I didn’t know whether to laugh or scream when I realized that Baladine and Alex hadn’t come up to look at his computer, but to grab time together while Eleanor was focused on the pool, although I had one bad moment when Baladine spoke loudly enough for me to hear, saying he didn’t remember switching off his office camera. After twenty minutes of frenzied thrashing on the leather couch and the murmured endearments of one barracuda for another, a hand grasped the closet doorknob.

It opened a crack, but Baladine said, “No, no, my dear, bathroom’s the other door—that’s just a supply closet.”

Alex, sloppy Alex, didn’t close the door all the way. “I need to get back downstairs, BB. I just got beeped—that means Lacey Dowell’s limo is coming up the drive, and Teddy will want me on hand for her. She’s been temperamental since Frenada died, and we don’t want her going off half–cocked to some reporter.”

“Like Ryerson?” Baladine said.

“Ryerson was a newspaperman from day one. I shouldn’t have let him persuade Teddy he could handle television—he was in way over his head. Although we still haven’t found anyone who can handle that “Behind Scenes in Chicago’ segment. Anyway, as the man said, enough of this lovemaking—on with your clothes.”

“Want to see the replay on television while you dress?”

“You have a camera back here? God, I thought Teddy Trant was infatuated with his body, but not even he videos himself in the act.”

“I’m infatuated with your body. This is so I can watch it over and over.”

“Right, BB. I’ll take that. I don’t need to see myself on the Net, and you’re just the kind of guy to make that kind of use of a tape.”

They had a few more minutes grappling, with Baladine laughing and then cursing at her for being a damned bitch. I wasn’t an Alex fan, but I hoped that meant she’d wrested the tape from him. Then a sound of hand on flesh and a furious outburst from Alex. I put my eye on the crack in the door. Baladine had Alex’s left arm twisted back and was putting pressure on her wrist. Her face was contorted in pain and she dropped the tape.

He laughed and said, “I thought you’d see it my way, my dear. But don’t worry, I won’t share you with the Internet. The world at large can’t appreciate you the way I do.”

She swore at him but finally left when Eleanor phoned up to say Lacey was here and they were trying to find Alex. The door shut behind her. Baladine washed off noisily in the bathroom, humming “Anchors Aweigh.” In another minute he was gone as well.