CHAPTER NINETEEN
Stella was woken by the drumming of rain on her window. It was a cold, gray dawn, so dark that she felt briefly disoriented.
Then reality came rushing back and she sat up with a gasp, snapping the light on.
The spare bedroom looked just as it had when she’d fallen asleep. It was furnished elegantly and impersonally in cream and beige, like a hotel room. The antique wooden desk chair was in the place she’d left it, wedged against the door handle. Nothing looked disturbed, and the plush curtains were still tightly drawn.
She’d locked up and gone to bed last night at about eight p.m., after the police and clean-up crew had finally left. At least she had survived the night.
Now she could start with her investigation. The day lay ahead of her, filled with promise and threa
