BY THE TIME THEY got back to town, it was after five o'clock, not even a hint of the dawn. They dropped off I-94 onto I-494 at the western edge of the metro area, then turned off and headed deeper west, into the lake neighborhoods. When they got to Grant's house, they found the street deserted; no well-wishers, no TV trucks. There were a few lights in the house, and two security guards at the driveway.

Lucas and Del got out of Lucas's truck and walked up the driveway. The guards moved down to block them, and Lucas pulled out his ID and said, "We're with the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. We need to wake Ms. Grant. Now."

One of the guards looked at the ID with his flashlight and said, "You got it ... but I think she's still awake. There are still some people here."

Del asked, "Any more of you guys around?"

"Yeah, one guy behind the house, he moves back and forth across the yard."

THEY WALKED UP TO the front door, rang the bell. Del scratched his neck and looked at the yellow bug light and said, "I feel like a bug."

"You look like a bug. You fall down out there?"

"About four times. We weren't running so much as staggering around. Potholes full of water ... I see you kept your French shoes nice and dry."

"English. English shoes ... French shirts. Italian suits. Try to remember that."

"Makes my nose bleed," Del said.

The door opened, and Green looked out: she was still fully dressed, including the jacket that covered her gun and the fashionable shoes that she could run in.

She took a long look at Del, and asked, "Where're Dannon and Carver?"

"Dead," Lucas said. "Where's Grant?"

"In the living room."

"You want to invite us in?"

She opened the door, and they stepped inside, and followed her to the living room.

Grant was there, still dressed as she had been on the stage; she was curled in an easy chair, with a drink in her hand, high heels on the floor beside her. Schiffer was lying on a couch, barefoot; a couple of Taryn's staff people, a young woman and a young man, were sitting on the floor, making a circle. Another man, heavier and older, was sitting in a leather chair facing Grant. Lucas didn't recognize him, but recognized the type: a guy who knew where all the notional bodies were buried, a guy who could get the vice president on the telephone.

When Lucas came in, behind Green, Grant stood up, putting her drink aside, and asked, "What? What now?"

"Your pal Dannon murdered your pal Carver and took his body out in the countryside to bury it. We were tracking him, and when we approached him at the grave he was digging, he tried to shoot it out. He's dead."

There was a moment of utter silence: Schiffer seemed to be the most affected, as she got to her feet, her face gone white, a hand at her throat.

Grant recovered first, and asked, "What ... does that mean?"

"We were hoping you could help us with that," Lucas said.

"I don't know what that means," Grant said.

"You sent me a message earlier tonight ..." Lucas began.

Grant put up a hand: "No. No, I didn't. I already told you that."

Lucas took his phone out of his pocket, called up the message, stepped up to her and said, "Here's the message. Is this your phone number?"

She looked at the message and the number, and said, "That's not right. That's crazy."

"Is that your phone number?"

"Yes, but my phone, I can't find my phone. It's gone. Somebody took it out of my purse. Marjorie had my purse ..."

She looked at the woman on the floor, who said, "I was really careful with the purse. It was zipped up."

Lucas said, "The call came in at ten-oh-six. You were still here at ten-oh-six, weren't you?"

Grant looked at Schiffer, who said, "Yes ... we were still here. We left for the hotel around ten-fifteen."

Grant said, "Then the phone call came from here. My purse was back in the bedroom. In fact ..." She looked at Schiffer. "In fact, you called me while I was back there."

They stared at each other for a moment, then Schiffer said, "That's right," dug around in her bag, pulled out her phone, and said, "I made that call at nine-fifty-eight. What's that ... eight minutes before you got the message?"

"There was nobody in the bedroom but me. I went back there to get ready to go," Grant said. To Schiffer: "I got the call from you ... I put my phone back in my bag. My bag was on the chest of drawers."

Green stepped over to Grant and took her by the arm and said, "One second ..." She pulled Grant off to one side, twenty feet away, stood with her back to Lucas and the rest of the group, and whispered directly into Grant's ear. Grant looked at her, then nodded, came back and said, "I'd like to alter that statement a bit. Doug Dannon escorted me back there. We didn't talk, I just wanted some privacy to pee. I was alone when Connie called, and I dropped my phone back in my purse and came straight out here. Then when we were ready to go, I went back and got my purse."

"Can we look at the bedroom?" Lucas asked.

Schiffer said, "Maybe we ought to have a lawyer."

Lucas: "There's a very good chance ... actually, it's not a chance, it's a certainty, that this is a crime scene. Somebody called me on Ms. Grant's phone, who had knowledge that Dannon was planning to kill Carver. As he did. A lawyer might tell you not to talk, but he can't keep us away from a crime scene."

Schiffer shrugged, and Grant said, "I don't care, anyway. This is ... awful. Awful! This is insane! The bedroom ..."

She walked back toward the bedroom wing, and Lucas, Del, Schiffer, Green, and the others followed. Halfway down the hall, Lucas looked back and said, "I don't want anyone here except Ms. Grant."

Grant said to Lucas, "I want witnesses. You have lied to me and worked for Smalls since the beginning of this thing, and I wouldn't put it past you to frame me. I want witnesses. I want Connie and Alice with me."

Lucas said, "I did not ..." Then he stopped and nodded. "Ms. Green and Ms. Schiffer. Nobody else. Do not touch a thing. Stand in the doorway where you can see and hear, but do not touch anything. Do not touch the door or the doorknobs or anything else."

They stepped inside the bedroom and Grant pointed to her left and said, "I went in there to use the bathroom. My purse was right here, on the dresser." She pointed at the dresser. "Doug was out in the hall. Nobody could have gotten past him, without him knowing. And I don't know why a, a ... confederate ... of his would call to say he was planning to kill Ron. Anyway, I used the bathroom, and came out, and as I came out, the phone rang, and I talked to Connie, and then put the phone back in the purse and went out. With Doug ..."

When they'd entered the bedroom, Del had slid off to the left to clear the bathroom. He came back and listened to Grant's narration. When she finished, he asked, "When you were in the bathroom, did you notice anything unusual? Did you look out the window?"

"Out the window? No, I didn't look out ... Why?"

"Because the window seems to be missing," Del said.