She lay still beneath him, like Elaine, Elaine-fair, and kept her eyes closed, the way Elaine had at first. Her skin was so soft to the touch. He told her to open her eyes. They were so large, the pupils expanded almost to the edge of the blue irises. Her breath came in soft expulsions of air that touched his face in quick pants. Her hands lay at her sides until he told her to place them on his back. It was fine, so very fine, to be held within those arms again.

She was weak and he was strong. It was his duty to protect her, it was her duty to submit. Where he led, she would follow. Their roles had been laid down by God and the Church many years ago.

At last, at last, Elaine had come back to him.

ELEVEN

Newenham, September 3

“Far as I know, they slept the night through, Mamie said. “I wasnt surprised, since they both smelled like they fell off the back of a beer truck when you hauled them in last night. And if you dont mind, its about my bedtime now.

“Why did you switch to the night shift? Prince asked.

“Its almost time for school to start. This way Ill be awake in the morning to see the kids off.

Mamie Hagemeister was a short, very well-fleshed woman with bad skin and short, thin, fine brown hair that stood on end from its own self-generated static electricity. With her round, protuberant brown eyes, she looked like a long-haired koala plugged into a wall socket. She was also the single mother of five children ranging in age from three to ten, which explained her constantly harried air.

She was the officer in charge of the local jail, one of the four officers belonging to the perpetually short-handed local police department Liam had met. “Any chance of seeing Raymo or Berg today?

She paused for a precious moment in her headlong flight. “I dont think so. Rogers still in Anchorage at that damn trial, and I just dispatched Cliff down to the harbor.

“Whats happening at the harbor?

She shrugged. “Who knows? Somebody called and said Jeff Saltz was cutting his boat in half with a chain saw.

She said it nonchalantly, like cutting boats in half with chain saws was an everyday occurrence in the Newenham small-boat harbor. “I asked the guy, Mamie said, impatient to be gone, “I said to him, is he carving up anything besides his boat? Like a person? Guy said no. I said to the guy, then why do you need the cops?

“Why did he?

“The guy with the chain saws boat was tied to the boat belonging to the guy who called. Anyway, I told Cliff and Cliff went down to see what he could do.

“Mamie? A voice came up the corridor.