Myron made a face. He wanted to wash his hands.

Then he saw it.

It was in the bottom row, second from the right. It read, i'll Do Anything!' The phone number was 1-900-344-LUST. $3.99 per minute.

Discreetly billed to your telephone or charge card. Visa/MC accepted.

The woman in the picture was Kathy Culver.

Myron felt a coldness seep into him. He turned back to the cover and checked the date. It was the current issue.

'When did you get this?'

'It came in today's mail,' Christian said, picking up an envelope. 'In this.'

Myron's head began to swim. He tried to fight the dizziness and get some kind of footing, but the picture of Kathy kept tipping him back over. The envelope was plain manila. There was no return address - that would have been too easy. It was not postmarked and had no stamps, merely reading: christian steele Box 488 No city, no state. That meant it'd been mailed on campus. The address had been handwritten.

'You get lots of fan mail, right?' Myron asked.

Christian nodded. 'But they go somewhere else. This was in my private box. The number is unlisted.'

Myron handled the envelope carefully, trying not to smudge any potential fingerprints. 'It could be trick photography,' Myron added. 'Someone might have superimposed her head on-'

Christian stopped him with a shake of his head. His eyes were back on the floor. 'It's not just her face, Mr Bolitar,' he said, embarrassed.

'Oh,' Myron said, ever swift on the uptake. 'I see.'