After setting her glass aside, Izzy took the darts with a friendly smile and lined herself up at the single strip of duct tape on the floor. Now the question was: Should she throw the game? Would Patty be more impressed or annoyed with Izzy winning?

It didn’t matter anyway, because at the exact moment Izzy released the dart, Patty cracked her gum, loud and obnoxious enough for Izzy’s hand to twitch just wrong.

“So you’re here with Mia Hart.”

The metal tip had sunk into the wood just outside the board, and Izzy tamped down her amusement. Patty played dirty.

“Sure am,” Izzy said, even though it hadn’t been a question. Everyone must have seen them come in together. She lazily lobbed the next dart. It landed dead center. “Izzy Santiago. Rockport PD.”

Patty waited until Izzy’s arm was drawn back for her final throw before speaking again. “Because of that reporter the boys had to fish out of the bay?”

This time Izzy had been ready for the interruption, and the metal tip slid in next to the previous one she’d thrown. Double bull’s-eye. “Heard he came in here a few times.”

It wasn’t really an answer to Patty’s question, though the confirmation was there in the way Izzy didn’t deny it. Patty’s lips pinched in at the corners, so Izzy figured she’d picked up on it.

They stood suspended in a kind of standoff. Izzy was a prime target for the town gossip, and that town gossip knew she was the same for Izzy. Each held the upper hand in some way, but one of them was going to have to blink first. Izzy didn’t want it to be her.

Finally, cracking her gum again, Patty tipped her head toward the board, a silent order for Izzy to collect the darts. “Patty Masterson,” she said, finally introducing herself, as Izzy picked up the chalk to write the score. “And, yeah, he came in here.”

“Ever ask you any questions?”

“Sugar, everyone asks me questions. Just like you are right now.” There was a teasing quality to her raspy voice, but beneath it was something sharper, not quite a reprimand but a warning shot. Patty wasn’t going to be played. As if Izzy hadn’t gotten that sense already.

She passed the darts off to Patty. “All right, what did he talk to you about?”

Patty’s eyes were locked on her face. “Asked a lot about Mia.”

Izzy’s heart paused and then thudded too hard as if it panicked at the skipped beat. Mia had recognized Twist. Hadn’t known him but had recognized him. And apparently he was asking about her? “Oh yeah?” Even to Izzy’s own ears, her voice sounded reedy, too high.