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there even sooner. Once they’ve gone through the library with a fine-tooth comb, you can call in the glass people to fix the door. Meggie shouldn’t have to see it broken when she gets home.”
    â€œDo I dare use the phone? What if the kidnappers try to call and get a busy signal?”
    â€œThey’ll call again.”
    â€œShould I be ready with a suggestion for an exchange place?”
    â€œThey’ll have their own place in mind.”
    â€œWhat if it’s somewhere secluded?”
    â€œIt probably will be.”
    â€œThey’ll be able to take the money and run. They won’t care about Megan.”
    â€œBut you’ll insist on seeing Meg first. You’ll tell them that they can choose the place, but that the deal is the money for your wife, there and then.”
    â€œHow can I demand that, when they’re holding all the cards? How can I demand anything? ”
    â€œYou can demand it, and you will,” Savannah insisted, “because they’re not holding all the cards. You’re the one with the money. Don’t forget, it’s the money they want, not your wife. A little show of strength is in order, Will. If not for yourself, for Megan.”
    For a minute, Will didn’t answer. When he did, he was looking puzzled. “Where do you get yours, Savannah?”
    â€œMy what?”
    â€œStrength. How do you manage to stay so cool and rational?”
    Savannah didn’t answer, but gave him a wry look. A minute later, she nodded toward the door and said, “Go on home. I’ll see you there in a little while.”
    A few minutes later, sitting behind her desk with the telephone receiver honking out a busy signal against her shoulder, Savannah thought about strength. Where did she get it? She wasn’t sure. Strength was just something that came with her role, something that came with involving herself with details to avoid the overview.
    Her strength was often a front. She could play the game with the best of them, acting cool and rational when inside she was shaking like a leaf. It has been that way from the very start of her tenure at the AG’s office. She had had to prove her worth, first, in a traditionally male world, and second, in a world of political favors. She had done it. She was a respected member of the team. She still needed to uphold that image of cool competence.
    Perhaps that was why she understood why William Vandermeer did not want people to know he was hurting for money. He was trying to uphold an image, too. If she criticized him, she had to criticize herself.
    Pressing the button on the phone, she dialed Susan’s number, but it was still busy. She would keep trying. Sending Susan to sit with William was a good idea. Susan needed something to do and someone to think about besides herself. She wasn’t a weakling, yet she allowed herself to act like one. Her low self-image needed correcting.
    Everyone had a right to moments of weakness. Susan took too many, Savannah too few. There were times when Savannah wanted to relax, to lean on someone, perhaps cry on his shoulder. To some extent, though, she’d backed herself into a corner. She had come to expect competence from herself. Before she could ease up enough to relax, lean on someone, or cry on his shoulder, she had to find a man who could match her strength.
    There was no one like that around the office. Nor had she found anyone like that among the men she had dated in the past few years. She was beginning to wonder if one existed.
    Women got more picky with age. She had heard it said, seen it written, knew it to be true. At eighteen, she had been far more open to different men and relationships than she was at thirty-going-on-thirty-one. Of course, at eighteen she had been far less sophisticated than she was now. If she had married then, she would probably have divorced soon after. Instead she had been smart and spared herself some pain.
    Unfortunately, there