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W hen Doreen woke up the next morning, she was not rested, feeling she would betray Nan by doing anything to the house. So, wanting to nip that in the bud as fast as she could, she hopped up, made her coffee, grabbed her phone, and called her grandmother.

“Aren’t you up early,” Nan noted, with a yawn.

“Sorry, did I wake you?”

“No worries, though I do need my beauty sleep these days unfortunately,” she shared in a quiet tone, “but I’m fine. What’s bothering you, child?”

“Now why would you think something is bothering me?”

Her grandmother burst into laughter. “It will be a while yet before you can hide the signs from me, dear. Something’s got you all aflutter.”

“I was talking to Mack last night about which house to move into after we’re married, and he was happy to move into this one.”

“Oh good. That should make you feel better.”

“Yes, but then we were talking about what we might need to do because he’ll need an office, and I’ll need an office, blah, blah, blah ,” she explained. “Then I got worried, wondering if you would be upset if we made renovations to your house.”

After a long moment on the other end, Nan burst into laughter. “Oh my, absolutely not. It’s your house, child. I would be very happy for you to burn the thing down and build yourself something new.”

“Oh my, I couldn’t do that,” she stated in shock.

“It’s not a bad idea. That thing is old and won’t take too many more renovations without coming apart at the seams. You do whatever you two want to do. I’m just glad you like it enough to want to stay there.”

“Oh yes,” she agreed, “and I absolutely love being right on the river. Plus, we’ve done so much work in the backyard.”

“That’s true. You have,” Nan agreed, the smile in her tone evident. Then she yawned again.

Doreen was sorry she’d woken her. “You need to go back to sleep,” she declared abruptly. “I’m so sorry for calling this early.”

“No, no, no,” she muttered. “For all you know, the next time you call, it will be my last morning, so don’t ever apologize for that.”

“Oh, ouch. That’s a maudlin way to talk.”

“It feels that way to me, child. We lost another member of the home last night,” she shared, sorrow in her voice. “Remember the old guy we moved here who lived not far from you on the river there?”

“The one who kidnapped you at gunpoint because you didn’t pay enough attention to him? Yeah.”

“He passed away in his sleep last night. It was a good way to go, don’t get me wrong. It was an absolutely good way to go, but it just reminds us all that our time here could be shorter than we think.”

By the time she disconnected, Doreen herself felt sad. Not exactly the way she wanted to start her day, but the thought of losing Nan after finally having her in Doreen’s life again made her incredibly sad. Recalling all their adventures together since Doreen had moved here, she was devastated to think that event was something she would have to face.

Yet it was unavoidable, considering Nan was eightysomething. Doreen wasn’t even sure how accurate that eightysomething mark was. Nan was a pro at hiding things that she didn’t want people to know, and her age would definitely qualify in that category as something she didn’t want everybody else discussing. She wasn’t vain, but a little bit of flattery went a long way in her case.

With a sigh, Doreen got up and wandered around the house, considering Mack’s suggestions last night about renovations and furniture needed. They had been good suggestions, brilliant really. It would be a matter of trial and error to see what would work, or so she figured. It was still a pretty big house for just the two of them, yet it wasn’t even close to what she’d shared with her husband. Still, having her grandmother’s two-story house also meant cleaning all that space. So that wasn’t something she was very good at either. Yet it was something to consider.

Just then her phone buzzed. She picked it up and saw it was Lilybeth. “Hello, Lilybeth. Is that you?”

“Yes,” she whispered. “Look. I need to talk to you, and it needs to happen fast, before I decide I can’t do this.”

“I can come right now, if you like,” Doreen offered.

Lilybeth seemed startled. “Seriously?”

“Yes, of course,” Doreen replied. “I know it’s early, but, if you’re up, and I’m up, there’s no reason not to. Unless Riverdale has visiting hours, and I can’t come until a certain time.”

“I have no idea. I’ve never even considered that.”

“You call it,” Doreen suggested. “And either I will come down now or will come down in a little bit.”

“Let’s not raise any eyebrows or cause any gossip,” she decided, “so in a little bit is fine.”

“I’ll meet you at say,… ten o’clock?”

“Ten o’clock it is.”

“Do you want to tell me what it’s about?”

“No, I don’t,” she snapped. “And, if you’re unlucky, I’ll change my mind before you get here.”

“Maybe you should tell me now,” Doreen urged, “just in case.”

“I did write you a letter, and it is here,” she stated, “but I do think I should probably tell you first in person.”

“Has it got to do with this little baby girl?”

“I think so, but I can’t be sure, and I don’t want to make any accusations if I’m not certain. I did speak to a couple people I used to work with, the ones still in the industry, the ones who…” She paused and then started fretting. “You told me to think about it, but how do you think about that and not react?” she muttered.

“I’m sure it’s hard for you, for anyone really.”

“Anyway, I did write you a letter, and I’m leaving it at the front desk. If anything happens to me,” she shared, “at least you would have that.” And, with that, she disconnected.

Doreen repeated out loud, “If anything happens to you? Good God, what is going on now?” She had a sense of something really wrong with this picture, so she quickly dressed. Although it wasn’t even nine o’clock, she raced to the retirement home to see if Lilybeth would see her sooner.

As she walked in, quite a cacophony was going on. She looked over at the receptionist and asked, “Is there a problem?”

The woman nodded. “Yes, unfortunately one of our residents has just passed away.”

Doreen froze, closed her eyes, and muttered, “Lilybeth, by any chance?”

The receptionist eyed her in shock and then slowly nodded. “Yes, how did you know?”

“Did she leave a letter with you for me?”

“She did. Is that what you’re here for?”

“I was hoping to talk to her while I was here, but she did mention how she had left a letter for me.”

The receptionist reached behind the front desk and handed it to her. “Here is the letter. She brought it down to me earlier.”

“I was hoping to talk to her about it, but…”

“I’m sorry,” the other woman said sincerely. “That time has gone.”

Doreen watched and waited, feeling a strange sense of déjà vu as the EMTs loaded up the woman’s body in the ambulance and took it away. Doreen looked over at the receptionist. “Do you have any idea what happened?”

“It looks as if she just had a heart attack. She was a loner here, and frankly I was really surprised that she even agreed to speak with you.”

Doreen nodded. With that, she walked outside, got into her vehicle, and drove straight to the police station. As she walked in, a couple cops looked up and smiled at her. One waved, and she smiled back and asked, “Hey, is Mack here?”

“No, Mack’s at court,” one of them replied.

“Oh, shoot, I knew that.” She groaned. “How about the captain?”

At that came a booming reply from the far side, “Doreen.”

She turned and smiled. The captain stood there, rubbing his hands together. “Have you got something for me?”

“I’ve got something, all right,” she replied. “May we talk?”

His eyebrows lifted, and he nodded. “Absolutely. Come on in.” He led the way to his office.

She sat down and began, “Obviously I haven’t got all that far on the case yet, but something happened this morning that I’m afraid may be connected.”

It took a minute to get it all out, but, when she finally did, he sat and stared at her. “Seriously?”

She nodded. “I have the letter right here, and I haven’t even opened it yet,” she shared. Then she unsealed it and quickly scanned the contents. “Good God,” she muttered, staring at it. She laid it down on the desk in front of him, and the two of them read it together.

He sat back, stared at her, and whistled. “Holy moly.”

“I know, and the trouble is, she’s the one who was just taken out in an ambulance as I arrived at Riverdale. I asked what happened, and the receptionist told me that it looked to be a heart attack. I had just spoken to Lilybeth a few minutes earlier, and she had already dropped off this letter at the front desk. I was to meet her at ten, and something about this just caught me as wrong, and I raced down there,” she shared, with tears in her eyes. “I honestly don’t know what happened, but I swear to God that I think she was murdered. I think she was murdered before she could tell anyone else what she told me. I’m just hoping that the front desk doesn’t tell anybody that Lilybeth had left the letter for me there.”

“Because now you’re worried about your safety,” he noted, turning to her.

“No,” she stated, frowning. “I’m worried about that receptionist’s safety. She’s a nice lady. What if somebody thinks she read that letter?”

He stared down at the incriminating letter in front of him, and he shook his head. “This isn’t something to just march out into the world with,” he stated, with a nod.

“I know. That’s why I’m here,” she replied. “And unfortunately Mack’s in court.”

“He is, and he’ll be there all day. You, my dear,” he noted, shaking his head, “have this penchant for trouble like nobody else I know.”

She smiled at him. “I do seem to burst things right open, don’t I?”

He nodded. “I’ve got to admit that you’re pretty darn good at it too.”

She chuckled. “The bottom line is that we have a chance to solve this cold case, but we have to do it in such a way that nobody else gets killed. And I’m afraid that it’s already too late.”