Later that day Billy and Charlie had spilled the beans to Ace and Eyeball about Ray Brower's body. Laura was with Ace at Irby's Billiards when he suddenly told her he was in the mood for fishing and he'd be back later in the afternoon. He told her to stay with a friend until he came to pick her up from the hospital where her mother worked.
Laura was surprised, she didn't know Ace liked fishing, but she had only been dating him a few months she supposed she couldn't know everything about him.
Half an hour later he dropped her out the front of Connie Palermo's house.
"Don't go anywhere by yourself today Laura," he ordered her.
She agreed unquestioningly.
"Why don't you just bring her along?" Eyeball asked as Laura entered the house.
Ace had told her his suspicions for who had been in her house last night and Eyeball knew how protective Ace was of her.
"Because I don't want her seeing a dead body," he said, a slight touch of aggression in his calm demeanour.
Eyeball wisely decided to let the subject drop.
Connie was surprised yet thrilled to see Laura standing at her door and let her in without hesitation. The two girls hadn't been seeing a lot of each other lately, although despite his complaints Billy was still dating her.
They passed the day away catching up with each others lives. Connie was surprised at the way Laura talked about Ace. She hadn't thought him capable of caring about anyone but Laura was clearly very happy and thought the world of him, so Connie was happy for her friend. She even began to envy their relationship slightly. She doubted that Billy cared so strongly for her.
When Laura bought up what happened the night before Connie was shocked. She had never heard of anybody being broken into in Castle Rock.
"Did they take anything?" Connie asked.
"Nothing, I noticed. Ace doesn't think they were after anything in particular."
"How strange, oh you poor girl you must have been so frightened."
Connie leant over to give her friend a squeeze.
"Was your mother home?"
"No she had to work."
"What? You were all alone."
"Not exactly," Laura coloured slightly, "when I heard noises I ran away as far as I could and then I started looking for Ace."
"Did you find him?"
"Yeah, he spent the night at my house."
Laura didn't want to tell her super religious friend they had shared a bed.
"Laura how sinful," Connie teased, elbowing her playfully in the ribs.
Despite Ace warning her not to go anywhere alone Laura began walking to the hospital by herself. Connie had to go and see her grandmother and so was unable to join her. It was only two streets, Laura reasoned. Surely Ace wouldn't mind too much.
She felt uneasy as she walked, like somebody was watching her. She supposed she was still a little shaken from last night.
Then she felt a hand on her shoulder.
"Hello Laura," came a familiar voice.
She spun around and shrieked.