"The bikers are kil ing each other?"

"Yes. It's a power struggle for control of the drug trade."

"Why not just let them?" asked the actor. "View it as a form of sociopath self-regulation."

"Because innocents like Emily Anne Toussaint, who was nine years old, get caught in the cross fire."

"And maybe this other girl?"

"Maybe, Kit."

"Do you think you'l be able to prove that?" Crease.

"I don't know. Claude-Henri, please tel us about your film."

As the producer spoke, Crease picked up the Chardonnay and reached for my empty glass. I shook my head, but he continued. When I placed my hand over the rim, he laughed, lifted it off, and fil ed the goblet.

Seething, I pul ed my hand free from his and leaned back in my chain I cannot tolerate people pressing liquor on those who don't want it.

My nephew's voice brought me back to the conversation. Isabel e had turned her spotlight on Kit.

"Yeah, I went with my daddy. He's in the oil business. We drove up from Texas in a big old Winnebago. Pop's idea. He wanted to do this bonding thing.

"We swung by here to drop off Auntie's cat, then east and into Vermont at Derby Line. Pop had this trip planned better than the invasion of Normandy.

That's why I remember al the names.

"Anyway we camped near this town cal ed Westmore and fished the Wil oughby River for salmon. The salmon are landlocked, and when they run in the spring it's a big deal. I guess real fishermen view it like some kind of holy place.

"Then we gunned south to Manchester and fished the Battenkil , and my daddy bought al kinds of crap at the Orvis factory Casting rods, fly rods, and other stuff. Then he motored on to Texas in the 'Bago, and I dropped in on my aunt the biker buster." He raised his glass to me, and everyone fol owed suit.

"It's kind of weird," Kit continued. "Because my daddy bought me a motorcycle about a year ago.

I was dismayed but not surprised. Howard was my sister's second husband, a West Texas oilman with more money than sense, and a defect on the double helix that made him incapable of monogamy. They'd divorced when Kit was six. Howard's approach to fatherhood was to lavish toys and money on his son. At three it was ponies and motorized toy cars. By eighteen it had changed to sailboats and then a Porsche.

"What kind of motorcycle?" asked Isabel e.

"It's a Harley-Davidson. Pop's real y into Harleys. My bike is a Road King Classic and he's got an Ultra Classic Electra Glide. Those are both Evos. But Pop's real love is his old knucklehead. They only made those from 1936 to 1947."

"What do those terms mean?" asked Isabel e.