"Might be too much time," Franklin said.

"No, I think we're okay," Jael said. Working quickly, she wrapped up the top of the second cheese bag, put both cheese bags back into the refrigerator, took out two beers, stepped back to the microwave, said, "Three seconds."

There was a popping sound, then another. Franklin said, "Shit. I told you. There goes the salsa."

The microwave beeped and Jael opened the door and looked inside. The interior was spattered with little gobbets of salsa. "I'll get it later," she said.

"Classic line," Franklin said with approval.

She pulled out the dish full of chips and the bowl of salsa, turned to the cooking island, saw Lucas for the first time, put the chips on the butcher-block top, and said, "Time."

Franklin looked at his watch. "One minute, twenty-nine seconds. If you add ten seconds going and coming, you could've missed a pass play."

"I don't think I can cut much time," she said.

"You just don't have the moves worked out yet," Franklin said. "You lost time with the chips, arranging them, you lost time getting the salsa out. And now you gotta go back and clean the microwave."

Jael looked at Lucas and asked, "Did you know that if you heat up salsa too fast, the onions pop like popcorn?"

"Everybody knows that," he said as Franklin turned around. Franklin seemed mildly embarrassed.

"I've been cooking seriously for half of my life, and I didn't know that," she said. "Even the idea of heating it up seemed pretty brutal."

"Gotta have it about medium-warm, a little better than room temperature."

Hutton chipped in. "You want boiling-hot cheese on the chips, medium-warm salsa, very cold beer. You want that range."

"Do all men know this?" she asked.

All three of them nodded, and said at once, "Of course."

The house originally had four bedrooms and a full bathroom upstairs. Jael had wiped out the bottom floor as a studio; had rebuilt a kitchen upstairs, in what had been the master bedroom; the other three she'd turned into a snug little living room/dining room, a small library/office, and her own bedroom. The space was carefully assembled and connected, and Lucas felt comfortable.

They'd chatted with Franklin and Hutton for a few minutes, eating the nachos with melted cheese"I can feel my heart clogging up. This stuff is absolute shit," Jael saidand then Jael said to Lucas, "Let's go talk."

As she stepped past him, she caught his wrist in her hand and led him out of the room; Hutton raised an eyebrow. In the living room, Lucas sprawled on a couch while Jael settled back in an oversized chair. Lucas said, "Great chair," and Jael said, "All guys don't really know about that nacho-cheese thing."

"You're right. There's probably some raggedy-ass cowboy out on a ranch in North Dakota somewhere who doesn't have either a TV or a microwave."

She said, "It really wasn't bad."

"If you eat that stuff three days in a row, you'll be as big as Franklin." Franklin completely filled an average doorway. "In fact, Franklin used to be about your size."

She nodded, getting rid of the topic. "I went to see Marcy a couple of hours ago. I just missed you."

"She's hanging on," Lucas said, his face going grim. "But she's harder than goddamn nails. If anybody can make it back, she's the one."

"I feel you know. Guilt, I guess."

"Don't," he said. "This has nothing to do with you, really. It has something to do with a nut, and some asshole who killed Alie'e and Sandy Lansing."

"I can't get Plain's body," she said. "But I finally found Dad. He's on St. Paul Island, which is about as far from here as you can get and still be on Earth. It'll take him a few days to get here."

"How is he?" Lucas asked.

"Devastated. I'd like to get the thing done with."

"I'll see about it," Lucas promised. "This thing with Plain when did that end?"

"A year ago."

"A year? I thought it might be more recent the way he acted."

"Time was not a big deal with Plain. Everything was right now. He could read a history book about Rome and get angry about the Roman empire."

"Tell me about Alie'e," Lucas said. "Was there anybody that she talked about? Anybody who might be a little over the edge?"

"Are you questioning me?" But she smiled, and when she did, her torn-paper face was beautiful, tough and vulnerable at once.

"No, no. Of course not. And if you want to talk about something else, that's fine. But I start brooding about this kind of stuff. You know, why? Most people are freaked out by the idea of shoplifting. If you get somebody killing several people, he's either completely psychotic, delusional, nuts, living in a different world, listening to God or he thinks he's got a reason. This guy we're looking for, he thinks he's got a reason. So there should be some connection to Alie'e. Somewhere, a connection."

"Her dad was weird. He came on to me a couple of times. I often thought he was a little wrong. Not a killer, but he, I think I don't know." She lifted her hands to her temples. "His relationship to Alie'e and the other girls, he tried to act paternal, but he was always looking at them If you know what I mean."

"Yeah. He was turned on."

"Yeah. And Alie'e's mom wasn't much of a prize, either. My mom didn't care what I did for a living; she thought the earth owed me one, and let it go at that. But Lil was living through Alie'e and I think she knew about Lynn's interest in sex."

"You think Lynn might have abused Alie'e?"

"No. Nope. I think Alie'e would have told me, and I think I would have seen it in her, the way she acted around her father. No, maybe it was just my expectations. Somebody's a dadyou don't think of his standing around trying to get a shot at the asses of his daughter's friends."

"Happens all the time," Lucas said. "I'll do it. For sure."

"But he was creepy about it."

"So no ideas."

"I told you before, I really think you've got to look at the people on the Internet. Those people"

"We've got somebody checking that, a computer guy named Anderson. If you can think of anything specific along those lines, call him. But the thing is, when he ran Alie'e's name through Alta Vista, he got 122,000 matches. We're trying to narrow them down."

"What's Alta Vista?"

"A search engine on the Net. You can look for names and so on."

"Okay. Well, I'll think about it. You know all about her brother, Tom."

"We're looking into him," Lucas said.

"He's an amazing guy. From what she said."

"Is he nuts?"

"She didn't think so. She thought he was holy," Jael said.

"How bright was she?" Lucas asked.

"Mmm, you've got to be smarter than average to make it as a model, but not a lot smarter. She wasn't intensely bright."

"So why were you hanging out with her?"

She smiled. "I thought everybody knew that."

"They know you were sleeping with her, but I thought there had to be a better reason."

"There wasn't," Jael said. "She was deep into herself, into feeling good. Intofeeling. That's what she did best, and she spread it around. She could make you discard everything else. And feel good. The sex was wonderful. Very intimate and very playful and very sexual. I mean, I can't really explain it to you, because you don't know what I'm talking about and you're not in a position to find out."

"Did her appearance have anything to do with it? And her being famous?"

"Probably. There was a whole package. When you were with her, you felt sexy and important and wicked and fun. And she'd make you forget everything else and justfeel. That's why she did those short pops: It was another aspect of feeling for her."

"So what about her boyfriend, Jax? What'd he think about all this? Sleeping with other women."

She shrugged. "Jax carried her bags. And slept with her every once in a while. He's basically a remora. He's probably back in New York right now, looking for somebody else."