“Well, I think she must have come back for them, because the dog went off in the middle of the night, and I found a large pile of scat behind the house. Are the cubs old enough to survive on their own?”

“Either she’s nursing them again, or they didn’t make it.”

“You want to have another shot at removing her?”

“I’ve got a new assignment that’s taking all my time.”

“Can I hire a private contractor to do the job?”

“If you know one, sure. All the guys I know would just kill her and the cubs, too.”

“I don’t want that.”

“There’s one other possibility that you should keep in mind.”

“What’s that?”

“This might not be the she-bear. It could be her mate, and he could be a lot harder to handle.”

“Uh-oh. What’s your best advice?”

“Two things. One, don’t leave any food outside, and bring your garbage cans indoors. I’ve already told your neighbors to do that.”

“What’s number two?”

“Move out.”

“For how long?”

“I wish I could tell you that—long enough for the bear to give up on finding food around the place, and who knows how long that is?”

Stone thanked the man and hung up, then he went into the bedroom, found Gala and reported his conversation with the ranger.

“So you want to go back to New York?”

“L.A. is closer. I’ve got an Arrington board meeting coming up out there in a few days—that might be long enough for the bear to forget about us.”

“I guess I can finish my screenplay in L.A.”

“I’ll give you the study at the house—you can avoid interruption there.”

She shrugged. “All right, but remember, Boris lives in L.A.”

“We’ll lie low—he won’t know we’re there.”

—

Before they took off, Stone called his son, Peter.

“Hi, Dad, you still in England?”

“No, I’m in Santa Fe, but I’ll be in L.A. tonight. Can you and Ben and the girls come to dinner?”

“I can. I’ll check with Ben.”

“Ask Billy Barnett and his wife, too.”

“All right.”

“Leave me a voice mail about how many to expect.”

“Will do. Seven o’clock all right?”

“Come at six for a drink.”

“Okay.”

They hung up.

—

Stone, Gala, and Bob landed at Santa Monica Airport at mid-afternoon and an Arrington car drove them to the hotel and home, to his house on the grounds. He got a message from Peter that there’d be six coming for dinner. He called his regular chef and gave her the news, then discussed a menu.

Everybody was there a little after six, and they had drinks beside the pool. When he had a chance, Stone sat down next to Billy Barnett, formerly Teddy Fay, in an earlier existence.

“I’ve been having some problems, Billy,” he said.