“I can’t wait to see you in action! Pey, what plan have you come up with that is missing just this one magic ingredient?” She tapped her fingertips against Trey’s skin with each word—”just” tap “this” tap “one” tap—so that by the time she got to “magic,” he was beaming into his Dixie cup. And I thought, not for the first time, that it must be nice to be a narcissist.

“Did Peyo tell you about the day I got awarded with memory clearance? It was a little chilly that morning, so I walked in wearing my—”

“Our mark, Jason Culver, is looking for someone. He knows the guy is still alive, but he doesn’t know where exactly. So we’re hoping you can dig around in Jason’s brain a bit and get us some information he doesn’t remember. Anything that can point us in the right direction.”

Trey glared at me and then leaned back, legs wide.

“What have you gotten so far?”

“Well, we have reason to believe the target is a confidence man who got his start as a high school football coach by screwing over his team. He’s on the run, but he’s still in America, somewhere in Georgia. Near the coast.”

“That’s it? Pssh. I could do that in my sleep.”

“We’d rather you do it awake. I’m thinking we go together tomorrow—just the two of us, so it isn’t too overwhelming—and I can talk to him and you can see what you get.”

“No,” Cal interjected suddenly, her flirtatious tone stripped. “I want to go too.”

I looked at her. “Are you sure that’s—”

“The lady has spoken!” Trey said, slamming the table. “And I would do anything to help our newest team member find her footing. Speaking of which, would you say you’re a size—”

“You have no idea how much we appreciate you,” she gushed. “How much I appreciate you.”

“I’m excited to find out,” Trey answered, raising his fresh cup to Cal and throwing it all down.

MICKEY

WHEN MICKEY GOT TO the dock, Sean was alone. She could see him from the lawn, stretched out in black basketball shorts and a black T-shirt like a seal sunning on a rock. When they were children, they would take turns lying on that dock’s diving board while the other bounced it, seeing who could hold on the longest. She remembered the way the rough surface of the board left angry marks on her stomach and thighs and the way they felt later, when she touched them gently in the dark. Her hand went to her arm then, her skin itching at the bandage’s corners.

She felt proud of the secret right there on her skin, a part of her body her mother hadn’t made. She could feel her heartbeat in it.

“Where’s Ruth?”

Sean sat up and shrugged.