“Waitaminute. Are you telling me these guys were watching the house?”

“Yes.”

“But that doesn’t make sense. If they grabbed Wilson and Dru this morning, why go back to the house? What did they want?”

“Maybe someone Wilson and Dru told them about, but that’s only a guess. It was probably the man who killed them. The light I saw in the upstairs bedroom when I called you this morning, that was probably the killer. The same man who jimmied the kitchen window.”

Cole didn’t like it, or what it might mean.

“Mendoza and Gomer came back for this guy, but he was already there. He saw them first, and took them out?”

Pike cocked his head the other way, and the tangerine sunset gleamed on his glasses.

“Yes. I think he was still watching the house when I was there this morning. I could feel him.”

Cole prodded the coals, and watched firefly embers swirl in the heat. Everything had changed in the space of a day. A neighborhood shakedown had become an illusion. Vandalism and assault were a sleight-of-hand trick to hide something worse, and now Cole knew the magicians were liars. None of it was real, and probably never had been.

Pike’s voice came from the embers.

“Now you.”

Cole looked at his friend.

“I spoke with Steve Brown today, the man who owns Smith’s house, and I had another talk with Jared. I have to tell you some things, and you’re not going to like it. I don’t think Dru has been honest with you.”

Cole paused for Pike to react, but Pike gave him no more reaction than a department store mannequin. The cat left the edge of the deck, twined once through Pike’s legs, then sat, its eyes narrow and watchful.

Cole put his bottle on the rail.

“Brown has never met Wilson Smith or heard of him. He let Dru use the house because they had a relationship. She was supposed to be there alone, and Brown was furious when he found out someone was living with her. He knew nothing about her uncle, or Dru working at Wilson’s food place, or any of it. He believed she was living on alimony. Until we spoke this morning, he expected to resume their relationship when he returns.”

Pike remained motionless, floating at the edge of the deck. Cole wished he could see behind the black glasses, but that view was hidden.

“After I spoke with Brown, I talked to Jared. Jared told me things that put the lie to everything this woman told you about herself. It’s not good, Joe. It’s pretty damned bad.”

“What?”

The cat crouched at Pike’s feet. Its tail snapped and twitched as Cole repeated Jared’s story. Cole kept it brief, but left nothing out.