"Yes?" she asked with a sense of foreboding.

"The friggin' balcony collapsed. A hundred people on top of another hundred twelve feet below, with rotted wood and plaster and chairs between them." He made a sound of disbelief.

"No one knows how many people are hurt, or worse. They're just pulling them out best's they can. The E.R at Tucker is a zoo.

Ambulances are coming in every two minutes, making drops and going back for more. The criticals are being flown out, but we'll have the rest.

They need us, Angie. Do you know where Paige is?"

Angie's mind focused on the horror of it, so real, and in that far worse than any R-rated movie. Hugging herself against a chill, she looked at Ben. He had risen from the sofa and was approaching.

"Where's Paige?" Peter repeated.

"Uh, at her grandmother's. I have the number.

I'll call."

"And get here as fast as you can. We're talking wholesale carnage."

He hung up the phone.

"My God," she whispered.

"What happened?" Ben asked.

"The balcony at the movie house collapsed in the middle of the Henderson Wheel concert.

Hundreds of people have been hurt. They're pouring into the E.R."

"The concert?" Dougie echoed, his face pale.

"Half the town was going."

Angie put a comforting hand on his shoulder while she looked at Ben beseechingly. "Mara saw it coming. She knew the place was unsafe."

"But she couldn't have stopped this concert," he said. "Cox has been planning it too long.

He'd never have let her stand in his way."

"Do you think he had her killed?" Dougie asked.

"No," Angie and Ben said in unison.

Angie softened her voice. "No. But people will be thinking a lot about her in the days to come." She looked at Ben again, questioningly this time.

Almost imperceptibly, he tossed his head toward the door. "Go," he said. "They need you." ill wanted to be here." "I know, but this is an emergency. You're not choosing them over us.

They just need you more than we do right now."

Something stole around her heart, warming the fringes of the chill that had come with Peter's words. She nodded, gave Dougie a hug, then, on impulse gave one to Ben. Without looking up, she opened the desk drawer, flipped through her address book for Nonny's number, and punched it out.

Paige was asleep on the red shag carpet in front of the fire when the phone rang. The noise was so out of place that she jumped up, but Nonny, who had been reading on her white wicker chair, simply extended an arm and picked it up.

"Hello?" she said with the same sweetness that was there night or day.

She listened, looked at Paige, and said, "No, of course, you didn't wake me Angie. Paige, here, was sleeping, and my little pumpkin's been sound asleep in her Portacrib for hours but it'll be another hour or two before I turn in.

Is something wrong? You sound breathless."

Paige came to her knees, ready to take the phone.

"Oh, dear," Nonny said, then, UUhhuh. Yes.... No, dear, it's really no bother at all. She woke up when the phone rang. Here she is."

"Angie?" Paige asked, squinting at the clock.

"Something awful's happened, Paige.

The balcony at the movie house collapsed during tonight's Henderson Wheel concert."

"What?"

"Scores of people have been hurt.

Peter just called. I'm on my way to Tucker General now.

. n 7 w n R

They'll need every able hand. It must be a madhouse there. I hate to ask you to drive back from Nonny's, but there's a good chance some of our kids were at that concert."

Paige pressed a hand to her chest. "More than a good chance. Jill was there with her friend.

They're ours. It collapsed?"

"That's what Peter said. Will you come?"

"I'm on my way. Angie, are there any" She broke off, but Angie understood.

"I don't know. We'll find out soon enough."

Paige hung up the phone and told Nonny what had happened. "Tucker isn't prepared to handle anything like this." Her thoughts swirled.

"Mara always predicted a fire, so instead of burns we have crushed bodies. I have to go."

"Of course you do."

"But I can't take Sami." Especially not if Jill had been hurt.

"She'll stay here with me."