“Nothing like that,” Graham promised.

“And where do I have to go?”

“That’s the next beauty part. You don’t even have to leave the house. We want to bring her here.”

“Here,” Neal echoed.

“Here?” Karen asked.

“Here,” Graham repeated.

Neal laughed and turned to Karen. “Now how much do you want the deck?”

Graham also turned to Karen and gave her his most obsequious smile. “We think you would be a major asset in the cleaning-up process.”

Karen poured Graham a fresh cup of coffee, sat down next to him, and put her arm around his shoulder.

“You know, Joe,” she said, “when I envision this deck, I see a cedar hot tub on it.”

Neal whooped with laughter.

“I like her,” Graham said. “She’s a vicious putz like you, but I like her.”

“There’s a lot to like,” Neal agreed. A lot to love, he thought.

Graham said, “Okay, we’re talking deck with Jacuzzi money.”

“That was easy. Who is this mystery witness?” Neal asked.

Graham paused dramatically. He chewed his last bite of toast twenty-eight times and announced, “Polly Paget.”

Karen’s big blue eyes got bigger.

“The whole country’s looking for Polly Paget,” Neal said. “I should have known you had her.”

Graham shrugged.

“Where is she?” Neal asked.

“Out in the car.”

“You left that woman sitting out in the car?!” Karen yelled. “What do you think she is, luggage?”

“She was asleep.”

Karen punched Graham in the shoulder and stormed out the kitchen door.

“Ouch,” Graham said, looking a little hurt.

“One of Karen’s dirty little secrets,” Neal explained as he took a blueberry muffin, “is that she reads People magazine. Is it all true?”