Those were the two things that had been missing from the debate the day before.

PART 5

The owner of Mapleton General Market was a woman named Denise Mercer.

Most people knew only the red sign above the entrance, but Denise knew every leak in the roof and every late invoice in the office.

Her parents had opened the store decades earlier, and she had kept it running through rising costs and two chain supermarkets on the highway.

When I called to discuss restitution, she asked me to come before opening hours.