“I know about the bomb. I called it in. I live there.” As she flapped a hand toward her modest Cape Cod house, his eyebrows rose. “I came over to take care of my neighbor’s dog, okay? They’re gone for the weekend. I have their key.” She held it up. “The basement’s safe, isn’t it? Because that’s where I told my neighbor on the other side to go too.”

The man pulled his radio off his belt. “I’ll give the officer who’s working those houses her location.” He took her arm and urged her out the door. “We’ll get a statement once we’re out of range.”

“Should I bring Ernie?”

He frowned. “Who?”

“My neighbor’s dog.” She motioned toward the basement door. “I wouldn’t want—”

“He’ll be fine. Let’s go.”

Without giving her a chance to respond, he hustled her across the yard, keeping the houses lining the street between them and the package on her porch.

While the 911 dispatcher had treated her call as routine, the officer from this quiet, local suburb seemed a bit rattled.

At the end of the cul-de-sac, he handed her off to a County officer inside the yellow police tape that cordoned off the neighborhood.

The uniformed woman introduced herself, but the name didn’t penetrate the fog that had begun to swirl through Eve’s brain.

“Ma’am?” The officer peered at her. “Are you all right?”

The question registered at a peripheral level, and she forced herself to concentrate. “Um . . . sure. I think so.” She tightened her grasp on the key in her hand as police officers swarmed the area, sweat glistening on their brows.

But the hot sun couldn’t dispel the cold chill that rippled through her.

“Let me get you a bottle of water.” The officer kept tabs on her as she strode toward the emergency vehicles that were multiplying like mosquitoes in a stagnant pond.

Eve suppressed another shiver and tried to tune out the controlled frenzy around her.

Weird how she could pontificate for six hours a week to a quarter of a million listeners around the country about the violence, vulgarity, and vice besetting society, yet when serious nastiness hit close to home, her stomach morphed into a blender.

It wasn’t a good feeling.

But she was not going to succumb to pressure. Or threats. Or intimidation.

No way.

She’d honor the promise she’d made to herself the day she’d launched this venture—to seek and stand up for the truth, whatever the cost.

Still . . . a bomb?

Seriously?

Yet if someone was determined to undermine her resolve, an explosive device did have more punch than a nasty letter.

Except the scare tactic wasn’t going to work.

She mashed her lips together and lifted her chin.