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“Look, this is ridiculous,” said Wilbur. “I asked Vesta to be allowed back in and she said no. So fine. It’s her watch. If she doesn’t want us, that’s all right by me. But she can’t tell us not to form our own watch. That’s the way tyranny lies, and I for one am against tyranny. This is a free country and if Francis and I want to start a watch, she can’t stop us.”

“Well spoken, Wilbur,” Father Reilly murmured.

“I’m not saying you can’t start a watch,” said Vesta. “You can start all the watches you want. But not here. Not in Hampton Cove. That’s ours to guard.”

“So where do you want us to start a neighborhood watch if not in our neighborhood?”

“I don’t care! Patrol the ocean, if you like. Plenty of drug traffickers out there.”

“I’m not going to let you tell us where we can and cannot patrol!” said Wilbur, getting a little hot under his collar again.

“Quiet, please,” said Odelia, holding up her hands like a King Solomon about to issue a ruling. “Look, there’s absolutely no reason you can’t both exist side by side. Hampton Cove is a big town. Big enough for two neighborhood watches. All you need to do is come to some kind of arrangement.”

“What arrangement? What are you talking about?” asked Gran.

“Either you divide Hampton Cove up into zones, and you each take a specific zone, or you take a different time block, for instance. Gran and Scarlett could patrol between the hours of ten and midnight, and then Wilbur and Father Reilly take midnight to two.”

“I’m not taking midnight to two,” said Wilbur. “I’m in my shop at six. I’m not going to spend half the night patrolling while Vesta and Scarlett could just as easily take that time slot. They don’t have to work for a living. They can live off their fat pensions.”

“For your information, I don’t have a fat pension,” said Gran. “I also work for a living.”

“You call that working? Gabbing away the morning with your son-in-law’s patients?”

“Hey, gabbing is hard work!”

“Or you—spending all your time at the spa,” he added, giving Scarlett a nasty look.

“Hey, it’s hard work to look this good,” said Scarlett, gesturing to her admittedly voluptuous body.

“Look, I didn’t invite you here to argue,” said Odelia. “We’re going to come to some kind of arrangement, and if you can’t play nice, I’m going to follow my uncle’s advice and tell you right here and now that there will be no more neighborhood watch.”

A collective howl of indignation rose up.“You can’t tell us not to patrol!” said Gran. “Like Wilbur said, that’s tyranny!”

“Oh, yes, we can,” said Odelia. “We can give you all house arrest, and mark my words, this will happen if you don’t all get along. After last night’s fiasco, we’ve had it up to here with you.” She gestured to her neck, then raised her hand to her lips, then thought better of it and ended up indicating her eyeballs, showing us she really was fed up with this neighborhood watch nonsense.

“You’re going to give us house arrest?” asked Gran, looking shocked.

“Yes, we are. You’ll all be grounded—for life, if it’s up to me!”

“Oh, my God!” said Scarlett with a high-pitched laugh. “I feel like I’m back in school!”

“Grounded!” said Wilbur. “You can’t ground me, young lady. I’m a business owner. A prominent member of this community. I personally know Mayor Butterwick!”

“Watch me,” said Odelia, and she didn’t look like she was kidding either.

For a moment, no one spoke, then finally Gran said,“I guess we could come to some kind of arrangement. Like, maybe you and Francis patrol the first part of the night, and then Scarlett and I will take the second part.”

“Or we could alternate,” said Wilbur. “One week Francis and I take the first shift, and then the other week we take the second shift.”

“I guess that’s a good idea,” said Scarlett. “I mean, like Odelia said, Hampton Cove is a big town, and to patrol all of it in one night all by ourselves is pretty much impossible.”

“Yeah, I told you this town is too big for one watch to cover, didn’t I?” said Gran.

“You never told me any such thing.”

“No, but I was thinking it.”

“I like it,” said Father Reilly. “I can’t afford to spend the whole night out there. I have Mass in the morning, and other obligations. But a couple of hours every night is doable.”

The atmosphere around the table became more relaxed and convivial, and it didn’t take long for the four neighborhood watch members to start joking back and forth, and before long they were already talking about switching things up: Gran riding with Father Reilly some nights, or Scarlett and Wilbur teaming up. In other words: “Cooperation, people!” said Gran. “I told you all along that the secret to success is cooperation!”

“No, you didn’t,” said Scarlett.

“But I was thinking it.”

And it was a sign of this sudden entente that they all laughed heartily at this.

And then of course the conversation turned to the Hampton Heisters, and last night’s breakin at the Gazette.

“So they deleted a bunch of emails, huh?” said Father Reilly. “How strange.”