Looking For You All My Life Part 79

ments."

"You going to take him up on it?"

"I don't know.. I'm certain I'd get a very carefully guided

tour, only showing me exactly what they want me to see, and

I'm sure everything will be impeccably perfect-just like that

slick video he showed on Sat.u.r.day."

Clyde smiled slyly. "But now, you're smarter than them,

Maggie. You could easily do a little snooping around on

your own, ask some questions, take some photos. Isn't that

what they call investigative reporting?"

"I suppose so..." The idea of sleuthing around one of

Cohn Byers' developments did sound intriguing in a Nancy

Drew sort of way. "Who knows, maybe I'd find out I'd been

all wrong about him all along-but then at least I'd know

for sure myself."

Clyde shoved his hands in his pockets and scowled.

"Well, for Arnold Westerly's sake there's nothing I'd rather

see than that whole darn TS Development business shut

down once and for all!"

"But what if this guy's legit? What if we can't stop the

development? What then?"

He made a growling sound. "It just gets my goat to see

the likes of Snider and Tanner profiting by taking advantage

of old Arnold."

"I know," she said soothingly. "But we might have to

consider the bigger picture here. What if this developer can

really bring growth and progress to Pine Mountain? That

wouldn't be so bad, now would it?"

He eyed her with suspicion. "It sounds almost as if you're

consorting with the enemy."

126Melody Carlson

She shook her head. "Not at all. I'm just trying to be

open-minded and fair. The honest truth is I'd love to see that

whole development fall flat on its face too. But a lot of that

is based on my own personal feelings, not what would be

best for this town. And I do care about this town, Clyde. I

don't want to see one single business lost."

"I know, I know...but we aren't doing so bad, are we?

Why, just look at all the great progress that has taken place

in the last year-and most of it was due to you-"

She shook her finger under his nose. "Don't you forget,

Clyde Barnes, it took the whole town to accomplish those

things. And unfortunately, despite the improvements, this

town is still painfully dependent on something as undepend-

able as the weather. You know as well as anyone that these

aren't the old timber days where weather had little effect on

the local economy. Right now, we need tourism to survive-

and lack of snow for just one winter could shut this place

down completely."

"Maybe we should get your Michael friend to pray

again." Clyde looked at her from the corner of his eye and