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“There’s something different about her,” Janice says when Alex sits down at the Bluebird’s counter in the morning.

“There is, isn’t there?” Raymond agrees. They turn on her, suspicious.

“Are you okay? You look nervous or something. Your cheeks are all pink.”

“Well…” Alex has been dying to share it with someone. “I got a new job.”

“Congratulations, Alexis. I didn’t know you’d been applying.”

“Good job, honey. What is it?” Janice says, pouring her coffee.

“It’s at the Herald ,” Alex says, unable to contain her excitement. “I’m going to be the new Dear Constance.”

Raymond puts his paper down and turns fully to her. “Wait, you got that dead lady’s job? The one we were reading about the other day?”

“Yes, Francis Keen. There were five hundred applicants,” Alex says, her cheeks feeling warm.

“Your dream job, Alex! And me and Ray will be able to say we knew her back when she ate bagels with jam each and every morning!” Janice sighs, and Alex swats her playfully on the arm.

But Raymond looks concerned. “Alexis, how are they going to keep you safe? I mean, someone really didn’t like the last Dear Constance.”

“You mean disliked her with a knife a few times,” Janice says unhelpfully.

“Thank you, Janice,” Alex says, taking a sip from her coffee.

“I’m not sure, Alexis, I get a bad feeling,” Raymond says.

“You always have bad feelings,” Janice snips. “You’re practically one big bad feeling.”

“How do you think I became a detective? You’ve got to have instinct.” He taps his chest proudly.

“I always assumed the murder was personal, that it had to do with her, not her job,” Alex rationalizes. It is what she’s been telling herself in an attempt to calm her nerves. It hasn’t done much to help.

“Of course, honey. I just can’t believe our girl is going to be the new Dear Constance. Giving advice to the masses,” Janice says wistfully.

“Unless she gives the wrong person the wrong advice and then, boom, dead at her summer house.”

“Well, luckily I don’t have a summer house,” Alex reminds him. Though she has begun to feel queasy. She puts down her bagel, unable to take another bite.

“Don’t scare the girl! She’s excited! And besides, you don’t think anything is safe,” Janice says, clearing plates off the counter.

“That’s because the world is a dangerous, terrible place.” Raymond’s hand comes down on the counter, rattling everyone’s plates. “You need to be vigilant.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Janice interjects, rolling her eyes.

“You don’t know the things I’ve seen in this city, the messed-up, crazy things—”

“What, in the eighties? Things have changed a little since then, if you haven’t noticed. New York has changed. And Alex is going to be up in that big building with the security guards. She’ll be protected.”

Raymond shakes his head. “No one is protected twenty-four hours a day. Nobody.”

Janice rolls her eyes. “Ignore him, Alex, he reads too much of the Daily. It makes a person paranoid.” But deep down Alex knows Raymond’s right. She won’t be protected. Her current life is a known quantity. She can control who she interacts with and when—but at the office she will be putting herself out there, unable to hide when she wants to. Or run.

“I’ve got to go,” she says, sliding off her stool and grabbing her purse from its hook. As she makes her way to the front of the diner, Raymond calls after her: “They never found him, Alexis! Remember that!”