Anna arrived at Kelly's shortly before 1:00 the next day. She ordered soup and a sandwich and sat down at a table near the back corner, concerned primarily to have a good view of the other tables: if Duke met her, she'd need to be able to see who else was there. She didn't want Baldwin blindsiding them, or one of Corinthos' men snapping pictures to imply collusion. Anna had to be careful. She would not allow her enemies to exploit the situation.

As she ate, she thought back on the previous evening. Dinner at the Scorpio-Drake house had been pleasant; it was always lovely to spend time with her daughter and granddaughter. But Anna and Robert's every move, every gesture, every look had been closely studied by their daughter; Anna had felt less scrutinized by the DVX agents at Café Odette during her and Robert's first mission, when they were pretending to be but weren't yet lovers. After dinner and after Emma had been carried off to bed, Robert had walked Anna out into the dark. Around the corner of the house, where they couldn't be seen by inquisitive eyes, he'd held her hands as she leaned back against the side of her car. They'd laughed at Robin's obvious obsession with her parents' relationship; both expressed excitement at the prospect of spending the next evening alone together. Robert kissed her gently, made a few roguish innuendoes, and held the door for her as she got into her car. She drove off wondering why the hell they were waiting twenty-four-more hours—and then she reminded herself that Robert responded well to delayed gratification.

Anna looked down at her watch: 1:30. Duke wasn't going to show. She was disappointed but also relieved. She'd tried to reach out to him. Whatever happened now, she could at least tell herself she'd wanted to set things right.

As she finished up the last of her food and was preparing to leave, Anna noticed Felicia entering the restaurant. When Felicia saw her, they locked eyes; Anna knew something was up. Felicia changed direction and made a bee-line for Anna's table. "I'm so glad I ran into you," she said, a bit too cheerily; "maybe you can clear something up for me." Felicia sat down and Anna's heart sank. "So, just about an hour ago I ran into Duke by the waterfront and we started chatting, and I mentioned that Mac and I were thinking about holding a little party to celebrate Robin's return and Robert's recovery, and I asked him if you and he might be free next Saturday, and he told me that he had no idea about you, but that he wouldn't be free, and that he wished Robert Scorpio were still in a coma. What gives?"

Anna grimaced, forced a smile, and finally sighed. What to tell Felicia? She decided on a version of the truth, leaving out the business about the mob.

When Anna was finished explaining, Felicia's mouth hung open. "You and Robert?" she gasped, then grinned. "Oh my god—I can't wait to tell Mac. He won't believe it." She took Anna's hands. "I, for one, am delighted. I had a front-row seat to your flirtations back-in-the- day; sometimes I just wanted to lock the two of you in a room together until you finally acknowledged what everyone else could see." Felicia beamed. "You know, it'll be great—you and Robert, me and Mac, family dinners, maybe weekends away. Oh—we could all go on a cruise together!"

Anna was trying hard not to show her horror when Robert walked into the restaurant. Felicia turned, saw him, and broke into a wide, dazzling smile. He walked over to their table, completely unsuspecting.

He half-asked, half-exclaimed, "Now aren't I lucky, running in to the two best-looking women on the waterfront!" and leaned over to kiss Felicia on the cheek.

"Don't forget to kiss Anna too, Robert," she instructed, and then got up. "I'll leave you two alone. I have to go find Mac." She practically ran out of Kelly's.

"What was that about?" Robert asked.

"I'm afraid the cat's out of the bag," Anna answered. "Felicia knows that Duke and I have split, and you and I are—together."

Robert made a show of thinking. "Oh. I guess I hadn't thought about when and how the information would be disseminated. Looks like it will be via Port Chuck's town crier."

Anna laughed.

"What about that thing we kind of arranged that we thought might happen today," Robert asked. "Did it?"

Anna shook her head. "No. Not our fault, though. We tried." Then she asked, "Why are you here? Did you come to check up on me?"

Robert smiled. "Pure coincidence, actually: I'm meeting one of my women from the file here, Elizabeth Beaty. Does the name ring a bell?"

"Yeah, the husband's high school friend. When is she coming?"

"Momentarily," Robert answered. "I'd better get a table."

Anna began to collect her things. "Good luck. If you find out anything interesting, I'll be in the office for the rest of the afternoon. If I don't see you there, I'll see you—later?"

Robert smiled, gave her a peck on the cheek, and went off to claim a table closer to the counter.

Anna was about to leave when her phone rang. It was Dante, keeping her abreast of yet another lead that had, disappointingly, dissolved into complete nothingness. By the time the call was over and Anna looked back up, a tall and extremely striking blonde had walked into Kelly's and was looking around the tables, obviously searching someone out. Anna saw Robert raise his hand and stand in recognition (Anna remembered that he had seen photos of Elizabeth Beaty); the blonde smiled and sauntered over, offering him her hand. They shook, and Robert invited her to sit.

Anna was intrigued. She decided to watch the interview from a distance—at least for a short time.

"So nice to meet you, Mr. Scorpio," Elizabeth told him. "I'm intrigued that the PCPD is investigating Carolyn's case again. I've always thought there was more to her disappearance. I know Stephen never believed that she'd left him of her own accord."

While Elizabeth was speaking, Robert was noting with some amazement that she'd barely aged since 1998, judging by the photo he'd seen of her and Carolyn on the beach. She was either genetically blessed or could afford very good work. "Well, Ms. Beaty, as I explained on the phone, this investigation is partly routine. We just want to ensure that we haven't missed something important."

"Please, call me Elizabeth," she invited. "And may I call you-?"

"Robert," he offered. "And I want to say that we do appreciate you giving us your time. I only have a few questions, really."

Elizabeth smiled. "Fire away."

For some reason, Robert felt a bit unnerved. "First of all, do you remember the days leading up to Carolyn's disappearance? Did you see her or Stephen? Do you recall anything unusual occurring?"

Elizabeth shook her head. "No, nothing unusual. I did see Carolyn two days before she went missing. We all met for drinks—Stephen , she, Alan, and I."

"This is going to sound a bit odd," Robert began, "but do you remember what Carolyn drank?"

Elizabeth laughed. "No, I'm afraid not. I didn't pay that much attention. She usually drank wine, but on occasion she'd order something else—maybe a beer if it was a hot day, or a martini if she was feeling elegant and erudite."

"Was it alcoholic?" Robert pressed further.

Elizabeth's eyes narrowed. "Honestly I can't remember. Next question?"

Anna decided that she couldn't leave now. She pulled out her compact (something she, in fact, only rarely used to check her make-up) and settled in to watch the strange interaction between Robert and his blonde.

"How would you describe your relationship with Carolyn, Elizabeth" Robert asked. "Were you close friends? I know that you have more of a history with Stephen."

Elizabeth considered her answer carefully. "Carolyn was—and is, I hope—a lovely woman. I enjoyed her company, and we had a lot of laughs together. She was always very kind to me, and I think she was good for my friend Stephen. But I don't think I would describe us as 'close.' Maybe we were very good acquaintances."

"And your relationship with Stephen—was it always platonic? Were you never more than friends?"

Again, Elizabeth reflected before she answered. "I never thought of him as anything but a friend."

Robert smiled, encouraging her to explain further.

"I can't really speak for him. But I suppose I have to admit it crossed my mind more than once that he might have been interested in a romantic, or at least sexual, relationship with me. But that was before Carolyn, when we were much younger."

"How did Stephen and Carolyn get on with your husband Alan?"

"Ex-husband," Elizabeth corrected quickly, saying the word with some distaste. "Our marriage ended fourteen years ago."

"Ended?" Robert asked. "Perhaps this is a bit personal, but why?"

"Alan left me. He just up and disappeared one night while I was away on a business trip. I came back and there was a note—very vague, and very cold. Some of his clothes were gone, a few of his things, half of our bank account. I never heard from him again. I had to wait a year before I could apply for a divorce on the basis of abandonment. It was humiliating."

"I'm very sorry," Robert offered. "I guess that answers my next question: I was going to ask to speak to Alan, but I gather you don't know how to contact him."

Elizabeth's eyes sparked. "No I don't. But if you manage to find the bastard, I'd appreciate it if you passed that information on. I have a few choice words for the son-of-a-bitch."

Robert made a show of hesitation, though he felt no compunction about asking the next question. "Elizabeth, I have to ask, did Alan in his short, vague note give any hint why he left you?"

Elizabeth pressed her lips together. "No," she answered, "not in the note. But I knew why he'd left. It was a long-standing difference of opinion. He wanted to have children. I didn't. I guess you could say it was an irreconcilable difference. But he took the coward's way out. He should have stayed and ended things like a man. Instead he skulked away and made my life hell for the next twelve months."

Anna watched as the interview ended. Elizabeth stood up, followed by Robert. They shook hands again. Elizabeth laughed, threw her head back, flashed Robert a perfect smile. Before walking to the door she reached out, touched Robert's shoulder, and smiled again. Then she was gone. Anna watched Elizabeth's perfect ass figure-eight itself out the door.

Robert was scribbling down his notes. Anna stood, walked slowly over to the table, and sat down in the seat Elizabeth had vacated. "Hello, Robert."

Robert started. "Anna! What are you doing here? I thought you'd left."

Anna smiled. "You were so absorbed in your conversation that you didn't notice I'd stayed. I was watching you Robert. Once the interview started, I couldn't look away. I didn't hear a blessed thing, but I found it all very enlightening."

Robert put down his pen and smiled. "So, enlighten me. What did you notice?"

Anna leaned across the table and spoke in a hushed tone. "That woman has studied and studies how to be sexy. Her moves are by the book. And she has access to a lot of money—her hair and clothes are impeccable, and she's had some impressive plastic surgery done."

Robert picked up his pen and tapped it energetically on his notepad. "Look, look—the surgery bit's already noted here. I can spot saline implants and collagen injections at ten paces. What else have you got for me, Devane?"

"She was very subtly and skillfully mirroring you. When you leaned on the table, she leaned on the table; when you leaned back in your chair, she leaned back in her chair; when you crossed your arms, she crossed her arms."

Robert smiled. "Your point?"

"Well, when someone we're talking to mirrors our behaviour, we naturally feel more comfortable and relaxed in their presence, and we feel an instinctive, subconscious attraction. It's kind of a narcissistic impulse; it's like we're attracted to ourselves in the other person. It's really hard to resist."

Robert leaned back in his chair. "So what do you conclude from Elizabeth Beaty's observed behaviour?"

Anna didn't lean back but leaned forward. "She was mirroring you for one of three possible reasons. First reason: she was mirroring you unconsciously because she finds you irresistibly attractive."

Robert threw down his pen and threw up his hands. "There's our answer. It's perfectly obvious. We don't need to look further."

Anna continued. "Second reason: she was consciously mirroring you because she finds you attractive and she wants to seduce you."

Robert cocked his head to one side and deliberated this interpretation. "Well, that's also possible. I was maybe a bit too hasty, latching on to the very first explanation you offered."

Anna concluded, "Third reason: she was consciously mirroring you because she wants you to like her and to trust her. She wants to get you 'on side': she's trying to manipulate you, but not just to get you in bed."

Robert considered this last theory. "Less likely, but still, it's a caution. My gut was already telling me to be careful around this woman."

"I used basic psychology; you used your gut. However we reached it, we came to the same conclusion."

Robert smiled. "You observed the dance of sexual attraction, but you didn't hear the content of the conversation. I have some potentially significant information to share with you. Why don't I walk you back to the office and fill you in?"

"Carolyn was likely pregnant when she disappeared," Anna reviewed, "and Alan left his wife a few months after because, according to Elizabeth, he wanted to have children but she didn't. That does seem like a remarkable coincidence."

They were almost back at the station and so had stopped to finish their conversation in private by the water.

"Could Alan have been the person Carolyn was talking to on the phone? Could she have confided in him about the pregnancy? I thought you said Stephen described Alan and Carolyn's relationship as not overly familiar?"

"Well," Robert explained, "he was a bit defensive. He insisted that Carolyn and Alan weren't close, and that she repeatedly told Stephen that Alan was a lesser version of him. It sounds to me like Stephen suffered from some serious insecurity. He said his wife 'humoured' him in this, and that his anxiety was his own personal issue. But as the saying goes, just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean they aren't really out to get you. Maybe Stephen was insecure around Alan for a reason."

"Okay," Anna's arms were crossed, "let's say Carolyn and Alan were, in fact, close—were more than friends, were maybe even intimate. Why would she be happy and excited to tell him that she was pregnant with her husband's child? It doesn't make sense."

Robert considered. "Well, maybe because she knew he wanted to have children himself—they shared that desire, that hope. He was someone who could really understand her excitement."

Anna hugged herself against the cold. "I suppose. I suppose that's possible."

"Or," Robert offered further, "and I'm getting really creative here, maybe she was excited to tell him because it wasn't her husband's child. It was Alan's."

Anna shot him a skeptical look. "How do you figure that?"

"Maybe she was sleeping with both of them and she suspected, or even knew, that the baby was her lover's, not Stephen's. I assume that's possible?"

Now it was Anna's turn to consider. "I suppose it could be. Carolyn could have been using birth control with Stephen and not using it with Alan. If she were, she could be almost completely certain who the father was."

"And she could have done this without Stephen knowing?"

Anna smiled at Robert, unsure if he were pulling her leg. "Well, there would be clues a careful and suspicious mind might notice."

"Such as?"

"Good grief, Robert," Anna laughed in disbelief. "Do you really need me to explain the mysteries of female birth control?"

Robert looked flustered. "Well, I know there are a number of options . . ."

"But you don't understand how a woman could let a man think she was trying to conceive when she wasn't?"

"Well obviously she could take birth-control pills, but then she couldn't conceive with another man."

"Well reasoned, Robert. What about other methods?"

Robert looked sheepish now. "Well, an IUD is implanted . . ."

"Very good, so with that method we have the same problem as with pills. But there are others."

"Rhythm?" Robert asked, hopeful.

"Too unreliable," Anna answered, shaking her head "That leaves something inserted—a sponge, a diaphragm. Carolyn could have used one of these."

"What would be the clues?" Robert asked.

Anna took a deep breath. "Okay, Robert, when we first got back together—think back to the day of the earthquake, and to all of our encounters after that—what did I always do before we became intimate?"

Robert smiled, remembering. "You looked me up and down and licked your lips."

Anna laughed. "Okay, I probably did do that, but it wasn't prophylactic. What else did I always do? What did I do every single time?"

Robert took her hand. "You slipped into something more comfortable. You put on less clothing."

Anna squeezed his hand. "Yes I did. And after I did that, while I was still in the bathroom, I put in my diaphragm. Did the whole birth control thing simply slip your notice? Didn't you concern yourself about it ever?"

"It certainly slipped my mind when we first fell in love."

"Ah, yes," Anna gritted her teeth. "Well, I wasn't always disappearing into the bathroom then, was I? I was young and naive and completely unprepared to fall in love with and sleep with my partner—my much older but, unfortunately, not more mature, partner. And that's why and when we conceived our fabulous daughter."

"I wouldn't change that for the world," Robert murmured.

"Nor would I, obviously, but I learned my lesson." Anna suddenly thought of something else and snatched her hand back from Robert. "Good grief—what about all the other women you were in relationships with, Robert? Holly, Cheryl, Katherine—did you always put the onus on your partners to take care of the family planning? And what about the women you've been with since me?"

Robert gently took back her hand. "I'll admit, before we got back together, I was perhaps a bit irresponsible. Once we found our way back to each other, I thought about nothing except how much I loved you and wanted you, and I would have been delighted if we'd had another child. And then after we were separated again, it didn't matter."

"Didn't matter? That sounds awfully melodramatic, Robert."

"It didn't matter," he explained, "because birth control wasn't the most important thing. I couldn't imagine being with someone again long-term. So protection was a given. No secret birth control in the age of HIV; only safe sex. The subject couldn't be avoided. And there was only one option."

Anna found herself feeling very sorry that he hadn't found someone special during all the years they'd spent apart.

Robert brought them back to the subject at hand. "So, you're saying that Carolyn could have used a diaphragm when she was with Stephen and not used one with Alan. What kinds of clues might or might not Stephen have picked up on?"

"Well," Anna explained, "Carolyn would have to insert the diaphragm; she could do this up to six hours before having sex, but most women nip off to the bathroom to do it immediately before. She'd have to leave it in for six hours after, to make sure nothing got past the barrier. And she'd have to remove it within twelve hours. Otherwise he wouldn't be able to tell she had one in."

"It sounds possible then."

"Yes," Anna agreed, "but it's beyond hypothetical. I don't know how we could even begin to prove it. You need a prescription to get a diaphragm, so I suppose we could try to get her medical records opened. But even if she were prescribed one, she might have been using it before they decided to get pregnant. I'm not sure what our next move should be."

"We could try to find Alan," Robert suggested. "Elizabeth told me that he disappeared, but unless he's a professional, he must have left some kind of trace. If we can find him, we can ask him about his relationship with Carolyn."

Anna looked sombre. "If we find Alan, it's possible that we might find Carolyn. Maybe our gut feeling was wrong. Maybe she did leave her husband for her lover."

"Stephen and Carolyn are not us, Anna," Robert reminded her. He noticed that her coffee cup was empty. He took it from her and threw it in a near-by garbage can. Then he put his arm through hers and gently drew her again in the direction of the station. "Now, I've got to get you back to work because at 6:00 sharp I'm picking you up for our date. Make sure you clean up your inbox and fill up your outbox, because I'm going to want your undivided attention tonight."