Yet she could be so fine. Dozens of times she surprised him at his various jobs with delicious homemade lunches. She just had to flash her killer smile to change his whole day.

Amy took over his books. She managed his money and did a great job. She was good at other things as well. After they had been dating nine months, she began to sleep naked beside him. At first she would only touch him, make him come, but not let herself be touched. Then she began to go down on him, and vice versa, and the sight of her so close to him, so happy with him in her mouth, drove him crazy. He asked her to marry him. She said, sure, soon, you have to get me a ring. But she would never go with him to buy one and it made him wonder.

Then he caught her with David.

Nothing to wonder about anymore.

Matt finished inflating the dinghy and attached the motor. Raising his head, he saw the bare hills of Malibu. He was already north of the stars’ homes. Taking the wheel, he veered west. He had to get farther from the shore. The plane had to go down in deep water. There could be no chance of recovery. He also had to be far enough from land so his parachute could not be spotted. But there would be no moon tonight—he had already checked—and he had dyed his parachute pitch black.

Matt carried a global positioning system (GPS), which was accurate to within two hundred feet. This evening, while flying on a line between Catalina and Santa Barbara, it would help guide him back to his boat. The GPS helped him now as he aimed for a point exactly between the two locations. He ended up in an area five miles out—an ideal distance from shore. Farther out might burden the motor on his dinghy. Any closer to shore and he might be spotted.

It was eleven o’clock. The ship was equipped with a depth indicator. He was in four hundred feet of water. He had to move to a shallower spot. They were around; he had found one last time, on his trial run. The anchor attached to the ship could only reach down two hundred feet, and was questionable help. It would create drag against any local current, but it could not stop the boat from drifting. However, the anchor he had brought aboard was attached to a three-hundred-foot rope. After a few minutes of scanning the area, he found a spot where the latter anchor would catch on the sandy bottom.

Matt tossed both anchors overboard.

A minute later the boat came to a firm halt.