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time, just when she felt that she was finally over him? What perverse sense of humor could possibly have initiated that call? Just to torment her again? To remind her of the past they had shared? Those incredible years when she’d been madly in love with him, when all she’d thought of was Brad Kingman and the days and nights of passion they shared. Never before, and certainly never since, had she met a lover who had fulfilled her needs as he had. She could see him now, so damned handsome and masculine, exuding a sensuality that far too few men possessed.

Why then had it all fallen apart?

Her head jerked round as the phone shrilled again. She lay unmoving, allowing the answering machine to pick up. No way was she going to talk to that bastard again…

“Miss Winters…” A man’s voice, flat and hollow sounding, caused Olivia to shiver with a sudden fear. “Miss Winters…you have been weighed in the balance and found wanting.”

“
What the hell
?” she gasped.

“You have ignored our counsel…you have chosen to walk in the path of the unrighteous. This is your final warning. Publicly renounce those whose lives are an abomination in the eyes of the Lord, or suffer the punishment that will be meted unto you.”

Olivia grabbed the phone. “Who the hell is this?” she screamed into the mouthpiece. “Who are you crazy people? I’m calling the police!” A sharp click sounded in her ear as the caller hung up. “Oh my god,” she moaned. “This can’t be happening. Why is this happening to me?” Panicked, she reached for Jeff ’s office number. Her hands were trembling as she listened to the phone ring.

“Stevens and Fallon Investigations…”

“Let me speak to Jeff,” Olivia rasped.

“I’m sorry ma’am,” Monica, Jeff ’s secretary replied. “Mr. Stevens is out on an appointment. “Mr. Fallon is in the office. Would you care to speak with him?”

“Yeah. Put me through…” She sighed—the sourpuss would have to do.

“Nick Fallon.”

“Nick, this is Olivia Winters…”

“Uh…Miss Winters. What can I do for you?”

“I’ve just had a threatening anonymous call. Some bastard spouting religious quotes at me—telling me I’m going to be punished by the Lord or some crap. You guys have got to do somethin’ about this. The cops are useless—they
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haven’t dug anything up on these jerks. Now I’m being threatened in my own home. I need help—this is scaring me to death.”

“Okay, try to stay calm, Miss Winters…”

“How can I be calm, you schmuck, when some creepy-voiced-son-of-a-bitch who has my
private
number is threatening my life?” There was silence.

“Are you still there?” Olivia’s voice was rattled.

“Yes, I’m still here, Miss Winters.” Nick answered, his tone cold. “But might I suggest you call Jeff. You’re his client, not mine.”

“Why you…didn’t you hear what I said? I’m being threatened, you big jerk.

You’re his partner, right? I’m scared for my life and you’re telling me to make another call? What kind of asshole are you?”

“The kind that’s hanging up.” And he did.

Olivia looked at the phone in disbelief—then she hit redial.

“Stevens and Fall….”

“Never mind that,” Olivia snarled, interrupting Monica’s greeting. “Get that jerk back on the line,
now
.”

A moment of music then; “Nick Fallon.”

“Listen to me…” Olivia growled. “Nobody hangs up on me, you hear?

Nobody! I’ve hired you guys to…”

“Miss Winters,” Nick interrupted, “if you don’t put a decidedly more civil tone in your voice, I will hang up again. I may be Jeff ’s partner, and as such concerned with each and every client on our books—but my interest goes out the window when I’m railed at by someone who puts a great deal of store in their own self-importance. Let me assure you I am not impressed by your so-called celebrity, Miss Winters. If you’d like to give me the details of these threats, I’ll pass the information onto Jeff when he gets here.”

“I don’t believe this…” Olivia hissed, beside herself with rage.

“Believe it,” Nick said, his voice flat and impersonal. “Now, do you want to tell me about this call you had?”

Olivia took a deep breath to steady herself, then she chuckled softly. “My my, you’re quite the man in charge, aren’t you?”

She heard Nick sigh. “Miss Winters…”

“Okay, okay…The phone rang—I let the machine pick it up, then this guy with the creepiest damn voice I ever heard—apart from my ex-husband, said that I had been weighed in the balance and found wanting and if I didn’t quit associating with abominations I’d be punished. Somethin’ like that anyway…”

“It’s still on the tape?”

“Yeah.”

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“Okay, play it back for me.”

Olivia pressed the replay button and put the phone next to the speaker. She shuddered as she listened to the man’s cold voice repeating his threat. When it had finished she picked up the phone. “So what do you think?”

“Well, as corny and clichéd as he sounds, maybe he believes what he’s saying, so we should take it seriously…”

“You’re damned right we should,” Olivia interrupted. “He sounds like one of those religious nuts that’s been sending me those letters.”

“Right. Anyway…” Nick continued, “I’ve taped it and I’ll let Jeff hear it.

He’ll be here any minute. Keep that recording. The police will want to hear it, too.” He paused for a moment. “Do you have someone there with you?”

“No. It’s the maid’s day off and…after what happened to Luke…You think I might be in danger?” Her voice grew panicky.

“Don’t be alarmed, Miss Winters. I’ll call Joe French at LAPD and have him send a surveillance car round. I’ll have Jeff call you soon as he gets here.”

“Well, thank you Nick,” Olivia responded. “Sorry I came on like the bitch from hell, earlier.”

“No problem…Just take it easy.”

It was after Olivia put the phone down that she realized Nick had not argued with her on her ‘bitch from hell’ description of herself. “That son-of-a….” She shook her head ruefully, then walked into the living room and headed for the bar. She needed a friend at this moment and Johnny Walker would do just fine!

Jeff ’s face registered disbelief as he listened to the message Nick had taped earlier. “Jeez,” he muttered. “This is not good. The lunatic fringe is really out to get her. Did you get a hold of Joe?”

Nick nodded. “Yeah, I told him about the tape and how jumpy Olivia was, so he’s going over to talk to her and listen to the tape. He was just a tad pissed she hadn’t called him first.”

“I’ll bet,” Jeff said, hitting the rewind button on the tape machine. “Good thing he’s a friend.”

“Right—but you’re going to owe him after this one.”

Jeff pressed the play button again and listened intently to the man’s voice.

Then he said, “Do you get the feeling that the guy on this tape sounds a lot like the letters she was getting? I mean, the ones we thought were written by a woman? The tape has the same kind of pattern—‘weighed in the balance’, ‘path
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of the unrighteous’—that kind of thing. Whoever wrote the letters could have written this dialogue.”

“You could be right,” Nick agreed. “Are you thinking Patricia Hastings?”

“Yes, I am.” Jeff stood up and paced about the office. “God, I am having a hard time believing that she’d go this far…and yet, my gut tells me she’s in this thing up to her neck. I faxed Joe a copy of that letter she sent to Anthony. He agreed with me that there is a similarity to the letters Olivia’s been getting. Not enough to go on though, he says. Not enough to bring her in for questioning…”

Nick shook his head. “Those kids are going to be devastated if it turns out you’re right—especially Anthony. He still thinks his mother will come around one day.”

“It’s hard to believe isn’t it?” Jeff sat on the edge of his desk and looked at his partner, his face bleak. “I thought I had it rough with my father—but this…it’s just plain sick.” He paused as his cell phone rang. He glanced at the caller ID

screen. “Hi Peter, what’s up?”

“Just checking in with you,” Peter said. “How’s it going? You sound tense.”

“Nick and I were just going over some stuff here, but it’s time to call it a day, I think. What you doin’? Want to meet me for a drink at Cedars?”

“Love to. I’m just closing the gallery. I’ll see you there in about fifteen minutes.”

“Okay, babe.” He closed his cell phone and looked at his partner. “I’m outta here, Nick. I’ll call Olivia later—and Joe. I’m interested to see what he might make of this tape.” He stood and stretched. “How’s Eric? What did he cook up for you last night?”

“‘Scuse me?”

“You said he was making something special last night, remember?”

“Uh, oh right…It was good…” Nick swung himself round and started staring into his computer screen.

“Well, what was it?”

“What was it? Uh, let me think…”

Jeff watched with fascination as the back of Nick’s ears turned bright red.

He started to laugh. “Oh, I get it…”

“No you don’t,” Nick huffed, swinging his chair round again to face Jeff.

“You just caught me by surprise is all. It was…it was…” He started to laugh too. “It was great.”

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The Cedars Tavern on Coast Highway had become a favorite meeting place for Jeff and Peter over the years they had been together. It was quiet—no loud music and a mostly mixed crowd—a place where they could catch up and unwind after the rigors of the day. Jeff smiled as he watched Peter make his way through the crowd toward him. It was a source of wonder to Jeff that the sight of his lover never failed to make his heart lift—even when they had been apart for only a few hours. If anyone had told him he would find this kind of happiness with another man after his first few disastrous attempts at relationships, he would have laughed in that person’s face. But, here he was now in a committed and loving relationship; one, which he felt grew stronger with each passing day. They had their disagreements once in a while—usually because of the amount of time Jeff spent at work—but that had been less of a problem since Peter had opened the gallery and he’d found that the time needed to run one’s own business was challenging, to say the least.

Peter waved and smiled at Jeff as he espied him in the corner table near the fireplace. “This is nice,” he said, sliding into the booth and squeezing Jeff ’s thigh. “Almost like a date.”

“You’re right,” Jeff agreed. “We don’t get to do this enough anymore…too many people and distractions.” He nudged Peter’s Scotch and water toward him. “Cheers. Here’s to you and me having a lot more time together—alone.”

“I’ll drink to that.” Peter winked at him over the rim of his glass. “So, how’s Miss Olivia?”

“Freaked—but I can’t say I blame her. Some loony left a message on her answering machine threatening her with God’s punishment.”

“She’s having a rough time, isn’t she?” Peter said quietly. “All those threatening letters, Luke’s murder and now this…”

“You getting any more vibes?” Jeff asked.

“No, not since that day of the taping…” He was quiet for a moment. “Poor Luke. He had so much going for him. I wish I could have prevented his death…”

“Well, that’s something only the murderer could have prevented.”

“Have you mentioned to Joe the possibility that Patricia Hastings wrote some of those letters to Olivia?”

“Yeah. I faxed him a copy.” Jeff frowned into his glass as he continued. “He feels it’s a bit early to be looking at her as a suspect, but he agreed the letters
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were similar in tone. I keep thinking about Anthony’s reaction if it turns out she really is involved—she could go to jail, and I just don’t know how he would handle that.”

“It’d be rough for sure,” Peter agreed. “For all of them—but Jeff, if she
is
involved she’s got to be stopped somehow.” He shook his head. “It’s hard to believe she’d stoop this low. She has to know she’s breaking the law by threatening someone’s life.”

“I have a feeling Patricia Hastings thinks she’s above the law, somehow. I’ve never felt she’s dealing with a full deck. All that pent-up hatred she has for her daughters, all that denial of her husband’s perversions, all these years of it…it’s bound to have sent her over the edge. Look how she reacted when Charles Hastings was murdered—she wanted to see Emily arrested. What kind of woman would want to inflict that on her own daughter?”

Peter nodded. “She is a sick woman. Those poor kids—it seems there’s just no end to the horror for them.” His fingers brushed the back of Jeff ’s hand.

“We are so lucky, you know…you and I. Even though we don’t always see eye to eye, and despite everything that we’ve gone through, we’ve had so much happiness in our lives to compensate for the rough times. I know Emily has Jerry and the kids, and Anthony has Justin—and for that I am truly thankful.

But, there always seems to be this shadow hanging over their lives…”

“In the form of their mother,” Jeff said with a grimace. “Their mother—the one who should be giving them love and support. Instead, it’s as if she has gone out of her way to try and destroy their lives. You know, you’re right. We are darned lucky in so many ways. Everyday I find myself thanking the gods that I found you—that we found each other…”

Peter smiled. “I second that emotion. I wish I had the words to tell you just how much I love you, and how happy you’ve made me.”

They were silent for a moment as they looked into each other’s eyes, then Jeff took Peter’s hand in his and said with a wry chuckle; “We’d better get out of here before we make a public spectacle of ourselves.”

“Yeah…” Peter rose from the table. “I know of a much better place for where I want this conversation to go.”

Reaction to Emily and Anthony’s appearance on the Olivia Winter’s Show was nothing short of sensational. Despite all her problems, Olivia was on a high as she read the reviews and letters from critics and viewers.

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“I knew that show would blow ’em away,” she crowed as she and Brenda pored over the papers spread before them. “The ratings have never been better.