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bit calmer, he persuaded her to slide her hand forward just a few inches, without actually letting go of anything, and then to move herself forward as well.
    With incredible patience, Greg talked her through move after move like that. Each one would only mean an inch or two gained toward getting her off the bridge, and it took hours before she finally reached the end.
    Betts’s lip began to tremble when she saw that solid ground was right ahead of her. She allowed Greg and me to each take a hand and help her as she rose, first to her knees and then upright once she’d come forward enough to stand on the ground.
    Derek crossed back over to our side then, looking sheepish. He apologized over and over, but Betts didn’tseem to be in the mood to talk about it, at least not to
him
. She just shrugged him off and hardly spoke to him for the rest of the afternoon.
    Once she was completely recovered from her ordeal, we stuck to footpaths through the forest and along several of the brooks that wound through the area.
    Derek was trying very hard to please Betts, who was barely responding to anything he said or did. I couldn’t help thinking it was a shame to see a nice afternoon turned into a source of trouble between them. After their recent breakup and all, it looked as though their relationship was on pretty shaky ground, and I wondered if they were going to last the summer.

CHAPTER SEVEN
    â€œShelby! I need you to do something for me.”
    I still wasn’t quite used to the way Lisa spoke to me, like some kind of drill sergeant barking orders. It was so completely different from the way she talked to customers, when her voice was all silky and pleasant to an extreme.
    â€œYes?” I asked, keeping my voice polite even though I felt like asking if it would kill her to speak to me like I was a human being.
    â€œGo to Nadine’s apartment and tell her I just got a large reservation and I need another girl. See if she can work tonight.”
    â€œYou can’t phone her?”
    â€œIf I could phone her, I wouldn’t ask you to go, would I?” Lisa said shortly. “She just moved to a new place and her phone is not yet hooked up. Here isthe address. Go quickly. It’s raining a little, so take this umbrella.”
    I took the umbrella and slip of paper, both of which she thrust toward me as though she were angry, and started toward the door, remembering at the last moment that I was still wearing an apron. I took it off and tossed it over the just-emptied dishwasher then hurried out the side entrance that employees used.
    It was nice to get out of the steamy kitchen for a few minutes, and I took a deep breath of fresh air as I headed toward the street. I love the smell outside when it’s raining, and a citrus scent also hung in the air, which surprised me a little. I wondered if Ben was cooking something with oranges. It seemed unlikely, since our daily special had been Duck à l’Orange just a few days before.
    The address Lisa had given me was only a few blocks away, near the old post office. It was a big old building that hadn’t been very well maintained, at least on the outside. The paint was faded and peeling and the roof looked kind of scabby, as if the shingles were curling up around the edges. It looked pretty dismal, but I closed my umbrella and hurried up the steps and into the entryway.
    The inside was no improvement, at least in the hallway and wide, open stairwell. A bare bulb hung there, offering the only source of light — which might have been just as well, considering the uncared-for look ofthe place. Even though it was dimly lit, I could see that little attention had been given to cleaning, and the walls were cracked and chipped in places, probably from being banged with furniture when tenants were moving in or out.
    The address Lisa had written out for me said that Nadine lived in apartment E, but I couldn’t see any letters on any of the four