They arrived at the house and found the ladies and Lance in the living room. Stone made introductions all around.

“I’ve already met you people on Zoom, remember?” Carly said. “Nice place,” she said looking around the room.

“Thank you,” Stone said. “Are you old enough to drink?”

“I’m twenty-four and a half, thank you. I’ll have a bourbon on the rocks, please.

“Primmy,” Carly said once they’d all been served and seated, “how do you fit into all this?”

“Primmy has had a personal encounter with the twins, resulting in her shooting one of them in the ear,” Stone offered.

“The left ear,” Carly said. It wasn’t a question.

“Why do you think that?” Primmy asked.

“Because one of the rapists had a small bandage on his left ear. Here,” she said, pointing at her own left ear.

“Why didn’t you tell us that before?” Stone asked.

“It didn’t occur to me. I just flashed on it when you said, ‘ear.’ Is that enough for a positive identification?”

“Probably not.”

“I suggested to the two detectives from the New Haven police that they run a lineup with only the participants’ eyes showing. I could make them that way.”

“You sound very certain of yourself,” Primmy said.

“I am nearly always certain. It’s an annoying habit of mine.”

“How did the detectives respond to your suggestion?” Stone asked.

“Oh, they brushed it off, said they’d talk to their boss about it.”

“And they said it might harm their case, if you got it wrong.”

“Right.”

“The detectives were right, too.”

“You used to be a cop, didn’t you?”

“Right again.”

“You don’t look like a cop, but you sound like one.”

“Okay, but Dino is better at sounding like a cop, because he still is one.”

“You never get over being a cop,” Dino said. “Stone still thinks like one.”

“That explains it,” she said.

“You seem awfully, well, together for a person who was drugged and raped about forty-eight hours ago,” Primmy said.

“I was unconscious at the time, so I guess it didn’t scar my psyche.”

Primmy nodded.

“My guess is you and Stone are an item,” Carly said.

“Good guess,” Primmy replied.

“I knew I was right, or I would have already made a pass at him.”

Stone choked on his bourbon. Everybody else laughed.

“Oh. Did you hear that they found Tim’s body in the boat at the bottom of the river?”

“No,” Stone said, “we hadn’t heard that.”

“The detectives told me. I’ve already written his mother a note.”

“I’m sure she’ll appreciate that,” Stone said. “Does she know that you and Tim were, ah, an item?”

“Not unless he told her. We weren’t exactly an item, though. More like friends with benefits.”

“What’s the difference?” Dino asked.