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anyway."
    Half his remaining beer disappeared in a single gulp. He closed his eyes and ran his free hand through a thatch of brown curls that hadn't been very tidy to begin with. When he spoke again, this time she heard the fear underlying the anger. "There's nothing I can do, Kate, except show up tomorrow and pray there's at least one human bone in Reese's body."
    "He won't like it that she backed out of the interim agreement," Kate said. "Judges never do like that."
    "Makes more work for them," Jack agreed. He opened his eyes and looked at Kate. "Will you testify?"
    She was startled. "To what? Everything I know is hearsay."
    "You picked him up at the 7-Eleven last March, when she took his shoes away to keep him from walking over here."
    She was silent, frowning down at the can she held between both hands.
    "For a devout and practicing Catholic, old Jane sure doesn't go in for Christian charity in a big way, does she?"
    "Nope."
    "She still think I'm the whore of Babylon?"
    Jack nodded. "Everybody needs somebody to hate."
    "Glad to be of service," Kate said, an edge to the words.
    "Don't make this about you. It isn't."
    Kate, ashamed of her flare of temper, said, "No, it's not. I'm sorry."
    Jack went for another beer. "Will you? Testify?"
    "To that one incident?
    Yes." She drained the can. "How'd Jane get a court date this soon?"
    "Somebody canceled, the archdiocese pulled strings, her lawyer flew the clerk into Theodore River for some silver fishing, take your pick. You know how it works."
    "Yes." She went to the kitchen to toss the can in the trash and returned to the living room to stand in front of the window, staring out across the lagoon, a thin, fragile sheet of ice slowly creeping across it, as yet no snow. Like the homestead. She wished with all her heart that she was there instead of here.
    Then again, there was one thing available to her in Anchorage she didn't get much of in the Park.
    Jack caught the quirk of her mouth. "What's so awful goddam funny, Shugak?"
    She grinned at the frozen expanse of water. "You are." Turning, she clasped her hands and cast down her eyes, trying for demure. "You didn't want to seduce me under false pretenses."
    "Oh." The anger dissipated, and the scowl eased into a slow smile. "No."
    "I appreciate your honesty," she said gravely.
    "Thank you."
    She strolled over and began unbuttoning his shirt. "Now, when was it you said Johnny gets home?" They were still upstairs when the kitchen door slammed. Kate shot out of bed and into the bathroom. Jack pulled on jeans and a sweatshirt and went downstairs to find his son and heir juggling a loaf of bread, a package of cheese slices and a jar of mayonnaise under Mutt's interested eye. There was a can of Coke tucked between chin and chest and a package of shrink-wrapped bologna in his teeth. "Hi, Dad," he mumbled around the bologna. "Kate here yet?" Can and sandwich makings tumbled into a heap on the kitchen counter and he caught the Coke just before it hit the floor. He ripped open the package of bologna to toss Mutt a slice.
    "Yeah, she's upstairs, taking a shower. Don't open that Coke!"
    Of course he did, and of course it sprayed all over Jack and the kitchen, and of course mostly Jack since Johnny was holding the can.
    Clearly the only thing to do was retaliate, and Kate arrived on the scene to find Jack blasting Johnny with the sink sprayer, the cold water on full bore and puddles gathering all over the floor. Mutt stalked from the carnage, the expression of disgust on her face somewhat marred by the water dripping from her muzzle. Johnny tried cowering behind the refrigerator door, and when that didn't work charged his father with a chair, legs extended at shoulder arms. The sprayer changed hands, there was a half suppressed yelp of laughter from Jack, an exuberant whoop from Johnny, and the battle raged around the stove, up the trash compactor and down the dishwasher. Kate stood in the doorway, safely out of range, until the battle was