Kevin OBrien - Vicious

John Scognamiglio has been my editor and friend for fourteen years, and hes the best. Thank you, John! Thanks to everyone else at Kensington for all their hard work and support, especially my pal, the marvelous Doug Mendini.

Im grateful to my hardworking agents: the lovely and talented Meg Ruley and the talented and lovely Christina Hogrebe. Thanks to all the cool people at Jane Rotrosen Agency, and that includes Peggy Gordijn, for helping make me an International Man of Mystery with all those foreign sales.

Thanks also to Thomas Dreiling, for believing in me. Tommy, you rule.

My writers group is terrific, and Im very, very lucky to share works in progress with generous, supportive friends like Cate Goethals, Soyon Im, David Massengill, and Garth Stein.

For sharing his expertise in psychology, I want to thank my neighbor John Simmons. And for information on boats and boating equipment, my thanks go to Peter Sherman of Orcas Boats.

Many thanks to the following friends for their encouragement or for pushing my books to their friends: Dan Annear and Chuck Rank, Marlys Bourm, Terry and Judine Brooks, Kyle Bryan and Dan Monda, George Camper and Shane White, Jim and Barbara Church, Anna Cottle and Mary Alice Kier, Paul Dwoskin and the gang at Broadway Video, Tom Goodwin, Debbie and Dennis Gotlieb, Cathy Johnson, Ed and Sue Kelly, Elizabeth Kinsella, David Korabik, the cool people at Levy Home Entertainment, Cara Lockwood, Stafford Lombard, Jim Munchel, Jake, Sue, and Conor OBrien, Meghan ONeill, David Renner, Eva Marie Saint, John Saul & Michael Sack, the gang at Seattle Mystery Bookshop, Jeannie Shortridge, Dan, Doug, and Ann Stutesman, George and Sheila Stydahar, Marc Von Borstel (photographer extraordinaire!), Michael Wells and the gang at Bailey/Coy Books, and my nice neighbors at the Bellemoral.

Finally, thanks to my family. Adele, Mary Lou, Cathy, Bill, and Joan, youre the greatest.

SeattleApril 1998

Its probably been going on a lot longer than he says, the son of a bitch. I have to be the worlds biggest sap

Pamela Milford realized shed been talking to herself.

Approaching her on the parks pathway, a fifty-something ash blonde in lavender sweats gave her a puzzled look.

Pamela was pushing Andy in his stroller; so maybe the woman thought she was babbling to her baby. Dressed in a hooded blue jacket, Pamelas ten-month-old was enjoying the stroll through Volunteer Park on that chilly April night. Hed point to joggers or people walking their dogs, and then squeal with delight. Now he waved to the blond woman.

It was just after seven oclock, and the parks lights were on. The walkway snaked around bushes, gardens, and huge, hundred-year-old trees. Up ahead in the distance, just beyond the greenhouse, was a dark, slightly creepy forest area that Pamela had no intention of exploring.

She usually didnt take the baby out for a stroll this late, but she was furious at her husband right now. Throwing on her pea jacket and grabbing her scarf, shed told Steve to cook his own damn dinner. Then shed loaded Andy into his stroller and taken off for the park.

Hes adorable! declared the lady in the lavender sweats. She squatted down in front of Andy, gaped at him in mock surprise, and laughed. Oh, youre just so cute, you take my breath away! She caressed Andys cheek. And where did you get that gorgeous curly red hair?

Not from me, Pamela said, with a strained smile. Andy had inherited his fathers red hair.

Pamelas chestnut brown hair used to cascade down past her shoulder blades. But shed gotten it cut short after Andys birth. Along with the excess pounds from her pregnancy, the haircut made her look frumpy, more like she was forty than thirty-one. Though shed lost most of her postnatal pounds, she was still waiting for her hair to grow back.

Perhaps Steve had also been waiting for her hair to grow backbefore he started to pay attention to her again. The baby had put a crimp in their love life; all the spontaneity and the passion had dissipated. Shed half expected that.

But Pamela hadnt been prepared for what shed discovered this afternoon.

She was an editor for the Seattle Weekly , and usually spent her lunch hours at Andys day care. But today, shed decided to surprise Steve at work and treat him to lunch at Palomino. Lombard-Stafford Graphics was only four blocks from the Weekly offices. Steve wasnt in his cubicle, and the office was nearly empty. A thin young Asian woman with a pink streak in her hair and a nostril stud, two cubicles away, tersely explained that Steve and everyone else were in a meeting. It was supposed to let out any minute now.

Pamela sat in his cubicle, twisting back and forth in his swivel chair as she waited for him. A fish-tank screen saver illuminated his computer monitor. Pinned to the grey cubicle wall were a Far Side calendar; Steves football team portrait from New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois; a cartoon picture of Homer Simpson; three photos of Andy; and one photo of herback when her hair was still long.

Pamela got tired of waiting and decided to leave him a note and then take off. But first, she wanted to change his screen saver.

Back when they were first married, Steve gave heras a jokea 5 x 7 photo of exercise guru Richard Simmons and faked an autograph: You make me sweat! I feel the heat! XXXRichard. Two days later, Pamela surprised him by taping it to the steering wheel of his car. A few days after that, she found hed left the photo for her in the refrigerators crisper drawer. The joke had gone on for weeks and weeks. The Richard Simmons Wars, they called them. Theyd had time for such silly stuff back thenback when their relationship had been passionate and fun.

Pamela reached for the computers mouse. Shed go on the Internet and find a photo of Richard Simmons and turn it into his new screen saver. Chuckling, she imagined Steve as he tried to explain to his coworkers why he had Richard Simmons for his screen saver. She clicked the mouse.

That was when Pamela noticed an e-mail from Jill@Evanstonproperties.com, and the smile ran away from her face.