Chapter 61

“Oh my God,” the pool boy quipped at my side.

I called out at the top of the stairs to the lawman, “She’s my friend from Chicago! She’s not a burglar! In fact, she has a key to this place.”

I walked down the stairs and met the cop and Rose at the bottom. I fell to Rose’s side and placed her head on my lap, waved a hand in front of her face, attempting to bring her to. “It’s okay,” I said to the officer above me. “Everything’s fine. False alarm. There’s no emergency here. Rose came for an unexpected visit. She has her own key and must have used it, but she was quite noisy. I thought she was a burglar.” I then called up to the pool boy, “Tacoma, can you please help me with Danielle?”

He scampered down the stairs and sat down next to a Sleeping Beauty-like Rose Dublin and started caressing her fine auburn-red hair with short strokes.

I told the cop, “Thank you so much for coming and checking up on us, but really, this has just been a misunderstanding. Sorry to take up your time.”