‘You didn’t mind them when you were raking in extra cash,’ Anna pointed out. She grabbed a half-empty pack of cigarettes from a coffee table and lit one. ‘I told you, church projects are the perfect cover. You paint people’s houses and see what shit they keep hidden away. Most of the time, they don’t notice that anything is gone until months later. If they even notice at all.’

Cat shook her head. She was sick with guilt. She liked the money she’d made with Anna – almost five hundred dollars in just a few months. Even so, she’d known from the beginning that the stealing would crash down on her head sooner or later. She wished she’d never agreed to be a part of it.

‘We need to come clean with the cops,’ Cat said.

Anna laughed at her and blew out smoke. ‘Yeah, right. That’s not going to happen. What exactly did you tell them?’

‘I told them I took the ring from Al’s house. I sold it.’

‘Did you mention me?’

‘No!’ Cat said. ‘I didn’t. I would never rat you out, but you know they’re going to figure out you were there, too. And they asked me about a gun! Did you find a gun at the house? They said it was the same gun that was used when that woman got murdered at the Grizzly Bear.’

Anna stared at her. She didn’t even look like Anna anymore. ‘I really wish you’d kept your mouth shut, Cat.’

‘I’m sorry, but what else could I do?’

‘What are the cops doing right now?’ Anna asked. ‘Where are they?’

‘Searching Al’s place. They got a warrant this morning.’

Anna’s face turned sour, and she talked softly, as if to herself. ‘It won’t take them long to make the connection to me. They’ll be coming here.’ Then she announced loudly: ‘Bernd, come on out, we have to go. We’ve got trouble.’

Cat heard the floorboards in the old house shift. In the doorway that led to the bedrooms, she saw a man. A stranger. He wore only briefs and made no effort to cover himself. His skin bore fresh nail marks on his chest. Anna’s. He was handsome, with a taut muscular body, but he conveyed menace like no one Cat had ever seen. His ivory-pale, freckled face was devoid of expression, and his blue-gray eyes watched her with the coiled-up ferocity of a tiger.

‘Who is . . .’ Cat began, her voice cracking.

‘This is my boyfriend. Bernd, we’ve got a problem.’

‘Another problem?’ the man said, spitting the words at her. ‘What did you do this time?’

Cat watched Anna fold like a flower. She’d never seen her friend intimidated by a man. ‘It’s not my fault, but the cops are coming. We’d better get out of here right now. Both of us. Permanently.’