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think one of them wasted your bird?”
    “Not exactly.” He lifted a hand off the wheel for a moment and scratched the back of his neck .
    “Then what gives?”
    He shifted in the seat. “You remember I told you this Maria had gotten into some difficulty with the Doctor and the Missus?”
    “Right.” “Well, the specific difficulty had a lot more to do with the Doc than with his wife.”
    “Okay.”
    “He and the chef were having a fling.”
    So much for TV image. But certainly not a shock. I hadn’t laid eyes yet on Maria Andros, but Sylvia Clayton, though beautiful, looked like she would give any man a run for his money.
    “So why’d the doctor hire you then?” I asked.
    “Because he wanted to break off the affair and the chef didn’t.”
    “So he brings you in to find a reason to fire the chef.”
    “Uh-huh . . . Plus maybe give the young lady a reason to forget about him.”
    I looked across the seat at him. “What? Part of your job was to seduce her as well?”
    He said nothing, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel.
    “But I thought you said this Maria character hated you.”
    He shrugged. “Love. Hate. Two sides of the same coin.”
    Nicole sat up a little higher in her seat. “You slept with this woman, Jake?”
    Toronto nodded.
    “So you used her.”
    “If you want to call it that. Look, I was hired to convince her to leave her employer peacefully. It was a job.”
    “Some job,” she said.
    “Why didn’t you tell us about this sooner?” I asked.
    “I’m sorry, Frank. I should apologize to both of you. But I’ve developed a sudden case of doubt regarding Dr. Celebrity and I wanted to see what you thought without prejudice.”
    “What I think is the guy could charm tax money out of a libertarian ... what I think is that he and his wife seem to be carrying on something of a show, and it makes me wonder what might be going on beneath the surface.”
    He nodded. We were both silent for a minute. He had the air conditioning on and the windows rolled up, so looking out from our shade on the bright Virginia landscape was almost like staring into one of those glassed-in exhibits at the zoo.
    “Now that you’ve broken this chef’s heart,” Nicole said, “you think Clayton may have had second thoughts and gone back to whipping up some gourmet with her again?”
    “Exactly what I’ve been thinking.”
    “The doctor likes the danger.”
    “Probably.”
    “And you’re afraid he might tip off his on-again lover if we tell him what we’ve already found.”
    Toronto nodded. “That’s pretty much the story.”
    “Guess there’s only one way to find out,” Nicole said. “Go see the girl.”

10
     
    Finding Maria Andros took us on a rolling thirty-minute drive along the Jackson River into Bath County and the village of Hot Springs. Hot Springs is a resort town tucked into the mountains, famous for its mineral baths, around which stands the Homestead Resort, a brick and glass cathedral to fine old Virginia living built around the turn of the century. There is a majestic ballroom and private bowling lanes for guests, a golf course and riding stables, and, in the winter, an outdoor ice skating rink and ski slope. There is even a falconry barn, where, for a fee, a licensed falconer will take guests on educational “hawk walks.” Toronto and I have known the man who runs the operation for years.
    Down the road from the resort we found the chef’s address, a tidy frame house with flower boxes in the windows on the edge of the town near the stables. A blue Honda Accord was parked in the driveway. We stepped across the porch and rang the bell.
    After maybe thirty seconds the door opened and there stood a striking young woman with short, dark hair. Her lips were full and glossy, her skin almost brown. Her violet eye shadow matched a sleeveless shell over cutoff shorts that made the most of her long legs.
    “I don’t want to see you,” she said to Toronto.
    “This is important,” he