Chapter 1
Nothing’s lonelier than sitting alone at work on Christmas Eve.
Through the window, Diane Stumbaugh watched a few half-hearted snowflakes blowing around in the light from the parking lot streetlamp. The road outside was deserted. The last airplane of the night had landed two hours ago at the little regional airport across the way. The lobby of the emergency vet clinic was silent, except for her own breathing. Even the kennels, usually full of barking and yowling animals, were empty for a change.
Her only company was a row of chairs, chrome and black vinyl sentinels guarding the sunny linoleum floor and eggshell walls. A bowl of miniature Reese’s Cup trees sat in a bowl on the counter, lonely and sad. Posters of dog and cat breeds, parrots with (not really) funny speech balloon
