Unraveling Porterville's Dark Secret

Previously

…And the more he tried to push me away, the more determined I became to dig it up. The 'complexities' he spoke of, the 'sleeping dogs' he urged me not to disturb – they were no longer abstract concepts. They were becoming the very heart of what I was searching for, and I had a chilling certainty that Mayor Thompson’s carefully constructed world was built on foundations far more fragile, and far more sinister, than anyone in Porterville dared to imagine. His silencing hand, intended to push me back, had only pushed me further in. The secret was here, somewhere, and the Mayor was clearly terrified of what I might find.