This was a dumb place to have a race, this little-used trail, but the weather had made them retreat round to this side of the mountain where there was at least no chance of avalanche. Desperate measures, and he could see Eric Sindon was as unhappy as he was.

He hated celebrity skis. Always an accident as some asshole tried to ski close to the celebs, and he always scraped it up.

The patrol had been working since just after dawn to try and make the area safer, fencing off anything that could lead to these jerks disappearing into litigation valley.

‘You have to keep inside those orange snow fences whatever happens. If you don’t, you’re gonna end up sliding down there, over some rocks you can’t see from here, right down onto the railroad line. And who wants to come home from a ski trip with a leg broken by a freight train, huh? Tell that to your boss back in the office.’

A sour bald man looked at him. ‘We are the bosses, kid. Get on with the bullshit.’

Baz bit his bottom lip briefly, managed a weak smile and continued.

From the trestle table where the contestants were bibbing up, Pasqual shifted uneasily. She was sore. He was a fucking disgusting animal. But he would pay. Oh shit, he would pay.

She’d laid famous guys before and enjoyed the kudos the gossiping ski bums gave her by spreading it round town. But this was ugly. This time it had grossed her out.

She watched Del putting his bib on with a comic flapping of his arms while the rich old gekkos crowded round him trying to help him out, and she hated him.

Enjoy, she thought. I’ll get you back, buster. In ways you couldn’t even imagine.

She drove carefully away from the museum letting the Crown Vic follow all the way to the busy junction of Campbell and Hector Avenue. Then she did that thing that she’d seen in a movie once. She sat at a green with cars pumping their horns, and when it changed to red she shot the light and sped off down Hector towards the four-way junction, leaving the squad car to negotiate the confusion of angry oncoming traffic. They’d be after her now for sure. But she’d lost them. Katie drove the Toyota into the cul de sac behind the lumber yard, where big trees and a high brick wall hid all the parking as if they were designed to. She got out without even taking the keys and abandoned it. No one would see it from the street and unless the cops suddenly needed masonry paint or loft insulation they weren’t going to find it in a hurry.

It was only one block to Gerry and Ann’s and she walked it in case anyone checked out she was running.