“Will I still be a lady if I let you blackmail G. Hooks into getting me appointed to fill Perry Byrd’s unexpired term?”

“Why not?”

“There’s a small matter of ethics,” I said stiffly, even as the shameless pragmatist inside my head began to raise himself hopefully from the floor of yesterday’s defeat and despair.

“You want this. You know you do!”

“Think of the price,” warned the preacher. “You can live with defeat. Can you live with this?”

“Ethics make mighty thin eating to a man hungry for that justice you were talking about,” said Daddy. “Besides, you don’t take it, who you reckon Hardison’s likely to appoint? Another nigger-hating, lickspittle mossback like Perry Byrd who’ll keep trying to undo all the progress the South’s made these last twenty years?”

Afterwards, I liked to think I wrestled long and hard over my answer, weighing the good I might do against the certain knowledge that this was a tainted appointment.

In reality, it was only a moment or two before I nodded and said, “Just make sure G. Hooks understands that one week after I’m appointed, Terry Wilson’s going to be told about those greenhouses.”

Daddy looked a mite uncomfortable. “Well, now, shug, I thought ten days. Give him time to get ’em all cleaned out good and planted with real nursery stock.”

I bolted upright. “You already sent him that video? Then what the hell was all that back there?”

“Thought you ought to know what’s involved. Make the choice yourself.”

“See if I was a hawk?” I asked sardonically.

“No. I already figured you were. Just wasn’t sure you knew it yet.”

Margaret Maron

Born and raised in central North Carolina, Margaret Maron lived in Italy before returning to the USA where she and her husband now live. In addition to a collection of short stories she's also the author of 16 mystery novels. Her works have been translated into seven languages her Bootlegger's Daughter, a Washington Post Bestseller won Edgar Anthony, Agatha, and Macavity awards. She is a past president of Sisters in Crime and of the American Crime writers' league, and a director on the national board for Mystery Writers of America.