Part 154 (2/2)

mean, we all know how you and Greg have never really seen

eye to eye on-”

”Wait a minute, until recently none of the business people

saw eye to eye with Greg Snider. I mean, only last summer

he was Mr. Antidevelopment-”

”Oh, you know that was only a cover-up until he could

get this whole thing off the ground,” said Buckie quickly.

”It's a tactic lots of businessmen use to hide their intentions

until the timing's right to let the news out.”

”Pretty extreme tactics, if you ask me,” muttered Maggie.

”Anyway,” continued Kate with a pretty smile. ”We

believe you want to see our town grow just as much as we

do. All we're asking is that you simply back down a little on

this attack-”

”Attack? All I'm doing is reporting the facts-”

”The facts as you perceive them,” said Buckie, then he

pulled out a sheet of paper and laid it on her desk. ”This is

a pet.i.tion, Maggie. It's signed by a number of local busi-

nesspeople-people who regularly purchase ad s.p.a.ce in the

Pine Cone, if you get my drift. Everyone on this list is ready

to boycott your paper if you continue this negative, anti-

development press coverage. Can't you see that you 're

hurting the whole town with all this one-sided pessimism?”

Maggie pressed her lips together and closed her eyes for

a moment, mentally counting to ten before she responded

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