March 29, 2024

After once again saving the town from another terrifying catastrophe, Violet learns Titus Towns has returned to Question Mark and that her best friend, Iris, may be planning to enact revenge upon him by shooting the ex-con with her sister’s rifle. As Violet searches town for Iris, she finds Titus picking through the rubble of the Moonlite Grove RV Park, hoping to find some historical artifacts he had been helping to sell on the black market. Titus catches Violet spying on him and angrily charges at her but he is shot in the left knee by Iris. Quickly, Violet sends Iris away and asks the wounded Titus who was responsible for Violet’s mother’s death. He mentions someone named Travis Hartford who lives at Shady Village before he gets into his banged-up Firebird and drives off.

Meanwhile, Officer Ron receives another coded message and learns that his father, Big Ron, was involved in a criminal conspiracy alongside Marietta police officer Bob Dupree and Question Mark police officer Troy Holland, estranged uncle to Dave and Tim Holland. Following a lead from Mabel Vickery Dupree, Ron interviews Bob Dupree, who is living in an apartment on the edge of town under the assumed name of Lucas Winn, supposed leader of the Circle of Concerned Family and Friends, a right-wing Christian nationalist group. Officer Ron learns that the Circle is a front for various fraudulent internet charities and that the goal of the Circle is to create a Christian-only internet, capable of spreading disinformation with the intent of turning the entire town of Question Mark into its holy kingdom.

With the new clue from Titus, Violet and Officer Ron seek out the mysterious Travis Hartford at the Shady Village retirement home. Disfigured by a fire, Hartford claims to be a former Department of Streets and Sanitation employee and Cell-Con worker who was injured in the 1998 conflagration that led to the death of then-mayor Thompson Zisk. Both Violet and Ron are deeply disappointed until Violet learns that, after Troy Holland was sentenced for corruption, he was horribly burned while in prison. She also recognizes both men’s initials begin with T.H. and rushes to share all she has learned with Officer Ron.

Is Troy Holland actually the man behind the Circle of Commited Family and Friends and its vast internet conspiracy? And how might the strange painting on the Circle’s final web page play into Violet’s search for the invisible song that can finally fixe Time?

Only six weeks remain…