A tall, tanned man in his early thirties stepped into the spotlight. He wore a checkered tuxedo--black and white diamonds stretching from his shoulders to his dress pants. His bushy hair was neatly slicked over one eye. Mina recognized the man's auburn eyes immediately. In fact, he was not just familiar, Mina knew him intimately. Well, most of him. This man sported a bushy brown mustache that stuck out both ways beneath his nose.

If it wasn't for that mustache, Mina could clearly say, even from this distance, that this man, the new mayor of Business Park was her deceased mentor, the esteemed defense attorney, Raven Lockwood.

When he spoke, he tried as hard as he could to disguise his squawky, birdlike tone of his voice with a suave demeanor.

"Welcome..." he said waggling his bushy eyebrows. "To my gala of greatness. My inaugural party of incredible-ness. And the prelude to a more harmonic and unified Business Park!"

"What in the huh?!" Mina demanded, taking her own temperature. "Raven...is the mayor?"

Blind shook his head, causing his long, shiny hair to ruffle. "It sure sounds like him. I'd recognize his obnoxious patter from the innumerable court cases we had against each other."

"Good..." Mina said, narrowing her eyes. "So I haven't gone cuckoo bananas!"

Monty approached them, eating a pair of ripe bananas. "Want one?" he asked, chewing obnoxiously in her ear.

"Not if it's been in your barrel!" Mina wrinkled her nose.

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Monty ignored her and gaped, the gooey banana still in his mouth. "Hey, isn't that your eccentric attorney pal, kid? What's he doing up there?"

"A bit late to the party are we?" Mina asked. "We really need to figure out what in the huh is going on here!"

After everyone applauded Mr. Ebony, he grinned and lifted a cocktail. "I have three people to thank for this lofty position."

He sipped his cocktail. "First and foremost, everyone here who voted for me. Your votes like sweet voices in the air, all harmonized beautifully to elect a high note in the local government!"

Everyone applauded again, making Mina feel like she was in a bad dream, or a cruel joke that everyone was in on but her.

"Secondly," Mr. Ebony said, and he called a woman up to stand with him. "My wife, Harmony!"

The woman who approached him was one Mina had never seen in her life. She was fair and blond and attractive. Not a proverbial "trophy wife" that a sleazy politician like Monty Banks would hunt for, but a kind faced and pleasant woman in her mid thirties.

Ebony wrapped his arm around the woman's waist.

"With her endless support and our no-doubt healthy and positive relationship, I like to call her Perfect Harmony."

"Aww stop, dear," the woman blushed bright red and put her hand forward. "None of our secret names for each other."

"Yeah yeah," Mr. Ebony chuckled, waggling his bushy brows. "I call her perfect harmony in the bedroom too!"

Mina grimaced and squeezed Blind's hand. "There's that man's signature caustic wit," Blind remarked. "Or lack thereof, in my opinion."

"Seriously," Mina exclaimed, squeezing Blind's hand like a pale clamp. "This is beyond weird. It's gone straight to the Twilight Area!"

"And last but never least," Ivor Ebony said, raising his hand to the spotlight. "In fact, so not least, she should have been first on my list!"

Ebony slurped his cocktail to the bottom and toasted it. I"'d like to thank the young woman who shined a sparkling spotlight on the corruption in this very town. Evil doers had nowhere to hide when she began her crusade for truth, justice and spiced lattes."

Mina gulped like she swallowed an ivory ball. The spotlights directed straight in Mina's eyes, stunning her...But blinding lights had nothing on the shocking power of the man's words.

"THANk YOU MINA HAWKINS!"