In Jill Donoghue’s playbook everybody wants to ask questions. The FBI wouldn’t turn down the chance to interrogate Lucy, especially if they thought they could trip her up or corner her into a lie. If they can’t send her to prison for crimes she didn’t commit, maybe they can manipulate her into making false statements. It’s what I call playing the legal lottery. My answer is don’t let them put a nickel in your slot machine. Don’t ever give them a chance to get lucky.

“What are you going to do about a phone?” Donoghue is asking my niece.

“It’s been returned to the factory settings.” What Lucy is saying is that she’s made sure her phone self-destructed after Erin Loria took it from her. “It’s in the exact condition it would be if they bought it brand-new in a store,” she adds. “By the end of the day I’ll have a different number for you to reach me on securely, privately.”

“And they won’t know what you’ve done? That you’ve acquired another device? Another phone?”

“Acquiring another phone isn’t against the law. I can do it all day long and whatever they find out?” Lucy stares defiantly at her. “I’ll just continue to defeat them. This is war. They’ve invaded my property and my life, and I’m not going to let it go. They want to spy on me? They want to take me on? They think they’re going to leave me defenseless on my own property with Carrie Grethen on the loose? Really? Let’s see what happens.”

“Be careful. They can arrest you.” Donoghue is blunt with her. “They have the power of the justice system on their side and you have nothing but your vigilantism and anger.”

“Vigilantism and anger. An eloquent way to describe it. And you should be careful too, especially about trivializing what you don’t completely understand.”

“I intend to understand everything. But you need to do as I say.”

“Gee that’s the one thing I’m not good at.” Lucy touches my arm. “Come on,” she says to me. “Let’s go unblock the driveway.”

Chapter 26

CHAPTER 26

OUTSIDE ON THE DOCK THE AIR IS STEAMY AND thick. I feel electricity. I smell the rain as veins of lightning shimmer in a black sky that soon will have its way with us.

I know an advancing big storm when I see one, and we’re going to get a whopper. I hope there’s no hail. This summer there have been violent late-afternoon thunderstorms, and hail as big as marbles has beaten the hell out of my yard. It’s knocked several slate tiles loose from the roof and dented the new drainpipes I recently installed.