so close were the public offices of southney situated to each other , that in her short walk between the police station and library , and across the gardens that formed something of a town square , sarah cobb also passed the civic buildings where unbeknown to her their two murder victims had once met to debate the future of their town ; a future sarahs generation took for granted as their unavoidable present , with the notions that the present town they lived in had ever been decided on or that different decisions might have been made back then both quite absent from her mind .