MARY: Speaking of sleuthing, don't you feel that the murder rate is rather high for a town the size of Alpine?
EMMA: You mean since I arrived? I have to admit, sometimes I feel like a one-woman crime wave. But, in fact, the murder rate has risen in smaller communities over the past few years. People are increasingly transient, communication is so much faster, and while small town residents didn't used to feel the same pressures as city dwellers, that's changing quite rapidly. Also, historically, Alpine has been a lumber town. It's a rough, dangerous way to make a living. Life and death in the woods goes back five or six generations. Violence is no stranger here.
MARY: Let's get personal, Emma. Do you ever see yourself married to Tom Cavanaugh? Or do you ever see yourself married, perio d?
EMMA: That's a toughie. I've thought and thought about it, and I can't come up with a straight answer. I love Tom. I've tried not to, but you can't simply tell love to go away. I realize that maybe it's not a healthy attitude. There are practical considerations, too. I can't quite envision Tom living in Alpine. On the other hand, I can't imagine giving up The Advocate. Maybe what I'm really saying is that I've put my career between us, though that sounds horrid to me. I mean, newspapers are a dying breed. Ten years from now, there may be no Advocate. In fact, there's a radio station starting up in town. How will that affect us? Again, I don't have any cut-and-dried answers.
MARY: What will you do if Vida Runkel, your House and Home editor, ever retires?
EMMA: I can't even think about that! An Advocate without Vida would be like Alpine with no mountains. But I don't think she ever will—she's strong as a horse, and she couldn't bear not to be involved with the paper. If printer's ink runs through my veins, curiosity runs through Vida's. I'm not sure she needs a rationale to snoop, but as long as she's on the staff, she has an excuse.
MARY: One last question—do you think that you and Milo Dodge can ever be real friends again?
EMMA: I hope so. I actually love Milo, but not necessarily in a romantic way. I suppose I've always felt he's rather limited as a person. That's not fair—who isn't limited? But now that I see him in a new relationship, I must admit I feel jealous. Maybe annoyed is a better word. Or perhaps I worry about him. He's kind of vulnerable, and I don't want to see him hurt. I already did that to him, and he doesn't deserve another unappreciative woman. I do wonder, if there had never been a Tom Cavanaugh, would there have been an Emma Dodge? But that's speculation, one of the things I am good at.
MARY: Well, keep your spirits up, Emma. And thank you for the insights.
EMMA: I'm the one who should be thanking you
A Fawcett Book
Published by The Ballantine Publishing Group
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by The Ballantine Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York
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Library of Congress Card Number: 00-103093
eISBN: 978-0-307-55430-7
v3.0
Table of Contents
Cover
Other Books By This Author
Title Page
Chapter One
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Copyright