Karen’s eyes lit up. “Just wait for the SATs!”

Gradually Hauck grew relaxed, the lines between them softening just a little, suddenly feeling alive in the warm glow of her bright hazel eyes, the cluster of freckles dotting her cheeks, the trace of her accent, the fullness of her lips, the honey color of her hair. He decided to hold back what he’d learned about Dolphin and Charles’s connection to it. About Thomas Mardy and how he’d been at the hit-and-run that day. Until he knew for sure. It would only hurt her more-send things down a path he would one day regret. Still, when he gazed at Karen Friedman, he was transported back to a part of his life that had not been wounded by loss. And he imagined-in the ease of her laugh, the second glass of wine, how she laughed at all the lines he had hoped she would-she was feeling the same way, too.

At a lull, Karen put down her wine. “So you said you made a little headway down there?”

He nodded. “You remember that hit-and-run that happened the day of the bombing, when I came by?”

“Of course I remember.”

Hauck put down his beer. “I found out why the kid died.”

Her eyes widened. “Why?”

He had thought carefully about this before she arrived, what he might say, and he heard himself retelling how some company was carrying on a fraud of some kind down there, a petroleum company, and how the kid’s father-a harbor pilot-had stumbled right into the middle of it.

“It was a warning”-Hauck shrugged-“if you can believe it. To get him to back off.”

“It was murder?” Karen said, a jolt of shock shooting through her.

Hauck nodded. “Yeah.”

She sat back, stunned. “That’s so terrible. You never thought it was an accident. My God…”

“And it worked.”

“What do you mean?”

“The old man stopped. He buried it. It never would have come out if I didn’t go down.”

Karen’s face turned pallid. “You said you went down there for me. How does this relate to Charles?”

How could he tell her? About Charles, Dolphin, the empty ships? Or how Charles had been in Greenwich that day? How could he hurt her more, more than she’d already been, until he knew? Knew for sure.

And being with her now, he knew why.

“The company,” Hauck said, “the one that was doing this down there, had a connection to Harbor.”

The color drained from Karen’s face. “To Charlie?”

Hauck nodded. “Dolphin Petroleum. You know the name?”

She shook her head.

“It may have been part of a group of investments he owned.”

Karen hesitated. “What do you mean, investments?”

“Offshore.”

Karen put a hand to her mouth and looked at him. It only echoed what Saul had said. “You think Charles was involved? In this hit-and-run?”

“I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, Karen.”

“Please don’t protect me, Ty. You’re thinking he was involved?”

“I don’t know.” He exhaled. He held back the fact that Charles had been up there that day. “There are still a lot more leads I have to run down.”

“Leads?” Karen sat back. Her eyes had a strange, confused look to them. She pressed her palms together in front of her lips and nodded. “I found something, too, Ty.”

“What?”

“I don’t know, but it’s scaring me a little-like you are now.”

She described how she’d been going through some of Charles’s old things, as he’d asked, his old files, had spoken to his old secretary and travel agent but been unable to find anything.

Until she came across a name.

“The guy had called me a couple of times, just after Charles died. Someone who worked for him.” She described how Jonathan Lauer had tried to contact her, the cryptic messages he’d left. Some things you ought to know…“I just couldn’t deal with it back then. It was too much. I mentioned them to Saul. He said it was just personnel stuff and he’d take care of it.”

Hauck nodded. “Okay…”

“But then I thought of it in light of all that’s come up, and it began to gnaw at me. So I went out to see him while you were gone. To New Jersey. To see him. I didn’t know where he worked now, and all I had was this address from when he worked for Charles, with a private number. I just took a chance. His wife answered the door.” Karen’s eyes turned glassy. “She told me the most horrible thing.”

“What?”

“He’s dead. He was killed. In a cycling accident, a few months back. What made it all a little creepy was that he’d been scheduled to give a deposition in some matter related to Harbor later in the week.”

“What kind of matter?”

“I don’t know. But it wasn’t just that. It was the way he was killed. Coupled with the way your Raymond kid was killed, who had Charlie’s name on him.”

Hauck put down his glass, his antennae for these sorts of things beginning to buzz.

“A car hit him,” Karen said. “Just like your guy. It was a hit-and-run.”

A group of office people seated next to them suddenly grew louder. Karen leaned forward, her knees pressed together, her face a little blank.

“You did good,” Hauck said, showing he was pleased. “Real good.”

Some of the color returned to her cheeks.

“You hungry?” Hauck asked, taking a chance.

Karen shrugged, casting a quick glance at her watch. “Alex has a ride home with a neighbor. I guess I have a little time.”

CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

On the way home, Hauck rang up Freddy Muñoz.

“LT!” his detective exclaimed in surprise. “Long time no hear. How’s vacation?”

“I’m not on vacation, Freddy. Listen, I need a favor. I need you to get a copy of the file on an unsolved homicide in New Jersey. Upper Montclair. The victim’s name is Lauer. L-A-U-E-R, like Matt. First name Jonathan. There may be a parallel investigation by the Jersey State Police.”

Muñoz was writing it down. “Lauer. And what do I say is the reason we need it, LT?”

“Similar pattern to a case we’ve been looking at up here.”

“And which case is that, Lieutenant?”

“It’s an unsolved hit-and-run.”

Muñoz paused. In the background there was the sound of young kids shouting, maybe the Yankees game on TV. “Jesus, Ty, this becoming an MO with you now?”

“Have someone drop it off at my home tomorrow. If I was active, I’d do it myself. And Freddy…” Hauck heard the sound of Freddy’s son, Will, cheering. “This stays just between us, okay?”

“Yeah, LT,” the detective answered. “Sure.”

NEW LEADS, HAUCK was thinking.

One definitely ran through Charlie Friedman’s trustee, Lennick. Karen trusted him. Almost like a member of the family. He would have known about Lauer. Did he know about Dolphin and Falcon, too?

Did Charlie ever mention he was managing any accounts offshore?

The other ran through New Jersey, this second hit-and-run. Hauck had never been one to have much faith in coincidences.

As he drove, his thoughts kept straying back to Karen. Off the top of his head, he came up with ten good, solid reasons he should stop now, before things went any further between them.

Starting with the fact that her husband was alive. And how Hauck had made a pledge to find him. And how he didn’t want to cause her any more needless hurt by holding things back than she had already been through.

And how she was rich. Used to different things. Traveled in a totally different league.

Jesus, Ty, you’re not exactly playing the strongest hand here.

Still, he couldn’t deny that he felt something with her. The electricity when their hands brushed once or twice at dinner. The same sensation coursing through his veins right now.

He pulled his Bronco off the exit of 95 back in Stamford. It occurred to him why he couldn’t tell her. Why he was holding back the whole truth. That Charles had returned to Greenwich after the bombing. That he had a hand in killing that boy. Maybe the other one, too.