"You ever see the captain's wife?"

"Nope." Danny went to sip at his coffee.

Boyd waited to make sure his timing was just so. "Then you have no idea how true what you just said is. Gawd almighty, that woman could scare a dildo."

Danny coughed coffee out of his nose as he tried to laugh. "Oh fuck, that burns . . ."

"Schmuck. The captain isn't even married."

"Then whose picture is that on his desk?"

"The commissioner's wife. He has to pleasure her at least once a week or his life goes to hell."

"You lie like a rug."

"You don't believe me, you go ahead and ask him."

"Anyway. What have we got on Freemont?"

"We got DNA evidence that should get him in jail nice and easy."

"So where is this evidence?"

"Not with us yet."

"See? There you go getting all cocky again."

"It ain't cocky. That little shit is up to something. I don't think he did his wife, but I know he did something. And did you see his face right before he blew his dinner? He was ready to run home to momma."

"Oh, and I saw it after he tossed, too. Man, I wish I had a digital camera. He'd be all over the Internet on that one."

"So, what happened to Michelle Lister, Danny?"

"She wasn't abducted. Or if she was, she didn't get taken from the car."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Automatic transmission was still in drive."

"Good point. You know, with everything that woman has gone through, I gotta wonder if her family is really dead. This could be a kidnapping of some kind."

"I thought the boy was confirmed dead." Danny put a thoughtful look on his face. As far as Boyd was concerned, it didn't fit. Danny never had to think hard.

"He is. By the same people that lost him." More coffee to wash down the paste his pancakes had become. "It could be an inside job."

"I don't think so."

"Neither do I, but I had to put it out there."

"Okay, so the kid is still dead, at least as far as the hospital is concerned. We just don't take them at their word."

"Anything on the rubbers?"

Danny looked at him without any comprehension for about seven seconds and then nodded. "Oh, those rubbers. I was thinking galoshes."

"You would."

"Anyway, yeah, they're a match for the one found near Veronica Miller. Circumstantial, but a nice addition."

"Not so circumstantial if we work this all out. Nice catch yesterday."

"Oh, I was fishing. I wanted to find something on that fucker."

"Don't worry. He's ours. Guilty as sin, you ask me."

Danny wiped his mouth and pushed his empty plate away. "Oh, he's ours. Even if he isn't, he's mine."

"I'm sensing hostility."

"Yeah, well, creeps like him give creeps like me a bad name."

Boyd was about to answer when his cell phone went off. He answered that instead.

"Boyd."

"Where are you?" It was Nelson on the switchboard.

"Eating, and off duty."

"You wish!"

"What now, Nelson?"

"We've had a total of nineteen missing persons reported today. You need to get down to the station now."

"NINETEEN?" His bellow cut through the breakfast crowd and a few people dropped utensils or in one case, a glass full of orange juice. "You better fucken be kidding me, Nelson."

"I wish I was, Boyd. Nineteen."

Boyd pushed away his pancakes. Suddenly he had no appetite.

V.

Kelli spent half the morning pacing, waiting to be questioned about Michelle's disappearance. She felt like she was going to throw up. Tension did that to her, it always had. Right now, tension was her middle name.

The entire family she had been living with for the last few years, ever since she moved up to Black Stone Bay, was missing. Not really a stretch to find that the police wanted to talk to her about it.

That didn't make her any more comfortable with the idea.

Detective Boyd said he'd be coming by to talk with her, and she was waiting. He'd also said it might take him a while to get to where she was. It seemed there were a lot of people missing in Black Stone Bay.

She walked around the house until almost noon and then she stepped outside into the overcast weather. The air was thick with fog and the sound of the waves was a resonating hiss as the ocean attacked the land on the other side of the Soulis place.

The leaves were falling in greater numbers now, and the entire area was starting to look barren. Autumn always made Kelli feel a little melancholy, but this year, it was starting to frighten her.

Jason Soulis was across the way. She saw him in the front yard of the massive place and thought about waving, but changed her mind.

He was staring at the house she lived in, his face unreadable in the gloom. A moment after that, he moved toward the far side of his own place, pausing exactly long enough to give his usual wave and nod of the head.

There was something about him she found endearing and something else that she couldn't hope to fathom; he was an enigma. He'd had a girl over several times now, but he never left with her and other than her he'd never had any visitors that she knew of. A man that good looking-even if he was miles too old for her-should have been going out and enjoying life. Instead, Jason seemed perfectly content to just sit inside that big old mansion and do nothing.

Who are you to judge? What have you been doing with yourself except babysitting since you got to school?

She did go out; she just didn't do it often. Life kept getting in the way. First there was Teddy-brief pause for stomach lurch-and then there was school, and between the two of them she always found it was easier to get a good book and read than it was to go find a party. She didn't think she was really designed for that life, anyway. There were girls who could go party every night and find a guy and have a blast, and then there were girls like her.

Kelli was not a victim of low self-esteem. She knew she was pretty enough, she knew guys looked; she just wasn't really in it for a fast fling and a polite nod to whomever she had bagged a couple of weeks earlier.

A new car pulled up in front of Jason's place. This was a muscle machine, a Camaro with a glass-packed muffler. She knew it well enough and seeing it made her want to throw rocks.

Tom Pardue was a sleazy bastard if ever there was one. He'd actually asked her once, right after she got into town, if she wanted to hook for extra money. One look from her and he'd tried to laugh it off as a joke, but she knew better.

Her interest was piqued, so she stayed where she was and waited to see what would happen between Tom and Jason. If it was what she suspected, her estimations of Jason were about to take a plunge.

Naturally, she never got to find out. Around the same time Tom was knocking on the man's front door, Detectives Boyd and Holdstedter pulled into the long driveway.

They got out looking shell-shocked. She smiled and stood up. At least she wasn't the only one feeling that way.

"Ms. Entwhistle, how are you today?"

"Okay, I guess." She wasn't, but it was the sort of lie you were supposed to tell; and really, it was less worrisome than screaming and ripping her own hair out, which was closer to how she felt.

"I'm sorry to bug you, we just had to ask a few questions, especially under the current circumstances. I hope you understand."

"Of course, Detective Boyd."

"Listen, just call me Boyd. It's *detective' if you're a suspect, and you aren't."

"I'm not?" She felt a little of the storm in her stomach subside.

Boyd looked surprised by her response and Holdstedter answered for his partner. "No, not at all. We actually talked about it and decided you weren't stupid enough to kidnap your own employers. Seriously, who would you ransom them to?" He had pretty teeth in between his perfectly kissable lips. She pinched her thigh to get those sorts of notions out of her head.

"Funny, man. Very funny."

Boyd nodded. "He likes to think so. I like to keep him from crying, so I pretend he's right."

Holdstedter didn't look at all offended by the comment. "No, you were never a serious suspect."

"What we wanted to see you about is if you can think of anyone who would have reason to make the Listers disappear like this. Do you know if they had any enemies?"

She shook her head in an instant. "No. I mean I used to joke about them both being lawyers, but I don't think either of them ever really got into the sorts of cases where they would make enemies."

"Doesn't take much. Do you remember if either of them were working on big cases?"

"The only thing they talked about since . . . since Teddy disappeared was going after the hospital. They wanted to make them suffer for losing their baby." She looked away and had to fight hard to stop the tears. Damn, it was supposed to get easier, not harder.

Boyd moved closer and put a sympathetic hand on her shoulder. She was touched, because she really didn't think he was the type to do that with too many people.

"I know it's hard, but I just want to make sure we've got our bases covered."

"I know. I'm sorry."

"What for?" His voice was gruff when he asked. "For having feelings? Please. Even Danny over here has feelings and believe me, he's very superficial."

"My ass, your face. A match, Richie."

Kelli laughed. Both of the detectives smiled. Holdstedter winked at her. "I knew there was a smile in there somewhere. Now and then you have to dig for 'em."

"How about new people in their lives? New neighbors around here or new coworkers?"

Kelli looked over at Jason's place. "Only one I know of is Jason Soulis." She pointed to the great gray house across the street.

Boyd looked, and for just an instant she saw a shark's smile on his face. "Now, that ain't his car, is it?"

"Oh, please. No, that's Tom Pardue's car." He said the name at the same time that she did, and she looked back at the detective. "You know him?"

"Oh yeah. We're old friends. We've been buddies for years."

Holdstedter chuckled and shook his head. "You know, I think you should put him on your Christmas card list, Richie."

Boyd's eyes narrowed for a second and he nodded. "Or maybe we could pay him a visit sometime." Then he shook himself and looked back at her. "So, does Pardue visit this Soulis guy a lot?"

"No. I've never seen him over there before."

"Bet he ain't selling Girl Scout cookies." Holdstedter crossed his arms and looked at the car as if it were guilty of a dozen crimes, merely by being associated with Pardue.

"How long has Soulis been in town, Ms. Entwhistle?"

"If you're Boyd, I'm Kelli."

"How long, Kelli?"

"Around two weeks, I guess. Since the early part of October."

The two detectives nodded in unison. "Well, isn't that interesting." Boyd's question was rhetorical. He reached into his coat and pulled out a cigar. "You mind?"

She shook her head. "I like the smell of a good cigar."

"How do you figure?" Holdstedter was looking at Boyd, his smooth brow wrinkled in thought.