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“They what? ” Eliza said, staring at me in horror. The breakfast rush had passed, and it wasn’t quite time for the early lunch crowd to start showing up, so she was alone in the café.

“They were tearing up Welling Glen,” I told her. “And they had big lights set up and everything, so it seemed pretty clear to Ben and me that they were planning to settle in for the long haul. At least, the work crew wasn’t too happy when we chased them off.”

“That must have taken some cojones. ” Eliza paused there, and the shock in her expression morphed into something almost like speculation. “Ben Sanders, huh? He’s very cute. I approve.”

I shot her an exasperated look. While she was only about fifteen years older than I and therefore not old enough to be my mother…

at least, not unless she’d gotten a very early start on things…

she’d been acting protective of me ever since I came back to town.

While I appreciated her concern, I knew I was a big girl and could take care of myself.

Most of the time, anyway.

“He’s just helping me out with this,” I said, knowing I sounded a little too severe. “Because he’s an archaeologist, he knows all too well how quickly things can go south when you’re trying to protect valuable sites. We have a common cause, that’s all.”

“Uh-huh,” she responded. However, she must have realized I wasn’t in the mood to pursue that line of questioning, because she asked, “What can I do to help?”

“Get the word out, I suppose,” I said, then paused.

I had to admit that I didn’t know much about the procedure involved in such things, since this was the first instance I could think of where the citizens of Silver Hollow would need to circumvent the mayor in order to get things done.

“Is there some way to call a town meeting without involving City Hall?”

“Without involving Tillman, more to the point,” Eliza said, her eyes narrowing a little.

“Exactly.” I stopped there, not sure what our plan of attack should be. “Is there any way for the town council to call a meeting without his involvement?”

“If they have a quorum,” she said promptly. “And I know almost all of them would be horrified to hear what’s going on.”

“‘Almost’?” I echoed, startled that anyone on the city council might be okay with all this. “Who might be a problem?”

“Linda Fields,” Eliza replied, naming a local real estate agent.

“She’s always been rah-rah for big business because she thinks that’ll bring more residents and commerce to Silver Hollow.

I overheard Tory Beacham giving her grief only a few months ago, telling her if she wanted to live in a city overrun by business interests, then she should move to Eureka or something. ”

I had to suppress a smile. Only a resident of Silver Hollow would think of Eureka, California, with its barely 25,000 residents, as the big city.

More than once, I’d wondered what had even brought Linda here in the first place.

She was around my mother’s age, so in her late fifties, and she’d settled in Silver Hollow when I was in middle school.

The real estate market around here wasn’t exactly what you could call jumping, but it seemed as if she sold enough properties to get by.

Or more than get by, since she drove a shiny Mercedes SUV and had bought one of the biggest houses in town when she moved here. Some people speculated that she’d come out ahead in a nasty divorce, or possibly that she’d inherited some money.

Even though I knew I was sliding into conspiracy theory territory here, I couldn’t let another, darker thought pass through my mind.

Or maybe because Northwest Pacific had been bankrolling her the whole time, paying her to keep an eye on things and let them know when the time was right to go back into the forest and start tearing it up.

On the surface, the whole idea sounded crazy. Then again, after what had happened during the past couple of days…or during my entire life, really…my definition of what might be considered sane had expanded quite a bit.

“But the other people on the council would overrule Linda,” I said, and Eliza nodded.

“Yes, it would be four to one. Let me make a few phone calls — I’m pretty sure I can get everyone on board with this, and then the council president can call another town meeting.”

“That would be awesome,” I replied. “Thanks so much.”

She crossed her arms, blue eyes steely. “We need to stop those bastards. If they get away with this, what other shenanigans will they try to pull?”

I really didn’t want to know. Luckily, Eliza continued without waiting for me to respond.

“We have to make sure Silver Hollow stays the way it is. And that means we’ll do whatever we have to, even if it means bringing in some environmental attorneys.”

Which would probably cost a mint. Where we’d get the money for that, I had no idea.

No point in getting ahead of ourselves, though. With any luck, we’d head Northwest Pacific off at the pass and they’d have no choice but to take their business elsewhere, preferably to a place that was just fine with a logging operation setting up camp there as long as it paid well enough.

“It sounds like we have a plan in place,” I said. “Text me when you know if there’s going to be a meeting.”

“Oh, there’ll be one,” she responded at once. “The only real question is when. But I’ll let you know.”

I thanked her and headed out. Good timing, since I saw Mal Tompkins and Harry Soule approaching for their usual Wednesday lunch. If they’d been in the café while Eliza and I were talking, then we would have had a much harder time keeping all of this secret.

Not that it would be a secret for long. Once word got out that the town council was going around the mayor and holding a meeting regarding Northwest Pacific’s illegal activities, I had a feeling people weren’t going to be talking about much else.