay,” she said. “So since you understand people so well, tell me why they wouldn’t want me to brag about how safe we are.

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