Annie assumed that Nate had been able to explain his absence satisfactorily to Mrs. Voss, and she found herself going over the brief conversation, trying to remember just how he had looked and what he had said. She couldn’t help but chuckle when she thought of how dumbstruck he had seemed when he first saw her as Lizzie. He may have been angry, but he had seemed to find some amusement in the situation as well. This thought then led to memories of how he had teased her during the picnic lunch near Cliff House, and, before she knew it, the rest of her cleaning chores were done. By five o’clock, Wong had dinner preparations well in hand, and Annie was washing lettuce while he went upstairs to lay out clothes for Jeremy, on the off-chance he actually made it home for dinner on time. Annie had just finished drying the leaves when she heard the front doorbell peal impatiently. She thought she ought to go up to answer it in case Wong hadn’t heard it on the third floor. As a result, she was just coming through the green baize-covered doorway at the rear of the house when the policemen began to stream in through the front door.
