"I would not feel good if I knew you were upset by anything that has to do with me," I said.

"Anything? What happened was just anything?"

"Of course it wasnat just anything."

"Sometimes I wake up at night because I dream a gun is going off. Then I listen to the awful silence and remember lying there, staring into the dark. I was so scared I couldnat move, and I wet my bed. And there were sirens and red lights flashing, and neighbors coming out on their porches and looking out their windows. And you wouldnat let me see it when they carried him out, and you wouldnat let me go upstairs. I wish I had, because imagining it has been worse."

"That man is dead, Lucy. He canat hurt anyone now."

"There are others just as bad, maybe worse than him."

"Iam not going to tell you there arenat."

"What are you doing about it, then?"

"I spend my every waking moment picking up the pieces of the lives destroyed by evil people. What more do you want me to do?"

"If you let something happen to you, I promise I will hate you," my niece said.

"If something happens to me, I donat suppose it will matter who hates me. But I wouldnat want you to hate anyone because of what it would do to you."

"Well, I will hate you. I swear."

"I want you to promise me, Lucy, that you wonat lie to me again."

She did not say a word.

"I donat ever want you to feel that you need to hide anything from me," I said.

"If Iad told you I wanted to go to the range, would you have let me?"

"Not without Lieutenant Marino or me."

"Aunt Kay, what if Pete canat catch him?"

"Lieutenant Marino is not the only person on the case," I said, not answering her question, because I did not know how to answer it.

"Well, I feel sorry for Pete."

"Why?"

"He has to stop whoever this person is, and he canat even talk to you."

"I imagine heas taking things in stride, Lucy. Heas a pro."

"Thatas not what Michele says."

I glanced over at her.

"I was talking to her this morning. She says that Pete came by the house the other night to see her father. She said that Pete looks awful - his face was as red as a fire truck and he was in a horrible mood. Mr. Wesley tried to get him to go to the doctor or take some time off, but no way."

I felt miserable. I wanted to call Marino immediately, but I knew it wasnat wise. I changed the subject.

"What else have you and Michele been talking about? Anything new with the State Police computers?"

"Nothing good. Weave tried everything we can think of to figure out who Waddellas SID number was switched with. But any records marked for deletion were overwritten long ago on the hard disk. And whoever is responsible for the tampering was swift enough to do full system backups after the records were altered, meaning we canat run SID numbers against an earlier version of CCRE and see who pops up. Generally, you have at least one backup thatas three to six months old. But not so in this case."

"Sounds like an inside job to me."

I thought how natural it seemed to be home with Lucy. She no longer was a guest or an irascible little girl. "We need to call your mother and Grans," I said.

"Do we have to tonight?"

"No. But we do need to talk about your returning to Miami."

"Cla.s.ses donat start until the seventh, and it wonat make any difference if I miss the first few days."

"School is very important."

"Itas also very easy."

"Then you should do something on your own to make it harder."

"Missing cla.s.ses will make it harder," she said.

The next morning I called Rose at eight-thirty, when I knew a staff meeting was in progress across the hall, meaning that Ben Stevens was occupied and would not know I was on the line.

"How are things?" I asked my secretary.

"Awful. Dr. Wyatt couldnat get here from the Roanoke office because they got snow in the mountains and the roads are bad. So yesterday Fielding had four cases with no one to help him. Plus, he was due in court and then got called to a scene. Have you talked to him?"

"We touch base when the poor man has a moment to get to the phone. This might be a good time for us to track down a few of our former fellows and see if one of them might consider coming here to help us hang on for a while. Jansenas doing private path in Charlottesville. You want to try him and see if he wants to give me a call."

"Certainly. Thatas a fine idea."

"Tell me about Stevens," I said.

"He hasnat been here very much. He signs out in such an abbreviated, vague fashion that no one is ever sure where heas gone. Iam suspicious heas looking for another job."

"Remind him not to ask me for a recommendation."

"I wish youad give him a great one so someone else would take him off our hands."

"I need for you to call the DNA lab and get Donna to do me a favor. She should have a lab request for the a.n.a.lysis of the fetal tissue from Susanas case."

Rose was silent. I could feel her getting upset.

"Iam sorry to bring this up," I said gently.

She took a deep breath. "When did you request the a.n.a.lysis?"

"The request was actually made by Dr. Wright, since he did the post. He would have his copy of the lab request at the Norfolk office, along with the case."

"You donat want me to call Norfolk and have them make a copy for us?"

"No. This canat wait, and I donat want anyone to know that Iave requested a copy. I want it to appear that our office inadvertently got a copy. Thatas why I want you to deal directly with Donna. Ask her to pull the lab request immediately and I want you to pick it up in person."

"Then what?"

"Then put it in the box up front where all the other copies of lab requests and reports are left for sorting."

"Youare sure about this?"

"Absolutely," I said.

I hung up and retrieved a telephone directory, which I was flipping through when Lucy walked into the kitchen. She was barefoot and still wearing the sweat suit she had slept in. Groggily wishing me a good morning, she began rummaging in the refrigerator as I ran my finger down a column of names. There were maybe forty listings for the name Grimes, but no Helens. Of course, when Marino had referred to the guard as Helen the Hun, he was being snide. Maybe Helen wasnat her real name at all. I noted that there were three listings with the initial H., two for the first name and one for a middle name.

"What are you doing?" Lucy asked, setting a gla.s.s of orange juice on the table and pulling out a chair.

"Iam trying to track down someone," I said, reaching for the phone.

I had no luck with any of the Grimeses I called.

"Maybe sheas married," Lucy suggested.

"I donat think so."

I called Directory a.s.sistance and got the listing for the new penitentiary in Greensville.

"What makes you think she isnat?"

"Intuition."

I dialed. "Iam trying to reach Helen Grimes," I said to the woman who answered.

"Are you referring to an inmate?"

"No. To one of your guards."

"Hold, please."

I was transferred.

"Watkins," a male voice mumbled.

"Helen Grimes, please," I said.

"Officer Helen Grimes."

"Oh. She donat work here anymore."

"Could you please tell me where I could reach her, Mr. Watkins? Itas very important."

"Hold on."

The phone dunked against wood. In the background, Randy Travis was singing.

Minutes later, the man returned. "Weare not allowed to give out information like that, maaam."

"Thatas fine, Mr. Watkins. If you give me your first name, Iall just send all this to you and you can forward it to her."

A pause. "All what?"

"This order she placed. I was calling to see if she wanted it mailed fourth-cla.s.s or sent ground."

"What order?"

He didnat sound happy.

"The set of encyclopedias she ordered. There are six boxes weighing eighteen pounds each."

"Well, you canat be sending no encyclopedias here."

"Then what do you suggest I do with them, Mr. Watkins? Sheas already made the down payment and your business address was the one she gave us."

"Shhhhooo. Hold on."

I heard paper rustle; then keys clicked on a keyboard.

"Look," the man said quickly. "The best I can do is give you a P.O. box. You just send the stuff there. Donat be sending nothing to me."

He gave me the address and abruptly hung up. The post office where Helen Grimes received her mail was in Goochland County. Next I called a bailiff I was friendly with at the Goochland courthouse. Within the hour he had looked up Helen Grimesas home address in court records, but her telephone number was unlisted. At eleven A.M., I gathered my pocketbook and coat, and found Lucy in my study.

"Iave got to go out for a few hours," I said.

"You lied to whoever you were talking to on the phone."

She stared into the computer screen. "You donat have any encyclopedias to deliver to anyone."

"Youare absolutely right. I did lie."

"So sometimes itas okay to lie and sometimes itas not.a'

"Itas never really okay, Lucy."

I left her in my chair, modem lights winking and various computer manuals open and scattered over my desk and on the floor. On the screen the cursor pulsed rapidly. I waited until I was well out of sight before slipping my Ruger into my pocketbook. Though I was licensed to carry a concealed weapon, I rarely did. Setting the alarm, I left the house through the garage and drove west until Cary Street put me on River Road. The sky was marbled varying shades of gray. I was expecting Nicholas Grueman to call any day. A bomb ticked silently in the records I had given him, and I did not look forward to what he was going to say.

Helen Grimes lived on a muddy road just west of the North Pole restaurant, and on the border of a farm. Her house looked like a small barn, with few trees on its tiny parcel of land, and window boxes clumped with dead shoots that I guessed once had been geraniums. There was no sign in front to announce who lived inside, but the old Chrysler pulled up dose to the porch announced that at least somebody did.