I rubbed my palms together. Last Christmas I’d hoped for a new friend who wouldn’t mind giving me business advice. Fanciful dreams didn’t compare with the excitement bubbling inside me. “I’ve made out an order. I just need you to call it in.”

“Which reminds me, I bought a new phone a few months ago. You can have this one, and you can access Wi-Fi from it too. Randy looked at it this morning and told me it was in good shape.” She reached into her monster bag and presented me with a cell phone.

My fingers trembled. “Why are you doing this?”

“I believe in your heart, Shelby. The chaplain and I are high school friends from my San Antonio childhood. She believes in you too.”

I rolled the phone over in my hands, holding it like a precious jewel. “Will you show me how to connect and text?”

We both laughed at my helplessness. “I’d love to.”

For the next hour, Edie tutored me in how to set up my phone, text, and access the Internet. She jotted down websites for me to learn about social media, marketing, branding, and other foreign topics. “You’re a fast learner. Just call—”

A swish near the door turned our attention to an envelope sliding under it. I rushed over and flung the door open in time to see a man bolt into the woods.

“Hey!” I raced after him on a winding path. He wore a ball cap and a black T-shirt. He ran like a deer, and his long stride and pace lengthened the distance between us. My breathing came in short, painful spurts. Dratted asthma. He disappeared into the thick woods, and I stopped to grasp my knees until I gained control of my air-depleted lungs.

Edie.

She could be hurt. Fighting for every breath, I rushed back to the cabin. She stood on the porch, her phone in one hand and the envelope in the other. I swept my gaze over the perimeter and back to the item in her hand.

“Are you okay?” she said.

I gestured my thumb and finger like an inhaler and retrieved it from inside. She followed me in. I inhaled the medicine deeply and waited for my lungs to cease their protest. “I’m all right. He outran me. I feared he was circling back to you.”

“You chased him when he could have turned on you?”

“He meant no good, and I acted instinctively.”

Her features softened. “Did you recognize him?”

“Never got close enough.”

She held up the envelope. “Obviously this was an important delivery.”

“Wash your hands before I open it. He could have laced it with poison.”

Her eyes widened. “You’re kidding, right?”

“Not in the least. I heard a few tales in prison that would make your skin crawl. Scrub for thirty seconds with lots of soap and water.”

Her face pale, Edie returned shortly afterward.

We walked several feet beyond the cabin for two reasons—if the envelope held deadly contents, I’d rather contaminate the outside of the cabin than the inside. Also, if the sender watched me, I wanted him to know I’d opened it. I gingerly lifted the envelope’s flap and tugged on a folded, typed note.