The whole tent fell down. Now it was only burning sheets of canvas with two children and a murderer lying trapped inside.

For a moment she and Paul just stood there and looked at each other, horror in their eyes.

Then Danny began crawling out of the collapsed tent, dazed and burning, and Paul tackled him.

The forest around them came alive. Police in uniform, firefighters burst into the campsite. Three cops rushed Paul and Danny, and at almost the same moment a crew of firefighters came running in and used handheld extinguishers to spread foam on the fire.

And Nina ran through the burning half-circle of fire to the one side of the tent that wasn’t already engulfed, ripped through the fabric with her knife, and found the children.

EPILOGUE

One Month Later

A BIG BANNER, HUNG ACROSS THE entrance to Jolene’s new business, said WELCOME TO THE CAT LADY CAFÉ! BEST LATTES IN THE UNIVERSE! Through the front window, Nina saw a big crowd of adults and children talking and laughing.

“Go ahead, Wish,” she said. Wish had twenty thousand dollars thanks to his cut of the reward, which had been shared with Connie Cervantes, Sandy, Nina, and Paul, and he looked self-confident and happy again. As he dipped his head and disappeared inside, she held Paul’s hand and stopped him.

“You okay?” he said.

“It’s the first time back in this town since-”

“It’s just good old Carmel Valley Village again, and the party goes on,” Paul said. “I think the Cat Lady would approve of this tribute. She was a tough character and so is Jolene. Look in there. See Jolene behind the counter?”

“I like the cat ears.”

“I’ve been hearing at the Carmel post office that this is the best lunch place on the central coast. The place is jammed. She’s a hit.”

“Thank goodness. I had heard she found a start-up stake somewhere. She moved fast. There’s Debbie and Nate. He looks happy. Isn’t Debbie a remarkable woman? She had to work hard to get the foster-care certificate.”

“She wanted another child,” Paul said. “She’s going to take good care of Nate, and then she’ll find other foster children when Nate goes back to the Washoe tribe. I wonder how her husband took it.”

“Like a man, I hope,” Nina said. “Tory told me that Nate and Mikey are getting to be friends. Oh, there he is, behind the counter.”

“Ah, I see the ex-cons drinking coffee at the table in the corner. How many hours of community service did they get?”

“Six hundred hours apiece. They’ll have to testify against Danny in a few months too. And they all have records. And then there’s the payback to Green River.”

“You did a great job keeping them out of jail. They know how lucky they are.”

“Keeps them busy,” Nina said, smiling. “I hope they’re only talking about golf. I wonder if they miss David and Britta.”

“I doubt David and Britta miss them. Britta’s going to be happier in New York. She made an amazing recovery, didn’t she?”

Nina nodded. “And Tory’s looking very pregnant. I’m glad she didn’t throw Darryl out. Check out Elizabeth and Ben by the cash register. He has an arm around her waist. Very interesting. Jolene did mention something about that when she called to invite us. Ben decided he didn’t want to live on the same street as the men who toasted his nephew’s death and Elizabeth had extra room.”

“Are you ready? They’re not going to bite you, Nina.”

“One more minute. It’s going to be intense,” Nina said.

“Here comes Megan. I noticed the bikes in the rack.” Megan came outside and said, “Hi! Why don’t you come in? I saw you out here.”

“Oh, we’re just enjoying the sun. It’s so foggy today in Carmel. Be right in. Looks great.”

When they were alone again, Nina said, “Paul?”

“Mmm-hmm?”

“It’s really all right? About Bob and me moving into Aunt Helen’s?”

“I told you, I can live with that. If I can’t live with you, I’ll live with that.”

“It’s better for all of us. I don’t have to be the girlfriend with the suitcase, we’re together, Bob isn’t in your face-”

“It’s progress,” Paul said. “On the whole. Up, down, but I do detect a gentle forward movement.”

Nina laughed. “Hey, there’s the lady in the wheelchair, helping Jolene. The handicapped folks on the hill are still fighting. I forgot to tell you, Paul, the director called me a few days ago and asked me to look into their legal situation.”

“Really. Now I’ll never get my office chair back from you,” Paul said. “Can we go in now? You’ll just get more nervous putting it off any longer.”

“I guess.”

“They’ll give you a hero’s welcome. You’re a legend. The one who stopped the Pied Piper of Siesta Court. Come on, Counselor, don’t be shy.”

“I didn’t do it alone, I enjoyed working with you, partner,” Nina said.

He held open the door for her and offered her his arm. She still held back, thinking about the Cat Lady’s Twelve Points, and wondering what her crossed-out Conclusion had been.

Jolene came to get them, her cat ears bobbing, her nose painted black, little black whiskers on her lip, smiling broadly. Nina smiled too and took Paul’s arm.

They walked in and the clapping started.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

WE WOULD LIKE TO EXPRESS OUR grateful appreciation to Nancy Yost, our lovely, cheerful, brilliant agent, of Lowenstein-Yost Associates. The opera world lost a star, but we gained a guide and bulwark over the past ten years who has brought us only good. We also thank Danielle Perez, Senior Editor at the Bantam Dell Publishing Group, who, with this book especially, has shown her rare ability to catch the lags, the vagueness, and the illogic of our manuscript, while continuing to encourage the spirit of our work.

To Irwyn Applebaum, that hardworking, helpful, and astute presence who is our publisher, and to Nita Taublib, Deputy Publisher, the skilled and enthusiastic supporter who works behind the scenes to bring out the best in all of us-we hope you know that we are aware of your importance to our success. We also appreciate the hard work on our behalf by Susan Corcoran, Shannon Jamieson, Glen Edelstein, and Jeffrey Ward. Thank you all.

We would also like to recognize and thank the many people who answered fact questions and rode shotgun with us as we wrote, including Andrew “Drush Bobx” Fuller, Patrick O’Shaughnessy and Meg O’Shaughnessy and Brad, June, Connor, and Cory Snedecor. Peter von Mertens read our manuscript and provided many helpful comments. Thanks to Cheryl Mikel and Hazel Shaw for their kind support, and the many wonderful readers who have written us words of encouragement at our Web site, perrio.com.

The lyrics our guitar player sings at the party are from a song titled “Green Eyes and White Lies” by R. C. Cole and R. J. Masters, copyright 2000. We can’t play the tune of this beautiful song in a book, but if any reader wants to hear it, please contact B. C. Cole at [email protected].

Couplets quoted at the beginning of each part come from Robert Browning’s poem “The Pied Piper of Hamelin.” All other song lyrics, doggerel, and poetry, except the John Keats quote before the prologue and a few words from “ El Paso,” are ours.

Our characters are completely fictitious. There is no Siesta Court in Carmel Valley. Although we like to talk about real places for the reader’s enjoyment, if it’s connected with the plot, we probably made it up.