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waited.
    'Hel o,' he said at last. 'I want to speak with one of your guests, Mr Skinner. Yes, I'l hold.'
    The voice that sounded in Martin's ear a few seconds later was wide awake, if more than a touch irritable. 'Yes?' it barked.
    'Bob? It's Andy'
    'What's up?' The testiness vanished, replaced by concern.
    'Some very bad news, I'm afraid.' Speaking carefully, almost formally, he told his friend what had happened to his parents-in-law, setting out the detail of Mcllhenney's conversation with Sheriff Dekker. When he was finished, there was silence. For one of the few times in his life, Bob Skinner was lost for words.

    'How's Sarah?' he asked eventual y, sounding strained and older, Martin thought, than he had ever heard him. 'How's she taking it?'
    'As you'd expect; she's devastated. I'm at Gul ane now, with Neil.
    Lou's here, looking after her.'
    'And the kids?'
    'They're okay. Mark's at school, Jazz is being man of the house and the baby's asleep.'
    He heard Skinner take a deep breath; when he spoke again it was as if he was at a crime scene himself. 'Right,' he said. 'This is what's going to happen. I'm on the first flight out of here to New York, whether there's a seat on it or not. Tell this man Dekker that I want to be met at JFK, either by the State police or his guys, and transported straight to the cabin.
    After that I want to be taken to Buffalo, to meet with him and with the officer in charge of the enquiry.
    'If it sounds to you like I'm pul ing rank here, Andy, well, that's because I am. Just to reinforce that, I want you to cal my FBI pal Joe Doherty in Washington and brief him. Joe'l smooth the way if it's necessary; I want to be at that scene within twenty-four hours and I do not want anything to be touched that doesn't have to be. I'l call Dekker once my travel arrangements are made.'
    'What wil you do about the conference?'
    'Fuck the conference! Mary Chambers can read my paper. She's sound and she's not the nervous type; I trust her to do that, no problem.'

    'Okay. Do you want to speak to Sarah?'
    'Let her rest for a bit. I'll call her in a couple of hours, maybe from the airport, if we can move things along that fast.'
    'Right.' Martin paused. 'You know, Bob, I thought Sarah's parents lived in Florida.'
    'They did, for a while; at least, they had a condo there, as well as the house in Buffalo. But Susannah didn't like the climate in Florida, so last autumn they sold the place and bought the cabin in the Adirondacks National Park instead. It was going to be a surprise for the kids next time Sarah took them over. Shit; some surprise!'
    His anger seemed to flow down the phone. 'I tell you one thing though, Andy; it'l be nothing on the shock this man has coming . . .
    however flicking tal he is. Oh boy, does he have grief heading his way!'

    7
    'You know,' said the newly promoted Detective Superintendent Mario McGuire, 'we should do this more often.' He glanced along the length of Umberto's Restaurant, surprisingly busy for a mid-week evening. 'For a dinky couple, we definitely do not put ourselves about enough.'
    His wife shot him a puzzled look. 'Dinky?'
    'Come on. Dual Income No Kids.' .
    'Ah,' she exclaimed. 'You mean we've moved up in the world from being Yuppies?'
    'Nah. We've just got too old. The acronym game keeps moving along, and personal y I'm looking forward to being a Bobo.'
    'What the hell's a Bobo?'
    'Burnt Out But Opulent. I've always fancied making it to that level.'
    She chuckled softly as she sipped her Chablis. 'We're well on the way to the opulent bit now, with two superintendents' pay packets coming into the house, not to mention two superintendents' pensions at the end of the day. We'll be the envy of every copper on the force .. . apart from Big Bob and the Chief, who've both filthy rich anyway.'
    'Aye, I suppose we wil be. Mind you, I'd stil chuck it just to be able to ditch the second part of dinky.'
    Maggie frowned at him across the table. 'Wel that's not a runner, is it, so don't