dea. Besides, she’s a raving beauty. What more could you ask of a new acquaintance. Beauty, brains, personality, a sense of humor and a wonderful person to boot.”

“You’re guaranteeing all this?” inquired Greg.

“I am!” was the quick reply.

“Well, in that case, and seeing I can’t needle you any more, Claire, let us see what day we might set that up for.” He hadn’t had one of his breakfasts for a while and the timing was right. “Looking at my calendar, the only day this week would be Friday. Do you have a problem with that?”

“Let me look. No, that would be fine,” said Claire. “I’ll call Serena and see if that will be okay with her.”

“Fine. Now seeing as this is your plot, what other actors do you want to include in the scene.”

“You make it sound nefarious,” sniffed Claire, but then she continued brightly. “Why don’t we see, if Mark can get away from the bank, Joan mentioned her case load was light, and Jim can usually get away in the morning, Penny can usually arrange to get away from her software company, and Christy’s PR workload is light right now, she told me.”

“That sounds good to me.” said Greg. “Let me know if it’s a go, and I’ll set up plans for breakfast at the Eagle’s Aerie for Friday morning. Eight o’clock sharp.

“I’ll get back to you as soon as possible, Greg, probably by tomorrow morning.”

“Fine,” said Greg. “If I’m not here, just leave a message. Talk to you later.”

During the years he lived in the area, he had made it a point to meet and become friendly with the people in the small town and the surrounding area. He also cultivated friendships within the two nearby college communities. The local universities had good, highly regarded science programs, and he established connections with these university departments. He even occasionally gave seminars in his fields.

The close knit group of friends, he described as a motley crew. His closest friends were a lawyer and his wife, a doctor of endocrinology. Next were a neurosurgeon and her husband, an accountant and financial adviser. There was a nuclear physicist (male) and a CEO of a computer software company (female), along with a bank president (male) and the manager of one of the local TV stations (male). Rounding out the group were Lynn