"You think he's faking too," she said.

"Jack's explanation makes sense."

"So you're going to stop looking'?"

"I don't know," Myron said.

She straightened her back. "Stay with it," she began, "and I promise to sign with you."

"Linda . . ."I "That's why you're here in the first place, right? You want my business. Well, here's the deal. You stay with me and I'll sign whatever you want. Hoax or no hoax. It'll be quite a coup, no? Signing the number one ranked female golfer in the world?"

"Yes," Myron admitted. "It would be."

"So there you go." She stuck out her hand. "Do we have a deal?"

Myron kept his hands by his side. "Let me ask you something. ' '

"What?"

"Why are you so sure it's not a hoax, Linda?"

"You think I'm being naive?"

"Not really," he said. "I just want to know what makes you so certain."

She lowered her hand and turned away from him.

"Dad?"

Bucky seemed to snap out of a daze. "Hmm'?"

"Would you mind leaving us alone for a minute?"

"Oh," Bucky said. Neck crane. Then another. Two of them back to-back. Good thing he wasn't a giraffe. "Yes, well, I wanted to get to Merion anyway."

"You go ahead, Dad. I'll meet you there."

When they were alone, Linda Coldren began to pace the room. Myron was again awed by her looks the paradoxical combination of beauty, strength and now delicacy.

The strong, toned arms, yet the long, slender neck.

The harsh, pointed features, yet the soft indigo eyes. Myron had heard beauty described as "seamless"; hers was quite the opposite.

"I'm not big on" Linda Coldren made quote marks in the air with her fingers "woman's intuition or any of that mother-knows-her-boy-best crap. But I know that my son is in danger. He wouldn't just disappear like this. No matter how it looks, that's not what happened."

Myron remained silent.

"I don't like asking for help. It's not my way to depend on someone else. But this is a situation .... I'm scared. I've never felt fear like this in all of my life. It's all-consuming. It's suffocating. My son is in trouble and I can't do anything to help him. You want proof that this is not a hoax. I can't provide that. I just know. And I'm asking you to please help me."

Myron wasn't sure how to respond. Her argument came straight from the heart, sans facts or evidence. But that didn't make her suffering any less real. "I'll check out Matthew's house," he said finally. "Let's see what happens after that."

Chapter I3

In the light of day, Green Acres Road was even more imposing. Both sides of the street were lined with tenfoot-high shrubs so thick that Myron couldn't tell how thick. He parked his car outside a. wrought iron gate and approached an intercom. He pressed a button and waited.

There were several surveillance cameras. Some remained steady. Some whirred slowly from side to side. Myron spotted motion detectors, barbed wire, Dobermans.