They'd moved here from someplace in California and the price of the house looked great compared to California prices. It wasn't until they got moved in and were knee-deep in a lot of very expensive renovations that they realized they'd paid far too much. She didn't say so exactly, but suggested that he thought he could 'improve' the whole community and make his house worth what he paid. Having what he calls a 'market' in the middle of a residential area probably looks like a death knell to his plans."

“That, and he's just a natural-born grandstander, I think," Jane said. "Not only thinks he's superior to everyone else, but wants to make sure we all know it. I went to see him once and didn't like him at all."

“Went to see him? What do you mean?" Shelley asked.

“When my husband died I had to figure out how to handle the insurance money and Steve's portion of the profits from the family pharmacies, so I talked to a couple lawyers about setting up trusts for the kids' college expenses. Somebody suggested I consult the PCA, as Suzie so aptly calls him, so I did. He asked all sorts of questions — well, you'd expect that — but after a while I realized a lot of the questions weren't relevant. It took me a while. You know what a basket case I was for a while back then. By the time I realized what was going on, I'd blurted out all kinds of stuff about the pharmacies' finances, how much I'd invested myself back when I got that little inheritance and the business was having money problems, even the fact that the pharmacies had been having a long-running feud with the IRS about some deductions. I guess I thought he was just trying to be chummy and put me at my ease, or maybe trying to get a really complete view of the situation, but after a while, it started making me uneasy. He was asking about my relationship with my mother-in-law, about whom I said a few nasty things, I'm afraid. He even wanted to know who I inherited the money from, stuff like that."