“We need to talk about a few things.” With the gruff delivery of his words there was an acute shift in the atmosphere. Jack had been missing for over a week now, but Stevens’s sympathy had turned into something else. He was so stoic and guarded, I couldn’t tell what it was. He spoke again. “How often have you used a motorboat?”

The question threw me, and I stumbled to reply. “What? Uh...never.”

“What about the night Jack disappeared?” Stevens said, raising his voice, and as I shook my head, Heron put a hand on his arm, which I interpreted as code for the rookie to take it easy.

“Did you rent or borrow a boat the night Jack went missing?” Heron said softly, sympathetically, as if she were talking to a friend. I knew that ruse. I’d seen it before.

“No, I was here, I told you. What’s this about?”

Stevens tapped his notepad with the tip of his pen. “Someone saw a boat out on the water the evening Jack went missing, down by the beach where we found his truck.” Tap. Tap. Tap-tap-tap. The noise became louder and louder as the implication of his words landed on top of my shoulders.

“You think it was me?”

Heron shook her head. “That’s not what we said.”

“But now that you’ve brought it up, was it you?” Stevens said.

“No.” A tingly shiver ran down my spine and all the way back up again. “Of course not.”

Heron studied me, her expression still neutral. She slid a finger across her phone and turned it toward me, revealing a mug shot of a thirtysomething man with watery-blue eyes, blond spiky hair, and an L-shaped scar above his left eyebrow. “Do you know him?”

I leaned closer, examined the shape of his jaw, the way his lips curled into a half smirk... I put a hand to my throat. “It looks like the man who was at Jack’s place. I’m not a hundred percent certain...”

“This is Jason Whitmarsh,” Heron said. “His car matches the description you gave us.” She waited a few beats. “Lily, did you and Jack like playing cards?”

“Sure,” I said. “The two of us played together a lot. Jack always wins, though. He’s really good.”

“Do you play for money?” she continued.

“Hardly.” I let out a small laugh. “Jack always says my ‘tells’ are so obvious I might as well scrawl them over my face. I’m so bad, I’d never even win at Go Fish. Besides, we don’t have cash to lose and it would be weird betting against one another.”

“What about with others?” Stevens said impatiently. “Did Jack gamble with anyone?”