Chapter 21: The Ledge

Two hundred and fifty people lined the cliff edge and looked down at the Mayor of Landing.

He lay on the ledge on his back with the cable around his legs, and one ankle was bent the wrong way.

"Help," Lyle said. Then, because it was the word he had never said to anyone, he said it again with a smile. "Help. Friends."

Nobody answered him.

The man with the bad knee leaned over the lip and spat, politely, to one side.

"Let it hang," said a woman in the water line. "He cut the bridge with kids on it."

"He'd do it again," said another.

"He cut the line with us still coming!"

Dot held up the ladle, and the noise settled to a mutter.

"Hon," she said to Katja, in a very soft voice. "It's yours to say. It's your island."

Katja walked to the edge of the cliff and looked at him.

He looked back, and for the first time since she had met him, he did not have anything to sell.

She thought about the girl with the bedsheet. She thought about the nine on the bridge.

A small hand slipped into hers.

It was the girl, and she was looking down too, with her mouth open.

"Are you going to let him fall?" she asked.

Katja did not answer.

She took a card from her jacket and held it up so the whole ring could read it.

HE'S ON MY LEDGE.

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