Strictly speaking, it could not be called an argument. It was more a case of one person getting worked up while the other tried to calm him down.
The agitated one was the wealthy, middle-aged Black man who looked like someone of considerable standing. The other was young Billy's father, a middle-aged white man who bore a striking resemblance to "Detective Miller" and was also the protagonist Nick remembered.
Nick stood to one side and listened for a while. From a string of remarks like, "Because we had a lawsuit before, you rounded up a few hicks to help you play me for a fool and humiliate me,"
and, "You locals have always looked down on me, though as a lawyer, I couldn't care less. I only come here to spend some money and save on taxes," he more or less pieced together what had caused the dispute.
The wealthy Black man was named Brent Norton, and he was neighbors with "Detective Miller"-David Drayton, who was a painter in this world.
Though they were neighbors, they had some minor grudges between them. Last year, they had even gone to court over the boundary between their backyards, and Brent Norton, a reasonably well-known lawyer, had unexpectedly lost to David Drayton.
About twenty minutes earlier, David Drayton had gone to the supermarket's storeroom to find a blanket for his son Billy, who had developed a slight fever after being frightened. While shutting down the malfunctioning emergency generator, he had heard some unusual noises.
He had fetched several supermarket employees to investigate with him: Jim the electrician, Norman and Myron the stock handlers, and Ollie, the short, stout supervisor.
They had discovered that something was blocking the exhaust vent, preventing the emergency generator from working properly. David had warned them that something was