“It’s an email on my desktop upstairs. I’m waiting for Detective Anderson to call me back. Come on.” Kate held on to the railing, wincing as she favored her left leg.

“What happened to your face, and why are you limping?” Blaire asked as she followed behind.

Kate stopped and turned. “I fell off my horse yesterday.”

“What?” Blaire exclaimed.

Kate sighed. “It was stupid. Simon and I were riding, and Napoleon got spooked. He threw me.” She waved her hand. “I’m fine. Just a bruised ankle.”

“Thank God you’re okay. You have to be more careful!” Blaire wanted to tell her she was crazy for going out riding alone with Simon, but she didn’t know how Kate would react.

When they reached the office, Kate plopped down into the chair. Blaire leaned over her shoulder to look at the screen.

“What . . .” Kate trailed off. “It was right here. It’s gone!”

Blaire leaned in to look at the screen. “What do you mean, it’s gone?”

“I mean it’s not there.” Her voice rose, hysteria edging it. “How could it just disappear?”

“I don’t know. Check the trash. Maybe you deleted it?” Blaire suggested calmly.

Kate frantically looked through her deleted emails. “Nothing. I can’t believe this! It was an audio file. ‘Pop Goes the Weasel,’ but the words were about me. ‘Dead is the doctor.’”

“Okay, okay. Deep breath.” Blaire gave Kate’s shoulder a firm squeeze as she took a deep inhale herself and let it out slowly, a model for Kate to follow. “Let’s go back downstairs and see if you can write down what you remember.”

Kate turned and put her hand over Blaire’s, squeezing it as she got up from the desk.

When they got to the kitchen, Blaire saw Kate’s hand shaking as she pulled a pen and pad from the drawer. The landline rang, and Kate hesitated before answering it. “Hello?” She listened to the voice on the other end. “You saw it too? Okay, thank you.” As she hung up, she said, “Detective Anderson is on his way back.”

“It’s late. Where’s Simon?” Blaire asked.

“He had a business dinner tonight. I tried calling him, but he’s not answering.”

Business dinner my ass, Blaire thought. But she wanted to let Kate worry about one type of threat at a time—or maybe, at least only worry about one person at a time—while she dug in further to the nature of Simon and Sabrina’s relationship.

They sat across from each other, and Blaire tried to think of a way to ease into what she had to say. “Listen, Kate. You know I told you I was going to start doing my own research for the case?”

Kate nodded.

“Well, I went to Gordon’s tonight under the guise of hiring him.”