We ate, played Scrabble, watched the ten o’clock news. There was no Tarzan yell from the Berliners’ balcony to announce turtles coming in, no phone calls. By eleven we were in bed.

“I really do like your hair,” Fred said, snuggling against me. “But I liked it red, too. After the initial shock.”

“You wouldn’t even look at me!”

“When?”

I put my hands flat against his chest. “When you were walking down the beach. I waved at you and you turned your back.”

“There was a man too far out on a float. That’s what I was looking at. I was wondering if the lifeguard saw him.”

Damn! I could have stayed redheaded.

“Honey?” Fred whispered. “You got a shower cap or something? That stuff on your hair’s potent.”

I shoved him. “Then just get on your side.”

Fred went to sleep, but I didn’t. I finally got up, slipped on some shorts and went to the balcony. Several people were sitting on the stile, including Fairchild. I could hear the low murmur of their voices; in the shallow water beyond them, flounder fishermen walked with lanterns. It was so peaceful, so serene. The last place in the world for violence, I told Sister when she joined me.

“Tell that to the flounders,” she said.

“True. How come you’re home early?”

“Berry wasn’t feeling well. Stomach bug. How come you’re still up?”

“Couldn’t sleep. Couldn’t get Millicent and Emily off my mind. It has occurred to you, hasn’t it, that the killer is probably right in this building, someone we know fairly well?”

“You off on your baldheaded theory again?”

“No, I’m trying to be logical. I don’t want anybody else to get hurt.”

“That’s the police’s job.”

“I haven’t seen Cagney and Lacey wandering around on the beach.”

Mary Alice shook her head. “Maybe they’re doing a lot that we don’t know about.”

I thought about this for a moment. “Nah. Major Bissell’s been at the writers’ conference and running after Haley all week.”

“True.” Mary Alice leaned forward and looked at the group on the stile. “I hate that Fairchild’s still way up on their list. Bless his heart. We should have gotten him cleared by now.”

We sat for a moment in silence before I asked Sister if she thought the police had checked Eddie Stamps’s boat.

“Well, surely they did, wouldn’t you think? And Jason Marley’s, too. They’re not Cagney and Lacey, but they’re perfectly adequate. They found out where the threatening phone call came from right off the bat, didn’t they?”

“You think Laura really got one?”

“She had no reason to lie about it.”

“She would have if she made the call.”

“But it was a man’s voice. Besides, why would Laura call me?”

“To get you to leave.”

“Why would she want me to leave?”