Quinn says, “We know the girl wasn’t Paige Ryerson. Who was she?”

“I’m telling you…it’s the girl.…”

“No, it’s not, Paolo,” Theo says. “You stole Paige’s ring and watch and put them on a fresh corpse. So who was she?”

“You can’t do this to me.…”

Quinn places two fingers on Paolo’s chin and moves his head to the right so they’re looking directly into each other’s eyes. “You have no idea what we’re capable of, Mr. Salese.”

The head tilt is a distraction so that Theo can inject the lifeguard with a knockout cocktail. Paolo feels the pinch, but two seconds later, the lights go out.

“Take us to the beach, Jana,” Quinn says.

By the time the lights come back on for Paolo Salese, he’s lying on his back in a grave in the same bottle-littered stretch of beach where the corpse with Paige’s ring and watch was buried. He’s three feet down, with enough sand shoveled onto his body to immobilize him while keeping his head uncovered.

It’s four o’clock in the morning, so when Paolo starts screaming, there’s nobody awake to hear him.

“Shhh,” Quinn says, crouching down. “Calm down. If we wanted to kill you, you wouldn’t have woken up at all.”

This seems to calm the lifeguard down a little, as he realizes there might be a way out of this. Theo and Jana are standing on either side of Quinn, looking down into the grave as if they’re pallbearers at a secret funeral.

“But if you lie to us,” Theo says, “you’ll stay down there for good. You understand?”

“Yeah…I understand.”

“Who was the girl?” Jana asks.

“I don’t know,” Paolo says. “I swear to God, I don’t know.”

“Then how did you know where her body would be?” Theo asks.

“The day before you and I met, I got this call—the guy wouldn’t tell me his name. But he said that people would probably be asking me about the girl. And if that happened, I should play along, and he’d give me further instructions.”

“In exchange for what?” Theo asks.

“Money. Like you, he gave me a little down payment and promised me the rest when it was all over. That’s why I was trying to make a deal with you—I knew this guy was up to no good, and I didn’t want any part of it. I just wanted to get out of this damn place and put all of this behind me.”

“How did this man contact you?” Quinn asks.

“Through the hotel. He left me his number at the front desk and said I should call him back within an hour.”

“What did he sound like?”

“Uh…rich.”

Theo is not so quick to believe Paolo. “So we have no way of backing up your story. Isn’t that convenient for you.” Idly, he begins to kick sand into the grave, pelting Paolo’s face.

Paolo starts to scream again. Quinn motions for Theo to knock it off.

“The hotel! Check the front desk phone records! I called him back using the lobby phone. Maybe you can trace him.”