“I literally just came up with this idea,” Joe said, knowing it sounded lame. “We don’t have to do it that way if you don’t feel comfortable.”

Letty flopped down onto a chair at the dining table. “How exactly am I supposed to feel comfortable about posing as a corpse before becoming shark bait?”

“You’re not,” Vikki said. “No way around it, the next few days are going to be brutal for you, and that’s if we do everything right. Okay? But remember, we’re doing this so that you and Maya can be safe.”

“And so that Evan rots in prison for what he did to my sister,” Letty said. She sat up straight in the chair. “All right. Tell me the plan. I’m ready.”

Vikki cast a dubious eye about her as the Pathfinder bobbed in the water at the end of the boat ramp. “Are you sure this thing is safe to take out on the water? It looks awful small for three people.”

“Yes, it’s safe,” Joe said, annoyed. “This isn’t the S.S. Minnow, and we’re not going for a three-hour tour. From here, it’s a twenty-minute ride out to Egmont Key, tops.” He pointed at the bow of the boat. “The life jackets are in that locker up front. Feel free to put yours on.”

The FBI agent scowled, then opened the locker hatch, found an orange life vest, and tied it over her windbreaker.

He glanced at Letty, perched on the seat next to him on the center-console, and softened his tone. “Do you want a life jacket?”

She shook her head. “Let’s just go.”

He backed the boat slowly away from the concrete ramp, raising his voice over the din of the outboard engine. “Okay, the wind’s picked up some, and we’ve got a light chop, which means I’m gonna need to run the boat pretty fast to get out to the ship channel and back before dark. I’m warning you, we could get bounced around a little, but again, it’s perfectly safe.”

“Ready?”

Vikki shrugged, Letty nodded.

He pushed the throttle and the Pathfinder surged forward. Letty grasped the console and gritted her teeth as the boat rose up on a wave, then slapped down hard. Water splashed over the gunwales, and Vikki let out a muffled screech before scurrying toward the bench seat in the stern of the boat.

The wind whipped her hair and clothes, and she could feel her sneakers and pant legs growing wet and cold from water being splashed into the boat, but Letty felt weirdly energized by the boat’s motion. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been out on the water—maybe as a teenager, when a boyfriend had taken her waterskiing on a lake? She’d loved the freedom, the sense of watching land recede as they moved across the horizon.