"The man who wore the black mask."

"Okay, Adam. Do you remember what Mary looked like?"

"She was a girl."

"An old girl?A young girl?Did she have dark hair or light hair? Was she thin, or was she fat?''

"She was skinny," Adam sniffed. He thought a minute. "And her hair was dark. I don't want to answer

any more questions. I want to see Aunt Bryn!"

Lee sighed. He wanted to see Bryn, too. He wanted her to call the police. The minute she walked in, he was going to insist. "Okay, Adam," Lee hugged him, tousled his hair, and released him. "Want some ice cream or something!" "We have chocolate chip!" Keith exclaimed. Barbara, who had refused to set Adam down for the first five minutes of his return, was still standing nearby. "Come on,Adam, let's get you some ice cream." She glanced at Lee with a worried frown, indicating the kitchen clock. Bryn should have been back by now. Lee wandered back to the front porch. He glanced at his wristwatch. He had called her at theMountain Viewover thirty minutes ago. But there was no sign of the van. What the hell was taking so long?

The phone began to ring, and he hurried back into the house, diving for the receiver before Barbara could get it. He stared at her as he said a quick, "Hello?"

"Your girlfriend has had a little accident, Condor. Don't go getting excited--it was only a little accident. But I figured you might be getting ideas about calling the police now. Don't. She can't watch those kids all the time, and you can't watch her all the time. You hear me, Condor?"

Accident... Accident...what was the son of a bitch talking about? Lee wondered. His temper flared and snapped. "So help me God, if she's been hurt, I'll find you. Scalp you, skin you alive, and tear you apart--"

"I'd hang up, red skin. Someone may be trying to call you." The phone went dead in Lee's hand. Panic rose in Barbara's voice as she confronted him.

"What's happened? Lee? What's happened?" He shook his head at her vehemently, with his features forming into a warning scowl as he indicated the children who, as yet, were still chattering away madly over their ice cream. Adam had become a cherished celebrity to his older brothers and, thankfully, he was taking it all in stride. Barbara lowered her voice. "What is it, Lee?" "I don't know. That joker just told me that there had been an accident--"

"An accident!Oh, my God!"

"Stop it, Barbara! Stop it. You're shrieking. And you've got to stay calm! I'm going to go on out and trace Bryn's route. I'll call you the second that--"

He broke off, and they both froze as the phone began to ring again. Then Lee almost ripped the receiver from its cradle. "Yes?"

"Mr. Lee Condor?"

"Yes?" the voice was not that of the whisperer. It was a male voice, calm and polite.

"Please, don't panic. I'm Sergeant McCloskey with the Nevada Highway Patrol. Mr. Andrew McCabe said I could reach you here. There's been an accident...."

The world was very fuzzy when she opened her eyes. Bryn had to keep blinking to try and clear them.

She became aware of movement. There were arms about her, and she was being carried.

She took a good look at one of the arms. It was covered in light beige fabric. The man was wearing a trench coat. Dread slipped into her heart even before she raised her eyes to the man's face.

It was him! The man with the strange dark hair andmustache who had been pacing the lobby at the Mountain View....

She started to scream.

He gazed down at her startled, and then began to talk."Bryn! Hush! It's just me--Andrew! I had to get you out of the van--you were hit near the gas tank. Hush! It's me. Pull the hair; it will come right off. See?''

She shut up, reflexively and incredulously doing as she had been told. No wonder the dark hair had looked so ridiculous. It was a wig. She started to smile. Lee had made Andrew dress up in costume to be near her. She reached for themustache . It ripped away with more resistance than she had expected.

"Ouch!" Andrew gasped, falling to the embankment with her, his eyes reproachful. "I didn't tell you to rip the bloodymustache off!"

She laughed, but the sound was distant and far away.As distant as the sound of sirens. The world was fading in and out once more, and her eyelids were too heavy to hold open.

She knew she was in a hospital the second time she opened her eyes. She saw the neat sterility of her sheets, the white purity of the wall. She felt the soft, fresh embrace of a comfortable bed.

Adam! Adam was all right. He was home with Lee. It hurt a little bit to move her eyes, but she did so. She was definitely in a hospital. There was a small yellow chest beside the bed, a TV suspended on the far wall and a rolling tray parked near the bed. And there was a chair at her side. A young woman was sitting init, a blonde who had her head dipped low over a magazine.

Bryn frowned. The woman wasn't a nurse; she was dressed in a light mauve sweater and an attractive plaid skirt. As Bryn stared at her dazedly, the woman looked up and offered her a warm smile. She was very pretty with that smile, Bryn thought vaguely. She seemed full ofvibrance and natural warmth.

"How wonderful to see you with us again!" the woman exclaimed, jumping to her feet. "I've got to run out and get the doctor--"

"Wait!" Bryn pleaded, discovering belatedly that when she shouted, her head began to pound. The woman paused, and Bryn said quickly, "Who are you?"

The woman laughed."Oh, Bryn! I'm so sorry. I'm Gayle Spencer."

"Gayle Spencer?" Bryn repeated. "Lee asked me to sit with you."

Great.Her head was breaking, she must look like death warmed over and Lee had sent a lovely blonde to watch her. As if reading her thoughts, the blonde smiled. "I'm Lee's sister." Bryn's eyes must have widened with amazement, and the pretty girl continued with a grimace, as if she were accustomed to a startled reaction.' 'No , neither of us was adopted! Lee looks like my dad, and I resemble mother. And I'm married; that's why our names are different."

Bryn laughed. Gayle Spencer had spoken with such a nice sense of humor. Then she found that laughing hurt, and she sobered. "Where's Lee?" she asked softly.

Gayle grimaced again."Flirting with a nurse, but for a good cause. They keep telling him that your nephews can't come in, and Lee is determined that you'll get to see Adam!"

"Adam!" Bryn cried out, forgetting about her head. "I have to see him!"

"Oh, don't worry. Lee usually gets his way! Now let me get that doctor, before I get myself fired!"

Bryn closed her eyes again when Gayle smiled reassuringly,then ducked outside the room. What had happened, she asked herself. She could remember the horrible jolt and the crunching sound, and then Andrew... Andrew with that ridiculous wig.... She'd had an accident with the van, but apparently it wasn't that bad. Her head hurt because she had cracked it against the steering wheel. She'd had an accident.... Because a dark sedan had purposely run into her...."Ah, Miss Keller!" A doctor walked into the room. He was a gray-haired man with warm blue eyes that instantly inspired trust. He walked with the quick efficiency that belonged to a doctor, too, Bryn thought with a slight smile.

"Good, good," he said, reaching for her hand and patting it feeling for her pulse. "Let me just take a look deep into your eyes now__"

She flinched reflexively as he sent the ray from a pencil-thin flashlight beaming first into her right eye, and then into her left. "Good!" he said again, switching off the light. "I'm DoctorKelten ," he informed her, sliding a chilly stethoscope against her chest and smiling once more, satisfied with the results. "How do you feel?"

"Not terrible," Bryn told him. "It only hurts when I laugh or look around too quickly."

"That's to be expected. You're a lucky young lady. You've got a bit of a concussion, but a very minor one. We want to keep you overnight for observation, but we'll let you go home tomorrow. How's that sound?"

"I could probably go home now--" "But it wouldn't be wise." He tucked the sheets back around her and began to make atsking sound of irritation. "These hit and run things! How anyone could cause an accident and then drive off-- Well, it's just beyond me! The police are going to want to talk to you, but I've fended them off for the day. You justlie quietly, young lady and tomorrow, everything will look a whole lot better!"

"Thankyou," Bryn murmured, lowering her lashes. Hit and run? No, it hadn't been a regular hit and run. And she knew how Lee had felt all along; she couldn't believe he hadn't decided that enough was enough and told the police the entire story from the beginning.

"I'll see you again in a couple of hours," Dr.Kelten said, walking briskly toward the door.

"Wait!" Bryn begged, calling him back. She kept her lashes halfway over her eyes. "I understand there's a problem with my nephews coming in. Doctor, they've been through a lot. It's important that they get to see that I'm all right, especially the little one...."

Dr.Kelten interrupted her with a friendly laugh. "You can see the little boys, Miss Keller. Mr. Condor has managed to get my entire staff eating out of his hands.But only for a few minutes. If you want me to release you tomorrow, you have to toe the line!"

Bryn smiled. "Only for a few minutes!" she promised. The doctor left the room. Bryn made a grab for the wheeled tray, searching for a flip-up mirror in the slender drawer beneath it. She found it and anxiously scanned her features.

She was very pale, but otherwise she looked remarkably well for a woman with a concussion. Her forehead was bruised, but she could brush tendrils of her hair over it with her fingers.... There was a tap at her door, and then it opened slowly. Lee was there. Tall, commanding, his eyes a golden shimmer of anxiety. He smiled at her slowly, ruefully.

But he never had a chance to say anything. Adam was pushing past him.Adam, with his blond curls, cherubic cheeks, and tear-filled green eyes. "AuntBwyn !"

She didn't feel a bit of pain as she sat up and caught him to her, sweeping his little form into her arms.

"Adam, oh, Adam!Precious! I've missed you so! I love you; oh, Adam, I love you--"

"Are you going to get well, AuntBwyn ? Are you? Do you promise?" He crushed himself to her. She hugged him ferociously.

"Yes, Adam, yes!I'm going to get well. I promise. Your silly aunt just let another car get too close, that's all.Oh, Adam!"

She started to cry, just clutching him, unable to let him go. Then she opened her eyes and looked over his shoulder, and saw Lee standing there. Then she knew that he had understood that the greatest medication she could receive was this time with Adam....

"Thankyou," she whispered to him. She might have whispered, "I love you."Because she did. She had never known how completely until that moment.

Chapter 12.

"I was hit on purpose, wasn't I?" Bryn asked Lee. He was standing at the window, staring out, though at what she wasn't sure. All that could be seen was part of the roof and a lot of power lines. And it was dusk, so not even that dubious view was a good one.

It was the first chance they had had to be alone. Brian and Keith had followed Adam in to assure themselves that she was all right. At last a pristine nurse had arrived to sternly say that the boys had to leave. They had set up a minor howl, but Lee had promised them that they could play with the drums and the piano, and in a matter of moments Barbara and Gayle had been able to take them away. Lee had promised Bryn that Andrew would stay at his house that night along with Barbara, and that Gayle and her husband, Phil, would also be there. Andrew had spent the afternoon combing the place with an agent from a security company, and all doors and windows were now wired with traps that blared loudly and instantly set off an alarm at the police department. Lee, it seemed, intended to stay with her at the hospital through the night, and neither hell nor high water would move him.

"Lee?" Bryn persisted quietly when he didn't move.

He moved away from the wall where he had been leaning and came to sit at the side of the bed, idly taking her hand in his.

"Yes," he told her, his eyes following his fingers as he traced the pale blue lines of her veins. His eyes met hers. "Our whisperer called right before the Highway Patrol did. It was a warning so we wouldn't call the police now that Adam is back."

Bryn laughed bitterly. "He doesn't want the police involved, but the police do become involved in a hit and run accident!"

Lee shrugged, and Bryn was surprised to realize that he seemed uncertain. He always knew exactly what he wanted, and how he wanted to go about getting it. "I admit,Bryn, that I wanted to convince you

to call the police the minute you walked back in the door. But now...now I don't think it would be such a great idea."

"You think that we should just forget the whole thing?" She wasn't sure if she was hopeful or furious.

"No," Lee said, his eyes meeting hers. "Don't you see, Bryn? No matter what, you'd find yourself living

in fear for years and years to come. This person has to be caught and stopped."

"You just said you didn't think we should tell the police!"

"At the moment.Because we don't know what we're up against.And I don't think the police will know,

either. We have to find out what's in the pictures."

"Oh," Brynmurmured, a chill rippling along her spine. But he was right. Adam hadn't been able to tell them anything.

"I'll start as soon as I get out of here," she said, keeping her eyes downcast so that he wouldn't know

what the words had cost her.

"Good. And I think I know where you should start."

"The Sweet Dreams motel?"

"Um-hmm."

"I really can't believe thatHammerfield could...could--"

Lee interrupted her with a sigh. "Bryn, there are a lot of things in life that aren't easy to believe. A lot of

ugliness we'd rather not see. I don't want to condemn the man without a trial, but he's our most likely

suspect."

Bryn grimaced. She didn't feel much like arguing. She smiled at him, determined to change the subject since she couldn't do a thing from her hospital bed. "I didn't know that you had a sister."

"Two of them, actually.Sally is a few years older than I am; she's the earth mother of the brood. She moved back to theBlack Hillsright after she got out of law school, and she spends half her life defending the underdog, half of it raising apassel of kids." Bryn laughed. It was easy now. Adam was back. "How many are apassel ?''

"Five." "That is apassel ." Bryn hesitated for a moment, wondering why she was getting strange feelings about the pretty blonde she had met earlier. "Does your sister Gayle live here in Tahoe?" "No," Lee replied a little uneasily, and Bryn was sure that she was right; Gayle was there for a reason--a reason that she might not like. "Gayle lives inNew York," Lee said. He bit his lower lip with an idle shrug,then gripped Bryn's hand warmly in his as he met her eyes again with a serious intent. "Bryn, I called Gayle last week, the morning after you broke into my place. I asked her if she and Phil could come out here, then go for a little vacation up to my grandfather's place."

Brynfrowned her confusion. "I don't understand...."' 'Bryn , I want you to let me talk, and I want you to listen to what I'm saying. Having to protect someone else is like having an Achilles' heel. I didn't want to talk to you about this until tomorrow, but...Bryn, I asked Gayle and Phil to come here because I wanted you to meet them and feel comfortable with them. And I want you to let them take the boys up to my grandfather's place in the Hills." "What!" Bryn cried out.

"Would youhush! " Lee demanded, smiling crookedly. "I had to fight all the red tape in the hospital to get to stay here; if you scream like that a second time, they'll come up here and kick me out for sure."