“Good job,” said Tolliver, his voice heavy with sleep. I eased into one of the two ancient wooden chairs he’d arranged in front of the fire. Its faded cushion smelled of damp and some long-ago dog. Of course the family would put their castoffs out here. No point buying special furniture for a place where they came to relax, where they’d be coming in wet from swimming. Also, the cabin was pretty vulnerable to theft, and who wants to tempt thieves with something valuable? I told myself how grateful I was to Twyla for letting us stay here, for free and away from the reporters. But at the same time, I admitted to myself that I’d much rather be in the motel, at least from a comfort standpoint.

Tolliver had his cell phone plugged in and charging, and now it rang.

“Crap,” he said, and I agreed with the sentiment. The last thing I wanted to do was talk to anyone.

“Hello,” he said, and after that all I heard was, “I guess we can,” and “Okay,” very noncommittal stuff. He hung up and groaned.

“That was the SBI agent, Klavin. He wants us to come into the station in an hour.”

“I have to have coffee before I face any cops,” I said.

“Yeah, no shit.” He got out of bed and stretched. “You sleep okay?”

“Yeah, I don’t think I moved all night.” I did some stretching myself.

“I’ll go shower. What are you going to do about that?”

“I’ll have to take a sort of sponge bath, I guess. I can’t get these bandages wet.” That was another thing that was going to grow old very quickly.

“Okay, I’ll hurry.” Tolliver can take the quickest showers of anyone I know, and he was out and toweling his hair while I was still trying to assemble a set of clothes for the day. I managed to get my pajamas off by myself, and I managed to clean myself—more or less—but getting dressed was a real ordeal. I was trying to balance modesty with need, and it wasn’t an easy achievement. Putting on my underwear turned out to be literally a pain in the butt, and I had to maneuver endlessly to get my bra up my arms and get my boobs in the cups so Tolliver could hook it.

“Geez, I’m glad I don’t have to wear one of these things,” he grumbled. “Why don’t they fasten in front? That would make more sense.”

“There are some that hook in front. I just don’t have any.”

“You give me your size, I’ll get you some for your birthday.”

“I’d like to see you shopping in Victoria’s Secret.”

He grinned.