“Good,” Sister said. “I’ll see you there. Now, tell me, would I be breaking one of your laws if I made a quick trip back in the dunes?”

“I think it would be all right.”

“Just don’t get wet,” Frances called as Mary Alice climbed up through the sea oats. I could tell I was going to have to keep these two apart.

“Lisa says you knew Mrs. Weatherby, the victim.”

“We’ve known her for years,” I said. I explained that she and her husband had the condo next to Sister’s.

“I knew her, too,” Lieutenant Major (what kind of a title was that?) Bissell said. “Destin’s still a small town in the wintertime.” He flicked his pen off and on with his fingernail. “She showed me some property in the new development. It’s beautiful, but too rich for my blood.” He cleared his throat. “She was a nice lady.”

“Lieutenant Major Bissell—” Haley began.

“Just Lieutenant. Major’s my first name. Confuses everybody, including me.”

“Lieutenant Bissell, I saw Mrs. Weatherby’s body. I know you have a murder case on your hands.”

“I think we’re safe in saying she didn’t die of natural causes.”

I remembered what Sister had said about Millicent’s throat and shuddered.

“Well, who’ll tell Mr. Weatherby about it?” Haley continued. “Is there some policy that you have to be the ones to do it?”

“We usually do. Why?”

“We all know Fairchild very well, especially my aunt. I know it’ll be hard, but I think it should come from us.”

What a wonderful child I had raised. When Sister got back from her trip to the sea oats, it was all settled. The lieutenant would go with us, but Mary Alice would be the one to break the news of Millicent’s death to Fairchild.

“You volunteered me to tell Fairchild?” It was too dark to see the expression on her face, fortunately. She was quiet for a moment and then sighed. “Well, so much for having to pee.”

He knew when he answered the door, when he saw all of us, including Lieutenant Bissell, when Mary Alice held out her arms. He had had a similar visit when his first wife Margaret centered the utility pole on Highway 98.

“Millicent?” he asked, the blood draining from his face. “What happened?”

“She was killed, Fairchild,” Sister said.

He looked confused. “But the lights are still on.”

“She didn’t hit a utility pole, Fairchild. We found her body on the beach.”

“Millicent drowned? She never went near the water.”