For a moment, Vikki Hill felt a flash of regret. She’d been wrong about Joe DeCurtis. He was no inept local yokel. He was an excellent cop, with great instincts. If circumstances had been different, maybe they’d have had a thing. Too late now, which was probably just as well. Her relationships, even the briefest, always ended up messy.

Vikki turned to check on Wingfield’s progress. He was picking his way slowly through the sugar-fine sand, clutching the leather bag to his side.

When he was fifty yards away, he stopped and looked around. “Hey!” he called. “Enough of this charade. Where’s Maya?”

“We’ll get to that,” Vikki said. “But first, meet Joe. He’s the guy I told you about.”

Wingfield approached warily.

“Joe, this is Evan.”

DeCurtis looked the other man up and down in a stare designed to make Wingfield feel uncomfortable.

Evan shifted the bag on his shoulder and looked around. “Where’s Maya?”

“She’s around,” DeCurtis said. “First, let’s finish the cash transaction.”

Wingfield laughed. “Yeah. No. The deal was, you hand over my daughter, and then you get the cash.”

“How about you show me the money?” Joe said.

Vikki was watching the two men stare each other down, each assessing the size of the other’s balls. At any moment she expected one to sniff the other’s butt.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw someone approaching. It was a scrawny elderly man, who’d just emerged, dripping wet, from the Gulf. With growing horror she recognized the pale, hairless chest, the rubber swim goggles perched atop his bald head. He was fastening a towel around his waist as he walk-trotted toward them.

“Hey Joe,” he hailed, waving his arm in greeting. Water was still streaming from his body as he approached the trio standing only a few yards away.

“Hey Joe!” he repeated.

DeCurtis turned at the sound of the old guy’s voice.

“Wow, that was some excitement this morning, huh? Did Letty tell you, it was the same guy I spotted creeping around last night? And then he come back here, and he tried to grab Maya. You think that’s what he was after? Letty and Maya?” He nodded at Vikki. “I heard that guy broke into your room and stole your gun, too. Did the cops get it back to you yet?”

Oscar Jensen was oblivious to the drama unfolding before him. He greeted Wingfield with a broad smile and extended his hand. “How ya doing? I’m Oscar. So, are you checking into the motel today? Which unit?”

“Hiya,” Evan said to Oscar. “So, you know Letty?”

“Oh sure. Everybody knows her,” Oscar said. He gave Joe a broad wink. “Especially this guy right here. You think we don’t know you’re sweet on our Letty?”

Wingfield’s eyes narrowed as he looked from the old man to DeCurtis to Vikki. “What the fuck?”