As she turned away, she heard the cabbie shout an inarticulate curse, slam his door, and burn rubber as he tore off.

We’re even, she thought, her anger fading. But what an awful way to start a beautiful fall day.

She put it behind her. She’d been looking forward to this meeting with Leo Weinstein, and she wasn’t going to let some crazy cabbie upset her.

At last she’d found an attorney who wasn’t afraid to tackle a big law firm. All of the others she’d tried—those in her limited price range—had reacted with a little too much awe when they’d heard the name Hinchberger, Rainey & Guran. Not Weinstein. Hadn’t fazed him in the least. He’d read through the will and within a day came up with half a dozen suggestions he seemed to believe would put the big boys on the defensive.

“Your father left you that house,” he’d said. “No way they can keep it from you. Just leave it to me.”

And so she’d done just that. Now she was going to see what he’d accomplished with the blizzard of paper he’d fired at Hinchberger, Rainey & Guran.

She heard a honk behind her and stiffened. If it was that cab…

She turned and relaxed as she saw Leo Weinstein waving through the open window of a silver Lexus. He was saying something she couldn’t catch. She stepped closer.

“Good morning,” she said.

“Sorry I’m late,” he said. “The LIE was jammed. Just let me pull into the garage down there and I’ll be right with you.”

“No problem.”

She was almost to the front door of the building where Cutter and Weinstein had their offices when she was staggered by a thunderous noise. The shock wave slammed against her back like a giant hand and almost knocked her off her feet.

Turning she saw a ball of flame racing skyward from the middle of the block, and flaming pieces of metal crashing to the ground all about her. Cars were screeching to a halt as pedestrians dove for the pavement amid glittering shards of glass tumbling from windows up and down the block. Alicia jumped back as a blackened, smoking chunk of a car trunk lid landed in front of her and rolled to her feet.

An icy coil of horror tightened around her throat as she recognized the Lexus insignia.

She craned her neck to look for Leo’s car, but it was… gone.

“Oh, no!” she cried. “Oh, my God, no!”

She hurried forward a few steps on wobbly knees to see if there was anything she could do, but… the car… nothing was left where it had been… just burning asphalt.

“Oh, God, Leo!” she gasped. “Oh, I’m so sorry!”

She couldn’t breathe. What had happened to all the air? She had to get away from here.

She forced her stricken body to turn and blunder back up the sidewalk, away from the smoke, the flames, the wreckage. She stopped when she reached Madison Avenue. She leaned against a traffic light post and gulped air. When she’d caught her breath, she looked back.