“All right,” Dino said, pausing for a sip of coffee, “what’s on your mind?”

“Doesn’t it bother you that it was real hard for us to find Evan in Key West, but an assassin found him from a standing start in less than twenty-four hours?”

“It’s certainly interesting.”

“I mean, you and I were pretty good cops, weren’t we?”

“I still am. I’m not so sure about you.”

“Tommy bothers me, too.”

“Tommy?”

“A cop like Tommy in a town this size ought to know everybody moving, but he had a hard time with Evan.”

“Have you forgotten that Tommy put a finger on Evan fi ve seconds after you mentioned his name? At the Marquesa restaurant?”

“Oh, yeah. I take it back.”

“And he’s been nothing but helpful ever since.”

“You’re right; Tommy’s a great guy, and he’s been nothing but helpful. My mind’s a little fuzzy, that’s all. Lack of sleep.”

“Too much sex,” Dino said. “It always wears you down.”

“It does not,” Stone protested. “I thrive on it.”

“You’ve been eating like a pig ever since we got here. Gained any weight?”

“I don’t know.”

“I’d say you’ve lost a couple of pounds,” Dino said. “It’s the Swede; she’s sapping your life force.”

“Nonsense.”

“Otherwise, why would you let Evan Keating hire you in about a second?”

“An excuse to stay here for a few days. The money’s good, too.”

“It smells funny,” Dino said, and he took a big bite of an English muffin.

“Why do you think that?”

“What could he possibly have for you to negotiate?”

“I don’t know. Maybe he’s buying a house or something.”

“He’d hire Jack Spottswood if he were buying a house, or somebody else local who knows the market. You’d be useless.”

“I can read a contract.”

“But what’s to negotiate? And why the hell isn’t Evan getting his ass out of Key West? He didn’t go when you warned him, and now he’s been shot, nearly killed, and he’s still hanging around. It doesn’t make any sense.”

“I guess he has some unfi nished business.”

“The guy is in line for whatever a third of eight hundred million bucks is, and he’s got business in Key West? What does he need with business here?”

“All right, it’s screwy. I’ll give you that.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“It’s also intriguing, and I want to see how it plays out.”

“Well, while it’s playing out, I hope you don’t end up between Evan and whoever took that shot. From what Tommy says, it was a damn fine shot, and if the guy left the rifle there, it only means that he’s got something else to shoot with.”

“I like the private airplane thing,” Stone said.

“It’s one way to travel.”