Megan put her hand over the back of his and gave it a fond squeeze.

"Congratulations," she said.

"And?"

She smiled at him.

"And," she said, "here's the catch...."

SIXTEEN - COASTAL MAINE APRIL 22, 2001

SIXTEEN

COASTAL MAINE APRIL 22, 2001

"YOU LOOKED TO MAKE SURE?" COBBS SAID. HE WAS chewing on a thick wad of gum. "I mean, you were watching, right?"

Dex plucked an imaginary lint ball off his mackinaw. It had been maybe ten minutes since he'd tied up the boat and Cobbs had already asked the question half a dozen times in one form or another.

"I told you, it's done," he said. "What more you want me to say?"

The look Cobbs gave him felt like a shove. He was wearing his Smokey hat and warden's uniform, and held a Remington 870 pump gun with 20-gauge chambering and a collapsible stock. His binoculars hung from a strap around his neck.

"I want you to tell me what you saw," he said bluntly.

Dex licked his lips. He heard something scrabble across the limb of a tree in the nearby woods and glanced distractedly toward the sound. Perched on the budding maple, a squirrel twitched its bushy tail as it nibbled on whatever morsel of food was in its forepaws, the bright black beads of its eyes warily studying the two humans below.

He turned back to Cobbs.

"Important thing's what me an' you ain't seen," he said.

"Meaning what?"

"Meanin' I didn't see no bubbles from my boat, an' you didn't see Ricci's head bobbin' up out the water through them binocs of yours," Dex said.

Cobbs stared at him and chewed his gum. They were in the shade behind the prominent slab of rock that marked their meeting spot on the beach.

"Let's sum this fucking thing up once more, just to help me picture it right in my mind," he said.

Dex expelled a deep, tired breath and nodded with resignation.

"You waited while the bubbles was still comin' up," Cobbs said.

Dex nodded wearily again.

"And when there wasn't any more you turned back here."

Dex nodded a third time.

"So in other words," Cobbs said, and hefted his Remington, "I won't need to get in the motorboat and use this shotgun to blow Ricci out of the water."

"Is the point I been tryin' to make," Dex replied, totally wiped out, and more disgusted with his lot than ever before.

Cobbs watched Dex another moment, looking as if he was about to hit him with another round of questions. Then he seemed to change his mind, pushed the chewing gum from the back of his mouth with his tongue, and spat it out onto the pebbly ground.

"Good riddance to one God Almighty asshole," he said.

Ricci splashed above the water just when he'd felt he couldn't exhale any longer and would drown within feet of the surface.