"Yeah, well, why did Dad make us all go away in the first place?" Nicole said. "When we left that night, he said it was because Grandpa Nelson was sick. He didn't look sick to me when we got there. What do you think, Mom?"

"You know, that's what I was going to ask you two," Laura countered. "Did Dad say anything about how long he plans to stay in Michigan?"

"Nope," said Natalie, "even though we all kept asking him - especially Mike. He wants to be back here for baseball real bad, but Dad kept saying that you don't want us with you."

Laura stroked her daughter's hair. "You didn't believe that, did you honey?"

"No, I didn't," Natalie insisted, though she sniffled a bit. "None of us did."

"Boy, he's really gonna be mad when he finds out we got to come home," Nicole grinned.

"Let's not worry about that, girls. I just wish the boys were here too," said Laura. "But, hey, guess what? Grandma and Grandpa will be here later this morning."

"Let's make a cake for Grandpa!" Natalie suggested.

"Yeah!" Nicole added. "We had to leave with Dad instead of having his birthday party like we were supposed to that day."

"I remember," said Laura, as she once again pondered the details of that dreadful weekend.

"Jim, this is Laura. I wanted to just say that I'm sorry that yesterday things had to happen the way they did."

Laura had waited for the twins to go back up to their room to choose a board game. It was one of those rare monsoon-like days that drenched South Florida, otherwise the girls would be out in the neighborhood checking on their friends.

"It's not your fault, Laura." Jim Nelson sounded tired. "Though Steve is very angry indeed. He called a while ago from a campsite in the Upper Peninsula. It's got one of those long Indian sounding names I can't p.r.o.nounce. I wouldn't be surprised if he gave you a call."

"That's good, Jim. I need to talk to him to tell him that charges against me are being suspended."

"Oh, is that so? Maybe that'll change things. You know, I still don't know why he's h.e.l.l bent to keep the kids away from you. I keep telling him that the kids need their mother. They really want to go home, you know. Not just the girls, the boys too. Oh, well, Steve's put his foot down. I never remember him being this stubborn."

"I know what you mean. So Jim, how are you? You've been ill?"

"I'm fine," he said. "Had the flu right before Steve arrived with the kids, but I was better by the time they got here."

"Good. I'm glad you're okay."

"Well, you take care. Tell the little girls that I miss them, but that I'm glad they're back with you."

No sooner had Laura hung up with Jim Nelson than the phone rang. It was Steve.

"How did you manage that?" The snarl in his voice made Laura cringe. "I leave for a couple of days, and you send some kind of agent in to scare the h.e.l.l out of my dad? Some stranger drags off my daughters when I've left them in the care of their grandfather. I never suspected you'd stoop so low."

"No stooping, Steve. It was all legal," Laura said evenly. "Court order."

"Right. Well, I gotta give it to you and your lawyers. G.o.d, I can only imagine how much this is costing. With neither of us working, we can't afford all this legal stuff."

"It shouldn't go on much longer," Laura announced. "The D.A. here is getting ready to suspend the charges against me. All I know is, I'm going to be free very, very soon."

"What? You're getting off? How?"

"You sound like you don't believe it," Laura said. "But the police have another suspect. It's that guy Kim Connor was dating."

"Suspect?" Steve's voice went hoa.r.s.e. Less hostile and angry - more shaky, concerned. "What do you know?"

"They won't give me any details, but they do want to talk to you. Remember how you said the guy beat her up? They think she must have told you stuff about him that might help them locate the guy."

"I don't know a d.a.m.ned thing about that creep."

"Unfortunately, I now know about how cops operate. Like how they press people for details that lay folks just aren't even thinking about."

"Exactly. You just tell them that I know nothing."

"And Chuck Dimer," Laura went on, "the private investigator that Greg hired, wants to talk to you too."

"And how can we afford a private investigator?" Although Steve's comment sounded petulant, Laura detected underlying panic. "No way I'm talking about Kim to anyone. I don't know a G.o.dd.a.m.n thing about her personal life. She's already caused me enough trouble. My marriage. My job. No more."

"I can tell you that the police are going to insist. And so is Chuck. Because when they catch this guy and indict him, then I'm off the hook. Period. Charges go from being suspended to being dropped. The sooner the better. When are you coming back to Tampa?"

Steve's side of the line was silent.

"Did you know that the mob is involved?" Laura pressed.

"For G.o.d's sake, Laura, of course not."

"Well, Frank Santiago is a major figure, and the Tampa cops are hot to bring him in. So, Steve, your theory about me and my crime of pa.s.sion just isn't going to fly. You've got to tell the boys. According to the twins, you still think that I pulled the trigger on that gun. Now will you explain this to the boys?"

There was a long pause. "Are you sure about all this?"

"Completely," Laura said. "Now will you explain it to the boys?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Can I talk to them?" Laura asked.

"No, we're at a state park in the wilderness. Kids're in the recroom."

"They're all okay?"

"Having a ball. Fishing. Hiking. Sleeping in tents. All that father-son stuff. Listen, there is one thing," he continued reluctantly. "I had to take Patrick to a doctor on the way up here. In Cheboygan. Turns out it was nothing."

"What?" Now Laura heard panic in her own voice. "What's the matter with Patrick?"

"Nothing. Just nerves."

"Nerves? No way, Patrick's the most happy-go-lucky child I know. What kind of symptoms did he have? Tell me, Steve."

"Hey, don't get so uptight. The doctor said it was nothing. Just a rapid heartbeat and he wears down easily. But they did blood tests and everything checked out."

Laura's medical mind scanned the possible causes of fatigue and tachycardia in an eight-year-old. All conjured the specter of dread. Was it his heart? But she'd had his heart murmur thoroughly checked out by a pediatric cardiologist - it was only a patent foramen ovale. In most children a small, slit-like opening between the upper two chambers of the heart closes off after birth, but in some it stays open. If that was the only defect, as in Patrick's case, it was of no clinical significance.

So Patrick's basic blood work had been okay. That must have included a CBC - complete blood count. Any type of anemia or even leukemia would be unlikely. Was it anxiety? Could all this be affecting Patrick to the point of physical symptoms? Her most carefree child, who basked in Steve's attention, and laughed off the occasional accusation that he was spoiled rotten. Could he be that disturbed? Better that than a real physical illness, thought Laura, yet her concern mounted.

"Give me the doctor's phone number, and I'll call him just to check everything out."

"That's unnecessary. I'll check with Dr. Chambers, my old family doctor in Traverse City, if he has any more symptoms. I'm just having him take it easy."

"Steve, I insist."

"Look, I said he was okay, and I don't have the phone number. Name's Pope. Cheyboygan."

"Hey, Mom," Nicole yelled. "Can Nattie and I go over to Alison's?"

"Hang on, Steve," Laura said, not sure that she wanted her daughters out of her sight even if it was just across the street.

"Why don't you have her come over here?" she suggested.

"She doesn't even know we're home yet," Nicole hollered back from somewhere upstairs. The sounds of her girls back home filled Laura's heart - but back to Patrick.

"Please, Mom!"

"Okay, just for a few minutes, then come right back. Grandma and Grandpa are coming."

"Can Alison come over?" Natalie had bounded down the stairs and now stood next to her. "Who are you talking to, Mom?"

"Dad," Laura said. "Of course Alison can come over."

"Can I talk to him?" Natalie asked.

"Yes, you may, but don't hang up. I'm not through talking yet."

"Hi Dad, how're you doing?" asked Natalie.

Laura stood nearby, only half-hearing Natalie's side of the conversation. Could Steve be right about Patrick? Just nerves? A normal reaction of an eight-year-old to the type of stress he'd had heaped on him these last few weeks?

"Yeah, it's good to be home," Natalie went on. "Nope, we got home late. Almost midnight. But Alison's coming over. Are the boys okay? Okay, Dad. I love you. I'll go get her." She put down the phone and yelled up the stairs. "Nicky! Dad wants to talk to you!"

"I don't want to talk to him," Nicole called back.

"Come on, you're gonna hurt his feelings."

Nicole whizzed down the stairs. "So what? So why'd he go off and leave us, huh? He didn't have to go off camping and leave us alone with Grandpa Nelson."

Natalie walked back to the phone. "Dad? Uh ... Nicky's busy doin' stuff. "But Mom wants to talk to you again. Here."

Laura reached for the phone.

"So Nicole won't even talk to me?" Steve began. "What's she been saying anyway?"

"Saying?" Laura repeated. "Saying about what?"

"About - Never mind. Is she okay? Has she said -"

"She's fine. Just upset that you chose to leave her and go off with the boys. A natural response if you ask me."

"The girls would hate being off in the woods and you know it. Besides, you've got them now. Isn't that what you wanted?"

"You know as well as I do that all the kids belong here with me." She came close to blurting that she'd see to a permanent custody order very soon. "But are you sure Patrick's okay?"

"I think so," Steve answered. "I'll take him to Dr. Chambers if he doesn't perk up."

"Bring him home, Steve. If Patrick has something wrong with him, he belongs here with me. Maybe it's his heart."

"Hey, the specialists we saw said that he'd be fine, that the heart murmur wasn't serious. Remember?"

"But -"

"Look, I'm sure Pat'll be fine."

"Promise to call me if he's not, okay?" Laura needed to talk to Greg. How soon could she get to Michigan, and do whatever she had to do to get all her kids back?

He hesitated. "Okay. And when we get back to Dad's, let talk, Laura, really talk. I've been thinking. Now that they're going to drop those charges. Maybe if we moved. Somewhere far away. Away from all these bad memories. All of us."

"Move away from Tampa?" Laura was taken aback. Things were bad, but never once had she thought of running away.

"Look. I screwed up. I know that. What I did - Kim. How I left you alone in Tampa. How I doubted you when you said you didn't, you know, shoot Kim."

Laura realized that this was the first time he'd admitted this. "That really hurt me. And when you took off with the kids -"

"It was a bad mistake. I - thought maybe you couldn't cope with the kids with being indicted on those charges."

"Well, it almost destroyed me," Laura said as tears gathered and she realized that for the first time since the night she'd found Steve with Kim, they were really talking to each other. Tentative, primitive, but talking.

Steve's voice softened. "I'm sorry, Laura. For everything. I'll do anything to get my family back, but I can't come back to Tampa for a while."

"Why not?" Laura asked.

"It's nothing," he said. "I screwed up, that's all."

"So let's work out a visitation schedule so the kids see us both, but I'm not moving away from Tampa. In the meantime, can't you just bring the boys home?"

"It's not that simple," Steve mumbled.

"Why not?"

"I can't explain. I've got a lot to think about, but I'll talk to you soon."

"Okay. Bye, Steve."

For a long time Laura sat at the table in the kitchen alcove. She'd been so sure she wanted a separation from Steve. A divorce, eventually. But did she? Did she really know her own heart? Or had she been so humiliated by that night with Kim that she'd selfishly put her anger ahead of what was best for her kids and maybe even best for her once time had pa.s.sed? Or had her instinct that next day been right, that she and Steve had already drifted too far apart? That they would both be better off if they were free to live their lives separately and work out shared custody of their children? Roxanne had suggested a counselor. Maybe they should see a counselor.