Ed was the closest thing they had to institutional memory in city government. He’d been a representative off and on for the last fifty years. He unfolded his arms and passed over some rolled up papers. “There’s a law on the books that’ll let us initiate a ballot referendum on any law passed that the public disagrees with. Makes it a public vote, so you get a true democratic answer to the issue.”
Cam unrolled the papers, which turned out to be Xerox copies of city statutes. He read through the pertinent section. “We can overturn the special use permit?”
“If we can get enough signatures on a petition. It has to be a majority of registered voters,” Sandra said.
“And it’s gotta be turned in within thirty days of the original decision,” Ed added.
Which meant they were already seven days down.
“How many signatures are we talking?”
“There are about three thousand people registered to vote here. Unfortunately, unless they submitted the paperwork or unless we get notice from some other jurisdiction, that doesn’t eliminate anybody who’s moved and doesn’t live here anymore,” said Sandra. “Updating the records hasn’t been a priority since we’ve had to cut city staff the last five years. We need fifty one percent of that number to initiate a referendum ballot.”
“Can people not currently registered to vote register and sign the petition?”
“Yes, though that’ll make the overall total of registered voters bigger and raise the number of signatures we’d need as well,” Ed said.
Cam needed something, anything to distract him, so he jumped at the chance. “Then I reckon we’ve got a lot of work to do. Why don’t you get up with Molly, get the coalition going on all this?”
“Will you call Norah, see what she suggests on getting the word out?” Sandra asked.
Cam hesitated. If he called her, told her this, she’d probably come back. She’d set aside whatever her personal stuff was for the good of the town, and he might have a chance to win her back, convince her to stay. But there was still the issue of her reputation to fix. She was where she was in part because she’d ignored things up there to deal with stuff down here. If she’d known about the smear campaign from the start, in time to counter, she might not have been so susceptible to the job offer.
He didn’t have the right to be selfish and potentially open her to more problems.
“No. She’s got her own stuff she needs to take care of in Chicago right now. I don’t want to distract her from that. Let’s see what we can do with what we’ve got before I involve her.” And maybe when she came back, they’d have some good news to share. News that would make her realize she hadn’t failed, that she still had a place in this community and with him.
After hashing out a few more details, Ed headed out, leaving Cam alone with his mother. He made a valiant effort to shoo her along, but she wouldn’t be shooed. Sandra Crawford had something to say apparently. Damn it.
“You’ve been hiding.”
“Just working.” He shrugged. “There’s lots to catch up on that I let slide the last several weeks.”
She cupped his cheek and tilted his face down to study it.
Cam endured her scrutiny for a few moments before jerking his head back. “I’m filthy, Mom.”
“You miss her.”
“Do you expect an award for noticing the obvious?” He got The Eyebrow. “Yeah, I miss her.”
“When’s she coming home?”
Maybe never? “I don’t know. Her ex-boss was supposed to get served a couple days ago.” She hadn’t left another message saying how that went.
“It’s hard when people we care about have to deal with stuff without us. Hard on you in particular.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because you want to fix things for everybody. Like you dug up the evidence to prove Norah wasn’t at fault in Morton.”
“Yeah, well, I can’t fix this. There wouldn’t even be anything to fix if I hadn’t talked her into staying in the first place.” That was the other thought that had been swimming around beneath his misery.
“You don’t know that. Besides, as tough as this is for her, I don’t think Norah would trade you to avoid it.”
Don’t be so sure about that, Cam thought. Some of the doubt must’ve flickered across his face.
“She wouldn’t. I don’t know what has or hasn’t been said between you, but she loves you. Anybody with eyes can see it when she looks at you.”