Jack had said the place had been marked, so she carefully dismounted and walked forward. There were hedges and grass verges along both sides of the la...e; but in one place, on the opposite side of lane to the cottages, there now stood an unmarked granite cross, about two feet high. Mariella touched her leather-gloved fingers to her lips and then placed them on the cross.Jack's cottage was the last of three in the lane, and sixty or seventy yards away, so she walked her horse there, past the. “Do you think you can do a little corporate back-checking for us? We need to get a clearer idea of who actually makes decisions that affect Liz. It sounded to me like there is a mid-level manager handling most of it. He has a staff that answers to him but I’m a little unsure of how much his superiors actually know about what he’s doing.”“Like Jennifer Clement,” Rick said. “So long as the budget stays in the black and we don’t wind up with no one to see the patients, St. Joseph’s board doesn’t. " John," Missy said as I drove away from her house, "that was amazing, embarrassing, sweet and unbelievable. Did you really mean everything you said in there John?"I gave her a big smile. "Absolutely, Missy. I don't have a bedpost."She didn't laugh like I expected, saying, "No, I'm serious, John. I need to know."I glanced at her, and pulled the car over to the side of the road and put it in park. I turned and took her hands in mine. "I meant every word I said, Missy," I told her. "I want to. Most of the other men look like carbon copies of Drake and Alvin and were are butch and scruffy. After erecting our tent, with little help from me, Drake and Alvin couldn’t wait to get to the lake so they could partake in their ridiculous pastime.I accompanied them but sat reading my book as they enthusiastically busied themselves. They did ask if I wanted to ‘give it a go,’ but by my pained expression they could tell that I was definitely not interested. About one hundred and fifty yards.