They’d cleaned off chairs, and they sat with china mugs of pomegranate oolong tea. Diane didn’t look at him; instead, she studied the disarray in the foliage, as if plotting its rebirth. She picked up a long strand of weeping willow that lay across the ledge of the gazebo. It was like seaweed plucked from the beach. She tried to bend it into a circle, but it didn’t bend, and so she dropped it back to the earth behind the shelter.

‘I haven’t thanked you for saving our lives,’ she told him.

‘Thanks aren’t necessary,’ Cab replied. ‘I’m sorry you were placed in such a frightening situation.’

‘Well, nevertheless. I’m very grateful. I’m sure Tarla is, too.’

Cab smiled. ‘I believe her exact words were, “Did you have to wait until the last second like this was the eighteenth sequel to Die Hard?”’

‘That does sound like Tarla,’ Diane said.

‘She also mentioned that McTiernan wanted her in the original movie instead of Bonnie Bedelia, but she couldn’t stand Bruce Willis.’

‘So she’s coping well with her second brush with death.’

‘She is.’

Diane picked up her cup of tea, but then she put it down again, as if it had lost interest for her. ‘I’m still shocked about Deacon. I do feel bad for him, despite everything. And for his sister.’

‘Peach is strong. I like her. If it weren’t for her, Deacon’s plan might well have succeeded. Frank Macy’s body would have disappeared into some deserted part of the Everglades. Deacon used the gun he got from Macy at Picnic Island, so Macy’s prints would have been on it. All the evidence would have pointed toward Macy, not just now but for the Labor Day murders, too.’

‘And toward me,’ Diane added. ‘Or Drew.’

‘Yes, a lot of people would have believed that you or your son paid Macy to kill Birch back then. Neither of you would have been alive to protest. Meanwhile, Deacon would have reappeared a couple days later, having “escaped” from wherever Macy and his friends had been hiding him after he was supposedly abducted.’

‘What about that young man Justin? Why was he killed?’

‘Justin obviously put two and two together,’ Cab told her. ‘He connected Alison’s death to Deacon and realized that Lyle was the real target of the assassination on Labor Day. Justin must have started following Deacon, and that led him to the foreclosure house. After being inside, he probably guessed what Deacon was planning, but Deacon got to him before he could tell anyone.’

‘The real mystery is why, isn’t it?’ Diane asked. ‘Why did Deacon take it so far? Why kill me now?’