Paige pressed her fingertips to her temple.

"The problem," she said, trying to remain perfectly calm when she wanted to shriek at Peter for being a fool 4is that she might have lied. I haven't seen these pictures, so I don't know how they'd be regarded by "A jury! Christ, Paige, this isn't a legal case. It never was. It's over and done."

She raised a hand. "Hear me out. I don't know where the line lies between art and pornography but I do know that you're a pediatrician.

You earn your living working with children. You're in a group practice that devotes itself to them. Do you have any idea what would happento you, to usif someone, anyone, were to see those pictures?"

"You're assuming they're obscene," he accused, and started to get up.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence."

She grabbed his arm. "Please, Peter. This involves all of us. I don't want to assume anything That's why I'm talking with you now.

I haven't said a word to Angie. This is between you and me. Sit."

He gave her a disdainful look but did as she asked.

Thank you," she breathed in relief. "This is very difficult for me.

It's one more hit in a whole string of them. All I'm doing is trying to hold things together.

He cracked his knuckles. "At my expense."

"No. You're part of what I want to hold together. I like you, Peter.

I always have, and I respect your medical ability. If not, I never would have hung my shingle beside yours in Tucker, much less dragged two of my friends up here." The responsibility was hers, and an awesome one at that. "Maybe it would have been better for Mara if I hadn't."

Peter's features tightened. "I wasn't responsible for her death."

"I didn't say you were, but apparently she needed something that none of us could give her. The feeling of despair, of total and utter failure, that permeates her letters is heartrending. When her father came for the funeral, he said that this wouldn't've happened if she'd stayed home in Eugene."

"But then she wouldn't have been a doctor.

That was her greatest source of reward."

"I told him that. Still, there are times when I wonder" She broke off and chided herself, "Pointless. It's over and done." To Peter she said, "But we aren't. We're still here, and I want it to stay that way. I like what we have, which is why this is all so upsetting for me."

Peter pushed his mug around. "There's no cause for upset. The pictures don't exist anymore. I destroyed them, negatives and all."

"But why, if you thought they were art?"

"Because I'm not dumb, Paige. You're right.

We don't know how a jury would judge them. If they had fallen into the wrong hands, I could have been in deep shit. They weren't worth it."

He paused. "Aren t you happy? The condemning evidence is gone. The practice is saved. No one can ever accuse one of the pediatricians of diddling with his patients."

She studied her hands, not quite sure how to say what needed to be said. Peter could be volatile when threatened, and he was definitely threatened. she said, "The evidence may be gone, but if there s a problem, it still exists." She clutched his arm before he could rise. "Don't blow up. Just answer me. Is this a problem? Was Mara more upset about the photographs or about the fact that you made them?

I have to know, Peter. We deal with children. I can't risk the chance of one of them being hurt."

"This is an insult," he said very quietly.

She squeezed his arm. "I'm simply asking."

"If you knew me, or trusted me, you wouldn't have to ask."

"This has nothing to do with trust.

It has to do with what turns people on, and that can't always be controlled."

Peter drew his arm free. He gripped his mug with both hands, looked her in the eye, and in a low angry voice said, Ulsll say this once, and once only. i love children because they're innocent and trusting and inherently good human beings, but I don't desire them sexually. I desire women. It's a healthy drive, shared by any healthy males, and while I'm on the subject, let me say one other thing. Legally I have every right to screw a willing eighteen-year-oid female." "I know you do, but that's a technical matter. I can guarantee youguarantee youthat if it came out that you were having an affair with an eighteenyear-old, you'd lose half your practice."

"You're right. That's why I'd never do it."

"How about breaking into my home," Paige threw in, thinking that being a thief was more reputable than being a child pornographer and that since he'd defended himself against the last without going 258 2.5Q bonkers, he could handle the first. "If you thought Mara's letters would be incriminating, would you try to steal them?"

When he rose from the table, this time she didn't reach out. "You really don't trust me, do you?" he asked.

ill want to. But I've been racking my brain about who else might have done it, and I can't think of anyone with motive but you."

He turned and, slipping a hand in the pocket of his slacks, left the coffee shop without another word.

He didn't talk with her that day or the next.

On the instances when their paths crossed, he was either studying a file or otherwise preoccupied. When Angie commented on his distance, Paige shrugged it off, but she felt like a hypocrite. Communicate, she told Angie.

Communicate, she told the girls at Mount Court. Communicate, she told her patient families every day of the week.

So she tried. After several days of silence, she cornered Peter in his office. "I know you're furious, but if we don't talk, we can't resolve anything."

"There's nothing to talk about," he said, regarding her coldly. "You made it clear what you thought. I don't need a repeat." ill didn't say that you did it. I simply asked."

"That was enough.

"But I had to ask," she argued in her own defense. "Look at it from my point of view.

Circumstantially speaking, you had opportunity and motive. If it wasn't you, I need to know who it was. Someone broke into my house.

It's not only my safety that's at stake, it's Sami's and Jill's, too."

"Sorry. I can't help you out." He jotted some notes on the report he'd been writing.

"Peter." She sighed. "We can't practice together if we can't talk."

"Oh, we can talk." He tossed his pen aside and sat back. "We can talk about any patient you want. Go ahead. Ask away."

"Did you love Mara7" "Mara wasn't a patient." iDid you tell her that she killed Daniel?"