Brian called…

"You caught that, hm? Busted by my own assistant."

"I'm sorry. Really."

"You know how it goes," Dance said, noting she'd spoken one of those sentences that were meaningless flotsam in a conversation.

"Sure."

Dance turned to see how her mother was coming with dinner. She saw O'Neil's wife looking at the two of them. Anne smiled.

Dance smiled back. She said to O'Neil, "So, let's go join the sing-along."

"Do I have to sing?"

"Absolutely not," she said quickly. He had a wonderful speaking voice, low with a natural vibrato. He couldn't stay on key under threat of torture.

After a half-hour of music, gossip and laughter, Edie Dance, her daughter and granddaughter set out Worcestershire-marinated flank steak, salad, asparagus and potatoes au gratin. Dance sat beside Winston Kellogg, who was holding his own very well among strangers. He even told a few jokes, with a deadpan delivery that reminded her of her late husband, who had shared not only Kellogg's career but his easy-going nature-at least once the federal ID card was tucked away.

The conversation ambled from music to Anne O'Neil's critique of San Francisco arts, to politics in the Middle East, Washington and Sacramento, to the far more important story of a sea otter pup born in captivity at the aquarium two days ago.

It was a comfortable gathering: friends, laughter, food, wine, music.

Though, of course, complete comfort eluded Kathryn Dance. Pervading the otherwise fine evening, like the moving bass line of Martine's old guitar, was the thought that Daniel Pell was still at large.

Kathryn Dance was sitting in a cabin at the Point Lobos Inn-the first time she'd ever been in the expensive place. It was an upscale lodge of private cabins on a quiet road off Highway 1, south of Carmel, abutting the rugged and beautiful state park after which the inn was named. The Tudor-style place was secluded-a long driveway separated it from the road-and the deputy in the Monterey Sheriff's Office car stationed in front had a perfect view of all approaches, which was why she'd picked it.

Dance checked in with O'Neil. At the moment he was following up on a missing person report in Monterey. Calls to TJ and Carraneo too. TJ had nothing to tell her, and the rookie agent said he was still having no luck finding a cheap motel or boardinghouse where Pell might be staying. "I've tried all the way up to Gilroy and-"

"Cheap hotels?"

A pause. "That's right, Agent Dance. I didn't bother with the expensive ones. Didn't think an escapee'd have much money to spend on them."

Dance recalled Pell's secret phone conversation in Capitola, the reference to $9,200. "Pell's probably thinking that's exactly what you're thinking. Which means…" She let Carraneo pick up her thought.

"That it'd be smarter for him to stay in an expensive one. Hm. Okay. I'll get on it. Wait. Where are you right now, Agent Dance? Do you think he-?"

"I've already checked out everybody here," she assured him. She hung up, looked at her watch again and wondered: Is this harebrained scheme really going to do any good?

Five minutes later, a knock on the door. Dance opened it to see massive CBI Agent Albert Stemple towering over a woman in her late twenties. Stocky Linda Whitfield had a pretty face, untouched by makeup, and short red hair. Her clothes were a bit shabby: black stretch pants with shiny knees and a red sweater dangling threads; its V-neck framed a pewter cross. Dance detected no trace of perfume, and Linda's nails were unpolished and cut short.

The women shook hands. Linda's grip was firm.

Stemple's brow lifted. Meaning, Is there anything else?

Dance thanked him and the big agent set down Linda's suitcase and ambled off. Dance locked the door and the woman walked into the living room of the two-bedroom cabin. She looked at the elegant place as if she'd never stayed anywhere nicer than a Days Inn. "My."

"I've got coffee going." A gesture toward the small kitchen.

"Tea, if there's any."

Dance made a cup. "I'm hoping you won't have to stay long. Maybe not even overnight."

"Any more on Daniel?"

"Nothing new."

Linda looked at the bedrooms as if choosing one would commit her to staying longer than she wanted to. Her serenity wavered, then returned. She picked a room and took her suitcase inside, then returned a moment later and accepted the cup of tea, poured milk in and sat.

"I haven't been on an airplane in years," she said. "And that jet…it was amazing. So small, but it pushed you right back in your seat when we took off. There was an FBI agent on board. She was very nice."

They sat on comfortable couches, a large coffee table between them. She looked around the cabin again. "My, this is nice."

It sure was. Dance wondered what the FBI accountants would say when they saw the bill. The cabin was nearly six hundred a night.

"Rebecca's on her way. But maybe you and I could just get started."

"And Samantha?"

"She wouldn't come."

"You talked to her then?"

"I went to see her."

"Where is she?…No, wait, you can't tell me that."

Dance smiled.

"I heard she had plastic surgery and changed her name and everything."

"That's true, yes."

"At the airport I bought a newspaper to see what was going on?"

Dance wondered about the absence of a TV in her brother's house; was it an ethical or cultural decision? Or an economic one? You could get a cable ready set for a few hundred bucks nowadays. Still, Dance noted that the heels of Linda's shoes were virtually worn away.

"It said there was no doubt he killed those guards." She set down the tea. "I was surprised by that. Daniel wasn't violent. He'd only hurt someone in self-defense."

Though, looked at from Pell's point of view, that was exactly why he'd slaughtered the guards. "But," Linda continued, "he did let somebody go. That driver."

Only because it served his interest.

"How did you meet Pell?"

"It was about ten years ago. In Golden Gate Park. San Francisco. I'd run away from home and was sleeping there. Daniel, Samantha and Jimmy were living in Seaside, along with a few other people. They'd travel up and down the coast, like gypsies. They'd sell things they'd bought or made. Sam and Jimmy were pretty talented; they'd make picture frames, CD holders, tie racks. Things like that.

"Anyway, I'd run away that weekend-no big deal, I did it all the time-and Daniel saw me near the Japanese Garden. He sat down and we started talking. Daniel has this gift. He listens to you. It's like you're the center of the universe. It's really, you know, seductive."

"And you never went back home?"

"No, I did. I always wanted to run away and just keep going. My brother did. He left home at eighteen and never looked back. But I wasn't brave enough to. My parents-we lived in San Mateo-they were real strict. Like drill instructors. My father was head of Santa Clara Bank and Trust."

"Wait, that Whitfield?"

"Yep. The multimillionaire Whitfield. The one who financed a good portion of Silicon Valley and survived the crash. The one who was going into politics-until a certain daughter of his made the press in a big way." A wry smile. "Ever met anybody who's been disowned by her parents? You have now… Anyway, when I was growing up they were very authoritarian. I had to do everything the way they insisted. How I made my room, what I wore, what I was taking in school, what my grades were going to be. I got spanked until I was fourteen and I think he only stopped because my mother told my father it wasn't a good idea with a girl that age… They claimed it was because they loved me, and so on. But they were just control freaks. They were trying to turn me into a little doll for them to dress up and play with.