Shewasafraid her line was tapped.

And her husband was second in command atTarrenTech.

"Tell you what," he said. "I have a couple of errands to run in the village. If you're going to be down there, maybe we could have a cup of coffee."

Sharon felt almost weak with relief. He'd understood and gone along with her. "As a matter of fact, I do have some shopping to do," she said. "Shall we say half an hour?"

"Sounds good,"MacCallum replied. He hung up the phone, sat pensively at the desk for a moment, then headed toward the main doors. As he passed the admissions desk, Susan Aldrich glanced up at him curiously. "Since when do you take the afternoon off?"

MacCallumgrinned. "Since that phone call," he told her. "It seems like we might just have a chink in the great wall of security aroundTarrenTech."

Jerry Harris's private intercom buzzed discreetly and he immediately picked up the receiver that would connect him directly with the security office in the basement. "Harris. What's up?"

"Might be nothing," the voice at the other end replied. "But Mrs. Tanner's been on the phone a lot the last couple of days, trying to find CharlotteLaConner. And now she's set up a meeting withMacCallum."

Harris frowned thoughtfully. "Okay," he said after a few seconds of silence. "I want that meeting monitored, and I want to know what happens right away." Knowing his orders would be obeyed without question, he put the receiver back on its cradle and returned to the file he'd been studying.

It was a complete report of the experimental procedures Martin Ames had implemented in the case of Mark Tanner.

Sharon nearly took the car to the village that afternoon, but changed her mind at the last minute. She knew it was stupid-knew she was once more giving in to the same kind of paranoid thoughts that had made her wonder if her phone were tapped. Still, better to look as if she had nothing more on her mind than a leisurely walk to the store. She pulled the collapsible shopping cart out of the broom closet, struggled with it for a moment before it suddenly expanded in her hands, its wire bottom falling into place, then went to the hall closet and pulled out her parka. Only when she was ready to leave the house did she finally go to the freezer and pick up the small package containing the dead animals she'd brought home fromTarrenTech. Her stomach feeling vaguely queasy at the knowledge of what the little package contained, she carefully tucked it into the bottom of her large carryall, then slung the bag itself over her shoulder. At last, awkwardly pulling the little cart behind her, she went out the back door and up the driveway to the street.

It was a chilly afternoon, but the sky was clear, a deep cobalt-blue dome over the valley which made it seem as if Silverdale had been cut off from the rest of the world and was now accessible only to those few people fortunate enough to live here.

Except that every day the perfection of the village had felt more and more claustrophobic to Sharon. Eventually she had come to believe that one way or another, nearly all the people in Silverdale were living lives that were as artificially decorated and as carefully planned as the community that housed them.

She saw a few other women walking in the streets that afternoon, their shopping carts rolling along behind them like so many tiny cabooses. Sharon nodded to the ones she didn't recognize, spoke to the ones she did.

As she walked, she had to force herself not to look back to see if she were being followed.

By the time she got to the village, she was beginning to feel a bit foolish about the whole thing, but still, the knowledge of what was in her bag-and the changes that had taken place in Mark-kept her wary. Even as she recognized MacMacCallum lounging on one of the benches on the boardwalk that connected the shops, she hesitated, her eyes scanning the area for anything suspicious. She chuckled hollowly to herself as she realized ruefully that she wasn't even certain what she should consider suspicious and what she shouldn't. At last, striding purposefully, she approachedMacCallum.

He stood up as she drew near, his eyes crinkling as he cocked his head slightly. "Sounds like you've got some kind of mystery on your hands," he said, his voice dropping so that, though Sharon could hear him clearly, she doubted that anyone else in the area would overhear him at all.

"I-I don't know," she stammered. She nodded toward the small park across the street. Surrounded by the neat white picket fences that were so prevalent in the village, its gardens were deserted this afternoon except for a small black and white dog sniffing around the playground at the north end. "Why don't we go over there?"

MacCallumnodded his assent and the two of them crossed the street, then moved into the park itself.

"What's going on?"MacCallum asked. "And you might start by telling me why you think your phone is tapped."

Sharon flinched. "Was it that obvious?" She couldn't resist glancing around now, but the park was still empty, and the few people on the sidewalk seemed oblivious to their presence. "Well, ifitis tapped, I suppose I was as obvious to whoever was listening as I was to you." Then, settling onto a bench in the center of the park, she began explaining everything that had been happening, from her worries about CharlotteLaConner to her ill-defined concerns about Mark. "I suppose it sounds kind of nutty, doesn't it?" she asked when she was finished.

Almost to her surprise,MacCallum shook his head. "It sounds like what you're postulating is some kind of conspiracy, withTarrenTech right smack in the middle of it all."

Sharon bit her lip and nodded. "But that's crazy, isn't it?"

MacCallumtook a deep breath. "Maybe it is," he conceded. "But on the other hand, if you're not part ofTarrenTech, sometimes this place looks pretty weird." He glanced sharply at Sharon out of the corner of his eye, but her face betrayed no trace of defensiveness. He smiled wryly at her. "Or maybe you don't think it's strange that even in a company town like this,TarrenTech either supports or runseverything.Everything. The schools, the town council, the library, even Rocky Mountain High."

"And the hospital?" Sharon asked, her heart suddenly skipping a beat. To her relief,MacCallum shook his head.

"We're county. Completely independent, although even that isn't byTarrenTech's choice. In fact, they offered to buy the hospital from the county a few years back. Claimed they could run it more cheaply and efficiently than the county. Unfortunately for them," he went on, making no attempt to keep his sarcasm and anger towardTarrenTech out of his voice, "all of us aren't quite as thrilled to haveTarrenTech here as the company thinks we ought to be, and the county didn't see it quite the company's way. They had the idea that a public hospital should be run by the public, and wouldn't knuckle under to Thornton." His lips curled into a wry grin. "So anyway, if you think there's some kind of conspiracy going on, I won't argue with you. This whole place has always been a little too perfect for my tastes. In fact, I was very happy with it the way it used to be. Anyway, the whole thing smells bad to me." He fell silent for a moment, then went on. "I assume you know all about Ricardo Ramirez?"

Sharon nodded.

"Well, if you ask me,TarrenTech wouldn't have been so antsy to avoid any kind of legal action on Maria's part if they didn't have something to hide. I'm afraid I just don't believe in that much corporate altruism. Which, I have to confess, is one of the reasons I'm here this morning." He looked at her pointedly now. "I'm assuming you know something you haven't told me about yet."

Sharon was silent for a few moments, making up her mind whether to trust him or not. But of course, she had no choice. Finally she nodded, reaching down to pull the small white package out of the bottom of her purse. "I-I found these out atTarrenTech the other day," she said, her voice dropping so lowMacCallum could barely hear her. "They were in a box marked for incineration, and when I had a chance, I just-well, I just took them."