Fatalis

She looked wan and tired, like the sober, tiny black-and-white photo on the "Hughes Views" editorial column. Even when she didn't look pale, Ha

Powerful men, closet misogynists, Ha

Other members of the Santa Barbara County Women's Business Association said the same thing. Samantha Patrick bought Kevin Gold's computer store, didn't change a thing, and watched business fall off thirty percent. Caroline Be

Interviews with women tended to go better for Ha

Unfortunately, not enough women were part of the Ventura-to-Santa Barbara political and business networks that made decisions-and news. Power was still a boy's club.

Ha

The phone beeped again. Ha

Ha

Ha

"Good morning, Karen," Ha

"Good morning, Chief," Karen Orlando said. "Got what might be a hot one for you."

"Shoot."

"I just picked up a call from a Caltrans emergency road crew," Karen said. "A couple of engineers disappeared about an hour ago while they were checking a sinkhole up near Painted Cave. One of the crew members said he found blood on the road."

Ha

"Zippo," Karen told her.

"What else?" Ha

"The crew guy said the sinkhole was 'fatiguing,' whatever that means," Karen went on. "Falling in, I guess. So they're going to have to dig. A second emergency crew is on the way. So is Sheriff Gearhart."

Ha

"I would've sent Jimmy to cover this," Karen said, "but he's rushing to make deadline and before calling in any stringers I figured you-"

"Absolutely," Ha

"It's just east of the cave itself," Karen told her.

"Did they say what shape the road's in?"

"Route 154 and East Camino Cielo are open," Karen said, "though the area around the sinkhole is closed off for two hundred yards in both directions. You'll have to park and walk."

Ha

"I should be there in about a half hour," Ha

"Have Walter meet me at the site and tell Weezie I'll E-mail the story in. Save me two columns above the fold."

"You got it."

Ha

Within five minutes Ha

Chapter Five

Thanks to three cups of coffee, two hundred pushups-using just the first three fingers of each hand to strengthen them- and eagerness to get out of the house, Jim Grand was alert as he drove to the office. His office. The mountains.

The terrain of the peaks in the upper Santa Ynez Mountains was extremely steep and unstable, with loose boulders, muddy slopes, and ledges made of leaf-thin layers of rock. Eroded by mille