‘Something fast burning, maybe gasoline, on the front walls of the house, definitely all over the door and in the garage. Plastic explosives were in...ected into the door panels of both cars, maybe some underneath. Those cars were rolling bombs.’ ‘Don,’ said Barry Oliver, ‘can I talk to you privately?’ ‘Sure.’ I said. Barry, Todd and I went into the main office that was now Dr. Woodrow’s. Barry said ‘I found the remnants of the device in your wife’s car that set off the explosives with a charge. “Hello! Welcome to Maplewood Manor! How can I help you?” came rushing out, almost before the door was shut behind me.“I’d like to talk to somebody about building a house,” I replied.“Well, I’d be happy to help you! Please have a seat.” He waved me to a chair in front of him and picked up a clipboard with a questionnaire. “First things first. Can I have your name, please?”“Carl Buckman.” I was really starting to figure that this kid wasn’t the fellow I wanted to speak with. For one thing, he. There were no grandparents that year. They had gone to their other children.The format was much the same as the previous year except that each family had done their own present giving the evening before. Leah and Nessa had agreed on this.Toby had not thought as hard as he might about what to give Allie but realised that it needed to be more sophisticated than a present for an average fourteen year old. He chose a mutedly colourful stone pendant held in a ‘silver’ grip. The neckband was a simple. Even the camera men and the lighting experts felt the pulse of excitement because top-notch ratings would mean extra bonuses for one and all and a lot less pressure to be “perfect” in every little detail once Madison Avenue knew which network was on top of the heap.There had been a series of “shakeups” lately and all of the network heads were relatively new faces. A strange malady of introspection had determined most of the big-shots were perverts of the worse sort and had committed numerous.