I agree with everyone else that Koko should have come along to help investigate. Would Chief Brodie have told Qwill that Susan Exbridge was shot and apparently execution style? It always seemed that Chief Brodie kept a lot of information close to the chest, or whatever that expression is. LOL! I always mess up expressions! Whatever happened to Don Exbridge? Did he end up in jail? Again, I can't remember.

When Qwilleran and Laura got back to their new house, it was dark. Qwill jumped out of the car first and unlovkrf yhr backdoor, turning on the outdoor light for Laura. He intended to return to the car and open the car door for her, but what he saw when he opened the door was a surpirse. The entire kitchen was swathed in paper towels. Over the counters, around the appliances, down the hallway and into the living room were 50 yards of paper toweling. He turned as Laura got the the back door threshhold, and with a face that echoed shock, said You cats! Hold on Laura, the cats have a surprise for us, though he thought, Koko may have taken care of this piece of art all by himself. Koko screamed a very loud, Yowwwwwwwww from atop the refrigerator and looked quite pleased with himself. Christie barked from her crate, and Yum yum was no where to be seen.

Laura smiled and started cleaning up the mess. No, said Qwill, I will get it. Nonsense, I will help you said Laura. They both cleaned up the mess and Yumyum finally came in the kitchen for her dinner, with a guilty look on her face. Qwill picked her up and said, I know you did not do this my little sweetheart, and stroked her head as she purred. Koko just sat up on the refrigerator and squeezed his eyes closed.

I will try.

The next morning Qwill was greeted early by a fully dressed, ready to go to work Laura. Well, where are you going so early, dear? I am sorry Qwill, I just can't stand it. I know I am going to retire, but I have to see this last case to closure. I am going to forgo my month off and go back to work to finish this case. Laura, he said, putting a hand on either of her arms and pulling her to him, I understand. I myself is curious about Susan's death. Execution style, indicates professionals. This may be much more far reaching than we ever imagined. Professional drug cartels may be involved. Thank you for understanding Qwill. As she got ready to go, he added, I will treat you out to eat for dinner when you get home, your choice. After she left, he quickly put on his clothes, and walked downtown to the newspaper office. He had taken a month long sabatical for the wedding, from his twice weekly column, and had no copy to hand in to Junior Goodwinter, youngest managing editor in the state.

anne, don't forget Laura is an artist and used to spending hours a day in her studio with tv and radio and in one of my posts, Qwill asked Laura how she would feel if he had lunch with Hixie or Fran and she replied that as long as he was committed to her she was fine with it. Laura is not a jealous person and I think she has faith in Qwill. That's why I had her studio on the second floor so the tv or stereo wouldn't bother him in his den. You're doing fine, keep going.

Anne, I am enjoying this storyline and your Zoe storyline. Perhaps you could have Laura take a business trip for a couple weeks, so Qwill acts a little more like his old self. We all need to know what happened to Susan Exbridge!

Qwill was awake but still in bed, he could hear Laura feeding the cats and Christie in the kitchen. As he lay there he mulled over the mystery of Susan's death. Laura entered and said, hey lazybones, what are you doing today? I'm thinking about breakfast at Lois's and then...Laura interupted and said, why don't we take Koko out to the crime scene and let him snoop around, Brodie won't mind, in fact, he'd probably welcome it. Okay, said Qwill, why don't we meet at the station about 11:00? Great, I've got to go to the Art Center for awhile and catch up. They went their separate ways and Qwill was enjoying his eggs and listening to what everyone was saying at the luncheonette. Did ya hear, Susan Exbridge shot, they found her body. Yeah, looks like she never left. Wonder what that's all about? Hey, Mr. Q, you gonna get that cat of yours on the trail of the killer, ha,ha. Qwill turned to them and said, sure, he already has his badge and Brodie is thinking about issueing him a gun. They all laughed and Qwill went back to his paper. He should have remembered to read the Times, when he did that they left him alone, but today he was purveying the Lockmaster Ledger. Later he went to the bookstore and was in Edd's old book section when Judd came up to him. How are you Qwill, Judd asked? Fine, he replied, just out and about. What do you think about the Exbridge murder, Judd asked? It's a shocker and a mystery, replied Qwill

Qwill hopped in his SUV and rode out to the state highway to where the roadblock was supposed to be. When he got near, an ambulance from the Pickax hospital came up behind him and passed him with the siren on. Qwill parked on the side of the road and walked over to where a crowd had gathered, police cars, ambulance, wrecker truck from Gibble's garage and several unmarked cars. Before he had time to look for Laura, Brody walked over to him and said, Qwill, Laura is in the ambulance. She had been shot. Qwill felt his heart skip a beat and he ran for the ambulance. Laura was in the back hooked up to monitors and being worked on by doctors. He jumped in and rode with her to the hospital. It appeared she was not concious.

No, No , No don't you dare kill off Laura

Anne, don't scare me like that! Call me a hopeless romantic, but I am enjoying Qwill being married. Thank you for not killing off Laura! I appreciate that, and I am looking forward to seeing how you solve Susan Exbridge's murder. No doubt, it will be entertaining and filled with a few twists and surprises!

Susan, I am glad you had a sense of humor about that. It is hard to translate humor when typing in a forum. Keep writing! Anne