A/N: Some dialogue and plot points lifted from S1E11: Fruit of the Poisonous Tree

Chapter 36

"Emma, wait," Neal exclaimed, as she turned the key in the ignition. "You can't just go breaking into people's offices!"

"She broke into our house," Emma shot back. "Fair's fair."

"You don't know it was her!"

"No," Emma admitted, "but I know she's doing something shady and I'm going to find out what before she gets the chance to hide the evidence." She sighed. "You in? Or should I just drop you off at the house on the way?"

Neal made an inarticulate sound before answering, "I'm in. If I don't go with you, I'm just going to be up worrying until you get in, so since catching up on my sleep is already out, I'm in."

Emma grinned. Neal glowered.

Neither Emma nor Neal was surprised to find the town hall locked at that hour. "Can you get it open?" Emma asked hopefully.

Neal studied the lock and shook his head. "This is state of the art. I can probably figure it out, given enough time, but I'd need tools. Maybe a look at the system manual to get a clearer picture of what we're up against."

Emma shook her head, but she didn't seem disappointed. "I was afraid of that," she said calmly. Then she took a rock she'd picked up on their way to the door and smashed the window glass. At once, the alarm began to sound, but Emma calmly stuck her gloved hand through what was left of the pane and unlocked the door.

"Emma!" Neal exclaimed.

Emma shrugged. "The alarm's going to alert the police. Once again, I'm the police. We've got about six minutes," she continued. "Two minutes for Regina to get a call from the alarm company, one minute to get her coat and keys, three to drive here. Now let's get up to her office and grab what we're here for."

Neal would have stopped her to argue longer, but she was right. They had six minutes and he couldn't afford to waste a second of it. He followed her up the stairs and down the hall to the mayor's office.

It wasn't locked. Neal frowned. In a small town, maybe that wasn't unremarkable, but if Regina did have something incriminating in her office, this was just careless. Something felt off, and he didn't like it. "Emma—"

"Here." Emma tossed Neal a ring of keys she found in the desk drawer, while she turned on the computer sitting on the mayor's desk. "I don't know what the hell these things open, but try the cabinets." There was a small black box in the drawer, too. Emma flicked the lid up and was rewarded by a half-dozen USB drives. They didn't look as though they'd been used.

Neal caught the keys one-handed. "Okay," he said. "What am I looking for?"

"Henry's book," Emma said flatly, inserting one of the drives into the computer and copying the land files onto it. "She wouldn't keep it at the house, not when the person she most wants to keep it from lives there. It's got to be here."

"If she took it," Neal said, hesitantly fitting one key to a cabinet lock. "Big 'if'."

Emma exhaled. "I know. I've been thinking about it and, fine. There's a good chance you're right. But if you're wrong and the book's here, we're," she held up one hand, her thumb and index finger less than an inch apart, "this close to getting it back to him, and I'll be kicking myself if we let this chance slip away." She turned back to the computer and a savage smile lit her face. "Yes! I'm in." She typed several commands in quick succession and nodded. "I just uncovered every file that references the tract of land Regina's just bought from Gold."

"Nice," Neal said, and Emma wasn't sure whether his dry tone held a hint of sarcasm, or just his usual deadpan delivery.

"Any sign of the book?" she asked, quickly copying

Neal shook his head. "Nothing. If she took it, she hid it well."

"You know," Emma said slowly, "there's another place it could be. She's got a family mausoleum at the graveyard. The night Graham died, he was convinced she had," Emma swallowed, "something of his there." She had the files copied. Swiftly, she slid the USB into her pocket and turned off the computer.

"We're not going to the cemetery this late at night," Neal said, as she finished. "If anything jumps out at me I…" He stopped, thinking better of the joke he'd been about to make. Graham had died from a heart attack. "Tomorrow's another day," he finished.

The lights in the office came on and Regina strode in, looking concerned. Her worry changed to a scowl when she saw Emma and Neal. "What are you two doing in here?" she demanded.

"Some kids broke in," Emma said calmly. "I heard the alarm, so I'm checking it out 'cause…I'm Sheriff."

Regina sniffed suspiciously. "Well, that was an awfully quick response time," she retorted accusingly.

Emma didn't quail. "You told me to do my job," she informed the mayor, "and I'm doing it."

Regina's glance shifted to Neal. "And you brought him."

"He met me when I got here," Emma said. "Actually he called me after I got the notification from the alarm company."

"Yeah," Neal said. "I was out walking and I heard the glass break out front. Guess that makes me a witness."

"Hm," Regina said, still not sounding convinced. "And what did you see, Mr. Cassidy?"

"Afraid I didn't have the best view," Neal said easily. "Looked like a couple of kids. I thought I saw someone else leave out the window, but," he shrugged, "it's closed, so maybe not."

Regina rolled her eyes. "In other words, your presence here's useless." She looked from Neal to Emma and then back to Neal again. "Did they take anything?"

"I don't know," Emma replied. "I'd have to do a thorough sweep to, uh, find out."

Regina sighed. "It appears to me, it's all just a prank."

In other words, the last thing the mayor wanted was a full investigation. No surprise there, she thought. Aloud, though, she only asked, "You sure you don't want me to take the place apart?"

Regina smiled coolly. "Sheriff, your services are neither wanted nor needed," she said.

Emma smiled. She had what she'd come for; she could afford to let this go, at least for now. "Okay, she said, coaxing the slightest bit of doubt into her voice so as not to back down too easily. "Well, you know where to find me…"

"Tomorrow," Emma said, unlocking their front door. "When Regina's in her office, I'll head to the cemetery, to check the mausoleum."

Neal shook his head. "You're pretty convinced Regina took the book."

"You bet," Emma retorted, closing the door behind him and flicking the light switch. "Oh, you're probably right that she wasn't the one who broke in, but she orchestrated it. I mean, who else would've taken it?"

Neal thought for a moment. "Well, who else knows about it? I mean, in a small town, where everyone knows everyone and everybody's probably up in everybody else's business."

Emma frowned, thinking. "Well, Mary Margaret and Archie," she said. "I don't suspect them." Her frown deepened. "But I have to admit, you're right. Henry was carrying that book around everywhere. Anyone could have seen it. But who else knew we had it?"

Neal shrugged. "I dunno. But are you so sure Regina did?"

"Again," Emma said, "who else breaks into a house and steals a book of fairy tales?"

"Friends of Nicholas and Ava?" Neal suggested with a shrug. "Who knows? Maybe we moved into the creepiest abandoned house in town and some kids dared each other to go inside and bring back some… trophy."

"That's the best you've got?" Emma asked, her lips twitching a bit.

Neal shrugged again. "You're claiming the mayor's behind it. I think my theory's more plausible."

Emma pulled the USB out of her pocket. "It's not like she isn't already up to her neck in illegalities," she retorted. "You got to be up early tomorrow?"

Neal shook his head. "No…"

"Then let's see what's on this baby."

Regina waited a full fifteen minutes before she was certain that Emma and her significant other were gone and weren't coming back. Then she stepped into the corridor, away from the listening device that she wasn't supposed to know that Emma had planted, pulled out her phone, and selected one of her contacts.

"I hope you found something," she said without preamble.

"Not much," Sidney's voice was apologetic. "He served three years for theft in Arizona, but he was arrested at the same time that she was. It's a safe bet she knows all about it."

Regina sighed irritably. "Well, find something! Dig into his childhood if you have to. Everyone has secrets, Sidney, and I'm betting there's something in his past he'd rather the sheriff didn't know about."

Emma had been too calm tonight, Regina realized. Far too calm. "I thought you were going to rattle her," she snapped, and was rewarded by an audible gulp.

"She didn't take the squad car tonight," Sidney said. "She decided her own would be less conspicuous."

Regina sighed again, this time more with resignation. "Well, that's unfortunate. Still, I imagine that the next time she gets behind the wheel, she'll have that nasty shock after all." The sheriff had claimed tonight that some burglar had broken into her office in order to have a pretext to come here after hours. Perhaps, Regina thought, Sidney might be able to arrange for some other false alarm, to get Emma behind the wheel of the patrol car. If it happened before the council meeting, then perhaps Sheriff Swan would yet manage to embarrass herself. Depending on the extent of that embarrassment, Regina reflected, she just might have enough high ground to keep the sheriff out of her son's life for the foreseeable future.

Sidney, however, had more bad news. "She had the car serviced," he said. "Whether she knows the brakes were tampered with or not, it's just about certain that they'll have been fixed before she drives it again."

Damn! Through clenched teeth, Regina ordered, "Find something. On her or on Cassidy, I don't care, but find it and find it yesterday!" She ended the call without waiting to hear his reply.

Emma had the computer up and running and she was going through the contents of the USB when Neal joined her carrying two cups of coffee. Emma accepted one with a smile.

"What've you got?" Neal asked. For answer, Emma slid over a bit to let him see what was on the screen. "Blueprints," Neal noted. "Bank statements…"

"What is she building out there?" Emma wondered aloud. "A mansion?"

Neal looked at the figures on the bank statement. "Maybe the price of real estate is a lot lower in rural Maine than Greater Boston, but those amounts look pretty cheap."

Emma blinked and took another look at the bank statements. Neal had a point; fifty thousand dollars might buy a small fixer-upper, but not a mansion. "The fifty thousand might just be for the land," she suggested. "Maybe she's going to embezzle more to build this," she waved at the blueprints for emphasis.

Neal frowned. "There's something off about those, too," he said slowly. "I'm no architect, but…"

"Wait," Emma said. "Don't blueprints show more than floor plans? Where's the wiring?"

"Forget wiring. Unless she's going really rustic… if she's building a house, she needs to fire whoever drew this." Neal gave her a wry smile. "I don't see anything here that looks like a plumbing system, let alone a bathroom." He looked up. "Without plumbing, how the hell do you get a kitchen, even? Also," he stabbed the bottom of the image. "The scale's way off for a mansion. I mean, for a sublet in Manhattan, the kind that was originally supposed to be a walk-in closet, maybe, but a bedroom is… what, about a hundred and thirty square feet? This is under a hundred. You couldn't get a full-sized bed in there, and that's the biggest room in the drawing."

"What?" Emma looked over the plans more carefully. Neal was right. "Hang on." She brought up more statements. Construction costs. Construction materials… "She's ordered some lumber, a bit of sheet metal and… plastic?" She frowned. "I'm not showing much in the way of concrete, and there's no insulation. No fireplace either, and the winters are pretty cold in this part of the country. I mean, maybe she wants a summer retreat, but with no electricity, that would mean no fans or air conditioning and in summer she'd need that, too…" Her eyes opened wide, as realization hit. "She's building a playground."

Neal blinked. Then he nodded slowly. "That would explain the weird layout," he said. "And the lack of power and plumbing."

"I guess after the storm totaled Henry's castle… I mean, I guess he—and the other kids—need somewhere to play, but why be so secretive about it? This is something the town council ought to have no problem approving."

Neal thought for a moment. "Maybe she wanted to get it done, skip the debate, and present the council with a… damn, what's that French again? Fat accomplice?"

Emma hid a smile. "I'm pretty sure it's pronounced fait accompli," she said, "but close enough. I mean, she still 'borrowed' council funds, and that's shady. But if she's putting it into a town project instead of making personal use of it…" She shook her head. "It could be enough to sink her, but I don't think so." She took a small sip of coffee and, once assured it was cool enough, a larger swig. "Sidney told me about this," she said.

"The same Sidney who cut your brake lines?"

"I can't prove that," Emma muttered, "but if he did do it, well if you saw him leaving the town hall yesterday, then it looks like he's working with Regina, and if he's working with Regina," she went on, her scowl deepening, "then he wanted me to dig this stuff up. This whole thing is a setup."

"Why?"

"Because Regina can't fire me," Emma said decisively. "She can't fire me, but she can destroy my credibility. If I go to the council with this, then she can prove that we weren't just in her office to respond to a burglar alarm. She'd know that I got the evidence from an illegal search. If I don't resign after that, she could bring in the state attorney general and get me dismissed. And probably up on charges, too," she added.

Neal exhaled. "So, what are you going to do?"

Emma shrugged. "Keep an eye on the land Regina just paid for and see what actually gets built on it. If it's a playground, life goes on. If it's anything for personal use, then this," she held up the USB, "gets mailed to the DA's office in an envelope with no return address. Until then?" She smiled. "I think I'll let Regina stew a little while she wonders when the shoe's gonna drop."

"You don't have to go," Emma said, two nights later. "I'm staying home, so I don't say something I'm going to regret."

"Yeah, well, if anything comes up that the sheriff needs to know, I'll make sure you do," Neal told her.

"Sure you don't want to tag along?" Emma coaxed. "With Regina at the meeting, Henry and I are going to spend some quality time at the arcade and maybe go for ice cream afterwards." She sighed. "It won't totally make up for my not finding the book at the mausoleum, but it might still cheer him up. How about it?"

Neal hesitated. "It's tempting," he admitted, "but the last thing you need is to be out of the loop. Besides, if the meeting breaks up early, someone needs to send you a text to let you know she's on her way home."

Emma sighed. "I guess I can't argue with that. And you and Henry did go hiking last Sunday." She gave him an amused smile. "You really impressed him, you know. He had no idea how many edible plants there were in the woods, and just how did you know about them? And how did I not know you knew about them?" she added with a slight laugh.

"Hey, lifting snack cakes out of Exxon stations didn't always come naturally," Neal shrugged. "I had to eat. It's amazing the kinds of things you can learn if you have a few hours and a good library."

"Well, seeing as the library here's been boarded up forever—at least, according to Henry—it's a good thing there's Google nowadays," Emma replied. "Have fun at the meeting."

"Fun?" Neal echoed. "I'm just hoping I'll stay awake till the end of it."

The town hall auditorium was nearly full when Neal arrived. Neal found an aisle seat near the back and slid in, a moment before Regina entered and made her way past the white-barred barrier to the desk at the front. He noticed his father seated several rows up and wondered whether Papa generally made a point of attending town meetings. He never had back in their village.

Regina seemed to be scanning the crowd, looking for someone in particular. Her eyes found Neal's and her eyebrows shot up for an instant. Then her expression hardened, and she rapped her gavel on the desk to call the meeting to order.

Neal tried to pay attention, but really, the proceedings were boring. Call to order, roll call, approval of the minutes of the last meeting… There was no old business. Someone—Neal didn't recognize the name—had submitted a request for a tax abatement that was briefly debated and then turned down. And through it all, both Regina and Papa looked vaguely worried, as though each was expecting something to happen.

"This meeting is now open to questions and comments from the floor." She looked around the room, frowning expectantly, though briefly, in Neal's direction. All at once, Neal realized that Regina was expecting Emma to come storming in to accuse her of embezzling town funds. She probably assumed that Neal was here to give her some kind of signal. And Papa? Papa had sold her the land, and he'd made sure Emma knew about it. Was he working with Regina? Or was he playing his own game?

Both, Neal thought dryly, both. Both is good. Or, at least, likely.

"Council recognizes Michael Tillman," Regina's voice broke into his musings.

"Madame Mayor," Mr. Tillman said, "with that wooden castle destroyed by the storm, the children need a new playground. Is council going to construct one?"

"Yeah," a woman in the front row exclaimed. "Where are our kids supposed to play now?"

More voices echoed the same sentiment.

Regina's gaze traveled swiftly over the assembly, pausing just a fraction of a second longer on Neal, who smiled in a friendly fashion. Then, smoothly, she took up the microphone once more. "As the mother of a young child, the need for recreational space is, of course, as important to me as it is to all of you. To that end, this week, I've acquired Lot A-815 from Mr. Gold this past week. The land is situated on the outskirts of the Storybrooke Nature Preserve and will be used for the purpose of erecting a playground for the children of the town. I must confess that I underestimated the demand for such a structure," she continued. "Had I realized that I wasn't alone in perceiving the need, perhaps I wouldn't have taken the purchase price out of the town coffers to preempt any debate on the subject. Rest assured," she added, "Mr. Gold gave me fair market value. As for the construction," she laid a transparency on the overhead projector platen and turned on the machine, "as you can see, the cost promises to be quite reasonable. Shall we call for a vote?"

She was slick, Neal hadn't doubted it before, but now he was all the more convinced. Of course, with the castle gone, the children did need a new play area, and sometimes, it was better to ask for forgiveness than for permission. All the same, the meeting was leaving a sour taste in his mouth.

He got up to make his way out of the auditorium.

"Oh, Mr. Cassidy?" a polished voice called from behind him and he turned to see Regina standing several feet behind him. Nobody else seemed to be in earshot.

"Madame Mayor," Neal nodded a polite acknowledgment.

"I was pleasantly surprised to see you here tonight. It's always nice to see new faces at these meetings."

"Thank you," Neal returned.

"I trust you found the proceedings enlightening."

"Well, it's given me some insight into how things work in this place," Neal nodded. "Although," he took a breath, "I have to admit I'm curious about why you had to buy the land on the QT in the dead of night, if you were just going to announce it in a meeting."

"Mr. Cassidy," Regina smiled, "despite the relative peacefulness of this evening's meeting, there are a usually a few naysayers who seem to take perverse pleasure in blocking any proposals to fund new ventures or construction. Rather than endure weeks of debate, I found a way to slice through them. It may not be standard procedure in other places, but it works for us. I imagine Mr. Stefano will be contacting you tomorrow about beginning construction."

"Guess so," Neal shrugged affably. "Uh… good night."

"You know, it's a curious thing Mr. Cassidy," Regina said. "When you first came here, I had Sidney do a bit of digging into your past. We don't get many visitors here, and as it appeared that you would be staying with us, I wanted to know the sort of person who might be settling down with us."

"I'm flattered," Neal said. "Sort of."

Regina smiled. "And doubtless, you've told Emma all about your past."

Neal blinked. "Sorry? She knows I was in prison, as I'm guessing Sidney informed you."

"Before we parted ways, yes he did," Regina nodded. "The thing is, Mr. Cassidy, your past, as far as anyone's been able to discover, appears to begin less than a year before your arrest. Before that," she shrugged, "no medical records, no school records. Your birth certificate… Well, the only thing that came up was a delayed birth application in 1999 that was rejected due to insufficient corroborating evidence. As far as the rest of the world is concerned, that's the first record of your existence in any government database, and even that's uncorroborated. I don't know who you are, Mr. Cassidy, and frankly? I don't care. But I'll wager that Emma might."

"Emma knows all about me," Neal told her tersely.

"Does she?" Regina smiled brightly. "Well, it's late, so I'll let you go. Enjoy the rest of your evening."

Neal tilted his head to one side, his eyes narrowing suspiciously. She was letting things drop altogether too easily. "You too," he said.

"The next time I run into you and Emma, perhaps we'll continue the conversation," she added, still smiling. "I'm quite looking forward to it. Good night."

She turned and headed back toward the refreshment table that had been set up during the meeting. Neal was glad she'd moved off before she could hear his heart start pounding. If she continued this line of questioning in front of Emma… He'd better hope that her superpower wasn't everything it was cracked up to be. Until then, he was going to stay the hell out of the mayor's way. Even though he suspected she'd just waylaid him with that goal in mind, he couldn't risk calling her bluff. Round one to the mayor, he thought grimly. But I'd better hope I can come up with something to counter before round two starts!