Dear Hannah,

Well, I made it to Shadow Ranch, but I'm afraid all is not well. The Rawleys, the people who own the ranch, have been called away on some kind of emergency. They had Dave Gregory (he's their foreman) pick me up at the airport. He gave me a phone number, told me to call the Rawleys at that number as soon as I got settled in, and refused to tell me anything else. In fact, he barely said two words to me the whole ride to the ranch!

What's worse, Bess and George aren't here yet, which is very strange, because even thought we had to take different flights, we figured we'd get into Phoenix at about the same time. Being here without them feels odd; after all, the Rawleys are their aunt and uncle, not mine. I wouldn't even be here if Bess and George hadn't begged them to invite me out to the ranch for two weeks, too.

Until about three months ago, the Rawley's owned a clothing store. Bess said it was always their dream to sell the store and buy a cattle ranch. I hope they're okay, but frankly, as beautiful as Shadow Ranch is...I'm starting to get a bad feeling about the place.

Love,
Nancy