There Was an Old Woman

by Hallie Ephron

  As Connor went on, Evie watched Mrs. Yetner. She sat in her chair, her hand to her mouth, her head nodding ever so slightly as she listened. This, Evie thought, was what healing looked like. She understood now that this exhibit, her idea from start to finish, was her way of taking her anger and fear and putting them in a safe place, the way Mrs. Yetner had set her melted souvenir of the Empire State Building on the marble mantel and gotten on with her life.

  “And now I’d like to introduce you to Evie Ferrante, who conceived this installation and assembled this compelling story.” Connor gestured to Evie to join him.

  Evie squeezed Ginger’s hand and started up to the dais, the crowd parting for her. She walked past Connor to the microphone. She looked out at the crowd. “Fire,” she began, “has shaped this city and changed the lives of so many people in it. When I was a little girl, it changed mine.”

  About the Author

  HALLIE EPHRON is the award-winning author of Never Tell a Lie and Come and Find Me and the mystery reviewer for the Boston Globe. She lives near Boston, Massachusetts.

  Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.

  Also by Hallie Ephron

  Fiction

  Never Tell a Lie

  Come and Find Me

  Nonfiction

  The Bibliophile’s Devotional

  1001 Books for Every Mood

  Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel

  Credits

  Cover design by Mumtaz Mustafa

  Cover photograph © by Nikki Smith / Arcangel Images

  Copyright

  This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  THERE WAS AN OLD WOMAN. Copyright © 2013 by Hallie Ephron. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  FIRST EDITION

  * * *

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Ephron, Hallie.

  There was an old woman : a novel of suspense / Hallie Ephron. — 1st ed.

  p. cm.

  ISBN 978-0-06-211760-1 (hardcover)—ISBN 978-0-06-211761-8 (pbk.)—ISBN 978-0-06-211762-5 (ebook) 1. Psychological fiction. 2. Suspense fiction. I. Title.

  PS3605.P49T47 2013

  813'.6—dc23

  2012027410

  * * *

  EPub Edition © FEBRUARY 2013 ISBN: 9780062117625

  13 14 15 16 17 OV/RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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