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set it to start in the middle of the night. Later, he’d put out plates, bowls, cups, and silverware on the kitchen table for breakfast and afterward he’d gather the clothes he needed to drop off at the cleaners in the morning.
    Just as he headed for the kitchen, the doorbell rang. Who the hell? It was nearly nine o’clock. When he opened the front door, he was surprised to find Jack’s kid sister, Maleah, standing on his porch.
    â€œHi, Mike. Got a few minutes?” she asked.
    â€œSure, come on in.”
    He escorted her to the living room. “Is there a problem? Something with Seth or—”
    â€œNothing personal. I’m fine. My nephew is fine,” Maleah told him. “I’m here on business.”
    Frowning in confusion, Mike stared at her. “Explain.”
    â€œMay I sit down?”
    â€œSure. Please sit. Believe me, my mama taught me good manners. I just forget them sometimes.”
    Maleah sat on the sofa. Mike eased down onto the wingback chair directly across from her.
    â€œYou know Lorie Hammonds, I believe,” Maleah said.
    Mike nodded. His gut tightened.
    â€œShe has hired me, as a representative of the Powell Agency, to investigate two threats made on her life.”
    â€œYou’re kidding me.”
    â€œNo, I’m quite serious.”
    â€œDon’t tell me the Women for Christian Morality folks are after her again. Believe me, those ladies are harmless.”
    â€œI’m not familiar with that group, but I doubt they’re involved in this situation. Lorie has received two letters, one a month ago and a second this weekend. Both letters were identical, both were death threats.”
    â€œDid you see the letters?”
    Maleah nodded. “Yes, one of them, the most recent. Unfortunately, she threw the first one away thinking it was a crank letter.”
    â€œHmm…I wouldn’t take anything Ms. Hammonds says too seriously. She tends to be melodramatic sometimes. Actually, I wouldn’t put it past her to have written the letter herself in order to get attention.”
    â€œTo get whose attention—yours, Mike?”
    His gut knotted painfully. “Yeah. Maybe.”
    â€œDo you think she’s that desperate to have you pay attention to her that she’d fake death threats?”
    Would she? Did he really believe she would go to that extreme just to draw him into her life? “I don’t know. Probably not.”
    â€œHey, I realize you two were an item when you were teenagers and she broke your heart when she went off to Hollywood hoping to become a movie star. But that was a long time ago. Don’t you think it’s way past time to let bygones be bygones? I don’t know Lorie all that well, but then neither do you. You knew the teenage Lorie. She’s not the same person.”
    â€œYou can say that again.”
    â€œI’m really not concerned about your personal issues with her. But I do need to know that, as the county sheriff, you will treat these death threats as seriously as you would if any other woman in your jurisdiction had received them.”
    â€œYou have my word on it. Ask Ms. Hammonds to come to the office tomorrow and give a statement. I’ll assign one of our deputies to question her.”
    â€œThanks, Mike. I knew I could count on you.” Maleah stood.
    â€œDaddy,” Hannah called out from down the hall. “I’m ready for my good-night kiss.”
    â€œGo on,” Maleah told him. “I’ll see myself out.”
    Â 
    Lorie sat alone in her semidark bedroom, the only light coming from the adjustable floor lamp behind her lounge chair. Oddly enough, the silence was comforting, the familiar a safe haven. The security system was armed. Her handgun was nearby in the nightstand. She was safe, at least for now. And it was possible that she wasn’t in any real danger, that whoever had written the two threatening letters would not follow through