“You’re presenting information as if it’s an undisputed fact,” Donoghue says to Lucy. “You’re basically stating irrefutably that Carrie has something to do with Kay’s missing dive mask. And what I keep asking myself is why do you know anything about it?”

“I think what she’s trying to say is Carrie may not have ripped my mask off but she recovered it and now Lucy has the recording.” I look squarely at my niece to see if she’s going to deny this, and instantly I know she won’t.

Dear God. What have you done?

“I’ll explain.” Lucy stares out a window at the darkening sky.

“Holy shit. Please tell me you’re kidding.” Marino’s eyes seem to bug out of his head.

“I don’t understand how you got it from her,” I say to Lucy as my inner alarm hammers.

“Dammit!” Marino says loudly. “Sorry,” he apologizes to Desi.

“I didn’t say I got the mask from her,” Lucy replies. “Or anything directly from her.”

“Don’t copy the way I talk, dude. Got it?” Marino puts his arm around Desi, pulls him close and vigorously knuckles his scalp.

“Ouch!” Desi yells and giggles.

“You know what that’s called? It’s called a noogie.”

“Which is what school yard bullies do,” Janet says.

“Mom makes me pay when I use swear words. A quarter for damn, and fifty cents for shit and a dollar if I say the f-word. You’re up to at least a dollar and twenty-five cents so far,” Desi lets Marino know, and he continues to refer to his mother in the present tense.

“Did you have contact with Carrie? Did you see her?” I ask Lucy as calmly as I can muster.

“It’s not what you might assume,” Janet says, and I can’t stop thinking of Lucy’s recent trip to Bermuda.

I know she went but I didn’t know that she was going. She never mentioned it. Then days ago I found out she’d been there, and Janet and Desi didn’t go with her. Lucy doesn’t seem inclined to explain herself beyond what she’s already told me. She was on a dive trip. It wasn’t a vacation. She was meeting a friend of Janet’s. I have a feeling this person wasn’t merely a social acquaintance.

“What are we supposed to assume?” Donoghue asks Lucy.

“Nothing. Don’t assume anything.”

“I need you to tell me everything.”

“I never tell everything. Not to anyone.”

“You’re going to have to with me if I’m going to represent you.”

“I’m not at liberty to reveal certain details, and it’s up to you how you deal with that.” Lucy is getting combative with her.

“I’m not sure I can be of much use to you then.”