Keep the Air Moist in Winter Months
It′s important to moisturize your skin during the winter months. It keeps your skin looking soft, and studies suggest that moisture helps suppress the spread of flu virus in the winter. You can even try your grand-mother′s trick of heating an air-moisturizing kettle on the stove.
– From The Little Book of Beauty Secrets by Mimi Morgan
After leaving Mercy Hospital, I drove home through a thick southern mist, the kind that clings to the car and makes you try your windshield wipers in vain. But at least the monsoons had lifted. The morning rush-hour traffic reminded me that it was still early in the day, which seemed oddly surprising; eons seemed to have passed since I′d been jolted awake by Roe′s telephone call.
Inside my kitchen I made a pot of coffee while mulling over what I′d learned about Jana′s husband, Gavin. Could he have arranged her death as some kind of hit for hire? As a reporter I′d covered plenty of stories where murder had been committed for much less gain than a two-million-dollar insurance policy. Especially if he′d known that she was planning to leave him, Gavin had plenty of motive to arrange her death.
I yearned to talk to Jonathan. He′d know instinctively whether there was any real cause for suspicion about Jana′s husband. Probably he′d tell me not to worry about it-that Luke was a great cop, and that the evidence would steer the investigation.
Before trying Jonathan, I put in a call to Evelyn and told her what had happened.
As soon as she recovered from the immediate shock about Jana′s murder, Evelyn promised to call our friends in the Durham area to give them the tragic news.
Except for Trish. I needed to call her myself.
During our last conversation, Jana had mentioned that she′d left her purse behind at Trish′s house on the night of the Newbodies meeting. I didn′t know whether she′d had a chance to reclaim the bag before the carjacking. It was a beat in the story that sounded off, like an engine misfiring a cylinder.
Evelyn, who′d put down the phone to print out her contact list, returned to the line.
″Oh, Kate,″ she said. ″Everyone in our group is going to be so incredibly devastated when they hear about Jana. And frightened.″
″By the carjacking, you mean?″
″By the fact that it′s happened again to our support group. Jana is the second member of the Newbodies to be killed.″