And so, in October '92, Jin and I had our first up-close- and-personal experience with Jacob's vendetta. He didn't tell Faith till the deed was done. All of us--even Faith--knew that in '87, he'd used a stolen car to run down and kill Connor MacLeod's latest wife. He'd deliberately done it when MacLeod was close enough to sense him as he whizzed by. But it was one thing to hear about that from Cracker Bob, another to listen to Jacob gloat as he put together a bomb that would blow up MacLeod's New York antique shop and kill the man's daughter. This time, he said, it wouldn't matter whether MacLeod was nearby, because there would be no way he could imagine the death was accidental. And yet he'd never guess who was behind it, because he thought Jacob had died in 1555. The perfect crime. I think I managed not to look as sick as Jin Ke did. Jacob put the plan on hold, temporarily, when he learned Duncan had come to New York to look into some investment possibilities. He thought about killing both Connor's loved ones on the same day. But he finally decided to let the younger MacLeod live, so he'd be sure of having another way to hurt Connor in the future. We had observed that Rachel always began her lunch break a half hour before MacLeod and came back ahead of him, to cut the time the shop would have to be closed. That changed on the first of the three days Duncan was in town--they all ate together. But then they went back to the normal schedule, the only difference being that the two MacLeods met for lunch. When the shop was only going to be closed for an hour or so, they didn't bother activating the alarm. And we'd discovered the lock was a kind that could easily be forced. Once upon a time, Hudson had been a street where no one would risk a break-in in broad daylight; MacLeod hadn't noticed how much it had changed. Jacob's plan was to sneak in during the lunch hour and connect his explosive device to their phone. After that, any answered call would set off the bomb. But he said Rachel had to get the call before MacLeod came back, so there wouldn't be any chance of the blast taking his head off. There weren't many cell phones around in 1992--Jacob didn't have one. He did have a car phone. He could have made that call from the car, parked across the street. But he wanted to test Jin Ke. So he insisted Jin, Bob and I be in the car, clear around the corner, while he lurked near the antique shop with a two-way radio. When he alerted us Rachel was there, *Jin* had to make the call. If he couldn't do it, if Bob or I had to, Bob would have told Jacob. Jin made the call. Even at the distance we were, the explosion shattered the windshield. We were cleaning up broken glass--and our own blood-- when Jacob joined us, looking exultant. By a wonderful stroke of luck, he said, Connor had been approaching the shop when the bomb went off. It had blown him off his feet. But he hadn't been knocked out, and Jacob had been able to hear his anguished screams for Rachel. Once again, Connor had been close enough to sense his adversary--maybe even catch a glimpse of his retreating back. And once again, he wouldn't have a clue who it was. I never talk much, so I don't think Jacob noticed Bob was the only one jabbering happily with him as we drove away. *** That night, we all heard Faith's reaction. "You said you were going to frame Rachel for fraud!" she raged. To the rest of us, she said bitterly, "He told me he'd make it look as if she'd bilked customers by delivering phony antiques and reselling the real ones, without Connor's knowledge. He swore he wouldn't kill her. A woman I'd met and liked!" But she'd been willing to send a woman she liked to prison on a trumped-up charge? And possibly turn Connor against her, which might have been even more painful? Jacob laughed at her. "I thought you'd want deniability. Are you really unhappy about it? I'm sure you'd feel differently if I'd killed Duncan's mortal lover. Would you like me to kill her for you?" "N-no. No!" I could see this was the first she'd heard of a lover, and she was fighting the urge to ask him to tell her more. Whether or not there really was one, he was toying with her. He snickered and turned away. "That's up to you, but don't say I never offered." *** A few days later, I happened to be with Cracker Bob--the usual recipient of Jacob's confidences. And Jacob told us Faith had finally broken down and asked for details. "I told her Duncan's living with a beautiful *blonde*," he said. "Calls her the great love of his life. And they've been together twelve years, so he must have leveled with her about his Immortality. "Faith brooded a while, then said she *did* want me to kill the woman. "But I told her that was a one-time offer. If she wants Tessa Noel dead now, she'll have to do it herself. "If she has the guts."