(Excerpt Chapter 1)

At 8:13 a.m. Friday, the phone startles me out of a dead sleep. I bolt upright. My grab at the receiver sends the cradle flying onto the floor. It skitters across the carpet and lands with a clatter on the exposed wood bordering the room. The line stays open.

“Hi, it’s Shirley.”

The sound of her voice jolts me wide-awake. “Yes.”

“Is Bob there?”

“Why, is something wrong?”

“I’m running late. Cameron just called to say that Bob isn’t in the office yet either. And Jane is on vacation, so there’s nobody there to run the place.”

I glance across at my husband, “He’s still in bed.” I’m surprised. It’s not like him to forget to set the alarm. He must be exhausted from all of his extra curricular activities.

“In bed!” She sounds aghast, no doubt wondering what we’ve been up to all morning.

I want to banish any question about the Makepeace-Jamison’s sex life from that ditzy head of hers. Bob will have lied to her about that. I yawn, and make a long O sound, as if luxuriating in the afterglow. I murmur, “I’ll get him up right away,”

“The meeting is at eight-thirty,” she cries. “He’ll never make it. I’ll have to put Cameron in charge of everything. Hopefully, he knows what he’s doing. At least the client knows him, so we’re sort of covered. I’ll get in when I feel better. Right now my head feels like a pincushion.”

I’m staring at Bob. Throughout our conversation he has not moved, even to breathe……

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