"I like it."

"One more thing," I said. "You don't stop writing. You might gain a whole new audience from this—and I don't mean it the way your ex-publicist meant it. People might discover you through this, but if you keep writing, they will appreciate you for the stories you tell. The rest of this nonsense will eventually fade into the background. Your writing won't. Someday you might be ready to do signings again. But if not? Hey, there have been plenty of reclusive authors. You'll be the J.D. Salinger of the mystery world."

She was smiling broadly now. I think she approved. Much like the pressure that was relieved when she opened up to me about her past, I could feel her relief in her body language as she melted in my arms.

*****

The rest of the day was spent ignoring phone calls and knocks on her door, as she crafted her life story as succinctly as possible. She would tell of the abusive marriage and of finally reaching her breaking point; of the judge who was lenient with her sentence; and the first year of hell in prison followed by the five years of rediscovering herself.

"I'm not going to name any of the other inmates, but it's important—no, more than that. It's essential—that people understand how these women changed my life. As much as they almost killed me in the beginning, these women saved me in the end. I never want to compromise the relationship that we had … and still have."

"And then," I said, "you disappear for a while."

"Which will give us the time and freedom to see this through to the end." Then she added, "Under the cloak of secrecy."

"Well, not total secrecy. They are all camped out in this hotel waiting for you to show your face. And although I'm not the focus, my name is now out there. I'd say we could stay at my place, but they might be watching that too."

"Your dad's house?"

"That might be the safest option. Of course, depending what Mikey says in his book, who knows where we might be headed. Brazil, probably."

"At least they won't know me down there."

"Speaking of that, be prepared to be recognized from time to time. Your picture is going to be plastered everywhere, so it won't be like before, when you'd get noticed by a few fans here and there."

"I know. But I have to tell you what a relief it is that I'll be cancelling my signings."

"Don't get too used to it. As your teacher, I'm not letting you off that easily. You're not going to learn to trust by sneaking around in the middle of the night. I'm just giving you a free pass for a while. Class starts again when we solve this."

"You're not giving me a lot of incentive to solve it any time soon," she said with a smirk.

"If this leads us to Brazil," I said, "I'm going to have to brush up on my Spanish. Haven't had to use it since high school."