Lauren should stay with them. No one was sure who the target was—Beau or Lauren or both of them or just the property—but no one was willing to take any chances. Beau had installed security cameras a few years earlier. He looked at the footage surrounding his house for the past month. There was only one suspicious figure—Christmas Day, a little after 3:00 a.m. It was a female in a disguising hoodie. He wasn’t 100 percent sure, but the woman moved like Pamela.
* * *
Lauren was a bit surprised by how easily she slipped into living in Beau’s home. From the very first morning after a full night’s sleep, when she was sitting at the table in her robe, working her crossword puzzle and Drew came into the room. He said a pleasant good-morning as though this was a typical routine. He began rooting around for cereal and toast and Lauren said, “Let me make you a couple of eggs. It’ll only take a minute.”
“Um, you have time?”
“Right now I have nothing but time, but when I get back to work you’ll be on your own again. I’d love to right now.”
“Um, sure,” he said.
She turned a couple of eggs in the pan, microwaved a few slices of bacon, made him some toast and presented a plate in five minutes or less. She filched a piece of bacon for herself and opened a yogurt.
Drew dug in. “You sleep okay?” he finally asked.
“I did, but I admit, I woke up a lot. Every little noise.”
“Try not to worry,” Drew said. “Dad’s got this place wired. No one’s getting in here without a lot of bells and whistles.”
“I’m relieved by that,” she said. “Are you off to school?”
“I don’t have classes today so I’ll run by my dad’s office and see if there’s anything for me to do around there. When I’m not working with landscapers, I do stuff around the office. Then I’ll meet Darla after her classes. I don’t know if I’ll be around at all today. Do you need anything?”
She shook her head and smiled. “Thanks, Drew. I’m fine. I have a few errands.”
“Be very careful,” he said. She had to remind herself that Beau was not Drew’s father—he looked so much like him, especially when he was solicitous.
“Believe me, I will,” she said.
Beau was planning to try to buy a new truck but Lauren was going to see Sylvie Emerson. It was so coincidental that Sylvie had called yesterday and asked if she could manage lunch. Lauren didn’t say anything about their adventure with the bomb and couldn’t imagine Sylvie knew.
Lauren genuinely admired Sylvie. She would be like her if she could, giving so much to so many important causes and reigning over society with such grace and kindness, yet having that no-nonsense grasp of reality. Just the way she had admitted Brad had never fooled her—that wisdom and intuition—if Lauren aspired to anything, it was that.
Sylvie was a lot like Honey, Lauren realized.
Even given all that, Lauren didn’t feel like a close friend, but rather a friendly acquaintance. That was all right; Lauren didn’t run in Sylvie’s circle, nor did she want to. All she really wanted was Sylvie’s respect and she believed she had that.
The day was dark, foggy and wet. Lauren took the ferry to the city and a cab to Sylvie’s large home. Sylvie answered the door herself, even though there was staff in this house.
“Lauren,” she said, giving her a friendly hug. “So good of you to come out on a day like this!”
“While I have the time, this is my first choice of things to do. Thank you for inviting me.”
“I’ve looked forward to this and I finally had some free time. We’re set up in the library. Let me take your coat.”
Before Sylvie could take the coat a casually attired woman Lauren recognized from her last visit took the coat and whisked it away. “Thank you, Mary,” Sylvie said. “Come with me,” she said to Lauren.
They walked down the hall past a sitting room, an office and a dining room to the front corner of the house. Lauren had been here a few times but had been unaware of the library. It was beautiful with floor-to-ceiling bookcases, a couple of ladders, a leather sofa and a blazing fireplace. A small table occupied the center of the room and was appointed with a linen tablecloth and delicate china. The chairs were leather captain’s chairs, comfortable and deep. The room was dimly lit