“That’s my nature. Hey, she should be giving us a medal.”

“That’s why you keep getting into these situations. I should just buy a box and pin them on your chest.”

“Don’t poke my breasts,” Kelly warned.

“Did you let Matt touch them?”

“No. He touched my scars though. I was embarrassed.”

“How did you explain them?”

“I told him this black guy named Charles whips me when I misbehave.”

“I wish.” He drank his coffee like he was swallowing medicine.

“They will book her, won’t they?”

“They have to. But come Monday, she’ll be out on bail.”

“No way. We’re talking murder one, two eyewitnesses.”

“In the middle of the night, in the middle of the ocean. Two witnesses that had no right being there. And there’s no body, don’t forget that rather crucial point. Before this is all over, her lawyer will be pointing the finger at us for the murder.”

“You think Mr. Techer’s going to buy her freedom?” she asked.

“I know he won’t blink when it comes to a million or two in bail.”

“Do you think she’s doing him?”

Charlie nodded. “Matt knows how to pick them.”

FOR KELLY the weekend was long. She had her daughter to watch but didn’t have Tony. All she had to do was say the word, though her ex had changed tactics. Now he acted cool. When he dropped Anna off he hardly spoke. Probably thought he had begged enough. She was tired of all the games.

Matt was not answering his cell. That was not necessarily a bad move on his part. For his sake, she hoped he was long gone. As far as she could tell, Amy had not raised his name to the police—that would not last. For her own selfish reasons, she felt abandoned. She missed hanging out with Matt. He had brought a crazy edge to her life.

Kelly seldom thought of David. The indifference made her feel guilty.

The Coast Guard did not find his body.

Amy did not appear before a judge until the following Tuesday. Kelly and Charlie came for the show. Carl Techer was present, along with Stan Trent, a fiery import from the Bay Area who wore suits from Italy and a smile from the North Pole. Trent had won eight huge murder cases in the last ten years, lost none. He had even gotten a client named Gage Huntly aquitted, and Gage had chopped off his mother’s head and stored it in his ice cream truck after dipping her hair in chocolate syrup. Vicki said Trent could defend the Devil before a jury of Pat Robertson supporters, and still win.