"Y'all been calling my home, and my mother's home. Calling where

I work. I told you I wanted my privacy, but you won't give it. I got such sorrow in me, and I asked you to respect my grief. But you come 'round my house, my mama's, you call on the telephone. Say you want me to tell you what I got inside me, what I think, what I feel. And some of you? You offer me money to talk to you."

Questions boomed out. Didyou… Have you… How didyou… Opal's arm shook as if with a spasm as she turned those dark, sunken eyes on Phoebe. "Lieutenant MacNamara."

"Let's go back inside, Opal," Phoebe murmured. "I'll take you back inside, to your family."

"Stand here with me, please. Would you stand here with me so I can do this?"

Opal closed her eyes, then lifted her voice over the storm. "I've got something to say here, something to say for free, and you'll just hush if you want to hear it. My sons are dead."

In the silence that followed, Phoebe heard Opal's indrawn sob. "My boys are dead. Both killed. Guns and bullets took their bodies, but it was something else took 'em before that. They had no hope. They had a fever of anger and hate and blame, but no hope to cool it. I wish I could've given them that, but I couldn't get it into them.

"You want me to blame somebody. You want to see me point my finger, to scream and cry and curse. You won't. You want me to blame the gangs? They got part of it. The police? They got part. Then so do I got part, and my own dead babies, they got part. There's plenty of blame to spread around. I don't care for that. Doesn't matter about that." She pulled a tissue from her pocket to mop her tears. "I know this woman standing beside me talked to my boy, and listened to my boy. For hours. And when that terrible thing happened that took my boy away so I can't ever have him again? She ran toward him. Didn't matter to her who was to blame. She ran to him to try to help. And when I could see again, when I could see, what I saw was her holding my son. And that's what matters.

"Now I got nothing more to say."

Ignoring the hurled questions, Opal turned for the door. Her body shook lightly as Phoebe put a protective arm around her shoulders. "I'm going to take you to see my Charlie now."

"Okay, Opal." Taking Opal's weight, Phoebe walked toward the viewing room. "Let's go see Charlie."

Phoebe's knees felt a little weak by the time she returned to the car. It was funny, she thought, how joints often took the brunt of emotional upheavals.

Duncan merely ran a hand down her arm, then started the ignition.

"I need to make a call," she said, and pulled out her phone. Impulse again, she reminded herself. She seemed to be doing a lot on impulse these days. "Mama? I'm going to be going out awhile if you don't need me back. Yes, all right. Tell Carly I'll come in and kiss her good night when I get home. I will. Bye."

She drew in a deep breath. "All right?"

"Sure. Where do you want to go?"

"I think your place would be just fine. Then you can fix me a nice cold drink of an alcoholic nature. And after we've had a nice cold drink, you can take me up to bed."

"That fits pretty well into my schedule."

"That's good, because it seems to be just the thing that was missing in mine." She leaned back, flipped through issues that were on her mind. "Duncan, what do you think of a man who decides to marry a woman named Mizzy who's a dozen years younger than he is?"

"How big are her breasts?"

Phoebe's lips twitched as she stared up through the sunroof. "I don't have that information."

N-o r a R o b e r ts

"It's pretty relevant. Who's marrying Mizzy?"

"Carly's father."

"Oh."

Sympathy and speculation, Phoebe thought, in a single syllable. "I know I shouldn't care, but of course I do. I know I'll get over thatwhich is comforting. He's moving with her to Europe, which infuriates me, and which I won't get over even though I know it's stupid. It doesn't matter if he's around the corner or thousands of miles away, he's not going to love that sweet child, or pretend he does."

"But if he's around the corner, so to speak, you can keep hoping he might eventually."

"That's right." That, she realized, was exactly, perfectly right. "Opal Johnson couldn't push hope into her sons, and they needed it. I can'tor haven't-let go of mine when it's a useless weight."

"How does Carly feel?"

"Carly doesn't care." They soared over the water, where boats skimmed below the span of bridge. "She's healthier about it than I am."

"She has you. A kid knows she's loved, absolutely, she's got a healthy base."

He hadn't had that absolute love, she remembered, but had built his own base. "I haven't told her about the wedding yet. I will, when I'm not so mad. I don't think he'd have bothered to tell me about all this except the child support checks will be delayed while he changes banks. Changes his damn dollars to Euros and back again. Whatever."

"So you're pissed he's moving to Europe."

"Oh, I'm just pissed altogether." And suddenly just a little amused at the entire business. "I don't care who she is, no woman likes being traded in on the Mizzy model. Especially when the trade-in has a lot higher mileage."

"I bet the Mizzy model is high maintenance and can't handle the curves nearly as well."

"Hopeful thought. I'm telling you all this because it factors into my overall mood, which is restless and conflicted, and a little aggressive." The faintest smile curved her lips as she tilted her head to study his profile. "I'm wondering how you feel about aggressive women."

"Am I going to find out?"

"I believe you are."

"Oh boy."

When they were inside his house, she decided the cold drink could wait. They'd both probably need a gallon of cold liquid after they were done. Since he'd been considerate enough to wear a tie, she grabbed it and, strolling toward the stairs, pulled him behind her.

"Bedroom's up here, I assume? We didn't get that far last time."

"To the right, all the way down. Last on the left."

When she glanced over her shoulder, her eyes sparked on his. "I bet the view's lovely. We won't be paying much mind to that for a while, but I bet it's lovely."

She tugged him inside. She got the impression of space, of strong colors, tall windows. And best of all, a big iron bed.

"Now." She turned, tugged the knot on his tie loose. "This may hurt a little."

"My tolerance for pain is rising as we speak."

Laughing, she yanked his jacket off, flung it aside. Then backed him toward the bed, where she gave him a little shove until he sat. With slow, deliberate movements, she straddled him so the skirt of the sober business suit hiked high on her thighs.

"Now, gimme that mouth."

She used her teeth on it, her tongue, and all those wildly veering emotions coalesced into one hard, hot ball of lust. Her fingers got busy with his shirt, flipping open button after button until she could run her hands over flesh, scrape her nails over him. The quickening of his breath, the urgent way his hands streaked over her, made her feel invincible.

She let him peel her jacket off, tug the tank over her head. And, arching back, invited his lips and hands to feast and to take. The way he took, the way he feasted, electrified.

She was clamped around him, arms and legs. The most seductive of traps. A careless rake of his fingers and her hair came spilling down, fragrant red rain. A quick flick and her breasts, white satin, filled his hands.

Energized silk, he thought. Everything about her was smooth, soft, everything inside her so avid with purpose.

She let out a gasping laugh when he flipped her onto her back. Then a low purr of pleasure as his hands, his lips began to roam over her. Slowly now, he slid the skirt down her hips, her legs, following the movement with his mouth. The inside of her thigh, so firm and warm. The back of her knee, sensitive enough to cause quivers.