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can't hide. How much you want to bet that's Billy Mike?"
    Ekaterina answered the phone. "Hello. Yes. Hello, Billy. Yes, we just got in. Kate. Yes, she is here, too. No. No, not yet." She covered the mouthpiece and looked at Kate.
    Kate understood. "See you at seven. Downstairs, at the front door?"
    Ekaterina nodded and Kate let herself out of the room.
    In the elevator, she wondered what Ekaterina was now discussing with Billy Mike that she did not want her granddaughter to overhear.
    Jack's townhouse stood on the edge of Westchester Lagoon, facing south.
    The garage was in the basement, the kitchen, living room, dining room, den and half bath on the second floor, and three bedrooms and two full bathrooms on the third floor. Upon arrival on previous visits to Anchorage, Kate rarely caught more than a passing glimpse of the first two floors before it was instantly and invariably replaced by a view of the ceiling in the master bedroom on the third. Contrary to standard operating procedure, this afternoon Jack seemed to be loitering with intent over the hang of her jacket from the hook by the door. "What's wrong?" she said, truth to tell a little disappointed. She had been looking forward to rewarding Jack for his care package since she'd made the decision to come to Anchorage. They'd been in the house five whole minutes without him making a move, and she was starting to feel like a woman scorned.
    He turned. "Why should anything be wrong?"
    She folded her arms, one eyebrow raised in polite incredulity, looking, did she but know it, the spitting image of her grandmother in that moment.
    He sighed. "Want a Diet 7Up?"
    The eyebrow went down and the corners of the mouth curved up. "Why, Jack. You shopped for me. This must be love."
    Embarrassed to be caught out in a display of sentiment, Jack said,
    "Yeah, yeah, you want one or not?"
    He got her the 7-Up, himself a beer and Mutt a bowl of water and they adjourned the discussion to the living room. She sat on the couch, he on a chair. She gave a pointed look at the acre of empty couch surrounding her, he refused to be baited. She pouted a little. Not proof against a pout of that wattage, he told her to cut it out. They compromised on him moving to the couch and her promising to keep her hands to herself. He palliated the severity of the sentence by draping an arm around her shoulders and pulling her closer. When she slid over, she felt the tension in the line of his body. She tipped her head back to study his face. "What's going on, Jack? You're wound up tighter than a clock spring."
    He tilted the bottle of Full Sail Golden Ale and drank deep. "We go to court tomorrow."
    It was such a non of a sequitur that she was confused. "Who do? You mean the office? You're testifying? What, a case?"
    The rigidity she'd attributed to the near miss with the student pilot was back in his jawline. Come to think of it, he hadn't said much more than hello since Niniltna. "I'm testifying, yes, but it's not in a case for the office." He looked at her and she recoiled inwardly from what she saw there. "Jane's coming after Johnny."
    "What?"
    "She wants full custody." Kate sat up. "Wait a minute. You told me last month she'd agreed to an interim settlement. You told me Johnny told Judge Reese he wanted to live with you, and that Jane had agreed, and so had the judge."
    "She changed her mind."
    He was angry, a steady, bone-deep rage. It radiated off him in waves, like heat. "I see," Kate said.
    "No," he said, very precisely, "you do not see."
    "You're right, I don't," she said at once.
    "Don't be so goddam soothing," he barked.
    "Sorry."
    "And don't be so goddam apologetic when I yell at you."
    "Okay."
    "And don't be so goddam agreeable when I'm correcting your behavior!"
    Mutt sent them an annoyed look, rose to her feet and turned three circles, laying down again with her back to them.
    Into the silence Kate said in a soft voice, "I won't let you pick a fight with me, Jack." She added, "Not over this,