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She finally drifted off to sleep, but it was ot back Royce had been admitted and she’d stayed until he was settled A nu in thethat the cancer had invaded his lungs Until the chest X rays cas weren’t looking good

Ori stirred We’d been speaking in whispers, but it was clear ere disturbing her We ether on the back steps It was dark out there, the building shielding us frohts Ann pulled her knees up and rested her head wearily on her arh the next few et Bailey cleared" "Bailey," she said "That’s all I hear about" She smiled bitterly "So what else is new?" "You hat, five when he was born?" She nodded "Mom and Pop were so thrilled I’d been sickly as an infant Apparently, I didn’t sleep more than thirty ht Later, it turned out to be so… diarrhea, ferocious stohten out for a while Then Bailey caarten by then and the teacher decided I was just acting up because of him"

"Were you jealous?" I asked

"Absolutely I was horribly jealous I couldn’t helpAnd of course he was good… slept like an angel, blah, blah, blah Meanwhile, I was half-dead Soht on I don’t even knoho it was, but he insisted on a bowel biopsy and that’s when they diagnosed the celiac disease Once they took h I think Pop was always half-convinced I’d done it out of spite Ha The story of lanced at her watch "Oh hell, it’s alhts and then I went upstairs It wasn’t until I was ready for bed that I realized someone had been in my room

13

What I spotted was the partial crescent of a heel print on the carpet just inside the sliding door I don’t even knohat one into the kitchen to pour lass of wine I popped the cork back in the bottle and tucked it in the refrigerator door I crossed to the sliding glass door and opened the drapes, then flipped the lock and slid the door open about a foot, letting in a dense shaft of ocean breeze I stood for ait all in I loved the smell I loved the sound the oceanup onto the sand whenever a wave broke The fog was in and I could hear the plaintive ht air

My attention strayed to a small kink in the hem of the drape There was a trace of wet sand adjacent to the metal track in which the door rode I peered at it, uncolass aside and went down on my hands and knees to inspect the spot The ot up and backed away fro my head around so I could scan the room There was no place anyone could hide The closet consisted of an alcove without a door The bed was bolted to the wall and quite low, framed in at the botto I’d just co autolass shower door was open, the stall empty I kneas alone, but the sense of that other presence was so vivid that it made my hair stand on my arms I was seized by an involuntary treenerated a low sound in rowl reflex

I surveyed h it was perfectly possible that so the contents I went back to the kitchen table and checkedopen as it had been,as far as I could tell I couldn’t tell if the papers had been disturbed because I hadn’t paid any particular attention to them when I tucked theo

I checked the lock on the sliding glass door Now that I knehat I was looking for, the tool marks were unmistakable and I could see where the aluminum frame had been forced out around the bolt The lock was a sined to withstand brute force The thued Now the latch lever didn’t fullycapacity was strictly illusory The intruder must have left the bolt in its locked position and used the corridor door for egress I got the penlight out ofand checked the balcony with care There were additional traces of sand near the railing I peered the one floor down, trying to figure out how soh one of the roo froht underthe perimeter of the courtyard for Someone could have parked in the driveway, then cli up onto the balcony It wouldn’t have taken long The driveway ht have been blocked temporarily, but at this hour there was little or no traffic The toas shut down and the tenants of the ht