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"You and Grant are back?" Suzette said, and she sounded pleased

"We’re not actually back We have a lot of… issues"

"I’d find a way around those issues!" Lena advised her "He’s so capable, and authoritative, and he’s in the theater, and even if he weren’t built like brick and sexy as all hell, in our line of work, soo for heterosexual"

"Well, that’s true," Suzette uy you’d like to be with, even oes too quickly I actually love the theater because of ay friends

They stay your friends"

"That’s true," Lena ain, since we seem to be so self-sufficient with dreah "Look at Stephanie! I think the real thing has to be much better than a dreaain

"Yet what?" Stephanie asked her

"It was so real!"

"There were soht," Lena said

"I know!" Suzette ht, we have to stick around in the bar and flirt with a few!"

They ate early again That night, the restaurant was filled, and now people knew and recognized the them howforward to the evening

Grant left the table before the others to check the set, and Stephanie followed soon after, feeling souilty Since she’d wound up as part of the cast, and he’d been there, she’d left him to attend to the details that were really her responsibility

But he didn’t seem to ht He seemed oddly distracted She decided for the tiht was even more fun, with their audience aware that they’d be participating

Yet, in the middle of it, Stephanie was startled when she was in the eaves with Suzette and she whispered to her, "You’re not going to believe who I saw out there tonight!"

"Who?" Stephanie whispered back

"Gema!"

"Gema--back here?"

"Look, she’s in the rear, near the door to the resort lobby"

"I never met her," Stephanie reminded Suzette

"I’ll bet she’s sorry she walked off!" Suzette said "And please, Stephanie, if she coh and dry"

"Try to show her to me e’re back out there," Stephanie said

Suzette nodded But when they had a chance to speak again, Suzette said, "I didn’t see her again Well, I’ll just bet that she’ll co to wind up in newspapers across the globe, if we keep doing this well She doesn’t deserve to be any part of our success!"

That night, when the show ended, the cast determined to mill with the men and women who had come, and who had headed back into the bar to enjoy the reht not be a bad thing for her to do as well

But when she told Grant what she was thinking, he had other plans

"You go ahead I… I have to do so else"

"What?" she asked hioes on to eleven Since I’m the one who found the body… well, I feel I should pay htly ashanificently received that she had pushed the local tragedy out of herwith you," she told him

"You don’t have to," he said

"I want to Just let ht," he said "But we have to hurry The funeral ho really late"

She scrubbed her face and didn’t bother with reapplying street e to find so appropriate to wear She chose a siht not have been so concerned about color or tradition, but here, where old values were so important, she wanted to be in proper attire

As they walked the distance, uphill, she glanced at her watch, hoping she hadn’t made them so late that the ould be over, but they still had a few minutes

When they arrived, she felt theat the resort, and co here, where the real heart of the community lay

The funeral home was crowded She saw a lot of the local people she had noticed in the café sipping espresso, having dinner, or just co in to be social Both of the police officers were there

And Maria’s mother

She was on her knees before the coffin