Act I The card reader beeped once, and the word DECLINED appeared on the checkout screen. Sixty-seven-year-old Linda Mercer looked up at the customer in the gray…

Act I Ruth Bennett had dropped only four lottery tickets. She was already bending to pick them up when Evan Cole stopped behind her beneath the rain-speckled…

Act I The man in the brown leather jacket had barely looked at the soup before seventy-one-year-old Margaret Ellis realized she had served the wrong one. She…

Act I Evelyn Mercer was standing beside the adjustable recliner when the showroom manager decided she did not belong there. Warm display lights fell across leather sofas…

Act I The bouquet brushed the white suit for less than a second. Sixty-nine-year-old Helen Mercer had just stepped through the doorway of the little flower shop,…

Act I The washing machine had been jammed for less than four minutes when the customer decided Margaret Cole was the problem. She was seventy, working another…

Act I The ribbon was almost tied when the woman in the red coat decided she had waited long enough. Seventy-four-year-old Margaret Whitmore stood on the customer…

Act I The customer was still holding out his hand when Margaret Walker began counting the coins again. Dawn had barely reached the farmers market. Tomato crates…

Act I The boutique manager snatched the scarf away before the elderly woman had even lifted it fully from the display counter. At seventy-two, Evelyn Mercer looked…