The lawyer remembered a classmate in law school, Cynthia Yu. Damn, hadn't she been quite a lay same sort of eyes, almost, the Oriental coquette

Might that be it?

Something that simple?

Ryan was married: wife, Caroline Muller Ryan, M.D., eye surgeon. Photo: a quintessential Wasp, except that she was Catholic, slender and attractive, mother of two.

Well, just because a man has a pretty wife

Ryan had established an educational trust fund Wellington opened another file. It was a Xerox copy of the document.

Ryan, he saw, had done it alone, through a lawyer - not his regular lawyer! A D.C. guy. And Caroline Ryan had not signed the papers did she even know about it? The information on his desk suggested that she did not.

Wellington next checked the birth records on the newest Zimmer child. Her husband had been killed in a 'routine training accident' - the timing was equivocal. She might have gotten pregnant the very week her husband had been killed. Then again, she might not have. It was her seventh child - eighth? You couldn't tell with those, could you? Gestation could be nine months, or less. First kids were usually late. Later kids, as often as not, were early. Birth weight of the child five pounds seven ounces less than average, but she was an Asian, and they were small did they have smaller-than-normal babies? Wellington made his notes, recognizing that he had a series of maybes, and not a single fact.

But, hell, was he really looking for facts?

The two punks. Ryan's bodyguards, Clark and Chavez, had mangled one of them. His investigator had checked that out with the Anne Arundel County Police Department. The local cops had signed off on Clark's story. The punks in question had long but minor records, a few summary probations, a few sessions with youth-counselors. The cops were delighted at the way things had turned out. "Okay with me if he'd shot that worthless little fucker." a police sergeant had said, with a laugh recorded on the investigator's tape cassette. "That Clark guy looked like one very serious dude. His sidekick ain't much different. If those punks were dumb enough to hassle them, hey, it's a tough world, y'know? Two other gang members confirmed the story the way the good guys told it, and that's a closed case, man."

But why had Ryan set his two bodyguards on them?

He's killed to protect his family, hasn't he ? This is not a guy who tolerates danger to his,.. friends family lovers?

It is possible.

"Hmm " Wellington observed to himself. The DDCI is getting a little on the side. Nothing illegal, just unsavory. Also out of character for the saintly Dr John Patrick Ryan. When his lover is annoyed by some local gang members, he simply sics his bodyguards on them, like a mafia capo might do, as a lordly public service that no cop would ever bother fooling with.

Might that be enough?

No.