When he came back in, his skin was damp with the mist from outside, and he smelled sharply of the cigarette.

“Why’d you smoke one of her cigarettes?” Alice asked.

“You were watching us?”

“I saw you through the window, but you smell like cigarettes.”

He sniffed, and rubbed at his nose. “I was just being polite. She offered.”

“What did she ask you?”

“Let me get a drink, and I’ll tell you. Why didn’t you tell me about Gina and her mother? Jesus, Alice.”

She followed him into the kitchen. “I didn’t tell you because who cares what they think.”

“Maybe I would’ve cared. You have to tell me these things, Alice. I need to be prepared.”

“What did that detective ask you?”

He poured whiskey into a tumbler, then added some ice and soda water. It was what he drank when he was drinking a lot, what he drank all day on Sunday when there were football games on.

“She wanted to know what our relationship was.”

“What did you tell her?”

“I told her that it was none of her business.”

“Why didn’t you tell—”

“She said that Vivienne Bergeron told the police she has proof that we’re involved, that one of her friends saw us together at a restaurant in Portland.”

“That doesn’t mean anything. Besides, who cares, and what does it have to do with what happened with Gina?”

“Nothing. Nothing at all. That’s what I told the detective and she agreed. She says that Vivienne Bergeron is kicking up a fuss, convinced that because they had accused you that night, somehow you got revenge on Gina. She’s been talking about the bite, and how she knows for a fact that Gina would never have gone swimming by herself.”

“That’s stupid.”

“I’m just telling you what the detective told me that Vivienne has been saying.”

“So what does she think I did? Does she think I killed Gina and threw her in the ocean?”

Jake shrugged. “She just lost a child. I don’t think she’s thinking straight. Can I get you a drink?”

They watched TV. Jake let Alice pick what to watch. Mystic Pizza was on USA and they watched that, Alice occasionally flipping over to MTV during commercials. Jake went back and forth several times to the kitchen to get a new drink. When the movie was over, Alice turned the television off and said that she was going to bed.

“Wait a moment, Ali, okay?”

Her body was instantly cold. “Sure,” she said.

“I’d like to talk with you about something.”

Alice’s heart fluttered, and she stood up, and said, “How about tomorrow, okay? I’m too tired to talk.” She knew what he wanted to talk about. She knew that the police detective bitch had said something to him, and now he wouldn’t want to live with her anymore.