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.I Lost My Job and I Lost My House and I Lost MyCar& Fred suddenly yipped andstarted biting angrily at his shoulder.& And My DogHas Fleas, she finisheddespondently.To top it all off, for the first time in her life she couldn tread her distress away.Thegreatest panacea in the world becoming immersed ina good book wasn t available.The only reading material in Simpson was The RupertPioneer and a few scandal sheetsreporting weekly sightings of Elvis, available at LorenJensen s grocery store.So Juliahad to make do with the few books she had with her.She had had a hurried ten minutes at an airportbookshop during one of the manystopovers on the way to Boise and had basically justtipped the rack into the shoppingbag.To her disgust, she had netted four books she hadalready read, a history of tradewith Japan in the 20th century and a Spanish-Englishdictionary.The rest were thenovels she d been reading over and over again for thepast month.Julia s eyes fell on the book she was reading for thefifth time.Maybe that was whyshe couldn t concentrate on the murder mystery.Shewas reading it this time with hercritical editor s eye.The book could have done with agood editor.The book could havedone with her.She d been a very good editor.Before.Who had taken her place at Turner & Lowe? Thecompany had just been eaten up bya huge German publishing conglomerate when she haddisappeared.The dust hadn tsettled yet and there had been word that job cuts werein the offing.No doubt herrequest for indefinite unpaid compassionate leave hadcome in very handy.Had Dorataken over her job? No, Dora was known to have akeen editorial eye for nonfiction.Even the faceless businessmen on the other side of theAtlantic would want their editorsto be working in their own area of expertise.It madegood economic sense.Maybe Donny had taken over her authors.DonnyMoro had been her PA for a whileand Julia had caught him more than once with aspeculative gleam in his eye.He d haveleapt at the chance to take over from her.She could justhear him, the smarmy little brat.Too bad Julia had to leave just now, when we re all sobusy.What was she thinking? Never mind.Ill be happy to take up the slack.Who knew what she d find when she got back?If she got back.Tears pricked her eyes, though she knew perfectly wella few tears weren t going tochange her situation.Not one iota.She should know.She d cried buckets over the pastmonth, cried out her fear and her fury at what washappening.And her problems werestill there at the end of the crying jag looming overher life like Flattop Ridge loomedover Simpson.Julia swiped at her eyes, then yawned.She had used upall her adrenaline today,what with Davis phone call, braining a SEAL, then herplumbing threatening to floodthe house, her terror when she thought one of Santana skillers had found her, lustinginappropriately after a non-talking soldier-rancher& ithad been a big day.Her eyelidsdrooped.Time for sleep.Her hand automatically reached out to the cheap alarmclock on the nightstand, thenshe stopped.Tomorrow was Saturday, so she didn tneed the alarm.And besides, she had been alarmed enough.Chapter Four Freshen up your coffee?Julia glanced up from The Rupert Pioneer into thesmiling, anxious face of a prettyyoung woman about Julia s age, holding a carafe ofcoffee.Should she have more coffee? Maybe not, consideringthe fact that the closesthospital was probably two hundred miles away.Thestuff was lethal.Julia smiled at her. No, thanks.One cup is plenty.Julia tried to follow her normal routine as much aspossible, which gave her thefeeling of having some sort of control over her life.One of her most cherished routineswas a long, leisurely cup of coffee in a favorite coffeeshop after work, preferably with agirlfriend or two.And no Saturday would be completewithout a morning coffee outwhile reading the paper.If her life had been normal, right now she d be havingcoffee at The Bookworm onState Street, a new supply of books at her feet,comfortably dissecting office gossip withJean and Dora over a mochaccino in a bone china cup.Instead, she was reading The RupertPioneer over tepid river sludge in a chipped mug.But her life was here now, like it or not, and she foundherself being drawn into thelife of Simpson, almost against her will
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