conference beginning in less than twenty minutes.
Her laptop was open on the desk in the upstairs bedroom she used as an office.
Her notes were arranged beside a glass of water.
Her headset sat next to the keyboard.
Everything was ready.
Except the room was becoming unbearably warm.
Susan opened the thermostat app on her phone.
The upstairs cooling zone had been manually disabled.
Again.
She stared at the screen.
Then she walked into the hallway.
Her mother-in-law, Margaret Whitmore, stood beside the thermostat.
Margaret was sixty-nine and had
