ith his briefcase in one hand and his coat over his arm, Matt stopped at the desk of the secretary who'd helped him prepare the conference room the day Meredith came. "Good morning, Mr. Farrell," she said.

Displeased by the sulky hostility in her tone and face, Matt made a mental note to transfer her to another floor and instead of pleasantly asking her if she'd had a nice weekend, which he'd been about to do, he said coolly, "Eleanor Stern called me at home this morning to say she isn't feeling well. Fill in for her, will you?" It was an order, not a request, and they both knew it.

"Yes, of course," Joanna Simons replied, and she gave him a smile that was so genuine, so gleeful, Matt almost wondered if he'd misjudged her.

Joanna waited until Haskell's new—and unwanted— president had disappeared into his office, then she rushed over to the receptionist's desk. She'd been hoping to take it easy while her new boss was out of town. This opportunity to work for Farrell, however, offered her an unexpected and exciting opportunity. "Val," she whispered to the receptionist, "did you keep the name and phone number of that reporter from the Tattler who called you to get some info on Farrell?"

"Yes, why?"

"Because," she said triumphantly, "Farrell just told me I'm supposed to fill in for hatchet-face today. That means I'll have the keys to her desk." She glanced up to make certain the other secretaries whose desks fanned around the reception area in a broad circle were all busy and preoccupied. Most of them didn't share her animosity for Matthew Farrell, they hadn't been here as long, and their loyalties had been more easily transferred from the old team to the new owner. "Tell me again what that reporter wanted to know."

"He asked how we felt about Farrell and I told him some of us couldn't stand him," Valerie said. "He asked if I ever put calls through to him from Meredith Bancroft or if she came here. He was especially interested in whether or not they're really as friendly as they acted in their news conference. I told him I didn't take Farrell's calls and that Meredith Bancroft had been here only once, for a meeting with Farrell and his attorneys. He wanted to know if anyone else had been in on the meeting, and I told him I knew hatchet-face had been in there, because I had to take her calls out here. He asked if I thought she sat in on it to take notes. I told him she takes notes on almost every meeting he has, and he asked if I could get my hands on those notes from the Bancroft meeting. He said they'd pay for any info on that meeting that we could get for him. He didn't say how much he'd pay though."

"It doesn't matter. I'd do this for free!" Joanna said bitterly. "He'll have to unlock the old bat's desk for me to use today. Maybe he'll unlock the file cabinets too. Those meeting notes should be in one of those two places."

"Let me know if I can help," Valerie said.

When Joanna walked into Eleanor Stern's office, she found that Farrell had already unlocked his secretary's desk and left it open for her to use, but that the file cabinets were still locked. A brief sketchy search of the desk revealed nothing but supplies and a drawer full of nonconfidential files on Haskell's operation. There was nothing about Bancroft. "Damn," she said under her breath, swinging around in her chair and glancing through the door that connected this office with Farrell's. He was standing, looking at the computer on the credenza behind his desk. No doubt he was checking on Haskell's production reports from its factories over the weekend—or some massive stock portfolio he owned, she thought with growing hatred for the man who couldn't be bothered remembering her name... who had fired their bosses and changed their benefit packages and salary structures.

Leaning farther back in her chair, Joanna could see the front of his desk. His desk keys were protruding from the lock in the center drawer. The keys to the files would either be on that ring or in one of his desk drawers.

"Good morning," Phyllis said, following Meredith into her office. "How was your weekend?" she asked, then she bit her lip and looked mortified by her question. She had obviously heard about the fistfight Saturday, Meredith realized, and at that moment she didn't care. She was so happy, she felt buoyant. Pausing in the act of unlatching her briefcase, Meredith sent her a wry, laughing look. "How do you think it was?"

"Would exciting be the right word?" Phyllis ventured, smiling back.

Meredith thought of Matt's lovemaking, the things he'd said and done to her, and her whole body felt deliriously warm. "I'd say that's a pretty apt word," she said, hoping she didn't sound as dreamy as she felt. With an effort she pulled her thoughts from the weekend and made herself think about the work she had to do before she could see Matt again tonight. "Any phone calls this morning?"

"Just one—Nolan Wilder. He wants you to call him back as soon as you get in."

Meredith froze. Nolan Wilder was the chairman of Bancroft's board of directors, and she had little doubt he was calling to demand an explanation of Saturday night's debacle. Which, in the clear light of morning, struck her as being an act of monumental gall, given that Wilder's own divorce had been so ugly and bitter that it had taken two years to get through the courts. "Get him on the phone for me, will you?" she asked.

A minute later, Phyllis buzzed her. "Wilder's on the line."

Pausing a few seconds to compose herself, Meredith picked up the phone and said in a bright, firm voice, "Good morning, Nolan. What's up?"

"That's what I was going to ask you," he said in the cool, ironic tone he used during board meetings and which Meredith particularly loathed. "I've had calls from board members all weekend demanding explanations for that business Saturday night. I shouldn't have to remind you, Meredith, that Bancroft's image, the dignity of its name, is the foundation of its success."

"I hardly think I need to be told that," Meredith said, forcing herself to sound more amused than angry. "It's—" She broke off as Phyllis rushed in, her face stricken.

"You have an emergency call from MacIntire in New Orleans on line two."

"Hold on, Nolan," Meredith said, "I have an urgent call." Alarm was screaming through every fiber of her body as Meredith answered the phone. Maclntire's voice was taut. "We've had another bomb threat here, Meredith. It was phoned to the police department a few minutes ago. The caller said the bomb is set to go off in six hours. I've ordered the store cleared and the bomb squad is on the way. We're following the usual procedure for evacuation, just as we did last time. I think the call's from the same crank who made the last one."

"It probably is," she said, fighting to keep her voice level and her thoughts clear. "The minute you can get back inside, start putting together a list of anyone at all who might have a reason to want to put us through this. Have your security manager draw up a list of everyone who was detained for shoplifting, and have your credit manager give us a list of everyone denied credit in the last six months. Mark Braden, who heads our security division, will fly down there tomorrow to work with your people. Now, get out of there—just in case it wasn't a crank."

"Right," he said reluctantly.

"Call me from wherever you decide to go and give me your phone number so we can keep in touch."

"Got it," he said. "Meredith," he added, "I'm really sorry about this. I don't know why this store is suddenly a target. I assure you we bend over backward for customers, in keeping with company policy, and—"

"Adam," she interrupted emphatically, "get out of that store!"

"Okay."

Meredith hung up and punched the button for the line where she'd left Wilder on hold. "Nolan," she said, "I don't have time to talk about a board meeting now. The New Orleans store just had another bomb threat."

"This is going to play hell with Christmas profits," he predicted furiously. "Keep me posted, Meredith, you know where to reach me."

Meredith mumbled a distracted promise, and then launched into action. Looking at her secretary, who was hovering anxiously in the doorway, she said, "Have the paging operator give out the emergency code. Hold all my calls unless they're critical, and if they are, put them through to me in the conference room."

When her secretary left, Meredith stood up and began to pace, telling herself this was nothing but a false alarm. On the store's intercom system the emergency code was already beginning to ring—three short bells followed by three long ones—notifying all department heads to assemble immediately in the designated emergency location, which was the conference room adjoining Meredith's office. The last time that emergency code had to be used was two years before, when a shopper had died of a heart attack in the store. Then, like today, the purpose for assembling everyone was primarily to keep them informed and, therefore, prevent a hysterical outbreak of gossip among the employees, and to plan what information would be given to the press. Like most large corporations, Bancroft & Company had an established set of procedures for dealing with emergencies such as personal injuries, fires... and even bomb scares.

The possibility that a bomb might actually explode in New Orleans and injure people was more than Meredith could bear to contemplate. The thought of a bomb going off after the store was cleared was less horrifying but sickening nonetheless. Like all the Bancroft branch stores, the New Orleans store was beautiful, distinctive, and new. In her mind, Meredith saw its splendid white-pillared façade gleaming in the sunshine, then she saw it exploding and collapsing, and she shuddered. There wasn't a real bomb in it, she told herself, it was another false alarm. A false alarm that would cost the store dearly in lost Christmas profits.

The store's executives were hurrying past her doorway, assembling in the conference room, but Mark Braden, according to established procedure, came straight into her office. "What's happening, Meredith?"

Meredith told him, and he swore under his breath, looking at her in angry consternation. When she finished telling him about the instructions she'd given MacIntire, he nodded. "I'll catch a flight out there in a few hours. We've got a good security man in that store. Between us and the police, maybe we can turn up something that will point to a suspect."

The atmosphere in the crowded conference room was heavy with tension and curiosity. Rather than sitting down at the conference table, Meredith walked to the center of the room, where she could be seen and heard more easily by the men and women who'd assembled there. "We've had another bomb scare in New Orleans," she began. "The bomb squad is on its way there. Since this is the second one we've had, we're going to be hit with a lot of calls from the press. No one... no one," she emphasized, "is to make any statements. Refer all inquiries from the media to public relations." She glanced at the P.R. director and said, "Ben, you and I can work out a statement after this meeting, and—" She broke off as the phone rang on the conference table. "Excuse me," she said, and picked it up.

The manager of the Dallas store sounded frantic. "We've had a bomb threat, Meredith! The caller told the police that the bomb is set to go off in six hours. The bomb squad is on the way, and we're clearing the store." Meredith automatically gave him the same instructions she'd given the manager of the New Orleans store, then she hung up the phone. For a moment she was unable to think, then she slowly looked at the assembly. "We've had another bomb threat—at the Dallas store. They're clearing it now. The call went to the police, just like the one in New Orleans, and the caller said the bomb is set to go off in six hours."

A flurry of furious exclamations and outraged curses erupted around the room, then died in the shock of the telephone shrilling yet again. The sound made Meredith's heart stop, but she reached out and picked it up. "Miss Bancroft," the policeman's voice said urgently, "this is Captain Mathison over at the First District. We've just received an anonymous phone call from a man who said a bomb has been placed in your store and is set to go off in six hours."

"Hold on," Meredith said, her dazed eyes leveling on Mark Braden as she stretched the receiver out to him. "Mark," she said, automatically following procedure for the Chicago store and handing the matter over to him. "It's Mathison."

She waited in a paralysis of fury and pain while Mark snapped questions at the captain, whom he knew well. After Braden hung up, he turned to the silent group in the conference room. "Ladies and gentlemen,"' he said, his voice tight with anger, "we've had a bomb threat against this store. We'll use the same procedure you're familiar with for fire. You all know what to do and say to your people. Let's get at it and get everyone out of here. If you're feeling panicky, Gordon," he snapped, looking straight at Meredith's problem vice president who'd started to mumble frantically, "keep it to yourself until your staff has cleared out!" He threw a quick glance at the other faces in the room. They looked tense but composed, and he nodded curtly, already turning to leave and instruct his own staff to supervise the evacuation procedures. "In case you don't normally use them," he called behind him, "don't forget to take your pagers with you when you leave."

Within ten minutes Meredith was the only one present on the executive floor. Standing at her window, she listened to the sirens wailing and watched as more fire trucks and squad cars jammed into Michigan Avenue to reinforce those that were already there. From her vantage point fourteen stories above street level, she watched the police cordoning off the store and shoppers pouring out of it in droves, while the knot in her chest grew and twisted until she could hardly drag air through her lungs. Although she'd ordered the heads of the other two stores to evacuate, she herself had no intention of leaving this one until she absolutely had to. This store lived and breathed for her; it was her heritage and her future; she refused to desert it or be driven out until the bomb squad needed it completely cleared. Not for a moment did she believe there was a bomb in any of her stores, but even if the threats were just that, the damage they were going to do to the company's profits would be great. Like many other department stores, Bancroft's depended on the Christmas season for over forty percent of its annual gross sales.

"It's going to be all right," she told herself aloud, She turned away from the window, her attention caught by the twin computer screens on her credenza. They were flashing now because the computers were updating sales figures from the Phoenix and Palm Beach stores. Reaching out, Meredith pressed the combination of keys that showed the Phoenix store's sales figures for this same day last year, and then those from the Palm Beach store, so that she could see the comparison. Both stores were doing much better this year than last, and she tried to take consolation from that. It dawned on her then that Matt might be near a radio and hear what was happening. Rather than worry him, she picked up the phone and called him. It felt strangely reassuring to know he'd be concerned.

Matt wasn't concerned when she told him what was happening, he was frantic. "Get out of that store, Meredith," he ordered. "I mean it, darling, hang up the phone and get the hell out of there!"

"Nope," she said softly, smiling at his autocratic command and alarmed tone. He loved her, and she loved hearing his voice whether he was calling her darling or issuing orders. "It's a hoax, Matt, just like the one a few weeks ago."

"If you don't leave that building," he warned, "I'm coming over there and hauling you out of there myself."

"I can't," she said firmly. "I'm like the captain on a ship. I don't leave until I know everyone else is safely out of here." She paused while he expressed his opinion of that with a long and eloquent curse. "Don't give me orders you wouldn't follow yourself," she said with a smile in her voice. "In less than a half hour we should be cleared out. I'll leave then."

Matt expelled his breath in a harsh sigh, but he stopped trying to persuade her to leave because he knew it was useless—and because he knew he couldn't get to her before thirty minutes and drag her out of there. "All right," he said, standing up and glowering worriedly at his office, "but call me when you're out, because I'm going to be going crazy until I know you are."

"I will," she promised. Teasingly, she added, "My father left his cellular phone in his desk. Do you want the number so you can reach me—in case the suspense gets too great?"'

"You're damned right I want the number."

Meredith opened the desk, took out the phone, and gave him the number.

When she hung up, Matt began to pace, too agitated to sit and wait without knowing what was happening to her. Raking his hand through his hair, he walked over to the window, trying unsuccessfully to see the roof of her building through the maze of skyscrapers. She was so cautious by nature that he could hardly believe she was insisting on staying in that damned store. He hadn't expected that. It hit him then that if he had a radio, he might be able to keep abreast of what was happening twelve blocks away as well as at Meredith's other stores. He didn't have one in his office, but he thought Tom Anderson did.

Turning away from the windows, he headed toward his secretary's office. "I'll be with Tom Anderson," he said, "extension 4114. If Meredith Bancroft calls me, I want that call put through to me there. Is that clear? It's an emergency," he warned her, wishing to God that Eleanor Stern were there.

"Perfectly clear, sir," she said, but Matt didn't notice the hostility in her tone. He was too worried about Meredith to notice a secretary; he was too worried to remember to take his keys out of his desk.

Joanna waited until the elevator doors closed behind him, then she turned and looked at his desk. His gold key ring was still in the center drawer. The third key she tried unlocked the file cabinets; the file on Meredith Bancroft was neatly labeled with her name and filed in its appropriate place, under B. Her palms perspiring with nervous excitement, Joanna removed the file and opened it. In it were some shorthand notes not yet transcribed, and which she didn't dare take the time to try to decipher— and a two-page typewritten agreement signed by Meredith Bancroft. The terms of that agreement made Joanna's eyes widen and her mouth slowly curve into a smile of malicious glee. The same man who Cosmopolitan magazine named as one of the country's ten most eligible bachelors—the man who dated movie stars and famous models and who women drooled over—that same man was having to pay his own wife five million dollars just to see him four nights a week for eleven weeks. He was also having to sell her some land in Houston she evidently wanted...

"I need a radio," Matt said without preamble as he stalked into Anderson's office. He saw it on the window-sill and turned it on. "The bomb squad is swarming all over Bancroft's. They've evacuated all three stores," he said disjointedly. He'd had dinner with Tom last Tuesday after his tumultuous meeting with Meredith, and Matt had told Tom all that led up to it. Now he glanced distractedly at his friend and added, "Meredith won't leave the damned store!"

Tom lurched forward in his chair. "My God! Why not?"

Meredith's call to tell Matt that she was out of the building was put through to him in Tom's office. Matt was still talking to her when the newscaster on the radio announced that a bomb had just been found in the New Orleans branch of Bancroft & Company and that the bomb squad was attempting to disarm it. It was Matt who had to tell her the news. Within the next hour another bomb was discovered in the Dallas store, and a third one was found in the toy department of the Chicago store.