So I grabbed the nearest scalpel and put up.

At the time, you didn’t know that I was once cast in a pilot for a TV show called Flesh and Blood, where I portrayed a plucky yet brilliant medical examiner (aren’t they all). That show was never picked up, but I threw myself into the role with great élan. I took classes. I pored over texts. And soon I talked my way into rooms with real medical examiners who showed me the ropes. Or the intestines, as it were. The examiners allowed me to do a little cutting, too. It was glorious.

I’ll never forget the look on your face as I glided the scalpel down the front of that anonymous corpse and proceeded to give you a tour of the dead man’s internal organs.

In this bleak room now, however, the mood is much more somber.

“It’s her, isn’t it?” Theo asks. “I mean, there’s the ring, and the watch.”

“Let’s not jump to conclusions,” I tell him. “There are five stages of decomposition, and this body is in the second stage—bloat.”

“Yeah, I noticed.”

“You don’t have to be in here, you know.”

“No,” Theo says. “I really do.”

This is what we both love about Theo. Beneath that swaggering, devil-may-care exterior is a human being with a good heart, who cares until it hurts.

I begin my work.

Fortunately, my dear Matthew, you’ve secured us an emergency trauma center, the one erected to serve the population if a natural disaster occurs here on the island. It has the official seal of CDEMA, the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency, and all the tools I need for a speedy autopsy. You were very thoughtful to procure a set of Paige’s most recent medical records so that I might make some comparisons to confirm her identity.

“How do you know Paolo didn’t do it?” Theo asks.

Quinn says, “A guilty man would have long fled by now. Instead, Mr. Salese stayed around to profit from his knowledge of the crime.”

“Which means he knows who did it—which is just as bad.”

“Not necessarily. Just because you hear about a certain crime doesn’t mean you’re an accomplice. Besides, he’s not going anywhere with those fake diamonds you gave him. I presume he’s going to learn the truth very soon, and he’ll come looking for you.”

I interrupt the boys. “And when he does, I’d like a word with him.”

“Why’s that?” Theo asks.

“For a man whose alleged profession is lifeguard, he seems to have run into more than his fair share of dead people.”

“What do you mean?” Matthew asks.

“This woman is definitely not Paige Ryerson.”

Chapter 26

KATE (THE SOLDIER)

Okay, Quinn—here’s the lowdown.

We arrested the trust fund kid and his captain a little after midnight, just as the Hostile Wake-Over was preparing to leave port.

Of course I knew Jamie Halsey and Jacob Kurtz would try to bolt. Once we allowed word to spread that Paige Ryerson’s body had been unearthed, it would only be a matter of time before the rich little snot and his captain either lawyered up or decided to split. An interception of port communications revealed the pair had chosen the latter.