It was a beautiful little spot, peaceful and idyllic, a couple hundred feet in diameter and ringed by dense forest. To the west, through a thin patch of trees, Mason could see blue sky and water; he could hear the waves crashing. Inside the lagoon the water was calm. There was no wind, no sound but the surf and the purr of the diesel engine. Somewhere in the trees, a raven called.

Jess stuck her head out the starboard window again. “You want to drop the hook for me?”

“Yes, ma’am,” he replied. “What does that mean?”

She rolled her eyes. “The anchor, Burke. Drop the anchor, so I can shut her down for a while.”

He let the anchor go, watched it splash, the chain unspooling from the winch behind him. Lucy jumped back at the noise, suspicious, then crept forward to sniff at the winch, eyeing the moving chain warily.

“That should be good,” Jess called, and Mason tightened the brake, slowed the chain and locked the winch, waited as Jess tested the anchor’s hold with the throttle. Finally she nodded, and he slapped Lucy on her big butt and pushed her down the passageway to the stern.

“Come on, girl. Looks like we’re here.”

Jess was down in the engine room when Mason and Lucy came back into the wheelhouse. The sun was shining outside still, and the wheelhouse seemed almost too warm now, though Mason would have laughed at that notion yesterday. He dug out some jerky from the lockers for Lucy, had her sit for it, tried High Five and settled for Shake a Paw, gave the dog some jerky and a bowl full of kibble as Jess shut the engine down and the whole boat shuddered into silence.

When Jess came back up to the wheelhouse, she’d stripped off her jacket. She stopped on the third step and looked at him. “Listen, I’m pretty beat,” she said. “I’m going to need to sack out for a few before we go find this package.”

Mason was glad she’d suggested it. He was tired too, but you try admitting that to a decorated marine. “You sure we have time?”

“That package will wait,” she said. “I have a pretty good idea where Ty would have hid it, and the island isn’t that big if I’m wrong. We sleep a couple hours, we’ll still have plenty of time to get our search in before high slack tomorrow. Can’t move this boat until then anyhow.”

“Yeah, all right,” Mason said. “I could stand a rest too. You want to switch off?”

She shrugged. “I sleep pretty light, Burke. You want to catch some z’s, go ahead.” She gestured down the stairs. “I’m going to sleep down here, in my bunk. If you fiddle with that galley table, take the legs off, you can fit it down against the settee, make a bed.”