"I'm serious!" Jimmy struggled to his feet, nearly losing his balance as the air mattress gave under his weight. He righted himself, then cupped a hand over his crotch. "I think we can work this out!"

LoriSue laughed again. "Whatever you did, undo it, Jimmy. I want my bid accepted by nine a.m. Monday or your naughty bits are going on the Minton Little League Web site and I'm going to e-mail everyone I know and tell them to have a look-with a magnifying glass, of course."

"Bitch."

"Good-bye, Jimmy." She turned to leave, clutching his balled-up clothing to her front

"This is all because of Joe Mills, isn't it?" Jimmy's voice was a high-pitched shriek. "He's doing you, too, isn't he? Did he do you and Charlotte together?"

She whirled around, suddenly seeing her husband for what he was-pathetic, and crazier than a hoot owl. "Joe Mills is in love with Charlotte, you idiot. And as amazing as this now sounds to me, I've never been unfaithful to you once in our entire marriage. Well, gotta run-gotta get these snapshots to my attorney."

LoriSue left, ignoring Jimmy's ranting. On her way out, she noticed that the little Nissan was gone from the drive, which meant her husband would have to drive home naked. That made her laugh.

LoriSue continued to chuckle as she drove along River Rock, seeing a shiny black Lincoln pass the opposite way. Her mind struggled to recall where she'd seen the driver, because he looked vaguely familiar; then she stopped worrying about it because her cell phone rang. Her lawyer was calling back!

Joe flipped through photo after photo of car license plates, garbage cans, mailboxes, front doors, people kissing, people parked in cars and simply walking down the street-each with a bright yellow streak through the center. Fine. He'd inspected them. Joe took the clipboard from the kid and scrawled his name, catching himself when, in his haste, he nearly wrote "Bellacera." Then he headed for the exit

Charlotte was going to kill him for being so late.

When his hand hit the door, Joe froze. Then, in one long, seamless movement, he raced back to the counter and ripped open all three envelopes, throwing prints into the air until he could find it again.

"Hey, man-what's the issue here?"

Joe sped through the images as fast as humanly possible, only half-noting that a group of people were now circled around him.

There it was-in his hand was a picture of two men he'd known in another life. "Two spies…" Joe's brain seized, "…twocreepy-looking guys…" He stared at the date at the corner of the photo-two days ago! They'd been in Minton at least two days!

Joe fought the sensory overload, the black, naked fear and rage that were trying to shut him down, trying to keep him from functioning. And that's when he heard a moan of anguish roar inside his soul, growing louder and louder in his head until he knew he couldn't contain it.

"No." The single word escaped in a whisper that no one else could hear.

"Oh for God's sake! What now?"

Charlotte had really, really hoped to have thirty seconds to use an actual mirror to apply her mascara and lipstick, but it looked like her beauty routine was going to take place in the car at a stoplight, as usual.

She raced into the kitchen, where Justin and Matt were flinging ice cream all over the floor in their effort-to assemble a cone for Hoover.

"Guys! Look at the mess! I just mopped the floor and we're supposed to have people over after the recital!"

That's when a shrill, high-pitched scream pierced everyone's eardrums. "Mama! I have a big rip in my tights!" Hank came running into the kitchen, her face a mask of despair.

Charlotte looked up from her bent position near the floor, where she was wiping up blobs of French vanilla with a damp paper towel. "We don't have another pair, Hank, and besides, you can't really see it."

"But all the other girls will make fun of me!" Hank began to cry. And as the boys raced put the back door with their cones, Charlotte pulled her daughter close. "It's going to be okay, sweetie, really. You can hardly tell. Now get your dance bag and make sure your ballet slippers are in there and let's get in the car."

"I don't want to dance in mined tights!"

"Then we'll stop at the drugstore on the way, but we can only get regular tights, because there's no time to go to the ballet store, Please just get in the car."

Where the hell was Joe?

"We got him!"

Charlotte turned to see Matt dragging Hoover through the back door by his collar. Justin's dress shirt was now smeared with ice cream. She sighed. They were hopelessly late, and Hank was going to have to endure a lecture from her old crone of a ballet teacher.

"Matt, put Hoover in the mudroom. Justin, run home and get a clean shirt. Be as quick as you can-we'll wait for you."

Hank's sobs had subsided into occasional hiccups as Charlotte used the van's visor mirror to apply a quick layer of Desert Rose to her lips and a coat of Brown-Black to her eyelashes, noting that she didn't feel pretty at all-she felt panicked.

Didn't Joe say he loved her?

Matt jumped in the van and slammed the door so hard that it startled Charlotte and she poked herself in the eye with the mascara wand.

"Shit!"

"Mama, my ballet slippers aren't in here."

Charlotte whipped her head around and through smarting eyes saw Hank fling everything out of her dance bag. That's when she knew it with certainty-she was going to lose it. Now.

"Then where the hell-?"

"Here they are!" Hank held up a pair of worn pink slippers aiid smiled. "Don't worry, Mama. Found 'em!"

Just then, Justin piled in the backseat, sporting a T-shirt advertising a Florida seafood shack that screamed: "We're proud to have crabs!" but at least it was clean.

"Let's roll, Mom" Matt said. After a moment he added, "Earth to Mother?"

Charlotte turned toward her son. He wasn't telling her something-she knew it! "Where did he go, Matt? What did Joe say when he left?"

Justin and Matt rolled their eyeballs toward each other while keeping their heads stationary, a very bad sign, Charlotte knew from experience.

"Tell me."

Matt shrugged. "He just said he'd be back in ten minutes. Maybe we should go without him."

"I'm late, Mama" Hank's voice sounded small and pitiful.

"Hold on a second, kids. Just stay in the car-I'll be right back."

Jimmy hoped to hell that the sound he heard was Brenda- or Belinda, he couldn't remember her name-coming back in the house. Maybe she'd agree to go get him a change of clothes.

Since he hadn't thought to bring sheets, there was absolutely nothing in the house he could use to drape over himself, so Jimmy sat down on the air mattress and bent his leg nonchalantly in a pose that he hoped looked sexy to Belinda-or Brenda.

His blood turned to ice the instant he saw them. Two men in black suits blocked the doorway. They stared at him with dark, cold eyes that did not reflect the stiff smiles on their faces. Jimmy felt his mouth open.

"Excuse me," one of them said, his voice thick with a foreign accent. "We saw the sign outside and hope, this house is still for sale "

"A friend of ours lives nearby," the other man said.

Jimmy had never shown a house naked before. He was so stunned he didn't know what to say.

"We hope you can help us find a house close to our friend."

Jinimy laughed, suddenly getting the joke. He started to look around for the hidden cameras. He should have guessed LoriSue would do something like this, the evil harpy. She'd pay for her little fun.