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the waiting room. “Is Beth working today? I was in the neighborhood and thought I’d stop by and say hi . . . ” She’d seemed about to say more when she saw the look on my face. Shaking my head, I stood up and walked around the desk. She removed her sunglasses revealing long brown bangs that covered her eyebrows.
    “I’m so sorry to be the one to tell you this, but Beth died a few days ago.” I cleared my throat, then remembered, too late, that I was supposed to refrain from mentioning details to anyone. She didn’t react at first, but after a few long seconds my words seemed to sink in. She brought a hand to her mouth and looked at me. “What happened?” she asked, tears welling up in her eyes.
    I ran the fingers of my left hand over my temple, pushing back some loose strands of hair. “It’s being investigated by the police,” I began, “and I’ve been asked not to say anything about it to anyone.”
    “Well,” she said, with a quick roll of her eyes. “It’s not like I’m going to say anything. I mean, really?”
    “I’m sorry,” I said, walking back around the desk.
    I began to write the time and place of Beth’s service on a slip of paper, but the woman turned on her heel and walked out the door indignantly. I followed her outside, piece of paper in hand.
    “Excuse me, Lindy, you might want this.” I called out, waving the piece of paper in the air. She looked at me, put her sunglasses back on, and got in her car without a word. I watched her drive off . . . in a white Subaru Outback.
    The moment my brain registered what I was seeing, intuition kicked into overdrive. I ran to my desk and grabbed my purse and car keys.
    The adrenaline coursing through my veins drove my foot down harder and harder on the accelerator. What was I doing? It was absurd. But I couldn’t ignore the coincidence. Was this the car Beth had been in just a few days ago? If so, why in the world would Beth try to hide it, especially with the owner being a woman? And who was this Lindy? Seeing that she was just three cars ahead of me, I hung back. I didn’t think she’d seen me, but figured I should be careful.
    Where was she going? And what did I think I was going to do once we got there? Lindy suddenly took a sharp left turn at a set of lights that had just turned yellow and I cursed the cars in front of me for not going faster. Damn it, I was going to lose her. Just as the car ahead of me turned, the light went red. Determining that I had a small window of opportunity, I floored it and turned just as the oncoming traffic got the green. I didn’t hear a single horn as, hands firmly clenching the steering wheel, I searched the road ahead. Spotting her, I began to accelerate when she pulled off to the right and stopped in front of a coffee shop called Gina’s. I braked and pulled off on the left side of the road.
    The neighborhood was quaint, a handful of hair salons, art galleries, and café’s along cobblestone streets. A few blocks away, a man was walking a dog along the tree-lined sidewalks.
    The Subaru’s driver’s side door opened, Lindy’s legs swung out, and her feet struck the pavement. She pulled her bag out of the car behind her, pushed the door shut, and went into the cafe. I was dying to see who was meeting her, but it was outrageous enough that I’d even followed her, so I elected to wait in the car.
    Five minutes had passed by when my cell phone rang. It was Brian.
    “Hey, sweetheart. Home from school?” I asked, all the while keeping my eyes on the entrance to the café.
    “Yeah. Hey, Mom. Okay if I go to the basketball game later with friends?”
    “I guess so. Have you done your homework?”
    “Did it in study hall.”
    “Will you be back in time for dinner?”
    “Uh, don’t know.”
    “Well, I was thinking with Dad gone you and I could go out for Mexican tonight.” When Brian hesitated, I saved him the trouble of worrying about saying the wrong thing and hurting my feelings.
    “Never