"Where's your car?" J.B. asked.

"My car? Oh, yeah. It's down by the boat launch. I didn't want it to get in the way. You know these lobster guys. They'd bulldoze a BMW right over if it got in their way."

That explained why they hadn't seen it, Zoe thought. She eased to her feet, every inch of her body telling her she'd already overexerted today. Her shoulders ached from kayaking, her legs were tired, and she was sleepy, ready to collapse into a warm bed and get unconscious. But she had to feel better than Kyle did. She held out her hand for him. "We can take you to the emergency room-"

"I'm fine."

She didn't argue. "And if you don't want to press charges against Teddy Shelton, that's your prerogative, but you need to tell the police what happened."

"Why?"

He took her hand reluctantly, and she helped him back to his feet. "Because if you don't, Special Agent McGrath here will. Or I will. Either way, the police need to have a chat with our Mr. Shelton."

Twenty

The Castellane kid didn't let his injuries stop him from arguing with Zoe all the way back to the village. She wanted him to talk to the police. He didn't want to do it. J.B. was in favor of hauling him straight to the police station and letting Goose Harbor 's finest sort out what went on tonight. Zoe was more willing to compromise.

"It was just a fight," Kyle said. He was warmer now, his speech less slurred. His lip had started to bleed again, probably because he wouldn't shut up. "Can't a couple of guys get into a fight anymore? Why involve the police?"

"They need to be aware of how Teddy Shelton reacted to you," Zoe said.

J.B. debated leaving them both out of the decision-making and pulling up to the police station. It was next to the town library with its Olivia West Reading Room. What was the kid going to do, jump out of a moving car?

He threatened to. "If you try to take me to the police, I swear I'll jump out of here. A few more bruises aren't going to matter."

Good, J.B. thought. I'll provide them. He was ready to call Kyle's bluff, but he reined in his irritation and passed the call off to Zoe. Her town, her sister's boyfriend.

She caved. "Fine. We'll drop you off at your father's yacht."

"What for? He'll have a heart attack or blame me for bleeding on his rug. Come on, Zoe. Give me a break. I just want to clean up and crawl into bed. Drop me off at my apartment or Christina's. My father goes to bed at ten, anyway."

Zoe shook her head. "I'm not leaving you alone or with my sister. What if Teddy comes back to have another crack at you? Have you thought of that?"

When he drove into the parking lot at the docks, J.B. saw that Christina's café was lit up. She must have spotted his Jeep, because she ran out and waved them down.

Zoe glanced back at Kyle, her expression neutral- her ten years in law enforcement finally showed. "She's worried sick about you."

J.B. braked, but before he could come to a full stop, Zoe had the door open. "Chris, it's okay. Kyle's with us. He got in a fight-"

She saw him and cried out. "Kyle! Oh, my God, look at you! Who did this?" Ignoring Zoe, Christina reached for him in the back. "What happened? God, Kyle, you're bleeding. Zoe, why aren't you at the hospital?"

"He won't go."

She went through the bare bones of the story while Christina clucked and sobbed over her beaten-up boyfriend. He seized his moment and slipped out of the Jeep. J.B. could have stopped him, but what was the point? The kid wasn't cooperating. He was enjoying the drama and attention and presuming he could get away with his rendition of events.

It wouldn't work. J.B. would see to it.

"Let me get you some fresh ice-I've got a freezer full." Christina looked at her sister. "It's okay if we go?"

Zoe thought a moment, then nodded. "The police are going to want to talk to Kyle, but-sure, go on. Your door's fixed, right? Lock it. And call me if you need anything."

J.B. considered his options, decided not one of themwas appealing and kept his mouth shut. For the time being. He stood out in the parking lot, noting how quiet it was now that it was dark and below freezing. No tourists, no night walkers, no yacht parties. Goose Harbor must be a different place in late fall and winter.

Christina hung on to Kyle's waist, steadying him, as they walked to the café. "I can't believe you got in a fight with Teddy Shelton. He's twice your size!"

Kyle remarked that he'd held his own. Another version of what'd happened tonight. Another lie.

J.B. could see Zoe gritting her teeth, but she said nothing. They both got back into the Jeep, and he started it up, glancing over at her. "Think your sister'll ask you to be maid of honor at the wedding?"

"Go to hell, McGrath." He grinned. "And I was worried you were afraid of me now that I'm armed."

That brought a grudging smile. "Not a chance. You know where the police station is?"

"I do."

He had no trouble finding a parking space on Main Street in front of the station. The village was deserted at night. He leaned back in his seat. "Tell them they can get in touch with me if they want to." He gave her his cell phone number. "They can call anytime."

"You're not going in with me?"

He shook his head. "No."

"Why not? You had the run-in with Shelton yesterday. You're the armed FBI agent."

"It wasn't a run-in. I told him I thought he was having a heart attack. He blew me off." He glanced over at her, aware he'd aroused her suspicions. "Suggest they look into Teddy Shelton's prison record. Who the judge was at his trial."

Even in the darkness, he could see how pale she was. "J.B.-"

"Let them figure it out, Zoe. We need to pull back."

"Stick-was he the judge? Is he in danger?"

"I'll wait here."

She waited another two seconds, but he didn't budge. Without a word, she pushed open her door and climbed out. He saw her hesitate. Never mind the story she had to tell about tonight, that she'd offended the people she had to tell it to-the building itself was where her father had worked her entire life. It had to hold countless memories.

J.B. didn't envy her.

It took her ten minutes to get the job done and get out of there. She tore open the Jeep door, flopped into her seat and burst into tears, lowering her head so he couldn't see her as she sobbed, quietly, miserably.

"Even rougher than you thought it'd be, wasn't it?"

She didn't answer, and he didn't expect her to.

With her bent over like that, her sweater rode up a few inches, revealing the top edge of what looked like a tattoo of a pink beach rose just above her left hip.

J.B. inhaled a deep breath, started the engine anddrove slowly back to Olivia West's house on the bluff.

Zoe jumped out before he'd come to a full stop. By the time he followed her into the house, she was running up the stairs as if the hounds of hell were on her.

It hadn't been so easy, these first days back home.

J.B. found a heavy crystal decanter of Scotch on the sideboard in the dining room. He got a glass from the cupboard and splashed in about half an inch and smelled it. Seemed fine. Olivia West died on her one hundred and first birthday. It was safe to assume the Scotch hadn't been around for more than a century.

He stood at the window and drank, and he thought of a woman out here on this bluff alone for the better part of a hundred years. If his grandmother had stayed, would she have lived longer? Would she and Olivia West have remained friends and gone to church suppers and played bridge together?

J.B.'s father might have become a lobsterman. More likely he'd never have been born. Yet nothing in her letters to her friend in Montana suggested Olivia was lonely out here. She never married, but from everything J.B. had learned about her in his days in Goose Harbor, she hadn't lived a solitary life.