TALL DARK AND HUNGRY Page 0,59

pent-house, now that his leg wasn't paining him as much. He had said it would probably be better for him any¬way, less distraction. Terri supposed it was out of the question for a while now.

Bastien handed Vincent the second drink he'd made, then turned slowly to contemplate the flowers on nearly every surface in the living room.

Terri glanced around, too. Miraculously, none of the remaining arrangements had been disturbed by the fracas. The breaking glass they had heard had ap¬parently been Chris's cup of coffee smashing to the floor.

"I guess I should make that call, then get back to taking those pictures," he decided.

"And I'll clean up the broken cup while you make the phone call, then I'll help you," Terri announced.

"And I..." Vincent paused to down his whiskey. Setting the empty glass down, he said, "Have to go feed. I mean, find something to eat. I'm starved."

Terri glanced at her watch at the announcement.

They had wasted the better part of the afternoon and early evening at the hospital. It was now past seven. They hadn't eaten since breakfast.

"Why don't you make yourself something to eat, Terri?" Bastien suggested. "I can handle the rest of the photos on my own while you cook."

"Okay," she agreed slowly. "Is there anything in particular you'd like?"

"I'm not hungry," he said. "Just fix yourself what you want. I'll grab a... er... sandwich... later if I get hungry."

Terri hesitated, then said, "I'll make a couple of sandwiches, and bring them into the office. We can eat while we work."

Chapter Ten

"Well, that's one crisis taken care of," Bastien an¬nounced as Terri entered the office. "Kate got the e-rnail last night. She and Lucern looked over the pictures and picked the arrangements they wanted, then e-mailed them to me. They were in my in-box when I got up this morning, and I just called Roberto to pass along their decision." He narrowed his eyes when he noted Terri's grim expression. She ap¬proached the desk. "You don't look happy. You should be relieved. Tragedy has been averted. We saved the wedding."

"I'm glad we've averted that problem. Now we have another one."

She laid the newspaper she'd brought with her on the desk in front of him, and Bastien glanced down. She'd folded it in half. There were three stories showing.

"I'm guessing you aren't wanting me to look at the story on New York doing a doggie census?" he asked.

"Try the story next to it," she suggested.

" 'Bankrupt Caterer Commits Suicide,'" he read aloud, then glanced up blankly. "So?"

"I'm pretty sure that's Kate's caterer."

"Dear God," Bastien breathed.

"Hmm." Heaving a sigh, Terri dropped into the seat facing his desk. "I'm not positive, though."

They stared at each other for a moment, then Bastien reached for the phone.

"It's just after six A.M. in California," Terri re¬minded him, having guessed his intention of calling Kate and Lucern.

Bastien hesitated. "Too early?"

"From what Kate's told me about conferences, they last until late at night. She probably won't be up for another hour. And I wouldn't want to wake her up with this news."

"No. You're right." He set the phone back down. "I should wait another hour at least."

"I would," Terri agreed.

Bastien nodded, then began to drum his fingers on the desk. He wasn't used to inactivity in a crisis, but he also didn't have a clue what to do. And this time, even he could see it was a crisis.

"We could make up a list of caterers to contact in case this guy is her caterer," Terri suggested after a moment.

"Good thinking. At least that way, we won't just be calling with bad news. If it is him," Bastien added.

Sincerely hoping it wasn't, he pulled the Yellow Pages out from the drawer where it was stored. Terri stood and walked around the desk to look over his shoul¬der. Bastien leafed through, looking for the section with caterers. He relaxed a little when he saw that the list was several pages long.

"There are a ton of them," Terri murmured.

"Yes. That's good. Isn't it?"

"Not necessarily," she said. "Many of them will be booked up and unavailable, so we'll waste time calling those, and I haven't a clue which of those left over are good. Do you?"

"Damn," Bastien breathed. He was the detail man, the decision man, the crisis man--the one everyone looked to when a problem cropped up. But he'd never been faced with these kinds of problems. Food wasn't a big priority in Bastien's life, and therefore it wasn't a problem he had any experience dealing