Kim turned the screw top of the bottle and wondered if it had been loosened before. Nothing like a couple of years in the White House to fan any spark of mistrust into a conflagration.

“Throw it away,” she said after a moment’s thought.

The bartender had watched her test the bottle. “Here,” he said, exchanging the Amstel for one from the fridge. “You’re ready for a fresh one anyhow.”

“You really think it’s already been opened?” Nicole asked.

“Probably not, but weirder things have happened.”

“You’re right there, sister.”

The kiss-happy couple gulped down their last swallows and headed for the door. Nicole slid onto one of the vacated stools. The other women were later than usual, she observed. Perhaps it was worth calling.… The moment she said the word, the bar phone began ringing.

“The all-powerful Nicole,” Kim said before she could begin wondering why whoever it was hadn’t called on one of their cell phones. “Wanna guess which one of them it is?”

The bartender listened for a few seconds, then hung up. “It was for you,” the bartender said to Kim. “It was the guy who bought you the beer.”

“Inventive,” Nicole said.

“Creepy,” Kim responded.

The jukebox had begun playing a song Kim knew by the band Green Day.

The bartender leaned toward them to be heard over the increasing din. “He told me to tell you to look under the drink coaster.”

“Intriguing,” Nicole said.

“Double creepy,” Kim replied.

Her brow furrowed as she flipped the cardboard coaster over so that only she could see. Nicole and the bartender waited. The note was written in a small, neat hand. Kim read it and felt her stomach knot. Her heart rate accelerated like a drag racer as she scanned the restaurant.

“Do you see him?” she asked the bartender, now with some urgency. “Are you sure he’s not here?”

The man glanced about again, but shook his head. “Like I said, I really didn’t take a good look at him. In this place, guys are always buying drinks for pretty women they want to connect with. It’s like the coin of the realm. I remember what the women look like more than I remember the men.”

The noise level in Bar None had elevated as more people filtered in. The bartender waited until it was clear he wasn’t going to learn the contents of the message, and then headed off to tend to other customers.

Nicole scanned the room. “Okay,” she said finally. “I give up. What’s it say?”

“Nicole, I detest pledging people to secrecy,” Kim said grimly, “and the last thing I want to do is upset you. But I need to keep this one to myself—at least for the time being.”

“You can’t be serious. I tell you about my damn sex life. The good stuff, too.”