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for a lie. ”I managed to put a corncob up José’s tailpipe. I gave him a copy of that email.” She chuckled softly. ”I haven’t seen him change to that shade of red in a while. I usually cause that.”
    Kerry stretched out and leaned on the armrest. ”What does he hope to accomplish, Dar? Fabricini, I mean.”
    ”Bottom line?” Dar turned into the ferry terminal and drove onto the boat, which had just docked. She put the car into park and rolled the windows down, then turned the engine off. The cool January air blew in ripe with the salt tang of the sea and she settled back, propping one knee up against the steering wheel. ”He wants José’s job, and my head,”
    she said. ”If he can prove we lost money because of something I did, he’s got a wedge to work with. Sales aren’t that great, and if he makes it look like he can pull a rabbit out of his ass someone in Houston might listen.”
    “You think so? Really? They’d take his word so fast?” Kerry asked in an incredulous voice.
    Dar shrugged. “New kid on the block,” she said. “Carries weight sometimes.”
    Kerry blinked. ”But, how can he prove something happened because of you? You know nothing like that did, Dar. If there’s one department in the entire company that runs like clockwork it’s ours.”
    Dar ducked her head to one side. ”No one’s perfect, Kerry. It’s possible he could dig up something where we could have done our jobs better, and we lost out because of it. We’ve got so many things going on at once, and so much of it involves making decisions based on the best information available. It can happen.”
    “Wow.” Kerry frowned. “But nothing— You don’t mean little stuff, like having to reorder circuits or things like that, do you?” she asked.
    “Dar, even I know that Sales messes up a heck of a lot more and for bigger dollars than we do.”
    “True,” Dar said. “But if you stack up a bunch of little stuff, and put it on letterhead, and show you’ve got a better plan, businessmen listen.”
    “Well...”
    “I listened to you when you did it,” Dar interrupted mildly. “You pulled together a list of little annoyances in the integration and put a reasonable plan in front of my puss and I caved right away.”
    “Dar.”
    “I did.” She settled her hands on her knee. ”But I’ve got a pretty Hurricane Watch
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    good batting average. He’d have to find something really major, and I’m not really worried about that.” She fell silent and watched the ripple of the water in the ferry’s wake, scattering the moonlight over its surface.
    ”So, what are you really worried about?” Kerry prodded gently. ”Is it because he’s made it so personal?”
    Dar thought about that. ”Maybe,” she acknowledged. ”Or maybe it’s because he’s sniffing after you.” She let a rueful grin cross her face.
    “And if he does find out about us, he will most certainly make an issue of it.””Mmph.” Kerry rolled her head to one side, waving at the deckhand as they docked on the island. ”Well, we just have to make sure that doesn’t happen. Right?”
    “Right.” Dar drove off the ferry, and through the spray, and turned onto the access road that lead to the condo. She pulled in next to Kerry’s Mustang, and turned the car off.
    Kerry regarded the other car. “I might have to start leaving that at my place,” she said. “Apparently one of Eleanor’s goons is hanging out with someone who lives near me and noticed I wasn’t around.”
    Dar half turned in her seat, one hand playing with the car keys.
    “Ah,” She exhaled. “Guess you haven’t been there a lot, huh?”
    “No.” Kerry plucked a bit of lint from the seat. “I guess I could start going back there during the week again.”
    A little silence fell between them.
    “You want to do that?” Dar finally asked, a quiet note of resignation in her tone.
    Kerry looked out the windshield at the wall of the condo. “No,” she said after a pause.