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statement – that’s it. I am
now out of the loop.”
    “But isn’t your brother a cop in Wetlake?” I
began. “Annabelle told me.”
    “Yes, he is, but he knows enough about
police work to keep it to himself. Look, Patti, I’m sure they are
going to do the best they can. They’ll have the killer in no
time.”
    My expression crumpled at that. It seemed
like a promise Denver couldn’t keep.
    Rather than say anything to him, I found
myself playing with the pin in my hand. Without opening my fingers,
I rolled it around against my palm, careful not to cut myself, but
aware of the sharp end as it traced against my skin.
    Denver dwindled into silence, and then he
looked down at my hand. “What have you got there?”
    He could not help but ask questions, could
he?
    When I didn’t answer immediately, he
nodded his head down at my hand. “Why were you out on your porch...
in your pajamas, at this time in the morning?”
    There he went again, with all of his darn
questions. While Denver had the kind of looks that could have seen
him land a career in film or modeling, he did not have the
personality to match. His persistence was as irritating as it was
childlike. No doubt when he’d been a kid, he would have been the
kind to pester his parents every moment of every day with questions
about why the Sun was round and why you couldn’t eat dirt.
    “Patti?”
    “Someone knocked on the door.” I had no real
reason to lie to him. Plus, I got the distinct impression that if
you lied to Denver, he would just pester you even more. The only
way to make him go away was to tell the truth and run.
    “Who was it?”
    I shrugged my shoulders. “They seemed
pretty darn insistent. They woke me up. But when I got to the door,
they weren’t there. Maybe... I wasn’t quick enough. They must’ve
got bored and walked off.”
    His eyebrows descended right down to his
eyes. He did not look convinced. “What’s in your hand?”
    I clenched my teeth. For a brief moment, I
wondered why on earth I had ever found this man attractive. All of
those classes spent scribbling out his likeness on my pencil case.
They had clearly been a waste of time. For my teenage self had
obviously not been intuitive and wise enough to see Denver for what
he was: the world’s most irritating man.
    “Patti?”
    “A pin,” I opened my palm. “A blue pin.”
    “Like the one you found behind your motel
room,” he pointed out immediately. “Did you go around to pick it up
again?”
    I shook my head. “When I opened the door,
there was no one there. But there was this pin. I’m not entirely
sure how it got there. It’s probably some coincidence. Maybe one of
the motel guests had a whole box of pins... and they dropped them,”
I trailed off. My excuse was lame, after all.
    Again he didn’t look convinced. Instead he
jutted out his hand. “Let me have a look.”
    It wasn’t “can I have a look,” or “could you
please show me the pin.” No, Denver just pushed out his hand and
looked ready to wrestle it out of my grip if I didn’t give it up
willingly.
    I handed it to him, and then promptly
crossed my arms in front of my chest. It was for more reasons than
one. I wasn’t wearing a bra, my singlet was pretty old and
threadbare, and goddammit, I was feeling suitably defensive. Who
did this guy think he was running around asking questions and
harassing women early in the morning?
    A Federal Agent, a rational part of my mind
replied at once. And it was a pretty good answer.
    Feeling irritated at myself and everything
else in this blasted town, I pressed my fingers into my brow and
pushed them up and down as I let my eyes flutter closed.
    When I blinked one eye open, it was to see
Denver still staring at the pin, rolling it around his hand, and
poking at it with one of his fingers.
    I doubted it held the secrets of the
universe, but considering the fixed attention Denver was now giving
it, you would be forgiven for thinking it did.
    “Can I go back to