I fully agree with all that has been said so far. This is a wonderful story Wendy, and I just had to comment on this:
Quote
Lois was dying. By this time tomorrow, she could be cold and still, laid out on some mortuary slab. Or on a pathologist’s table, being sliced open bit by bit so that medical science could discover what had killed her.
It is such a vivid and chilling image. Well done.

I can't wait to see how this develops. Will the villain turn out to be someone we have seen in the series? Someone completely new? Will the motive be related to a story Lois had worked on, or something from her personal life?

Eagerly looking forward to future parts.

"But my experience is that as soon as people are old enough to know better, they don't know anything at all."

-Oscar Wilde, "Lady Windermere's Fan"