Julia carried Cassie toward the door. She felt Lance place his hand on the small of her back and guide her around the array of toys that Cassie had left, like a trail of breadcrumbs, to follow. Don't we look like a little family, Julia thought, but she didn't protest as they eased down the long hall.
"Lance knows Shrek!" Cassie squealed.
Julia cut him an inquiring look.
"Well," he fudged, "I know a guy who works as Mike Myers's stand-in."
For Cassie, and by extension Julia, that was close enough.
"There you are!" Caroline shouted as she suddenly appeared at the top of the stairs. She leaned over and fought to catch her breath. "I ought to be a size two, as many times a day as I go up and down these things," she said to no one but herself. Then she straightened, looked at Lance and Julia, and exclaimed, "His agent is here!"
Instinctively, Julia tightened her grip on Cassie, as if she were going to have to get the children to safety before the shots started to fly.
"You didn't let him in, did you?" Lance asked.
"No," Nina said, appearing behind Caroline. "He's at Myrtle's."
Caroline hadn't been exaggerating when she said she could stand in the upstairs playroom and keep an eye on Crazy Myrtle. As Julia peered through the telescope, she could see straight into what must be Myrtle's formal living room, where Richard Stone sat with the older woman, enjoying a cup of tea. At least Julia thought it was tea. It could just as easily have been human blood.
"Oh, she's enjoying this," Caroline said, sounding bitter. When a buzzer sounded from deep within the house, she bolted for the stairs. "Whites are done."
"Caroline," Julia said, "can't that wait"
Caroline wheeled. "Julia, the sun is going to come up tomorrow, whether my family has clean underwear or not." She took a step down the stairs. "I'll be right back."
With Caroline gone, Lance was next in turn for the telescope. "How's Harvey?" he asked, and Julia had to remind herself that Lance had never even met Harvey; she fought to remember that only a few days before, she had never met Lance.
"He's better," Julia said, reflecting on the quick call she'd shared with Francesca after she'd said good-bye to Abby. "He'll be in rehab for a while, but things look good."
"Great," Caroline said over the heaping pile of sheets and towels she had dropped in the center of the playroom floor.
"Mom will be glad to hear African violets haven't lost their healing power."
Caroline plopped down on the floor and started folding like a pro. Lance joined her, and Nina shifted into place for telescope duty. Julia watched Lance with the laundry. As he neatly tucked the corners of a fitted sheet into one another, she thought, He actually knows what he's doing. "You really didn't have a sister?" she asked.
He grinned. "I bake, too."
"So what did your new editor say when you told her about the lost Veronica?" Caroline asked as she segued from sheets to hand towels.
"Well ..." Julia started.
"You didn't tell her," Caroline said, sounding completely unsurprised. "Julia, you're going into business with her. She's taking a chance on you. You can't let—"
"She doesn't need to know. Abby Warner is used to dealing with the nonfiction big boys—corporate CEOs, prime ministers, chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Trust me, she's not going to give someone with Veronica White's sales history the time of day."
"If you say so," Caroline chimed.
"Maybe we're reading too much into this," Lance said. "Richard Stone's not going to care what type of books you used to write."
"Are you kidding?" Julia asked. "This is fresh wood for the fire. This keeps the headlines on the front page a few days longer." She looked out the window at Myrtle's house and the decaying subdivision and fought not to say, This is how my career might end.
"What happens when he reads it?" Nina added sheepishly.
Caroline's hand flew to her mouth. "He's going to notice."
"I noticed as soon as I saw the picture," Nina agreed. "Lance fits the description exactly. That's why I thought it was true!"
"What aren't you telling me?" Lance demanded. Caroline and Nina stared at each other, then Nina gave Caroline a "go ahead" nod, and Caroline said, "It's about you." "Caroline!" Julia cried.