Kate stood absolutely still for a moment, listening, but she was unable to hear anything over the pounding of her heart. When her pulse rate slowed back to a normal beat, allowing her some semblance of rational thought, she concluded if anything were liable to explode it would have to be in the cellar. There were things down there that made odd rumbling noises when they were working. There were pilot lights and emergency off-on switches and an intimidating tangle of pipes and wires.

She took a deep breath, opened the cellar door, and sniffed. No smoke. She switched on the light and crept down the stairs. No fire. No evidence of explosion. She shook her head in confusion, turned to go back upstairs, and let out a shriek when she bumped into David Dodd.

Dodd looked at her over his wire-framed glasses and reached out to steady her. “Are you okay?”

She clapped her hand to her heart and gasped for breath. “You scared me!”

“I heard the noise, and I came to see if you were all right. The door was open….” He made a vague gesture in that direction and removed his glasses.

They’d been neighbors for three months, but he’d never been in her house. In fact, he’d never spoken more than three words to her at any one time. That hadn’t stopped him from forming an opinion.

He’d observed that she was a woman who moved fast and kept erratic hours. She didn’t dally between her car and her front door, barely taking time to wave and mumble “hello” while she fumbled for keys. She usually rushed by him in a stern black coat that hung almost to her ankles, with a huge leather purse slung over her shoulder, a grocery bag balanced on her hip, plastic-draped clothes from the cleaners caught in the crook of a finger, and more often than not, she was dragging a large, odd-shaped metal case that was equipped with casters and stamped with a bunch of travel stickers.

Because he didn’t know her name, Dodd thought of her as the Mystery Woman. He was fascinated by the amount of raw energy she exuded between curb and doorstep. Her impersonal, hurried hellos annoyed the hell out of him. And he hated the damn black coat.