My radar had turned off.

"Okay, you have a deal."

Chapter 6

Sabrina walked into her room at the Westin, sat in a chair overlooking Copley Square, and dialed the number of her agent. She had become a hot commodity of late, so getting through to Peter Sheppard was no longer a "he'll call you back as soon as he can" deal. He picked up immediately.

"Hey Sabrina. What's cooking? How'd it go with your sister's stuff?"

"Okay. I guess these things are never pleasant. Listen, I know everything is about to heat up with all the pre-release hoopla of my new book, but I've got to take a few days off to deal with all of this."

"Yeah, that's fine. Not to be insensitive, but is it all of her arrangements, or the 'other thing'?"

"Mostly the other thing. I met the guy she came up here to talk to. Turns out he has some information that can fill in a lot of blanks. He seems nice, and as confused about all this as I am. He's agreed to let me be a part of it."

"And what do you get out of it?"

"Closure? Excitement? Peter, this is turning out to be a real mystery, not something made up."

"Fodder for a new book?"

"You never know. But I really want to sink my teeth into this."

"So, does this guy know who you are?"

"He knows that I'm Sabrina Spencer, the mystery author."

"You know that wasn't my question."

"Does he know my past? No. Only you and Ellen"—Ellen was her editor—"know about that."

"And you're not going to tell him?"

"There's no reason he has to know. Besides the fact that I want to keep my past as private as I can for as long as I can—and who knows who he would tell—there's another reason. Just being Izzy's sister was enough to make him suspicious of me. If I gave him this information, there is no way he'd want me in on this. And Peter, I really want to be in on it."

Chapter 7

Sabrina Spencer was the real deal. She had five books to her credit—all mysteries. Her first one was put out by a small publisher, and it received the expected amount of attention—none. Her second wasn't much more successful, but it did catch the fancy of an editor at a major New York publishing house, who signed her to a two-book contract. Her third, now with the right publicity behind her, made the New York Times Bestseller List for a couple of weeks, and her fourth took off and made her a big name in the mystery world. Suddenly, all of her books started selling, and the big publisher bought the rights to her first two, making the small publisher a lot of money in the process. Her fifth was due to be published around Christmas, and was expected to hit the bestseller lists its first week in print.

But what impressed me more than her accomplishments was her sincerity. I picked up on it as quickly as I had picked up on her sister's insincerity. In so many ways she was he exact opposite of her sister. I was looking forward to working with her.