'How do I know this isn't some kind of, of, arrangement? That he's a policeman?'

'If you would like, you could call the Santa Monica Police Department on your own. I'll give you the area code, you can get the number from informationand they will transfer you to Lieutenant Wyatt.'

'Oh, God. Okay, I'll call Santa Monica.'

'Wait five minutes,' Anna said. 'I've got to tell Lieutenant Wyatt that you'll be calling.'

Anna gave the woman the area code for Santa Monica, rang off, said to Harper, 'I think he's the one, all right, Steve Judge,' and punched in the Santa Monica police department number. A woman answered, and Anna told her that she needed to speak to Wyatt immediately, and spent a minute filling the woman in. She rang off again and Harper said, 'I've got a bad feeling about this.'

She said, 'Jake, I know you do. But he's probably in Pasadena, anyway. This is just something that we can cover better than the cops could. If the cops even decide to go up to the ranch, it'll take them three or four hours to get a SWAT team over there. trying to talk to Ventura, trying to figure out where it is and how to get there. They'll have to get maps and all that stuff. There's no way Pam'll get out alive: he's nuts, he's itching to kill her. There's no way they'll even find him, until it's too late. And if he gets out, where's the evidence that he was even there?'

'There'd be some prints in your car, his behavior.'

'But that won't get Pam out.'

The phone rang in her lap and she picked it up, ready to switch it on, already hearing Wyatt's voice, when Harper swatted it out of her hand. 'No, no,' he said urgently. 'What if it's him?'

But there was no second ring. Then five seconds later, it rang again. She didn't wait for the third time, but said, 'Hello?'

Wyatt said, 'You were supposed to wait for the third ring.'

'No time,' Anna said.

'What's happening? Where are you?'

'We're running up to Ventura to check on something. just in case,' Anna said. 'Listen, a woman's going to call you from a place called Cut Canyon Ranch, up in Oregon.'

She explained the circumstances, and Wyatt said, 'You think they did something weird with the call?'

'It's not weird, if you're wired right,' Anna said. 'You just push a button. No big deal. But if they were faking it, then there's a lot better chance that he's the guy.'

'All right, I'll talk to her.'

'Are you heading for Pasadena?'

'We're on the way, but we're still getting people together.'

'Good luck. And gimme your number.'

Wyatt dictated a number; Anna rang off and said to Harper, 'Still getting people together. Damn, damn, damn, there's no time for that.'

Anna sat in the car while Harper ran inside his house. He was back a minute later, carrying a short rifle, fumbling with a box of shells. 'Gimme,' Anna said. 'You drive, I'll load.'

'You know how?'

'I can figure it out.'

'Just feed them in the bottom, there's a release just in front of the trigger guard.'

'Think it's enough gun?' Anna asked, looking at the magazine mechanism.

'It's an old Ruger forty-four,' Harper said. 'It'll do the job.'

They slewed out the end of his driveway, Jake driving with both hands as Anna fed the short fat shells into the rifle. The rifle was short, with a smooth walnut stock: comfortable. And then the phone rang. Once, twice, three times: not Wyatt.

Anna passed it to Jake, who listened, said, 'She's not here. Yeah, but she just left it in the car. Who is this? Well, probably about a half hour, I'm on my way to pick her up. Okay. Message from Pam. Do you have a number? Okay. Yeah, half an hour, you know, give or take.'

He rang off, looked at Anna and nodded: 'Message from Pam.'

'That was him.'

'Yeah. No number.'

'Shoot.'

'Call Wyatt, tell him, see if they got a record of it.'

Anna nodded, but asked, 'How long to the ranch, do you think?'

He glanced at the car clock, then said, 'Half an hour, maybe.'

'Got to be a few minutes faster than that,' Anna said.

He nodded, and Anna took the phone to call Wyatt. But as she was about to punch in the number, it rang again. 'Give it to me,' Harper said. Anna handed it to him.

'Hello? Hello?' He shook his head, clicked off, handed it back. 'Check up call,' he said. 'He was calling to see if the phone was busy. To see if we turned right around to call somebody.'

'No dummy,' Anna said.

'Crazy as a loon, but not stupid,' Harper said.

'Drive faster,' Anna said. She sat with the gun upright, the butt of the little gun resting on the seat between her thighs, looking out the window.

'Most likely a wild-goose chase,' Harper said.

'Most likely,' she said.

She waited another minute, then tapped Wyatt's phone number in. 'Yeah?'

'We just got a call from the guy, within the last minute or so, if you're doing a trace.'

'Nothing's working, but I'll check,' he said. 'The woman from Oregon called: you were set up. He was somewhere down here when you called for him.'

'All right. We're building a picture, and he fits,' Anna said.

'Better'n that. I just talked. Jesus watch out.' Wyatt broke away, speaking to somebody else. 'Just missed a goddamn truck by about an inch,' he said, talking to Anna again. 'Listen, a woman named Daly called about three minutes after the Oregon woman, wanted to know what was going on. She said you screwed them on that animal rights protest, and you might be out to frame Judge for some reason.'

'Bullshit.'

'Yeah, I know. Anyway, I asked her when she'd last seen him, and she said she saw him this morning. And I asked if he showed any signs of injury from a fight.'

'His cheek,' Anna said, remembering the fight in the parking lot.

'Exactly,' Wyatt said. 'She said there was something wrong with his cheek and she looked at it and he got madshe said there was a bruise covered with makeup. He told her he'd been bitten by a cat that he supposedly was trying to pick up.'

'Goddamn, he's the guy,' Anna said.

'He looks good: and we're getting some people together up in Ventura, heading out to that ranch. We'll be ready in a couple of hours.'

'Right,' Anna said. She pulled her face back from the phone, and started rubbing her hand across the mouthpiece. 'We're on the way there, now. If you don't get something from Pasadena.'

'Anna, you're breaking up.'

'Can't hear you,' Anna said, blocking most of what she said with her fingers. 'Can't.'

She punched the 'end' button: she would not be told at this point to wait for a few hours.

'What?' Harper asked.

'He's the guy,' Anna said.

'But he might not be at the ranch.'

'Oh, he's there,' Anna said. 'He's there, all right. I can smell him.'

She bared her teeth, and Harper stared at her for a second, then jerked his eyes back to the dark road. Anna felt like she did on those nights when she and the crew were really operating, when everything was turning in their favor: like the night of the raid, and Jacob's leap. She was on, and she could feel the attraction of the ranch.

The ranch was pulling her in.