“Really? It’s interesting to know how television works, isn’t it?” Annette asked her colleagues enthusiastically.

Apparently the other women weren’t so impressed. “So what do we do now?” Jill, ignoring Bobby Valentine’s lecture, asked Josie the question.

“Let’s get to work out back,” Josie answered. “If that’s all right with you?” she asked the producer rather sarcastically.

Apparently he didn’t notice or care. “Whatever. I’m going to be in the trailer if anyone needs me. But, remember, no talking to the press!” With those parting words, he turned and left the house.

Jill leaped to her feet and, grabbing an imaginary microphone, said, “Please, no interviews! No interviews!”

Annette joined in, laughing and protesting to a crowd of imaginary paparazzi. “No pictures, please, no pictures!”

“Yeah, as though the press would be interested in the likes of us,” Dottie said.

“Well, let’s get to work,” Josie said, standing and stretching. “Courtney can do her thing and we’ll do ours.”

The women picked up their assorted tool belts and boxes and headed out of the house and toward the bay.

“Am I the only person who thinks it’s a little strange that Courtney has vanished?” Annette asked.

“Hey, she’s not a carpenter. She’s on-air talent. Probably thinks she can do anything she wants to do.” Dottie slung her heavy belt across her shoulder and followed Josie.

“Sure, but still…” That was Annette’s only comment. The intern was sitting on the dock, writing furiously in a spiral notebook. He jumped to his feet and brushed his too-long hair off his forehead. Annette unconsciously mimicked his movement, smiling nervously.

Josie grinned. “Why don’t you see if he… what is his name?… needs anything from us before we start work?”

“I’ll… Oh, you’re asking me to do it?” Annette was flustered by the suggestion.

“Yup.”

“Chad. His name is Chad Henshaw,” Annette said, hurrying down the path to the dock.

“An adolescent crush. Why do you encourage them?” Dottie asked rhetorically.

“I think they’re sweet,” Jill said.

“I do, too. And as long as Annette keeps working, I don’t see what harm it does,” Josie commented.

“God, you’re all romantic fools.” Dottie sneered. “Wake up and smell the coffee, as my dad used to say.”

“What I think is that they’re both young and a summertime romance is appropriate.”

Jill put down her toolbox and looked back at the house. No one could hear them. “Doesn’t anyone else think it’s strange that Courtney has disappeared? I mean, today that producer is acting like it’s normal, but yesterday he was real panicked when she wasn’t around. What happened to all that police interest? What happened to dredging the bay?”

“Heaven knows,” Josie answered slowly. What had happened to dredging the bay? “Listen, you all know what to do and I’d appreciate it if you’d go on without me. I left my phone in the truck. I need to make a few calls.”

“While you’re at it, you might give the lumberyard a nudge about the gutter they should have delivered last week,” Dottie reminded her.

“There’s always something. If it’s not a missing television personality, it’s a missing piece of gutter.” Josie sighed dramatically and started back to her truck. She was pleased to hear chuckling behind her. Courtney’s disappearance was making her nervous. And she was afraid she wasn’t the only one who felt like that. Dottie seemed to be affected and it didn’t surprise her. But she was surprised by how jumpy Jill seemed to be. Of course, Annette was in the midst of summer love. Josie grinned at the memory of Annette’s expression when Chad Henshaw appeared.

The police line was still protecting the work site, but Josie had been allowed to pass through this morning and her truck was parked behind the row of trailers queued at the curb. She grabbed her phone from under the seat and sat down on the runningboard to make her calls. The first one was not to the lumberyard. It was answered on the first ring.

“Sam! Thank heavens you’re there. Do you have a moment?”

Happily enough, he claimed to have as many as she needed.

“Sam, there isn’t any dredging going on! Do you know why? Well, could you find out? Well, I know, but… If you could just make a few calls. Maybe Basil knows something? No, she hasn’t shown up yet. Bobby Valentine says it’s normal. Apparently she’s disappeared like this before. Well, that’s what he claims. And he doesn’t want anyone to talk to the press. What do you think?”

She was silent for more than a few moments while he shared those thoughts with her. “Well, what I think-” She tried to interrupt, but he wasn’t finished.

The gist of Sam’s thoughts was that Josie should go on with her work and ignore anything having to do with Courtney Castle or her disappearance. And that she should be quiet concerning their mutual past.

She frowned and listened to his suggestions. But he wasn’t saying anything surprising and so her attention wandered… to a very interesting conversation that seemed to be taking place right behind her truck.

“… look, you’re not going to be able to keep it quiet forever,” a deep male voice was insisting.

“I’m not talking about forever. I’m talking about now. Right now.” The second speaker was also a man.

“What about her friends? Her family? Her masseuse? Her hairdresser? Her therapist? Won’t they all wonder where she’s gone?”

“Courtney is seeing a therapist?”

“I don’t know. I just assumed-”

“Just because someone is crazy doesn’t mean they’re doing something about it. But that’s not the point. We’ll just tell anyone who calls that she’s not available and that she’ll get back to them.”

“But what happens when she doesn’t?”

“Hey, anyone who knows Courtney knows that she doesn’t spend a whole lot of time worrying about other people. Her not returning a call is par for the course.”

“Yeah, I won’t argue with you about that. The promises she made us, you wouldn’t believe.”

“Oh, I’d believe it. I’d believe anything. She’s talent, remember.”

Josie was fairly sure the second speaker was Bobby Valentine. It sounded like the other was someone he trusted with his problems. She wished she knew who it was. But, more important, it was obvious that Bobby Valentine was more concerned with Courtney’s disappearance than he had claimed to be. Josie bit her lip and thought for a moment.

Sam was apparently waiting for a response to something he had said. “Josie?” his voice called out of the receiver.

“Sam. Shh!” she hissed back at him. “I’m listening.”

But the two men had either stopped talking or moved away. Josie got up cautiously and looked around. No one. Then she noticed an open window in the trailer. The voices could have come from inside; if so, the speakers might still be there.

“Hang on, Sam. I’m just going to go into the house and… get those specs you want.” Resisting the urge to look over her shoulder, she hurried up the sidewalk, chatting into the receiver as she went. “I’m going to the house. There’s no one around. Don’t hang up. I need to talk to you some more. Sam? Are you there? Sam?”

“I’m here, Josie. What’s going on? Are you in trouble? Is something wrong?”

“No. No. We’re… I’m… Everything’s fine. I’m in the house and… I don’t want…” She looked around. She was alone. “Sam, you’ll never guess what!” Without waiting for his response, she related the conversation she’d just overheard. “What do you think?”

“Nothing. It seems to me you don’t really have any new information. We knew yesterday that the people who worked with Courtney were shocked by her disappearance. It was just today that they regrouped and decided to present it to the world as a normal event.”

Josie was silent. “That’s true. But…” She paused. “Yeah, that is true,” she repeated slowly.

“Maybe it means nothing,” Sam said. “Or maybe it’s a problem, but it’s not your problem.”