“The old biddy who lives on the south shore,” Gavin said. “She’s been there since like the eighteen hundreds. She sits on her lake-front porch with binoculars and spies on people.”

“She thinks the lake is hers,” Piper said. “And the hills around it, apparently.”

CJ nodded. “She said she saw something shiny being waved around up here. She thought it might be an alien invasion.” He turned toward the south and waved. “Smile, because you know she’s watching.”

“Maybe you should jump to conclusions and cuff us,” Gavin said.

Even Piper raised a brow at that. Yep, something had definitely gone down.

CJ ignored Gavin entirely and turned to Emmitt. “I’m sorry for your loss.” He looked at Winnie next, gesturing to the canister in her hands. “But if you’re intending to spread Rowan’s ashes into the water below, it’s my duty to tell you that you need a permit first.”

“What if we have one?” Winnie asked.

CJ looked at her. “Do you?”

“Winnie,” Gavin said warningly when his sister went to open her mouth, clearly not wanting her to lie.

The cop grimaced, looking pained as his work collided with his personal life. “Is there or is there not a permit?”

Everyone stared at each other.

“Okay, so here’s the thing,” Gavin said, after the awkward beat of silence. “Rowan’s official funeral was back East, and some of us didn’t get to go. We’re not trying to break any laws here, we’re just trying to honor a kid who died way too young in the best way we know how.”

CJ looked at Gavin for a long beat, and then turned to the rest of them. “As I said, you need a permit. Unfortunately, if you don’t have one, and someone, say a bored old woman with a powerful set of binoculars, turns you in, there’s a big fine. But if that bored old woman happens to receive a visit from a local cop in the next few minutes, who stops by to tell her everything’s fine on the lake’s perimeter, that there’s no alien invasion, and then possibly agrees to her offer of tea so that she’s busy and distracted for the next hour, then no harm, no foul.”

Gavin watched him leave, something in his expression speaking of a whole lot of pain that had nothing to do with Rowan. Then he nodded at Winnie to continue, who clutched the canister and looked to the water below.