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her disappointment.
    “Right,” Gloria said into the phone. “She’s riding in the car with Alison and one other Brownie, Sophie Donohue, and they haven’t shown up here yet. I’m sure everything’s okay, but we’ve contacted the police just in case…yes, you should come over. The police want everyone to be here.”
    Somehow, knowing that the police wanted everyone together at Meadowlark Gardens made the gravity of the situation even more real.
    “I’ll call my ex-husband,” Janine said, dialing his number on her own phone.
    There was no answer on Joe’s end, just his taped message about being unable to come to the phone right then.
    Yet another cell phone turned off, she thought. But at least with Joe, she could be reasonably sure where to find him…and who would be there with him.

CHAPTER THREE
    J oe had never seen Paula quite so vicious on the tennis court. He dove to return her serve, missing the ball and nearly tripping over his own feet in the process.
    Paula must finally be pulling out of her period of mourning, he thought, as he sent the ball back over the net to her. Six weeks ago, he’d accompanied her to Florida for her mother’s funeral, staying with her in her childhood home, trying to comfort her when she seemed inconsolable. Her mother had been her last living relative, and Paula’s pain over her death had been fierce and was only now beginning to lift. It was a particular sort of pain Joe knew and understood all too well.
    Or maybe Paula just seemed more aggressive today because his heart was not on this tennis court in Reston, but rather at Ayr Creek, where Sophie would be babbling excitedly to Janine about her weekend at camp. He wanted to hear all about it. Despite the fact that he had strongly objected to her going, he hoped she’d had a wonderful, healthy time. He had no desire to have his grave misgivings about the trip proven correct.
    Paula let out a whoop as she sent the final ball over the net,far out of his reach. He didn’t even bother attempting to return it. Instead, he bent over, his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath from the wild ride she’d just taken him on.
    “Congratulations,” he called across the net. This was the first time she had beaten him so decisively. He straightened up, walked toward the net, and shook her hand.
    “A hollow victory,” Paula said, pulling the clasp out of her dark hair and letting it fall across her shoulders. She tossed it back from her face with a shake of her head.
    “Why do you say that?” he asked, as they walked on opposite sides of the net toward the benches.
    “Because you weren’t paying a bit of attention to the game.”
    “Well, my focus might have been a little off, but you won fair and square.”
    Paula sat down on the bench and mopped her face with a towel. “You’re still worried about Sophie, huh?”
    “Not worried, really.” He slipped his racquet into its case. “If anything had gone wrong at the camp, we would have heard. I’m just really curious to see how she made out. This is the first time she’s ever done anything like this.”
    “The first time she’s been able to,” Paula reminded him, and he knew where she was headed with her train of thought.
    “Right,” he said. He sat down and took a long drink from his water bottle.
    “But you still can’t admit that it’s that herbal treatment that’s made the difference, can you?”
    “Oh, I’m willing to concede that it might be,” he said. “But everyone says—everyone except the doctor in charge of the study—”
    “Schaefer,” she said. “And I know what you’re going to say. That everyone else thinks her improvement is just a temporary effect of the herbs.”
    He guessed he was beginning to sound like a broken record. “Right. So who would you believe?” he asked. “Sophie’s typeof kidney disease has been around a long time, with bona fide researchers looking at it from every angle. Should I believe them, or some