“And that was my next question. Did Hyde ask the housekeeper how she and Chanel met? Or was the information volunteered?”

We know Carrie was in New Jersey as recently as two months ago. We know that earlier than that she murdered a woman there, shot her to death while she was getting out of her car at the Edgewater Ferry. I can’t help but wonder if it’s another taunt that the alleged housekeeper happened to mention New Jersey. It’s an emotional subject for me. I was in Morristown when I learned that Carrie Grethen is alive and killing people for her twisted reasons. When Lucy told me we were sitting in the very bar where Carrie had been.

“I don’t know because I didn’t witness them talking.” Marino continues to explain that he didn’t question the woman who claimed to be Elsa Mulligan. “I was with you in that damn truck of yours.”

“And what might happen if you tried to call Elsa Mulligan right now?” I have a feeling I know the answer.

Nothing will happen. You won’t get hold of her.

“I’m not going to until we finish up here,” he says. “But I know what you’re getting at. There’s something off about the whole thing with her.”

“That’s right. There is.” My eyes slowly move around the room, looking for any hint of covert surveillance devices.

I’m not going to find them unless Carrie wants me to, and I feel the change that has come over me. It’s rare and always happens the same way. I don’t recognize the transformation until it’s already taken place, irreversibly, finally. Like an engine flaming out. Followed by an instant eerie silence. A floating sensation. A perfect calm. Then the warnings flash bright red and horns blare and sirens scream that I’m about to crash. But it’s Marino’s radio I’m hearing. He has it in his hand, adjusting knobs.

“Something at the River Basin,” he announces in an annoyed, jaded way. “The same red SUV with the same damn drunk juveniles it sounds like. Only now one of them maybe has a gun.”

“What kind of red SUV?” I hear myself ask before I think the thought.

“Late model, maybe high end. That’s all I know based on radio traffic.”

“The same juveniles and red SUV have been called in several times and there’s no more detail than that? What kind of SUV?” I ask that again.

“No other info,” Marino says. “Usually there would be a plate number, a make and model or something.”