“Lila,” he whispered in her ear during their final tryst that night, “there are no basements in Catize.”

His interrogation of her took two more hours, during which he convinced her that he was a former hit man for the Gambino family in New York who was trying to lie low awhile and figure out Grief Release’s angles before he muscled his way in on whatever con they had going here.

Lila, who Jay correctly guessed got turned on by men of danger, was no longer enamored of her position with either Grief Release or the Church. She told Jay the story of her former lover, Jeff Price, who’d heisted over two million dollars from the coffers of Grief Release. After promising to take her with him, Price ditched her and took off with the “Desiree bitch,” as Lila called her.

“But, Lila,” Jay said, “you know where Price went. Don’t you?”

She did, but she wasn’t telling.

But then Jay convinced her that if she didn’t cough up Price’s whereabouts, he’d make sure her fellow Messengers knew she was in on the heist with Price.

“You wouldn’t,” she said.

“Wanna bet?”

“What do I get if I tell you?” She pouted.

“A flat fifteen percent of whatever I take off Price.”

“How do I know you’ll pay it?”

“Because if I don’t,” Jay said, “you’ll rat me out.”

She chewed on that and eventually she said, “Clearwater.”

Jeff Price’s hometown, and the place where he planned to turn the two million into ten by going in on a drug deal with old friends who had heroin connections in Thailand.

Jay left the island that morning, but not before giving Lila one final piece of advice:

“You hold your breath until I get back, and you’ll have a nice chunk of change. But, Lila? You try and warn Price I’m coming, and I’ll do far worse to you than any five Mexicans would have.”

“So, I got back from Nantucket and called Trevor.”

Trevor, far from what he told us or Hamlyn and Kohl, sent a car for Jay, and the Weeble drove him back to the house in Marblehead.

He commended Jay on his diligent work, toasted him with his fine single-malt, and asked Jay how he felt about Hamlyn and Kohl’s attempt to remove him from the case.

“It must be a tremendous ego blow to a man with your skills.”

And it had been, Jay admitted. As soon as he found Desiree and returned her safely, he was going out on his own.

“How are you going to do that?” Trevor said. “You’re broke.”

Jay shook his head. “You’re mistaken.”