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the corner of the cafeteria.
    "Before, they were breaking the doors down to get out and now they won't leave," she groaned. The crowd was laughing and chatting with Jessica, who was still signing bound galleys of her book, publicity photos and DBS T-shirts, and handing out water bottles and coffee mugs and baseball hats and whatever old promotional goodies they had been able to find downstairs.
    Finally, at almost midnight, every audience member had been screened and bused off. No stalker found. Jessica left West End for home, bodyguard in tow.
    Cassy stood by the elevator, wearily preparing for the next phase. The West End Broadcasting Center was still sealed off and there was a lot more screening to do. There was the whole news group in Studio A and then the evening shift in the Darenbrook research group in another part of the complex.
    This was the part she dreaded. She did not want to find out that Jessica's stalker was someone working right here at West End.
    If you must know," Jessica said, arriving the following day at her office with Cassy on her heels, " I'm more than a little annoyed that no one will do anything about that creep outside my apartment, but you'll shut down the whole complex and shake my audience down over the only polite stalker I've ever had. "
    "Jessica! This stalker has infiltrated security!"
    "Careful," Jessica said, throwing her head in the direction of the hall, "you're blocking the view of my bodyguard. We mustn't have that.
    Good morning, Bea. "
    "Messages on your desk, Jessica, coffee on the way," her secretary said, standing up.
    "Hello, Ms. Cochran."
    "Hi" -- Cassy stopped for a moment, vaguely taken back. Then she recovered.
    "You've done something to your hair."
    "Do you like it?" Bea asked, smiling, touching it.
    "Sure," Cassy said helplessly, following Jessica into her office.
    "Hi, Alexandra Eyes," Jessica hailed the anchorwoman sitting on her couch.
    When Jessica had first arrived at DBS, she had not even met the star anchorwoman for the news division before deciding to hate her. All Jessica had heard was how great Alexandra was, how smart Alexandra was, how beautiful Alexandra was, how lucky DBS was to get her (as if she were chopped liver). The only problem was, after Jessica had gotten to know Alexandra, she found out that it was all true Alexandra was smart and beautiful, and not only were they lucky to have her, Jessica was quickly ineffably grateful that Alexandra wanted to be her friend.
    And thus the talk-show host and the anchorwoman had ended up becoming inseparable friends, and Jessica called her "Alexandra Eyes" a reference to the anchorwoman's trademark, a set of positively mesmerizing blue-gray eyes instead of "Queen of the Daisy Chain," which was how she had originally perceived her.
    Whenever Cassy had a problem dealing with either Jessica or Alexandra, she would inevitably ask the other for assistance. Jessica assumed that this morning was no exception. She'd bet her bottom dollar that Cassy had coerced Alexandra into talking to her about the stalker.
    "Hi, Jess," Alexandra said from behind a newspaper.
    "I was just reading an item in Liz Smith.
    "Everyone who's anyone is clamoring to be invited to the party of the year to be given next month by mega-movie star Georgiana Hamilton-Ayres and DBS anchorwoman Alexandra Waring. It's being held in honor of their pal Jessica Wright and the publication of her autobiography. Yours truly is invited of course!"
    " Cassy closed the office door in the face of Jessica's bodyguard and came in, whispering, " Jessica, what in Sam Hill's with your secretary's hair? "
    "Cleo did it," Jessica said, dropping her big leather satchel on the floor by her desk with a thud.
    "She says it's hero-worship."
    Cassy and Alexandra exchanged looks--which Jessica caught.
    "Leave the kid alone. She's quick, and great on the phone." She picked up the pile of messages on her desk, started to scan them and then paused, looking up.
    "Not that you aren't two