"Daniel," he said, growing angry again "was a drug addict. She fell in love with him because he was needy, and married him because she thought that the strength of her love alone would haul him out of the pit he was in. When that didn't work, she tried pharmaceutical treatment. I can't say if she killed him. I wasn't there. But by her own admission she did give him drugs."

"She was trying to wean him off them gradually."

"The guy died of an overdose. That's a fact Whether Mara was the one who supplied the pills that did it, or whether the local pusher did is some thing that a medical board would spend months trying to determine."

"Did you actually threaten that?" Paige asked. She didn't believe for a minute that Mara had been responsible for Daniel's death, but if the suggestion was made, if it came before the medical board, if Mara was found at fault such that she lost her license to practice, it would have killed her as surely as the fumes from her car. Her career meant every- w thing to her.

But Peter wasn't thinking that way. "You bet I threatened it. She was on her high horse telling me what a medical board would do with my prints, so I turned it right around. Mara could be one hell of a bitch." He pushed a hand through his hair.

"Still can.

We can't get rid of her. She keeps hanging on."

Did she ever, Paige thought. Nothing had been the same since Mara had died. She wondered if things would ever be the same again.

Discouraged, she leaned more heavily against the door. "So. Where do we go from here?"

"I don't know."

"We can't continue this way. The tension is awful."

"Then we'll split. You take your patients, Angie will take hers, I'll take mine."

"But I don't want that," Paige cried.

Splitting up was her solution of last resort.

zl like your patients as much as I like mine, and I like working in a group. I want things to be like they were before. It was such a comfortable life."

Peter didn't respond. Nor did he look at her.

When he picked up his pen and returned to work, she resignedly let herself out of the office, and when the last of her patients had been seen, she set off for Mount Court.

Practice went well. Paige ran from the demons of the day, pushing herself and the girls farther, faster, than usual. She was therefore more tired than usual when she returned to the car and drove home. She was also more distracted, which was why, in hindsight, she didn't sense anything amiss until she pulled into her driveway, climbed from the car, and reached across to the passenger's seat to get the clothes she had worn to work. She cried out in alarm when a face rose from the backseat.

"Sara!"

Sara eyed her somberly.

With a hand to her chest, Paige calmed her breathing. "You scared me half to death. I had no idea you were there. Why didn't you speak up?"

"If I'd spoken up, you'd have turned around and taken me back." "I can still do that," Paige threatened, but Sara plamntbeddhout of the car, crossed the front la Sara nodded. "Does anyone know you're here?"

I signed out. For how long? "Until ten." w theSphe I do But I have to warn you I'm on If Sara shook her head.

"No homework ill finished it before practice " this morning. Sound okay?" in the freezer Sara shrugged.

Paige Wgirlr V