The plain truth was that I was most likely worrying myself over nothing. Ben had told us that the local departments rarely used the freelancers. They were primarily there for the specialized photos just as Felicity had said. The only reason she’d had to go through the crime scene technician certification courses was to meet the requirements set forth by the city police department. What it really came down to was that the freelance program was really nothing more than a contingency plan born of an anal retentive bureaucracy.

So, as it stood, the likelihood of needing them was minimal, much less Felicity having her name drawn from the pool. Still, anyone can tell you that Murphy’s law will invoke itself without warning, and I just had a bad feeling that if her name was on the list, she was going to end up in the middle of something. What’s more, I feared that since she had been fully across the veil once, it would only take a single, highly charged experience to drag her under in an ethereal riptide. That was how it happened with me, so I had to figure it could happen with her-unless of course, I had any say in the matter.

And, that was the very reason why I was standing in our back yard on a chilly November morning, digging a hole in the rock garden.

It was cold enough to cause my breath to condense in rapidly dissipating clouds of steam yet still far enough above the freezing mark that the somewhat soggy ground was soft and easy to penetrate. My most laborious task so far had been moving the small boulder from the spot where I wanted to dig.

I had waited until I was certain Felicity was well on her way so that I would have ample time to complete my project. It was a task that was a long time coming. Something I’d started better than two years ago and now felt compelled to finish without delay.

I struck the point of the shovel into the hole with a repeated chopping motion, widening the small excavation to suit my purpose. I only stopped for a brief moment when my heart skipped a beat upon hearing our English setter and Australian cattle dog yelping at the gate. But, I immediately breathed a sigh of relief when I caught a glimpse of someone walking past the house on the sidewalk out front. For a frightening instant, I feared Felicity had returned too soon.