W ith everything else going on, King had somehow found the time to set up an appointment with a security company based in Lynchburg. He watched from the front window as the van emblazoned with "A-1 Security" pulled up.

He met the sales representative at the front door and told him what he wanted. The man looked around the house, then eyed King. "You look familiar. Aren't you the guy who found a dead body?"

"That's right. I think you'd agree I need a security system more than most."

"Okay, but just so we're straight, our warranty doesn't cover stuff like that. I mean, if another dead body turns up, you don't get a refund or anything like that. That's like an act of God, okay?"

"Fine."

They agreed on what was to be done.

"When can you get to it?" King asked.

"Well, we're kind of backed up. If somebody cancels on us, we can pop you up higher on the list. I'll give you a call."

King signed the paperwork, they shook on it and the man left.

A s night came, King thought about calling Michelle and having her come over. He'd kept her in the dark pretty long, and she'd been a trooper about it. Yet that was just his way. He always playedthings close to the vest, particularly when he was uncertain of the correct answer. Well, he felt more certain.

He called Kate Ramsey's apartment in Richmond. Sharon, the roommate, answered; Kate still hadn't turned up.

He told her, "Sit tight, and I'll let you know if she turns up. You do the same."

He hung up and stared out the big window at the lake. Normally when in a funk, he'd go out on the boat and think, but it was too chilly and windy for that. He turned on the gas fireplace, sat down in front of it and ate a simple meal. By the time he'd convinced himself to call Michelle he figured the hour was too late.

He thought about John Bruno's kidnapping. It was clear to King now that the man had been abducted because he had supposedly destroyed Arnold Ramsey's life with falsified homicide charges. Those charges had been dropped only after the intervention of a lawyer whose identity King now knew. He wanted very much to share this information with Michelle, and even glanced at the phone, thinking he might call her despite the lateness of the hour. It could wait, he decided. Next King thought about what Kate told them she had overheard. Or thought she had overheard. The name Thornton Jorst, supposedly uttered by the mystery man to her father. But King was convinced that what the man had actually said was not Thornton Jorst, but "Trojan horse."

And something else Kate said was troubling him. According to her, Regina Ramsey said a police officer was killed during a war protest, and implied that the incident damaged Arnold Ramsey's academic career. But Kate also told them the University of Berkeley let her father receive his Ph.D. because he'd already earned it. Kate had to know they could easily discern that 1974 was when Ramsey received his Ph.D. and easily conclude that the protest wasn't about the war. Why had she done that? No answer to that question came to mind.

He looked at his watch and was surprised to find it was aftermidnight. After making sure all the doors and windows were secured he carried the gun Michelle had given him upstairs. He locked his bedroom door, then slid a bureau across it for added security. He checked to make sure the gun was fully loaded and that a round was in the chamber. He undressed and crawled into bed. The gun on the nightstand beside him, he soon fell asleep.