She told Archie about Gloria Larson, McBee, and the Mississippi Magnolia Assisted Living Facility. “Anyway,” she said, “it’s probably nothing, but I thought I’d stop by after here and check her story out.”

Claire opened her eyes. “Good morning.”

“Sorry,” Susan said, whispering belatedly. “Did we wake you?”

Claire shifted her position in the chair and stretched. “When you walked in the door. God, you’re loud. Sorry you got fired.”

“I didn’t get you a muffin,” Susan confessed.

“Okay.”

“I’m so sorry,” Susan said.

“Did you say this old woman lives up on Mississippi?”

Susan nodded.

Claire jabbed in the air at Archie with her elbow. “You should go with her. Check it out.”

Archie hesitated.

“I will call you if anything changes,” Claire said. “You shouldn’t be in the ICU anyway with that cold.” She turned to Susan. “He needs to work,” she said. “Or he’ll go crazy.”

It had an extra weight, given Archie’s stay in the psych ward. Crazy was not such a faraway place for him. Crazy lived just up the road.

“There’s nothing you can do until Anne gets in anyway,” Claire added.

“Anne?” Susan said.

She saw Archie shoot Claire a look. It had to be Anne Boyd. She was an FBI profiler. They were bringing her in to profile the river killer. Which meant they had to have more than Archie was telling. They knew what poisoned him. But Henry was still lying there like Snow White, which meant that whatever the poison was, there wasn’t an antidote.

“It’s okay. I get it. You can’t compromise the case. But Claire’s right, you can’t just sit here. Come with me. It’ll be fun. Old people. There might be Jell-O.”

Archie coughed and looked unconvinced.

“I’m not a member of the press anymore,” Susan said. “This woman, she has no reason to tell me anything if I’m not writing a story.” Susan held up a strand of her raspberry hair. “I’m not exactly catnip to old people.” Old people crossed the street sometimes when they saw her coming. “But a cop? She’d talk to you.”

“McBee, huh?” Archie said.

“Stop and feed the cats,” Claire said to Susan.

“Really?” Susan asked.

Claire got up and opened a white Formica wardrobe. Susan couldn’t see what was inside, but she assumed it was Henry’s clothes, because it looked like she was digging in the pockets. She closed the wardrobe and tossed something through the air at Susan.

Susan resisted the urge to dodge it, and instead got a hand up in time to catch the key ring. She looked at it with surprise. She’d caught it! She almost never caught anything.