Candy nodded, feeling slightly better. “That sounds acceptable.”

“Just give me a holler if you need anything. I’ll be around. Oh, and I’m having new business cards made up for you. They should be ready in a few days. In the meantime, you can use some of the generic cards we have floating around here. There might be some in Sapphire’s desk. If not, let me know and I’ll scrounge some up for you.”

Even with directions from Ben, it took Candy and Maggie more than five minutes to find Sapphire’s office in the rabbit warren of hallways and offices, which the Crier shared with a web-hosting company and a local quarterly real-estate publication. They made two wrong turns, winding up in a broom closet the first time and at a brick wall the next. But finally they opened a door and entered what had, until recently, been Sapphire Vine’s exclusive domain.

Maggie was thrilled with what she saw. “It’s just as I always dreamed it would be,” she said breathlessly. “This proves that she was a really, really twisted person.”

“Remember, you’re speaking of the dead,” Candy cautioned as she stood uneasily by the doorway.

Maggie ignored her. “Look, she has kitties on the walls! And look at all these cute little notes she wrote to herself! It’s all so wonderful!”

But while Maggie was thrilled with the unexpected treasures she found, Candy felt just the opposite. She swore she could feel Sapphire’s ghost inhabiting the place-and it wasn’t a happy ghost.

“I can’t work in here,” she said suddenly.

“Well, I agree, it is a bit dreary,” Maggie said, looking around. “It could use some sprucing up, maybe better artwork, and it needs a fresh coat of paint. That would help a lot. A nice eggshell, maybe? Or a soft mauve?”

“That won’t work.”

“Some new furniture?”

“Nope.”

“Flowers? Doilies? I could stencil a nice design around the walls for you.”

Candy shook her head.

“Well, what do you want to do then?”

Candy motioned to the computer. “Ben said there were some past columns on there. I’ll pull them off and put them on a disk. And I’ll dig around and grab some files, haul everything back home, and work from there. Maybe Ben can find another office for me in the next week or so.”

Maggie sighed. “Okay, if that’s really what you want to do, I’ll help you, but it sure seems like a wasted opportunity to me.”

They set to work, but Maggie couldn’t stay long-she had to head back to work at one thirty. Forty-five minutes later, Candy had assembled everything she thought she’d need, including many of the files from the cabinet, notebooks with scribbled messages, stacks of newspapers with Sapphire’s past printed columns in them, a handful of generic business cards, assorted business cards of individuals and companies around town that might serve as story leads, a well-thumbed address book, and copies of some of Sapphire’s e-mails she had printed out for later viewing.

She shut down the computer, loaded everything into two battered old banker’s storage boxes she had pulled out of the back of a closet, carried them down to the Jeep, then stopped back in to see Ben.

“We’ll work it out,” Ben said optimistically after she had explained everything to him. “Don’t worry about it for now. Just work on your column, and keep in touch. I’m here if you need anything. And I’ll find you another place to work. At the very least, I’ll move you in with someone else temporarily.”

She flashed him a smile. “Thanks for understanding. Sorry to be so childish about this whole thing.”

He waved a hand at her. “Don’t even think about it. I understand completely. Besides, like I said, you’re doing me a favor, right?”

“Right. Thanks, Ben,” she said as she headed out the door. “You’re a doll.”

And she meant it.

TWENTY-ONE

Candy stopped back at Duffy’s to pick up Doc, who had finished his game of pool and was back in the corner booth with the boys, and together they drove home. Before she unloaded the Jeep, she checked on the girls, who seemed as happy as ever. She gave them a few cupfuls of cracked corn and egg-laying pellets, freshened their water, gathered their eggs, and laid some clean straw in their roosts.

Then she carried one of the boxes filled with Sapphire’s papers and files into the house.

“What’s that?” Doc asked as he opened a bottle of beer, a good local brand called Thunder Hole Ale, brewed in Bar Harbor.

“Homework,” Candy said as she dropped the box onto the kitchen table.

“Got more in the Jeep? Want me to grab them?”

“One more. That would be great.”

“Coming right up,” Doc said, setting his beer aside as he walked out to the Jeep and retrieved the other box.

“What’s in here anyway?” he asked as he set the second box down on the table, beside the first.

“Sapphire Vine’s old papers, notes, and files. Ben thought it might help if I went through them, so I could see what kind of research she’d done-formatting, contacts, that sort of thing.”

“Well, you’ve got pretty big shoes to fill. Her columns were mighty popular, you know.” Doc at least had the good sense to add after a few moments, “But I’m sure yours will be just as good.”

She gave him a sideways smirk. “Yeah, right, thanks for the vote of confidence.”

“Hey, let me know if you need any help. I’ve got some experience as a wordsmith. And not just that ancient history stuff I’ve been working on. I’ve written about modern topics, for newspapers and magazines. They don’t give full professorships to monkeys, you know. You have to be published.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, Bonzo.”

“Hey, I heard that!” Doc called as he walked into the living room, flicked on the TV, and settled himself in to watch Ellen.

Candy sat at the kitchen table, unloaded both boxes, and started sifting through the files. Most contained worthless stuff-nothing much she could use. She tossed those files onto a discard pile on one side of the table.

A few files contained some notes and interesting stories that might be helpful in the future. Candy set those aside, intending to start her own filing system.

Then there were a few that confused her. Most of the files were labeled on their front tabs with names or subjects-not much guessing was required to figure out what was in them. But she found a handful of files-fewer than a dozen-that had no labels or names on them, and no indication of what was inside.

One, for instance, had the mysterious nomenclature BAK1946 printed in Sapphire’s childish letters on the inside front cover. It contained only a few e-mails, which Sapphire had printed out.

“We must come to an agreement about this, or else,” read one of the e-mails, one that had been sent by Sapphire. A rather threatening comment, Candy thought. Underneath that line, and indented a few spaces, was the message Sapphire had replied to. It read, “I’ve asked you not to contact me about this again. I cannot help you.”

Candy’s brow furrowed in thought. Whatever message from Sapphire this mysterious person had replied to had been deleted.

She flipped back through the other pages in the file. There were a few copies of printed e-mails with messages similar to the first one. Sapphire’s notes and tone grew increasingly threatening, and the unnamed person who replied grew increasingly reticent to do whatever it was she was asking. But there was no indication of the name of the person Sapphire had been exchanging e-mails with, or even the person’s gender.

There wasn’t much more in the file. A photocopy of an aged black-and-white photograph, showing a mother with a young child sitting on her lap. A yellowed newspaper clipping in German, which Candy couldn’t read. A few notes that made no sense.

German?

Candy looked back at the inside front cover.