'Paul,' Thorn continued, 'please get to a phone right away and notify the board of directors. And see to it that a cable is sent to every overseas executive above the status of plant manager.'

'Will do,' said Buher.

'I'll hold a board meeting in ten days. The funeral is in three. No flowers, contributions to the Heart Fund instead. And I'll take care of the banks and the Street.' Richard shook hands all around, then started to leave with Atherton.

Buher caught him by his coat sleeve. 'Richard?' he asked. 'Could we have breakfast tomorrow morning to finish discussing this project?'

Atherton was appalled, but Thorn took it in stride. 'Of course,' he replied. 'Come by the apartment around eight.' Then he moved away, with Atherton not far behind.

Pasarian shook his head at Buher. He certainly didn't waste any time, did he? An old woman dies. So what, Buher would probably say, the rest of us live on. And Buher would continue to press his ideas on Richard Thorn until the company was operating on a basic philosophy that was essentially his.

Buher interrupted Pasarian's train of thought. ‘The Thorns have already moved into the city then?' he asked.

Pasarian nodded. ‘Today.'

'Winter's here again,' Buher said.

He walked off in search of a phone in order to carry out Thorn's instructions.

Even in her last act, Marion Thorn had proved to be a terrible inconvenience.

***

At that moment, thirty thousand feet over the Atlantic Ocean, not far from the Straits of Gibraltar, an El-Al jet was speeding west, after having taken off from the airport at Tel-Aviv.

On board, back behind the left wing in the tourist section, sat a very attractive English woman, with auburn hair and flashing eyes. Her name was Joan Hart. And just as Dr Warren had said, she was on her way to America to try to interview the elusive Richard Thorn. But not for the reasons he supposed.

Ever since the sudden disappearance of her friend and lover, Michael Morgan, seven years earlier, Joan Hart had been doing some digging of her own—into the past, into the Bible, and into the facts surrounding the series of odd deaths that seemed to have as their pivot one little boy—Damien Thorn.