He weaved around the boxes and implements to get to the shelf and began to clear off the top of the box so that he could pull it out. He had a suspicion that the caller was Oscar Menendez. It certainly sounded like him. Menendez was one of the many reasons that Briggs was going to be glad to leave Northern Virginia. Things just weren’t the same any more. You couldn’t just develop a property; you had to dance around the Board of Zoning Appeals, the town council, the eco-nuts, and all kinds of ad hoc citizens groups like the Menendez crowd. When he was younger, he loved to mix it up with his adversaries, but now he was more than ready to sign it all over to his boys. Still, if Menendez or one of his supporters had been the caller, maybe the same person had killed Nuffield. Why would anyone be so opposed to clearing off an eyesore like Winterthorn and putting in a nice, clean-looking apartment complex like the ones he had built over on West Broad? From what he could tell, Menendez was just trying to turn a buck out of rabble-rousing and telling people how bad off they were and how he could change things. The man was a menace. Briggs had had to listen to his complaints every time he went for an exception before the BZA. Only when Nuffield had quieted him down had Briggs gotten any peace and finally been able to get approval of the site plan. Yes, it must have been one of Menendez’s people who called. They had figured out what Nuffield and he had done. But it didn’t matter now.

Winterthorn would be gone by the end of the year and, given a favorable hearing with the Board, they would break ground before spring. He really didn’t expect any trouble, unless Menendez and those other hotheads made a stink. Even if they did, it wouldn’t come to anything. He hadn’t really needed Nuffield unless one of the other board members had been replaced. With everyone re-elected to the Town Council, all of the Zoning Board members would retain their appointments. Nuffield had just been insurance. He probably shouldn’t have even bothered with him. The light had changed in the room. Briggs noticed that the single light bulb, high in the ceiling, had gone out, leaving the room lit from the doorway, where a dark figure was pulling on the rope to close the garage door.

Frameshifts  is a novel in two volumes, comprising eight linked stories about an imaginary region of Northern Virginia during the current and coming centuries: Stories about a quiet deal made by a city councilman unaware of the lethal consequences; about a young Air Force officer’s choice between career and corruption; about how the suicide of a young gay teacher draws friends and enemies into a tangle of betrayals; about the slander, Joe-job, and murder of an activist; and stories about a strange, theocratic community in Northern Virginia, its technology, and its Supreme Prophet. Now you can sample this book of books.