Abruptly, painfully, he remembered what had brought him upstairs tobegin with.

He drew a shuddering breath and brought his hands-to her shoulders.

"Detective Ramirez wants to speak to you."

His voice was raspy.

She blinked dazedly.

"Now?"

"He's downstairs."

His hands skated down her arms and up again before he dropped themreluctantly and stepped back.

"Get dressed and come down. I'll give him some coffee or somethingwhile we wait."

She nodded mutely, and he turned abruptly, leaving the room.

Rejoining the detective, he told him, "She'll be down in a few minutes.Can I get you something? Coffee?"

The man shook his head.

"Had to give up caffeine. Doctor said it was causing an irregular heartbeat.

And I can't get used to that decaff stuff. I mean, if you can't enjoy that jolt of caffeine, why bother, right?"

Mac grunted.

He'd experienced a jolt this morning, but caffeine had had little to do with it.

Suddenl); he felt in need of something to drink, something a lot

stronger than coffee.

He wondered if the detective would find the taste of a shot of scotch more to his liking.

"Want to help me with this?"

the' detective asked.

Mac reached for the plastic evidence bag and held it open.

Ra, mirez pulled a glove from his jacket pocket, put it on, picked up the letter and envelope and dropped them both into the bag.

Doffing the glove, he shoved it in his pocket.

"Thanks,"

he said, reaching for the bag.

He sealed it deftly.

"This one will probably go right to the postal boys. They have their

own investigators for these kinds of things. They might come up with something interesting."

Raine came into the room then.

'"Good morning, Detective."

Ramirez turned.

"Miss Michaels, you're looking good. Glad to see you weren't too badly hurt in that accident."

"I'm fine,"

she murmured, giving a quick look toward Mac, Her hair was already dD'ing, Mac noted, Soft curls were forming on top.

She'd dressed quickly, in a pair of white shorts and a silk tank top.

His eyes went to her throat, which was marred with the slightest hint

of color left by his mouth.

"I've been wanting to talk to you, Miss Michaels, about the car that ran you off the road."

"Yes,"

she said, her voice husky.

She cleared her throat and forced her gaze away from Mac, focusing on

the detective.

"Do you think you'd be able to' identify it?"

the man asked.

"Reason I'm asking is, we think we may have found the car. It was a

rental and was abandoned about ten miles from where the accident happened. Guy drove it off the road into some bushes and left itthere."

"A guy?"

Mac asked, sharply.

"According to the records, a Mr. Ray Paulus rented it from the agency

the day before the accident."

He shook his head, forestalling Mac's next question.

"The information on the application was all phony. And no one at the

agency remembers-the man well enough to describe him. He rented at anairport, so it was plenty busy there.""I described it to the. trooper who helped me,"

Raine said."It was a blue four door. I'm afraid I don't know enough about cars toguess at the make, but it was older. There was a lot of chrome on it,and it was big. At least twice the size of mine."

~"Do you remember anything else?

" the man pressed. " It had a hood ornament of some kind," she said slowly.

" And the chrome on the front pa.s.senger door was missing.

" " That matches with the one we've got," the detective said,

satisfied. " I'll tell the boys to start going through it.

We may be fortunate It's hard for a person to be in a car and not leave something behind.

" " a.s.suming, of course, that the car was thoroughly cleaned before it

was rented out last time," Mac murmured. The other man grimaced. "

Yeah, a.s.suming that.

But it's the best lead we've had yet.

I'd like to get this wrapped up for you, Miss Michaels.

Keep your fingers crossed.

" While Raine walked the man to the door, Mac made a quick phone call.

When she came back to the room, he asked her, " How would you like to go see your morn today?

" Her eyes lit with pleasure. " Really?" "You'd have to go with me,"he cautioned wryly."But yeah. I need to talk to your dad, anyway. I just called him, and he'll stay home until we get there."

"Okay."

But still she didn't move, just stood in the doorway and looked at

him.

The silence grew thick with awareness.

"R~inc,"