Everyone turned to Rachael and she laughed. “Clay’s upset because he’s had to wing it alone with all of Johnny’s stocks and bonds.”

“I know Marc hasn’t heard from him either,” Alan confided. “Johnny hasn’t even called to find out if his condo sold and that’s a million-plus property.”

“But Johnny’s got a lot on his mind right now.” Laureen pointed out. “After all, his father just died and I’m sure he trusts us to take care of everything on this end while he sorts out things with his family.”

The elevator doors opened and Marc got out carrying the shortwave radio in both hands. The case was smashed in on top and loose wires dangled down in back.

“My God! What happened?” Hal gasped at the broken radio.

“That jolt we took must have loosened the shelves in Jack’s office. Either that, or we had some kind of aftershock. I found it under a pile of rubble.”

“I think we’re in big trouble.”

There was a frown on Hal’s face as he pried open the case and Vanessa stared up at him anxiously. “You can make it work again can’t you, honey?”

Hal gave a bitter laugh. “I’d have a better chance of fixing a busted balloon.”

SIX

“How much farther?” Grace leaned close to Paul and shouted into his ear. The roar of the big snowmobile’s engine made communication difficult.

“Five or six miles.”

Paul’s words were whipped away by the wind and Grace huddled as close as she could. “What did you say?”

Paul turned his head and shouted. “Five or six miles! Do you wish to rest?”

“No! I’ll turn into a solid block of ice if you stop.” Grace huddled down a little in the seat. They’d both dressed in winter parkas and ski masks, but it was less than thirty degrees outside and the wind chill brought that down to below zero.

“Drink the brandy, Grace. It will warm you.”

The snowmobile had come equipped with a plastic flask that fit in a holder on the dashboard. Grace reached for it and took a swallow. Flame’s boyfriend’s landlady’s cousin had told them that the man who’d designed the holder and flask had made millions.

Paul swerved to avoid a pine tree. His fingers felt frozen even though he’d worn his choppers. The fur-lined leather mittens had been a gift from his relatives in Norway and he’d never had occasion to wear them before. Tonight he yearned for the whole outfit, including the fur-lined leather cap with the earflaps and the heavy woolen pants his ancestors had worn. Grace had given him a pair of warm-up leggings from her dance wardrobe, but they weren’t designed for temperatures like this.

With great difficulty, Paul managed to pull up his sleeve to glance at his watch in the dim light from the dashboard. It was almost nine. They’d left Vegas at seven-thirty and it had only taken them twenty minutes to drive to the wall of snow in the road. Unloading the snowmobile had taken another five minutes, which meant they’d been out in this bitter cold for over an hour. They’d been forced to make several detours, and right now they were roughly paralleling the access road. Paul figured they should be able to see the lights of the building in a half hour or so. If they didn’t run into more obstacles. If the snowmobile kept on running. And if he didn’t smash into a snow-covered bump that was really a big rock.

They rode without speaking for what seemed like hours, with only the roar of the Arctic Cat’s powerful engine to break the silence. Their headlight’s narrow beam probed the frozen darkness and it reminded Paul of a bright yellow ribbon unwinding from an infinite spool. The moon was just rising over the tops of the trees and the snow seemed to glow with an icy blue light while the huge pines cast long purple shadows over its surface. If managing the snowmobile hadn’t taken all his concentration, Paul might have enjoyed the sight.

“You all right?” Paul shouted back to Grace.

Grace leaned forward so her lips were close to his ear and called back, “I’m as all right as I’m going to get. We’re almost there, aren’t we?”

“Yes, Grace. We are almost there.” Paul tried to sound confident, even though he wasn’t sure exactly where they were. The blanket of snow covered what landmarks the avalanche hadn’t covered, but there was no sense in alarming Grace. They’d get there. He headed toward the peak of the mountain like a sailor taking his bearing from the polestar.

Grace tucked her head down and let Paul’s body shield her from the full force of the wind. Even though the night was calm, the motion of the snowmobile created a blast of icy air past her face. She didn’t want to look at the scenery. She just wanted to get to the building before she froze to death.

While Paul had inspected the snowmobile and received last-minute instructions from the owner, Grace had called every hospital in Vegas to find out if Moira or Jayne had been admitted. Neither name had been listed, but that hadn’t changed their plans. They both had other reasons for making this long, cold trip.

Grace felt a little warmer as she thought of Vanessa. That damned woman made her blood boil. Perhaps it was a game to see how many men she could topple, but it was creating havoc in more than one household. Vanessa seemed to have one simple guideline: if a man was ambulatory and he belonged to someone else, she wanted to try him. And now she was snowbound without fresh victims. Would Vanessa turn to Moira when she ran out of men? Grace was betting on it.

As Grace sighed, her breath came out in a frozen cloud that was whisked away by the freezing wind. Moira was particularly vulnerable right now. She was forty-nine years old and gravity was taking its inevitable toll. She constantly complained about sagging and wrinkles and she couldn’t help but feel flattered that such a gorgeous young girl was interested in her. Naturally Grace was jealous, but that wasn’t the primary reason she was braving the elements to get up the mountain. She wanted to stop the woman she loved from making a fool of herself and getting badly hurt in the process.

Paul shouted something unintelligible and Grace leaned closer. “What was that?”

“The ridge!” Paul pointed off to the right. “We’re almost there!”

They were climbing the steep ridge in switchbacks and Paul knew it was studded with boulders. But even though most of his concentration was required for negotiating the difficult terrain, he couldn’t help but wonder what Jayne’s reaction would be when they arrived. He hoped that the song he’d taken as an invitation wasn’t just a song after all.

Walker had been skiing for over an hour before he reached the crest of Devil’s Slope. He stopped for a moment to catch his breath and adjust the bindings on his cross-country skis. From his high vantage point, he could see the lights of the building glimmering in the darkness, but he knew it was still miles away. Distances in the mountains were always deceiving, as he’d discovered on his first backpacking trip in Colorado. He’d set out one morning to hike to a mountain ridge that looked no more than an hour away. When he’d stopped by a stream to rest after four hours, the ridge still appeared an hour away. It had taken him the whole day to reach it.

With a sigh, Walker dug his poles into the crusty snow and pushed off again. There were two more ravines to negotiate and it was better to go slowly than risk snapping his ankle on the uneven terrain. Since no one knew he was coming, any serious injury meant he’d lie out here for days without being discovered.

Even though Walker had been anxious to start, he’d taken the time to find out that Jack was the injured party, hospitalized with a compound fracture and in stable condition. He was sorry that Jack was injured. He liked Jack. But at least it wasn’t Ellen.

Walker began to ski cautiously down the ravine. He knew his descent would be even more dangerous in the dark, but he couldn’t afford to wait until morning. He imagined what Ellen would say when she saw him lugging a backpack filled with dye. She’d probably tell him he was crazy. She certainly hadn’t needed supplies badly enough for him to hitch a ride on the KLV traffic helicopter and ski down from the ranger’s landing pad on the far side of the mountain, but it was a convenient excuse. The image of the loyal employee who slogged through the ice and the snow to deliver the goods made Walker chuckle. He’d never expected all this when Jack had called him in.