(Author's Note: My apologies for the long delay in updating. Real life and a bad case of writer's block has kept me from continuing the story. But now I've pushed my way through the wall and am ready to continue. Thanks to my best fan for pushing me along. This will be a short chapter, and only a little cliffhanger, but will open the door for me to lead to the conclusion, which I already have planned out in my head. So hopefully the next update will be much faster!)

The door to *Mother Mildred's Boarding House* opened quietly and Steele slipped in, keeping a hand on the door to keep it propped open. Standing just inside the doorway, he looked around the oddly decorated room and frowned, trying to determine why it felt so familiar. The majority of the room was a Victorian style parlor with a fireplace and sitting area, and a curtain blocked off one portion of the room. With a flash, he remembered Minor Descoine's apartment when he and Laura first met her, and realized it was the same furniture, in a slightly different layout to fit the room. On every flat surface, there were picture frames. With a sick feeling growing in his stomach, he let go of the door and reached for the first frame. It showed Laura at the dressmaker's getting fitted for her wedding dress. Setting it down, he picked up another frame and found a picture of himself and Monroe sitting in the bar they had visited for their attempt at a bachelor's party. *They'd been followed again, in ignorant bliss while they prepared for their wedding.* He walked around the room, looking at the pictures and realized they probably went back about 6 months or so. There was even a copy of their wedding photo on the fireplace mantle! The majority of them were taken after Christmas, when he and Laura had been so focused on getting their case load caught up with and making wedding preparations.

He glanced over to the corner of the room, and remembered that in the other apartment, that is where Minor's bed was. He moved quietly over to the curtain and pulled it back with a jerk. Nothing there but a rusty metal bedframe with a mattress on it with new, clean sheets and a chest of drawers. As he moved towards the drawers, a hint of scent hit his nose, and he whirled towards the bed. *Laura's perfume* It was a special perfume from Ireland that he had gotten her as a wedding present, and she had worn it for the first time at the wedding. Leaning down he breathed deeply from the pillow and got a full breath of her scent. *She had been here! And recently too, or the scent would have faded more.*

He turned back to the chest of drawers and pulled open the first one, prepared to rifle through Minor's things, but found the first drawer to be empty except for two words painted on the bottom of the drawer. "Another Clue" Steele immediately shut the top drawer and pulled open the second, "You've made", then the third, "a", then the bottom drawer, "grave mistake." Just as the words in the bottom drawer registered in Steele's mind, white gas began to pour out of the knobs of the 4 drawers, right into his face. He recognized the scent as the same kind of knockout gas that had been in the limo. As he fell backwards onto the bed and lost consciousness, his last thought was *Bloody hell, Laura, I've let you down again.*

Laura was finding it harder to stay calm in the darkness of the box. She just had enough room that she could turn on her side, or roll over onto her stomach, so she spun around every once in awhile just to prevent cramping and to try to stay awake. It was impossible to have any sense of time in the darkness of her prison, so she had no idea if a few minutes or a few hours had passed. She had dozed off at least once already, which distorted her sense of time even more. The speaker box crackled to life and the giggly voice of Minor Descoine came through, "Oh Mrs. Steele, I'm so sorry to report that Mr. Steele appears to be sleeping on the job. He sure doesn't seem to be taking your rescue very seriously, now does he?" Her girlish giggle burst out of the speaker box and Laura covered her ears, unable to bear hearing it any more. *Sleeping? Did he fall and get knocked out? Did she succeed in killing him? Am I going to die here all alone in the dark?* It took every once of Laura's will power to remain calm, knowing that her air supply would run out faster if she allowed herself to panic. Just as she lowered her hands from her ears, Minor said, "Why don't you join him?" and gas came pouring out of the speaker. Laura tried to block it with her hands, but it didn't take long to fill the small space and she felt herself falling asleep. *Remington?* was her last thought. The sound of a pumping came on began, and the gas was pulled back out of the box and fresh air was sent in, all while Laura was unable to notice the refreshment of her air supply. "Sleep well, Mrs. Steele, the grand finale is about to commence." The speaker fell silent, and Laura lay limply in the box, hands still outstretched towards the speaker.

Remington felt himself slowly regaining consciousness and sat up on the bed, rubbing at his eyes. *I was a complete fool not to expect another one of her tricks* He got to his feet and stumbled towards the doorway, needing to see how much time he had lost while unconscious. The door was fortunately still open, and the fresh air coming through helped to shake the last of the cobwebs from his mind. Once he reached the street and glanced up at the steeple, the cobwebs disappeared in an instant. *2 hours? I only have 2 hours left?* He had been out for nearly a day, there were still several buildings to be searched and he had only two clues so far. "Lucky Laura" and "You've made a grave mistake." His eyes shot to the ground next to the church, and he saw a small cemetery surrounded by an iron fence next to it. *It couldn't possibly be that simple, could it?* He took off at a run for the gate to the cemetery, hoping he was right, and partially afraid he was right at the same time.