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examination,’ unquote.”
    Mina’s face appeared on the screen.
    She was in mid-spate. This was evidently an excerpt from a longer interview in Clift’s defense. They heard her say only, “They all laughed at Christopher Columbus, remember? Columbus thought the world was round, the idiot.”
    She laughed and was faded out. The station announcer reappeared.
    â€œProfessor Clift is unavailable for further comment. That was forty-six-year-old Mina Legrand, close associate and intimate friend of the legendary Joe Bodenland, who once claimed he had gone back in time to shake hands with Frankenstein. Bodenland now heads the multinational Bodenland Enterprises.
    â€œOur sources report that Bodenland himself is missing. Mina Legrand would not comment, beyond stating Bodenland was interested in the amazing new discovery. Meantime, let’s hope all those Utah critters are well and truly extinct …”
    â€œOh god …” Kylie switched off the power before the commercials popped up, and turned to Larry.
    He set down his half-empty glass.
    â€œYou were right all along, sweetie. Something is wrong. My father needs me. We’re going to have to catch the next plane.”
    â€œOh no, Larry. Your father has to look after himself, just as you say he always made you look after yourself. You’re only going to lay yourself open to a snub if you interfere now. He’ll be okay. Joe’ll be okay. Let’s go back to the beach.”
    â€œJesus!” He waved his hands above his head. “Who just now wanted to get off the beach? Women—I’ll never understand them. Pack, Kylie. We’re off. Utah—that’s where Joe’ll be. Old John.”
    She blocked his way to the bedroom, angry and pugnacious.
    â€œI’m not going back to Old John. Neither are you. Screw Old John. Think, will you? You are married to me. You are no longer going to live under your father’s shadow. I love the old boy, but he is going to ruin your life if you are weak. Can’t you understand that? Everyone else does.”
    â€œWeak, am I? We’ll see about that.” He grabbed her wrist and twisted her round until she sank to the ground. “Baby, I’m all action when I get going, and I’m going right now.”
    As he ran into the bedroom, Kylie got to her knees and shouted, “Buster, if you go you’re gone for good, get that? Your parents have already loused up our honeymoon once. I’m not having it again. Call your mother if you’re so anxious about your father. But if you leave this hotel, you leave it on your own, and our marriage is a dead duck.”
    Striding by her with a hastily packed overnight bag, he stared at her bitterly and made a threatening gesture.
    â€œâ€˜Goodbye was all he wrote,’” he said. The suite door slammed behind him.
    Kylie walked about the suite for a while. She went into the bedroom and collected all her husband’s clothes from the closets and elsewhere, stuffing them into his suitcase. When she had cleared the room of his belongings, she took the suitcase to the window and flung it out into the gardens below.
    She stripped down until she wore nothing but her crucifix, then took a shower. After that, she sat in her caftan and attempted to read Dracula for a while. But her mind was elsewhere.
    When the time came, she put on a cocktail dress in which to go down to dinner. In the Bradford’s outdoor restaurant, she ate a lobster thermidor and drank half a bottle of a white Australian wine.
    Thus fortified, she went into the ballroom, where a blond-haired young man on vacation from Alaska immediately asked her to dance.
    She did dance.

4
    In the night that enveloped Utah, Larry was half drunk. “This chopper’s easier to fly ’n one of my model planes,” he called to Bodenland.
    Neither Bodenland nor Clift made any response, if they heard.
    â€œI’ve got a World War II Boeing I