After answering a couple of student questions and deleting a handful of "irresistible" offers from e-companies, Lori moved on to more interesting things. She scanned the sketch she'd made and sent the picture to her old mentor at Michigan State. If Dr. Wirtz couldn't identify the pattern, probably nobody in the United States would be able to do so. Then she closed out her mail and looked up a couple of herpetological web sites. There were some close-ups of various monitor species, but none of them seemed to have the pattern she was looking for. She glowered at the screen while gnawing on the cap of a pen. What the hell was it?
Lost in her thoughts, Lori never heard her door open wider, or the sound of sneakered feet creeping up behind her. When a pair of warm hands covered her eyes from b
