"Jack did." After few moments he forced himself to complete what heconsidered to be the crux of his dilemma.

"Tin not so sure whether Alexander Brody loves her." When he opened hiseyes and stared at her, Caroline's sad, sweet smile made his suddenthoughts of regret even harder to deal with.

"Then go back and find out."

"But it's not that easy-"

"It can be. As soon as the doctor releases you, go back to the mountainand find her. Talk to her. Thank her. She evidently cared enough aboutyou to make sure you survived. You may discover you and-this guy namedJack hae a lot in common." Caroline stood up, leaned over the bed railand kissed his cheek.

"And before you go, boss man, find a razor and use it. You look terriblewith a beard. It makes you look gmngy."

"Yes, ma'am:' Concern flooded back, pushing away the momentary glimmerof mischief in her eyes.

"You go back to that mountain, Alee. You'll find your answer there, oneway or the other." She started toward the door.

"Caro,before you go, would you answer one question for me?"

"Sure."

"How do you drink your coffee?"

She gave him a puzzled look.

"I know it sounds crazy but I st'fil have a few irritating glitches inmy bra'm circuits. Please ... just tell me."

A Killer Smile She shrugged.

"Considering how often you get coffee for me, I'm surprised you couldforget.

Two creams and three sugars. Any more questions?"

"No--thanks." Alec slipped' into the hazy grip of memory even before thedoor closed behind her. His mind jumped ahead to a day in the Very nearfuture, the day he would return to Ellen.

He would knock on the door, and she would open it despite all hermisgivings.

The fear would dissolve from her face when he pulled out the proof ofhis identity. He knew IDS could be forged, but what about a photo album?

He could chronicle his life practically from conception through thepresent with photographs. For once he thanked God that his mother hadbeen such a nuisance with her Instamatic camera. He'd spent a betterpotion of his life believing any great moment of parental pride had tobe coupled with a blinding flash in the face, along with a residualburst of-radiance to block his vision for mln-minutes afterward.

When he showed Ellen his Kodacolor history, she wouldn't be able to d0nyor igno how much he looked like his father. It would prove his face wasa matter of ge-nedcs rather than plastic surgery. As a kid he'd growntked of the constant comparisons, but now it would finally pay off. Ifthat didn't work, he'd get a signed note from his father. hell, he'd getan affidavit from the governor of Colorado if he thought it would help.

Alee would make sure there would be no doubt in El-lefts mind that he wasn't a man named Hank Barth01o-mew. Then Alexander Brody would beginhis courtship. Roses, champagne, caviar, the works. He'd pull her quiltto the floor in front of the fireplace, where he'd begin a seduction ofher heart as well as her body. The next morning he would persuade her toleave behind her isolation and A Killer Smile rejoin the world, knowinghe had the means to protect her. After all, who understood securitybetter than a trained expert who made his living protecting as well asinvestigating people, places and things?

Alec drifted to sleep, experiencing the afterglow of satisfaction fromnothing more than a fantasy.

A fantasy he prayed he could turn into reality.

Three torturous days later, after surviving every test known to medicalscience, Alec suffered one last indignity by being taken to the entrancein a wheelchair. Reid managed to replace his smirk with an innocentsmile as he held open the car door.

Once they pulled into traffic, he pointed to a bulging folder on theseat between them.

"Things have been backing up since you've been out of the office. Ibrought an overview of our current caseload, 'cause I figured some ofthe details might have leaked 'out when you clobbered your head."

Alec stared out the passenger window, his eyes focused on a more distantgoal than his surroundings.

"Listen, Reid, I'm not ready to come back to work yet."

"I know."

Alec turned around and gaped at his partner. Reid always seemed toignore the finer points of reading between the lines. Reid's suddensense of conscience had to beev-idence of their secretary'smachinations.

"What did Caroline tell you?"

Reid rubbed the back of his neck and shot him a rue-ul grin.

"Nothing much. Just threatened to quit if I didn't give you a few days'rest without questions. She had the helicopter pilot mark a map with thelocation of the rangers' station. She also said something about youwanting to borrow my four-wheeler?"

A Killer Smile NEXT MOMQNO, after a fitful night's sleep, Alec filledReid's truck with an array of winter survival gear. He added his familyphoto album and his birth certificate.

Several hours into the Saturday-morning-drive, he abandoned the-mainmountain highway, stopping to gulp down a tasteless sandwich from aconvenience store before he turned onto an old mining road. Up to thatpoint the roads had been plowed, but the next stretch would offer him anunwanted chance to lest his winter driving skills and the truck'scapabilities over snow and ice.

Dexterity and good luck accompanied him along the road, and he reachedthe parking lot at the trail head without major problems.

After a four-hour trip in a heated vehicle, the cold mountain airshocked him back to life, as he stepped out of the truck and drew in adeep, cleansing breath. The next portion of the trip was by foot, andhis last experience, unpleasant as it was, only served to reinforce hisgrowing dislike for the sport of hiking. With a shrug of resignation, heoriented him. eif, shouldered his pack and headed north.

Alec knew he was close to the cabin when he saw a lazy curl of smokehovering in the nearby treetops. He remembered how the path hadnarrowed, shortly past the cabin clearing. Negotiating the last curve,he glanced up expectantly, surprised by the sense of anticipation thatfilled him.

A wisp of smoke rose from the chimney. Its blackened stones stood erectin a circle of charred wood and ashes. His stomach reacted to the sudden revelation with a queasy lurch. Some of the scorched embers were stillsmoking, but the fire was long over, its destruction now a thing of thepast.

His mouth hung slack.

4 Killer Smile Oh, my God. He repeated the phrase under his breath,taking what solace he could from the words. Bits and pieces of debrislittered the ground around the ruins. His hands shook when he hent downto touch the few remains he could recognize. A darkexi metal hairbrushwith the bristles burned away lay on the ground where the bathroom hadbeen. Alec picked up the object and turned it slowly over in his hands.He scraped away enough soot to read the initials engraved into itstarnished silver handle: E. M. C. Under another piece of debris, hefound the remains of the matching hand mirror.

Alec stood in shock, devastated by the enormity and totality of thedestruction. He stared blankly at the surviving chimney, until amovement in the woods quickened his heartbeat.

"Ellen!" he called to the flash of red that hid behind a bushy evergreen.

The barrel of a shotgun appeared. from around the tree trunk before itsowner came into view.

"She's dead." The voice hung like heavy smoke in the air.

A stern set of eyes and the gun's dark double bores glared unblinlanglyat Alec. The voice was as uninviting as the weapon Aimed at him.

"Who are you and what are you do' rag here?"

Alec raised his hands, hoping his gesture would the man's finger fromtightening on the trigger.

"My name is Alexander Brody. I came to--I mean, I had no idea" -- Lostin a moment of overwhelming pain, he ignored the deadly threat trainedon his chest and allowed his hands to drift back down to his sides.

"How? Wh-when did it happen?"

Fmotion crept into his voice.

The shotgun barrel wavered, then lowered, pointing to the ground.

"My partner and I saw the smoke in the wee hours, yesterday morning. Bythe time we got here, the A Killer Smile cabin was completely involved.God knows I tried to get to her, but the fire ... the heat. I couldn't reach her." He choked back his own regrets, giving Aleca steely once-over.

"You're the gny she found out on the trail a week or so ago, aren'tyou?"

Alee nodded.

"I thought your name was Jack ... something."

"It was. I mean ... I was suffering from amnesia, I didn't know who Iwas."

"You know, I didn't believe her at first." The man's voice dropped to alow growl.

"She told me she'd found a man and nursed him back to health. She hiked to my cabin to get help, but when we got here, there was no injured man.There were no signs anyone had ever been here but her. I sun ply thoughtthe years of isolation, of fear, had taken their toll. on her. But I waswrong."

He shifted his stance, eye' rag Alec with obvious suspicion.

"When she came to see me, she told me how both of you were worried aboutyour identity, how your inj had screwed up your memory. That night mypartner told me how you'd appeared at. the station and about thehelicopter that came to pick you up. I find it damned convenient thatyour memory came back while she was gone."

The shotgun lifted again, and the man's face became a mask of hatred.

"You bastard. What did you come back for? To check on the results ofyourlfirebombs and make sure you killed her?"

Alec stared down the endless black hole pointed at him and kept hisvoice even and calm.

"In my pack I brought the proof. I was going to show Ellen ... the proof I wasn't Hank." He slipped the pack off, dropped it carefully tothe ground, then took a few steps backward.

"It's all there. My birth certificate, photographs of me growing up,birthday parties, graduations, everything."

A Killer Smile "Sit. Put your hands on your head." The ranger kept awary watch as Alec followed instructions. Then the man pawed through thepack, flipping through the album and comparing the pictures of youthagain the figure in front of him.

Alec unde stood the man's caution.

"Sir, this/ my face, not something carved from a plastic surge ohimagination. There--that picture." He nodded toward a picture of abandaged boy sitting by the twisted riain. of a biey-cle. "That's how I got this scar." Alec turned his head so the man could see the thin ridgeof scar tissue along the jawline.

"My bike and I tangled with a chain-link fence and the fence won.

"And the next page, That's my father. You can see the family blanco.

My grandfather says I'm the spitting image of my dad when he was young."

The ranger thumbed through the album, dividing his attention betweenAlec and the photographs. The shotgun began to lower to the ground.

Finally the man slung the weapon onto his back and held out his hand tohelp Alec up. George Pembroke."

"Pleased to meet you, sir. Like I said, I'm Alec Broil. y." Alec glancedaround at the ruins, battling the sickness it evoked.

"You sure Hank did this?"

The man pushed his hat to the back of his head and ran a gloved handover his face.

"Befoml became a ranger, I used to be an insurance investigator. I knowarson when I see it. There was an intense fire in the kitchen area and smaller ones at each window and door. If he wired his fuses in parallel,then they all went off at once." His voice lowered. "She never had achance."

Alec stared at the area that had once been her kitchen. The stove was a twisted lump of melted metal, "Is there a ... I mean, did you find a ... a body?"

A Killer Smile The big man shrugged. Sorrow weakened his impressiveposture, etching years into his face.

"Didn't really expect to. It was an inferno that incinerated the entirestructure in minutes. It was so hot I had to wait until it stoppedsmoldering before I could examine the ruins. By that time there wasn'tmuch I could identify."

"But surely you could Ifil ..." Alec couldn't finish when a mental imagesuddenly swelled up, stopping him cold.

The ranger drew in adeep breath.

"Mr. Brody, judging by the mountain-lion tracks I saw in the snow, wewon't find any remains."

Pembroke's face turned an ugly shade of gray and he ground one fist intothe palm of the other hand.

"Damn it! This is why I retired and came out here. I couldn't stand itany longer, summing up a person's life or death in a few lines on aninsurance report. And I sure as hell cim't do it again now." The mancast a weary glance at the remains of the holocaust.

"You know what a spe-'chl lady she was."

Alec stared at the charred beams and blaclmed stones, "She was special,all right. Very sped al Pembroke reached into his jacket and pulled outa folded piece of paper.

"Yesterday she got this. A day la and a dollar short." He held it out.

Alec unfolded it and began to read aloud, "" Dear Miss. Pembroke. ""Alec loolaxi up.

"Pembroke?"

"We couldn't take any chances. She used my name, pretended to be mydaughter."

Alec continued. "" I am pleased to make an offer on your manuscript,Once upon a Mountain. We believe the adventures of Tess and Jack areexactly. "" Alec looked up.

"An offer? They wanlci to buy her book?"

The ranger nodded.

"She made just enough on her artwork to keep her here. But she alwayssaid if she sold a A Killer Smile A Killer Smile book, she might be ableto move somewhere else. Somewhere safer but less isolated. This place..." be gestured weakly at the remains "just proved that isolationwasn't enough." Pembroke turned away, ineffectively hiding his lears.

Watching the big man's display of sorrow, Alee began to recognize hisown intense emofiom and regrets. Ellen was gone, and he never thankedher or even said goodbye. He never had a chance to really love her ashimself.

Both men stood motionless, paying thdr silent re-speets. The rangerfinally broke the silence.

"Why did you leave, Brody?"