“I’ll show you what I’ve got done.”

GIGI DROVE THE rental car down the paved road, with Larry Lee, which was his real name, in the passenger seat. “Look at that,” Larry said, pointing to an airplane climbing above the tree line, headed south.

“It’s just an airplane,” Gigi said, checking their map. “Here’s the road to the marina coming up.”

“It’s against the law in Florida to land an airplane on a beach or on the inland waterway,” Larry said.

“Does anybody pay attention to that?” she asked.

“The cops don’t,” he replied.

“Did the airplane have any offi cial markings?”

“No, it looks ordinary enough,” Larry said, “but I still don’t like it.”

She reached the road with a sign pointing left to the Osprey Marina—private.

“Slow down,” Larry said. “Slow way down.” They came to a bridge. “Stop at the top of the bridge,” he said.

“All right.”

The bridge gave them a little elevation to see above the trees, which weren’t very tall.

“We’ve got a nearly empty parking lot, a shack and a fl oating pontoon,” she said. “No more than a dozen boats, and I don’t see any people.”

“There’s one,” Larry said. A man had stepped onto the pontoon from a small motorboat with a cabin and was walking toward the connecting footbridge that rose and fell with the tide. He was carrying a sailing duffel. “Let’s just wait here a minute,” Larry said. The man walked ashore, tossed his duffel in the back of a pickup, got in, started it and drove toward the road.

“Go ahead slowly,” Larry said. “Let him get past us, then stop before you get to the parking lot.”

The truck passed them going the other way as they drove off the bridge.

“He looks like a regular guy with a boat,” Gigi said.

“Yeah, he does. Just pull over about fifty yards ahead at that wide spot. I want to take a look on foot.”

“Larry, the place looks deserted.” She sighed.

“Gigi, did I ever tell you that I’ve never been arrested, not even for a speeding ticket, let alone a killing?”

“Yes, Larry.”

“Well, that’s because I’m careful, and I always listen to my own brain, and right now, my brain is a little nervous.”

Gigi pulled over and stopped. “You want me to wait here?”