Lucas nodded. "That's what we were wondering."

Dallaglio turned away from them all and stared at a wall for a moment, thinking, then back to Lucas. "Exec Air had a problem. We have a deal with them, we get a rate, but they only manage three jets and all three of them were out. Two were coming back, but they didn't know until two o'clock when they'd be in, and when they could have one of them turned around. They told Paul to call at two-and that's what he did. They told us to be there at nine o'clock, or a little after."

"So you didn't know when you'd be leaving until two o'clock."

"That's right."

"Who did you tell outside the house? Paul's friends, your friends, your daughters' friends?"

Again, Dallaglio turned away, thought, and turned back. "Paul told at least two people, the Karens. We call them the Karens-it's Karen Slade and Karen English, they're the two assistant vice presidents at work, they're Paul's assistants. But I don't think either of them was around when Clara was here. Maybe Karen Slade, but she's a dear friend of both of us, her and her husband. It can't be Karen."

Sally was making notes. "Did you talk to anyone?"

"I called my sister, Janice, she lives down in Little Rock, but it wouldn't be her. The kids… we'd have to wait until tomorrow, but I don't think they called anyone. They're not really old enough to have telephone friends yet. I mean, Justy does, in a way, but it's the girl down the block and we hardly know her parents. I would be amazed if Clara Rinker knew them."

The bodyguard who'd been wearing the bloody pants came back, his hair damp, wearing a fresh shirt and pants. Jesse looked at him and said, "Sy, could you get James and check out back? We just heard a noise… We were about to go look."

"We'll check," Sy said, and he walked through the room into the family room, where they heard him talking with the bodyguard named James, and a minute later, they heard a door sliding open.

Jesse Dallaglio dropped her voice. "The people we really don't know in the house are the security people. There are eight of them-four of them came out to the airport with us, for all the good it did us-and they were here all the time. Every one of them has a cell phone, and Paul told them this afternoon that we'd be making a run for the airport. Two of them were coming to Newark with us. They were going to stay with us until we got on the plane tomorrow morning."

Lucas looked at Sally, who said, "We can talk to their boss and get the cell-phone numbers without them knowing about it."

"You'll have to use some pretty harsh language with the boss, so they won't be tipped."

"We can do that," Derik said.

"Okay," Lucas said. Back to Dellaglio: "Now, who else? The Karens, your sister, the security guys. How did you make the travel arrangements? A travel agent?"

"American Express," Dallaglio said. "We have a Platinum Card, and they have one of those call-up bureaus somewhere. They knew, but how would Clara get into that? I mean, it's not like we even talk to the same person every time. It's always somebody different."

Lucas said to Sally, "Okay, here's something dumb. Check the phones here, see if they're bugged. Rinker did that thing with the cell phone, with Levy-maybe she's got a high-powered phone tech working for her."

"She does," Sally said. "We already know that." She made a note, and said, "Makes me a little nervous to be talking here."

Lucas said to Dallaglio, "Think-anybody else. Think of every phone call you made. That Paul made."

She thought for a minute, then shook her head. "We were really running around, getting ready. We were gonna be gone for maybe a month, or even more… I… you know, Paul called the Wall Street Journal guy, I think, the delivery guy, and canceled the paper. I think he said something about it."

"We should get the call records and go over them," Sally said. "Just to make sure."

"Gotta talk to the Karens," Lucas said. "Gotta do that tonight."

THEY TALKED TO the Karens separately, shaking them out of bed, giving them the news about Dallaglio. They both appeared to have been sleeping soundly. Lucas had worked enough homicides to believe that sound sleep came with an innocent mind. If either had killed Dallaglio, she would have been on pins and needles to know what happened-or would already know, and only masterful actresses could have played the shock on their faces when Sally gave them the news.

Both said that Dallaglio had warned them against telling anyone else about the trip. Both said that they had obeyed the order-hadn't even talked to each other about it.

When the interviews were done, Lucas said, "We need to look at Dallaglio's phone records. These two didn't have anything to do with it."

"A hasty conclusion," Sally said. They were standing under a lush, small-leaved oak tree in one of the Karens' front yard. "We don't know enough-"

"I know enough," Lucas said. "Neither one of them suspected the killing was coming. Or, if they did, they were good enough actresses that we'll never figure it out. Either way, it's time to move on."

"Derik should have the phone records by now," Sally said. She looked at her watch. "It's twoA. M. You want to keep running?"

"I'm just getting under way," Lucas said, grinning at her in the dark. "Love this kind of thing, tearing around in the middle of the night. Maybe we oughta find some caffeine."

WHEN THEY GOT back to the FBI office, Derik was waiting with an unhappy surprise. "We got the phones for all the security guys. There were quite a few calls, but the numbers check out, unless Rinker's working at a Pizza Hut. There was another number we didn't expect."

He pushed a piece of paper at them. The paper was a list of numbers, and one of the numbers was circled in red. "That's an unlisted phone. It goes to John Ross. The call was made at 5:10P. M. from Dallaglio's home office."

"Somebody called Ross?"

"Yeah. Probably Dallaglio. There's a phone call from that home office number to Dallaglio's mother's home, and that lasted twelve minutes. Then, one minute later, another call to Executive Air, which we figure was arrangements on the plane. And one minute after that, the call to Ross's, which lasted for two minutes. We think it was Dallaglio, working down a list."

Lucas nodded: That seemed likely. He tapped the Executive Air call. "I wonder if Rinker used those guys-if that's how she got around. Has anybody looked at Executive Air?"

Sally shook her head. "No. We can. But that could be quite a few people…"

"So get one of your paper experts to do it-find out who works there, cross-reference them against Rinker's known work record. Check criminal backgrounds, see if there was any kind of link between Executive Air and the assholes. The Mafias, or whatever they are."

Sally nodded. "There's still the problem of Ross. That he might have set it up."

"We should talk to Mrs. Dallaglio again. See if there was any kind of competitive thing going on."

"Think she'd tell us?"

"Why not? She's not a hood-we can't hang her. She doesn't know nuthin' about nuthin'."

"Too late now," Sally said. Lucas turned to look at the wall clock. Ten after three.

"First thing tomorrow," he said.

They agreed to meet in the hotel lobby at eight o'clock. They'd had enough for the night. Derik said he had a few more things to do, that he'd be another fifteen minutes, and Lucas and Sally walked out to the stairs. On the way down, Lucas stopped, said, "Goddamnit."

"What?"

"I gotta go back. I need to talk to Derik. I'll catch a ride back with him."

"Something important? A coup?"

"Probably not. Another detail to check."

Back upstairs, he asked Derik how long it would take to get all of Ross's phone calls for the past two months, since the shooting in Mexico, both outgoing and incoming, with IDs on each phone. "We practically live in the phone company computer," he said. "I could call a guy, get them here in a half hour."