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But . . .”
    â€œNo ‘but’s.” He shook his head. “I’ve got to get back to the office. I’ve still got some paperwork from the meeting last night that has to be finished. Will you be all right?”
    She nodded and smiled. She didn’t want him worried about her on top of all his workload.
    Mark stood up and pulled her with him. He gave her a long, deep kiss. Her toes tingled and she had to fight off the urge to push him back onto the love seat. He was right. That would have to wait.
    He hooked his finger through her belt loops, gave her a shorter version of the kiss and walked to the door. “I’ve gotta say it, though. This is one for the books.”
    As she closed the door, Lizzie’s earlier fatigue gave way to an urge for cleaning house. She was all nervous energy and anxiety pushing to keep busy. She started by dusting then progressed to vacuuming the main floor, followed by washing the kitchen floor. She glanced at the clock before carting the vacuum upstairs and was shocked to see it was well past midnight. She felt like she could go on for several more hours but knew how foolish that would be. Instead she opted for a cup of chamomile tea and a good book.
    Her two Siamese cats, Brie and Edam, raced by her on the way upstairs and had pounced on the bed, each staking out its claim by the time she walked into the bedroom. She left the window open, hoping to take advantage of the soft evening breeze, crawled under a light sheet, the only bedding she used during the summer, and selected from the top of a pile of paperbacks and hardbacks on her bedside table the copy of
Clobbered by Camembert
by Avery Aames. She’d been wanting to dive into it for a while. Now would be a good time to start, and if she fell asleep reading, so much the better. She could always start again at the beginning the next time.
    She couldn’t concentrate. Her mind kept looping back over what had happened to Molly. She set the book on the bedside table, turned out the light and slid down under the cover.
    The next thing she knew, her radio clicked on its usual early morning hour. She liked to get up at the same time all year round, finding it much easier on her body rhythms. She started a mental checklist for the day when her mind suddenly clicked on Molly. She scrambled out of bed, found the phone number for Mercy General Hospital and called the information desk, since there was no phone in Molly’s room. When they couldn’t give her an update, she asked for the nurses’ station on the seventh floor. After several rings, the phone was answered and Lizzie asked about Molly. She breathed a sigh of relief on hearing Molly had a restful night and would probably be released later that afternoon.
    Lizzie let out a whoop after hanging up, which startled Edam and Brie. They leapt off the bed and were poised at alert at the top of the stairs, beating her to the bottom when Lizzie started down.
    Lizzie wondered about her next move. She’d told Mark she’d stay out of it. Well, technically she had just acknowledged she understood his asking. That wasn’t exactly the same thing. And if she were to drive out to Riverwell Press to pick up a copy of Teensy’s book, and if she just happened to ask Orwell Rivers some questions at the same time, that couldn’t be construed to be deliberately nosing around.
    She liked that plan. And she could fit it in this morning in plenty of time before she had to go to Molly’s. Lizzie ate a breakfast of spoonfuls of almond butter to top off bites of banana, quickly ran upstairs to change into a red sleeveless cotton blouse and white crop pants and was headed to Riverwell Press by nine o’clock. She hadn’t thought to wonder if it would be open at that hour. She shrugged. She’d just have to hope for the best.
    She pulled into the parking lot twenty minutes later. The lot was empty and the building looked dark. Not so