t's good to have you back." Lori set a steaming cup of coffee on Miranda's desk.

"I hope you feel that way by the end of the week. I'm about to run you ragged."

"I can handle it." Lori touched a hand to Miranda's arm. "I'm so sorry about Giovanni. I know you were friends. We all liked him so much."

"I know." His blood's on your hands. "He'll be missed. I need to work, Lori, to dive in."

"All right." She walked to a chair, poised her pencil over her notebook. "Where do we start?"

Deal with what needs to be done, Miranda told herself. One step at a time. "Set up meetings with carpentry—get Drubeck. He did good work on the Flemish display a couple of years ago. I need to talk to legal, to contracts, and we'll need to pull someone out of research. I want someone who can check data quickly. I'll need ninety minutes with Andrew, and I want to be notified the moment Mr. Boldari arrives. Arrange for lunch to be set up in the VIP lounge-make it for one o'clock and see if Andrew can join us. Check with restoration. I want to know when works in progress of our era will be completed. And invite Mrs. Collingsforth to be my guest any day this week for tea—again we'll use the VIP lounge."

"Going after her collection?"

The avaricious look sharpened Miranda's eyes. "I think I can convince her she'd enjoy seeing her paintings in this showing, with a nice, tasteful brass plaque saying 'on loan from the collection of.' "

And if she couldn't convince Mrs. Collingsforth, Miranda thought, she'd sic Ryan on her.

"I'll need measurements of the South Gallery. If they aren't on record here, get me a tape measure. I want them today. Oh, and I want to see a decorator."

Lori's busy pencil paused. "A decorator?"

"I have an idea for… atmosphere. I need someone inventive, efficient, and who knows how to take orders instead of giving them." Miranda drummed her fingers. Oh yes, she knew what she wanted, right down to the last inch of fringe. "I'll need a drawing board in here, and one delivered to my home. Send a memo to Andrew, requesting that I be copied on all steps of the publicity and all conceptions for the fund-raiser. Mr. Boldari is to be put through at any time and is to be accommodated in his wishes whenever possible."

"Of course."

"I'll need to talk to security."

"Check."

"In four weeks, ask me for a raise."

Lori's lips curved. "Double check."

"Let's get started."

"One thing." Lori flipped her book closed. "You had a message on your machine. I left it on. It was in Italian, so most of it was lost on me."

She rose, moved over to click back the counter on Miranda's machine, punched it in. Immediately there was a flood of excited, emotional Italian. Mildly irritated, Miranda stopped the recording and began again with her mind adjusted to translate.!!!Dr. Jones, I must speak with you. I try to reach you here.!!!There is no one else who will believe me. I am Rinaldi, Carlo Rinaldi. I found the lady. I held her. I know she is real. You know this is true. The papers, they said you believed in her. No one will listen to me. No one pays attention to a man like me. But you, you are important. You are a scientist. They will listen to you. Please, you will call me. We will talk. We know what we know. It must be proven. No one listens. Your mother, she tosses me out of her office. Tosses me out like a beggar or a thief. The government, they think I help make a fraud. This is a lie. A terrible lie. You know this is a lie. Please, we will tell everyone the truth.

He recited a phone number, twice, and repeated his plea.

And now he was dead, Miranda thought as the message ended. He'd asked her for help, but she hadn't been there. Now he was dead.

"What was it?" Concerned by the devastated look on Miranda's face, Lori reached out to touch her arm. "My Italian's limited to pasta orders. Is it bad news?"

"No," Miranda murmured. "It's old news, and I was too late."

She clicked the delete button but she knew the message from the dead would play in her mind for a long time.

It was good to be back in the saddle, to have specific tasks and goals. Ryan had been right about that, she decided. She'd needed action.

She was in restoration, checking out the progress of the Bronzino personally, when John Carter came in.

"Miranda. I've been trying to track you down. Welcome back."

"Thanks, John, it's good to be back."

He removed his glasses, polished them on his lab coat. "It's terrible about Giovanni. I can't take it in."

She had a flash, the sprawled body, the staring eyes, blood. "I know. He had a lot of friends here."

"I had to make the announcement yesterday. The lab's like a morgue." He puffed out his cheeks, blew out a breath. "I'm going to miss the way he'd perk things up whenever he came in for a few days. Anyway, we all wanted to do something. We came up with a few ideas, but the one everyone liked best was having a tree planted in the park. A lot of us take our lunch break there in good weather, and we thought it would make a nice memorial."

"I think that's lovely, John. Something he would have liked very much."

"I wanted to clear it with you first. You're still lab director."

"Consider it cleared. I hope the fact that I'm management doesn't mean I can't contribute to the fund."

"Everybody knows you were friends—that comes first."

"You, ah, spent time with him when he came here, and whenever you went over to Standjo."

"Yeah, he used to say I was a branch in the mud." Carter smiled wistfully. "He meant stick, but I got such a kick out of it, I never corrected him. He'd talk me into going out and sharing a bottle of wine or a meal. He'd say how he was getting me out of my rut, how he'd teach me to flirt with the pretty girls. Then he'd ask to see the latest pictures of my kids."

His voice thickened, his eyes glistened with moisture before he turned away and cleared his throat. "So I'll, ah, arrange for the tree."

"Yes, thank you, John." She turned away herself, ashamed that she'd let Ryan's suspicions lure her into probing into the man's grief.

"Meanwhile, um, I hope you'll get back to the lab soon. You're missed."

"I'll be swinging through, but I've got a priority project for the next few weeks."

"New Renaissance display." He managed a smile again when she looked back at him. "If you could tap the grapevine around here, you'd have a hell of a potent wine. A major exhibit like that's just what we need after the bad taste we've got in our mouths over the break-in. Nice thinking."

"Yes, we'll…" She trailed off, spotting Detective Cook as he wandered in. "Sorry, John, I'd better deal with this."

"Yeah… I don't know why." He lowered his voice to a whisper. "He makes me nervous. Looks like he suspects everybody of doing something."

With barely a nod for Cook, he scurried out, his dusty shoes scarcely making a sound.

"Detective? What can I do for you?"

"This is some setup you've got here, Dr. Jones." Rather than take out what he thought of as his close-up glasses, he squinted at the painting. "That's the real thing, isn't it?"

"Yes, it's a Bronzino. Sixteenth-century Italian Renaissance artist. The Institute is very pleased to have it. The owners have agreed to lend it to us for display."

"Mind if I ask what she's doing there?"

The restorer barely glanced at him, giving him one flick of a look from behind her magnifying goggles. "The painting was part of a collection, long neglected, of a recluse in Georgia," Miranda said. "This piece, as well as several others, suffered some damage—dirt, damp, direct sunlight for an unfortunate period of time. It's been cleaned. In itself that's a slow, careful process. We can't risk damaging the work, so it takes a great deal of time and skill. Now we're attempting to repair some damage to the paint. We use only ingredients which would have been available when the painting was created, so as to preserve its integrity. This takes research, talent, and patience. If we've done our job, the painting will be as it was when the artist finished it."

"A lot like police work," he commented.

"Is it?"

"It's a slow, careful process—you can't risk damaging the case. You only use information that comes through it. It takes research, a kind of talent," he said with a ghost of a smile. "And a hell of a lot of patience. You do it right, you got the whole picture when you're done."

"A very interesting analogy, Detective." And one that made her incredibly nervous. "And are you getting the whole picture?"

"Just bits and pieces, Dr. Jones. Just bits and pieces." He dug around in his pocket and came up with an open pack of Juicy Fruit. "Gum?"

"No, thank you."

"Quit smoking." He took out a piece, carefully unwrapped it and put the paper and the foil into his pocket again. "Still driving me nuts. Got this patch on, but it's not all it's cracked up to be, let me tell you. You smoke?"

"No, I don't."

"Smart girl. Me, I used to suck down two packs a day. Then it got to be you can't smoke here, you can't smoke there. You're catching a couple drags in some closet or going outside in the rain. Makes you feel like a criminal." He smiled again.

Miranda barely resisted shifting her feet, and instead imagined herself tapping her foot, snapping her fingers. "I'm sure it's a difficult habit to break."

"An addiction's what it is. It's a hard thing to face up to, an addiction. It can take over your life, make you do things you wouldn't do otherwise."

He knew about Andrew's drinking. She could see it in his eyes, and thought he wanted her to see it. "I never smoked," she said flatly. "Would you like to go to my office?"

"No, no, I won't keep you long." He drew a breath of air that smelled of paint and turpentine and commercial cleaner. "Didn't think I'd run into you at all, since I'd been told you were out on leave. Took a little vacation?"

She started to agree. She wasn't sure if it was instinct or simple fear that stopped her. "I'm sure you're aware that I was told to take leave, Detective, due to the break-in here, and some difficulties that came out of my trip to Florence last month."

She was quick, he thought, and not easily tripped. "I heard something about it. Another bronze piece, right? You had some trouble authenticating it."

"I don't think so. Others do." She moved away from the painting, well aware ears were pricked.

"It caused you some trouble anyway. Two bronzes. Funny, don't you think?"

"There's nothing funny to me about having my reputation on the line."

"I can understand that. Still, you only had to stay out a few days."

This time she didn't even hesitate. "It would have been longer, but we're beginning an important project that falls into my specific field of knowledge."

"Somebody mentioned that to me. And I heard about your man in Italy. The murder. That's a rough one."

Distress came into her eyes, made her look away. "He was a friend. A good one."

"Got any idea who'd take him out that way?"

She looked back now, coldly. "Detective Cook, if I knew who had crushed my friend's skull, I'd be in Florence, talking to the police."

Cook moved the gum to the other side of his mouth with his tongue. "I didn't know they'd released the fractured skull."

"My mother was informed," she said in the same chilly voice, "as was Giovanni's family." She could only pray that was true. "Are you investigating his murder, or our burglary?"

"Just curious. Cops are curious." He spread his hands. "I came in because your brother's got a theory on how maybe the two incidents are connected."

"Yes, he told me. Do you see a connection?"

"Sometimes you don't see it until you're on top of it. You also authenticated the, ah…" He took out his notebook, flipped through as if to refresh his memory. "Bronze David, sixteenth century, in the style of Leonardo."

Though she felt her palms go damp, she resisted rubbing them on her trousers. "That's correct."

"Nobody can seem to lay their hands on the paperwork for that, the reports, documents, pictures."

"Andrew told me that as well. I can only assume the thief took the authenticating documents as well as the bronze."

"That makes sense, but he'd have to know just where to look, wouldn't he? Camera blips only put him inside for…" He flipped pages again. "About ten minutes. He'd have to be fast as greased lightning to have added a trip to the lab for records. I did the route at a fast walk myself. Takes a full minute. That doesn't seem like much, but when you put it into an eight-to-ten-minute time span, it's a chunk."

She couldn't afford to allow her gaze to waver, her voice to weaken. "All I can tell you is the records were filed, and now they're missing, as is the bronze."

"You have many people work alone here at night, after hours? Like your friend in Florence."

"Occasionally, though it would only be senior staff. Security wouldn't allow anyone else entrance once the building was closed."

"Like you and your brother coming in the week after the burglary."

"Excuse me?"

"I got a statement here from your night security. He says that on March twenty-three, about two-thirty a.m., you called in and informed him you and Dr. Andrew Jones were coming in to do some lab work. Would that be accurate?"

"I wouldn't argue with it."

"That's late hours you keep."

"Not habitually." Her heart was stampeding in her chest, but her hands were steady enough as she realigned a loosened pin in her hair. "We decided to come in and get some work done while it was quiet. Is that a problem, Detective?"

"Not for me. Just keeping it tidy." He tucked his notebook away, scanned the room again. "You know, it's hard to find a paper clip out of place here. You and your brother run a tidy, organized place."

"At home he leaves his socks on the living room floor and never puts his keys in the same place twice." Was she getting too good at this? she wondered. Was she, in some nasty little way, actually starting to enjoy dancing with a cop?

"I bet you do—keep everything in its place, I mean. I bet you put everything in the same place every time. A routine, a habit."

"You could call it an addiction." Yes, she realized, in some small way she was enjoying it. Enjoying the fact that she was holding her own. "Detective, I have an appointment very soon, and I'm pressed for time."

"Didn't mean to keep you so long. Appreciate the time, and the explanation," he added, gesturing toward the painting. "Looks like an awful lot of work. Almost be easier to paint the whole thing over again."

"Then it wouldn't be a Bronzino."

"A lot of people wouldn't know the difference. You would." He nodded at her. "I bet you could spot a forgery just by eyeballing it."

She wondered if the blood had drained from her face or if it merely seemed that way. He'd gotten so close, and so quickly, while she'd been smugly congratulating herself on playing her part to perfection.

"Not always. A visual study isn't, can't be conclusive if the fake is well executed. It takes laboratory tests."

"Like the ones you run here, the ones you were doing in Florence last month."

"Yes, exactly like those." The sweat that ran in a thin trail down her back was ice cold. "If you have an interest, I can arrange a demonstration. But not at the moment," she said with a glance at her watch. "I really—" She broke off, swamped by a war of relief and nerves when Ryan came through the door.

"Miranda. How nice to see you again. Your assistant said I might find you here." Butter smooth, he took her hand, brought it to his lips. "I'm sorry, I'm a bit late. Traffic."

"That's all right." She heard the words but couldn't feel her own mouth move. "I've been tied up for a while. Detective Cook—"

"Oh yes, we met, didn't we?" Ryan offered a hand. "The morning after the burglary here. Has there been any progress?"

"We're working on it."

"I'm sure you are. I don't mean to interrupt. Shall I wait for you in your office, Miranda?"

"Yes. No. Are we finished for now, Detective?"

"Yes, ma'am. I'm glad to hear you're not put off by the theft here, Mr. Boldari. Not everyone would loan a gallery all that art after its security was breached."

"I have every confidence in Dr. Jones, and the Institute. I'm sure my property will be well protected."

"Still, it wouldn't hurt to add on a few men."

"It's being done," Miranda told Cook.

"I could give you the names of a couple of good cops who moonlight in private security."

"That's very kind of you. You could give the names to my assistant."

"No problem, Dr. Jones. Mr. Boldari." There was something between those two, Cook thought as he headed out the door. Maybe it was just sex. And maybe it was something else.

And there was something, a definite something, about Boldari. Maybe everything about him checked out neat as pins in a cushion, but there was something.

"Ryan—"

He cut Miranda off with an almost undetectable shake of the head. "I'm sorry you haven't recovered your property."

"We, ah, haven't given up on it. I've arranged for lunch in our VIP lounge. I thought that would give us time to go over some of the plans for the exhibit."

"Perfect." He offered her his arm. "I'm anxious to hear your plans in more detail." He walked her down the hall, up the stairs, keeping up inane chatter until they were safely alone in the small, elegant lounge. "Had he been grilling you for long?"

"It seemed like all my life. He talked about forgeries, wanted to know if I could detect one by just looking."

"Really." The table was already set for three, with appetizers of crackers and black olive pate on hand. He spread one. "He's a sharp cop, though the Columbo routine wears a little thin."

"Columbo?"

"Lieutenant Columbo." Ryan bit into the cracker. "Peter Falk, cheap cigar, rumpled trench coat." When she only looked blank, he shook his head. "Your education in popular culture is sadly lacking. Doesn't matter." He waved it away. "He may actually be some help in all this before it's over."

"Ryan, if he makes the connection, if he pursues that angle, it could lead him to you. You've got the forgeries."

"It won't lead him to me, or to you. And in a month, give or take a few days, I won't have the forgeries. I'll have the originals. And we'll both polish the smear off our reputations."

She pressed her fingers to her eyes and tried to bring back that momentary sense of satisfaction she'd experienced. It just wasn't there. "I don't see how this is going to work."

"You have to trust me, Dr. Jones. This is my particular field of expertise." He gestured toward the place settings. "Who's joining us?"

"Andrew."

"You can't tell him, Miranda."

"I know." She linked her hands together and came perilously close to wringing them. "He's trying to get his life back. I'm not going to add to his stress by telling him I'm involved in planning a robbery."

"If things go according to plan, it'll be a burglary, and," he added, taking her hands to soothe her nerves, "all we're doing is taking back what was stolen. So why don't we say you're involved in planning a recovery?"

"That doesn't make it less of a crime. That doesn't make me feel less guilty when Cook gives me that hound-on-the-scent look and asks me about forgeries."

"You handled him."

"And I was starting to enjoy it," she muttered. "I don't know what's happening to me. Every step I'm taking or planning to take is outside the law."

"Inside, outside." He gave a slight shrug. "The line shifts more often than you might think."

"Not my line, Ryan. My line's always been firmly dug in one place." She turned away. "There was a message on my phone machine here. From Carlo Rinaldi."

"Rinaldi?" He set down the cracker he'd just spread. "What did he want?"

"Help." She squeezed her eyes shut. She wasn't helping anyone, except possibly herself. What did that make her? "He asked me for help. No one believed him about the bronze. He must have gone to see my mother, because he said she tossed him out of her office. He said I was the only one who could help him prove the bronze was authentic."

"And that's what you're going to do."

"He's dead, Ryan. He and Giovanni are dead. There's nothing I can do to help them."

"You're not responsible for what happened to them. You're not," he insisted, turning her to face him. "Now ask yourself this…" He held her shoulders firmly, kept their gazes locked and on level. "Do you think either of them would want you to stop until you've finished? Until you're able to prove the bronze is genuine? Until by proving that, you're able to point the finger at whoever killed them?"

"I don't know. I can't know." She drew in a breath, let it out slowly. "But I do know I can't live with myself unless I do finish. One asked me for help, the other did me a favor. I can't stop until I've finished."

"The line's shifted, Miranda. Whoever killed them drew it this time."

"I want revenge." She shut her eyes. "I keep waiting to feel ashamed of that, but I don't. I can't."

"Darling, do you always question every human emotion you feel?"

"I suppose I've been feeling a lot more of them lately. It makes it difficult to think in a logical pattern."

"You want to think in a logical pattern? I'll help you. I want to hear your plans for the exhibition."

"No you don't."

"Of course I do. The Boldari Gallery is lending you some very important pieces." He lifted her hand to his lips. "I want to know what you intend to do with them. This is business."

"Ryan—" She wasn't sure what she wanted to say, and never had the chance to say it as Andrew opened the door and came in.

"Things are moving fast," he commented, eyeing the way Ryan nibbled on his sister's fingers.

"Hello, Andrew." Ryan lowered Miranda's hand, but kept it in his.

"Why don't the two of you tell me what's going on here?"

"Happy to. We decided to go ahead with our earlier plan for a cooperative loan between my gallery and your organization. Expanded on it. It has the benefit of raising a great deal of money for the NEA, and putting Miranda back where she belongs."

Ryan turned to the table, lifted a glass pitcher and poured three glasses of water. "Your mother was very enthusiastic about the project."

"Yeah, I've spoken with her." Which partially explained his sour mood, he supposed. "She told me you called her from New York."

"Did she?" With a smile, Ryan passed the glasses out. "I imagine she assumed that's where I was. Why don't we let her, and everyone else, go on assuming that? So much less complicated. Miranda and I prefer to keep our personal relationship private."

"Then you shouldn't stroll through the building holding hands. The gossip mill's already chewing up the grist."

"That's not a problem for me—is that a problem for you?" he asked Miranda, then continued smoothly before she could speak. "Miranda was about to tell me her plans for the exhibit. I have some ideas of my own for that, and the gala. Why don't we sit down and see what we can come up with?"

Deciding it was best, Miranda stepped between them. "This will be an important event for us, for me personally. I'm grateful that Ryan wants to go ahead with it. It got me back here, Andrew, and I need to be here. All that aside, an exhibit of this scope is something I've hoped to do for years. Which is one of the reasons I can move quickly on implementing it. It's been in my head a long time."

She laid a hand on his arm. "After what happened in Florence, Mother would never have given me this chance unless Ryan had demanded to work with me."

"I know. Okay, I know. Maybe it just takes me longer to switch gears these days."

"But you're all right?"

"I haven't had a drink. Day three," he said with a thin smile. And two nights of sweats and shakes and desperation. "I don't want to go there with you, Miranda."

"Okay." She let her hand drop. It seemed they both had their secrets now. "I'll tell catering we're ready for lunch."!!!It isn't fair, it isn't right. She has no business being back, being in charge again. I won't have her ruining my plans. I won't allow it. Years I've waited, sacrificed. The Dark Lady is mine. She came to me, and in that sly smile I saw a kindred spirit, a mind that could wait and watch and plan and accumulate power like coins in a jar. And in that smile I saw, finally, the means to destroy all of my enemies. To take what was mine, what was always mine.!!!I had ruined her. I had done it.

The hand that wrote began to shake, used the pen like a blade to stab at the page in the diary, viciously, until the room was full of ragged breathing. Gradually all movement stopped, and the breathing became slow and deep and even, almost trancelike.

Control was slipping, sliding out of those competent fingers, leaking out of that strong and calculating mind. But it could still be wrenched back. The effort was painful, but it could still be done.!!!This is only a reprieve, a few weeks in the eye of the storm. I'll find a way to make her pay, to make them all pay for what was denied me. The Dark Ladyis still mine. We've killed together.!!!Miranda has the forgery. It's the only explanation. The police don't have the weapon. How unlike her, how bold of her to go to Florence, to find a way to steal the bronze. I hadn't thought such actions were in her nature. So I didn't anticipate, didn't add the possibility into the equation.!!!I won't make that mistake again.!!!Did she stand and stare down at Giovanni? Was there horror and fear in her eyes? Oh, I hope so. Is fear dogging her still, like a baying hound snapping at her heels?!!!It is, I know it is. She ran back to Maine. Does she look nervously over her shoulder even as she strides down the hallowed halls of the Institute? Does she know, somewhere inside, that her time is short?!!!Let her have her reprieve, let her bask in the power she's done nothing to earn. It will be all the sweeter when she's stripped of it once and for all.!!!Id never planned to take her life as well. But plans change.!!!When she's dead, her reputation devoured by scandal, I'll weep at her grave. They will be tears of triumph.