"And your heart of steel melted."

"I was putty in his hands."

"The truth, please."

"I told him if he didn't butt out, I'd have him arrested."

"Do you think you scared him off?"

"Hell, no. He knows I can't stop him from asking people questions, and so far that's all he's done."

"So far?" ¦

"I've met a hundred guys like him, Natalie. He's a sleaze, but he's cool enough under pressure to tell lies without blinking an eye. I don't trust him."

"You don't trust who?"

Natalie and Nick looked up at Alison. They were both so startled by her smiling face they stared. "Cat got your tongues?" she asked archly. "Do you like cats? I do."

"I have a cat," Nick said, then looked surprised at the sound of his perky voice. He sounded as if he were speaking to a child. "His name is Ripley."

Alison frowned. "Why Ripley?"

"She wasn't supposed to, but my daughter saw the movie Aliens. It scared the daylights out of her, but she loved the main character Ripley."

Alison looked at him as if he'd lost his mind. "Sigourney Weaver played Ripley. Ripley is a woman. Wow, didn't you get that?" Nick colored as Alison's voice rose. "Your male cat is named after a woman!"

"My daughter liked the name," he muttered. "I don't believe she really thinks about sex."

Alison leaned toward him confidentially. "All girls think about sex."

"My daughter is eleven," Nick returned stiffly.

"Far beyond the age of innocence," Alison sneered. She winked at Natalie. "Am I right?"

Natalie was flummoxed. "I guess it depends on the girl."

"Well, with a mother like mine…" Alison rolled her eyes. "Hey, what's the difference between a whore and a courtesan?"

"A… what?" Nick blundered.

"C-O-U-R-T-E-S-A-N," Alison spelled loudly. "So? Anyone know?"

"I… well…" Natalie longed for another good, stiff drink. Nick looked like he was considering plunging out a window. Alison gazed at them with a twelve-year-old's innocent face and avid, ferreting eyes. "Let's talk about something else," Natalie managed finally. "You said you like cats. What about dogs? I have a dog."

"I love animals, but my mother never let me have one. I know about yours, though. You have the dog that stayed with Tamara when she died. I'm not supposed to know that." She gave each of them a canny look. "However, I know all kinds of things I'm not supposed to know."

"Alison, darling, I've been looking for you." Viveca appeared behind her daughter, placing her hands on each of Alison's thin shoulders. "Have you had anything to eat?"

AH the air seemed to flow out of Alison. "I'm not hungry-"

"Nonsense. There is some lovely foie gras-"

"I-am-not-hungry," Alison said through clenched teeth. "You only want me to eat so I'll be quiet."

"Darling, that's not true-"

Alison uttered a guttural sound and flung away. Viveca looked at Nick and Natalie, shrugged, and emitted a high pitched trill of laughter before darting after her daughter. "Good God," Nick muttered.

"Never a dull moment around here. My father dated Viveca. Alison could have been my stepsister."

"What saved you?"

"Viveca dumped Dad for Eugene Farley, then Eugene for Oliver. I think she might marry Oliver. Lily will be furious. She hates Viveca."

Nick frowned. "Tell me about her husband."

"Alison's father was Damon Cosgrove." Nick's eyebrows raised. "Yes, the writer. Two critically acclaimed best sellers. Then the poor sap came to his aunt's summer cottage in Port Ariel and met Viveca. They married, had Alison, and he never published another book. Not even a short story."

"Why not?"

"I don't know. Maybe he was just one of those writers who only has one or two books in them. Or maybe he felt overwhelmed by Viveca. I think she was about ten years younger than he but still quite the femme formidable, as my Grandmother St. John would say. Damon died when Alison was five or six. He was electrocuted to death in front of her."

Nick cringed, thinking of a five-year-old Paige seeing something so ghastly. "Viveca blames Alison's problems completely on the accident," Natalie continued, "but I've heard she wasn't exactly a well-adjusted child before it happened." She took a deep breath. "And now I'm guilty of pernicious gossip but I comfort myself with the thought that the more you know about us, the quicker you might find the killer."

"It's true that the more I know, the better, especially because Alison is directly involved as a potential victim and a suspect."

The music changed to "Try to Remember" from The Fantasticks. Nick looked around with a mixture of bewilderment and humor. "Viveca's idea," Natalie said. "She seems to think we're mounting a Broadway play."

"This whole thing is like a play," Nick grumbled. "And the more time I spend waiting for all this nonsense to end, the more I put Lily and Alison and you in danger. I want to talk to Viveca and Oliver now."

"Now? Can't you wait until all of this is over?"

"This could go on for hours. There's Viveca hovering over Alison. Find Peyton for me, Natalie. Tell him I want to see him and Viveca."

Natalie didn't know Nick well, but she could already tell when he was deadly serious. She also knew he was not someone to be argued with when he'd made up his mind.

"Mr. Peyton, the sheriff would like to speak to you," she said softly when she located Oliver speaking to the mayor.

Oliver made a swatting motion as if she were a gnat. "I'm busy. I'll speak with him later."

"He wants to talk to you now."

Oliver's lips pressed together. "Young lady, I don't mean to be rude, but I have said later and I mean later."

"Mr. Peyton, it's important."

Oliver Peyton gave her a coldly furious look. Then Lily said in a steely voice, "If Natalie says it's important for you to speak to the sheriff, then it's important." She gave the mayor a polite smile. "I'm sure you understand."

"Of course," he said. "Go right ahead, Oliver."

Oliver walked beside his daughter, frowning furiously. "I think you've lost your mind," he snapped at Lily. "I do not answer to Sheriff Meredith or Natalie St. John!"

"Please save the high-and-mighty act," Lily said tiredly. "You don't scare me like you did Tam, and you certainly don't scare Meredith. He and Viveca are waiting for you in your study."

"Viveca!" Oliver exploded. "What does Viveca have to do with this? Lily, I know you don't like her, but if you are talking your friends into bullying her-"

"No one bullies Viveca, Dad." Lily opened the door to the study. "Here's your shrinking violet now. I'll leave you alone."

"Lily, I'd like for you and Natalie to stay," Nick said. "Close the door, please."

"My daughter-" Viveca began.

"Your daughter will be fine for a few minutes, Mrs. Cosgrove," Nick said. "I don't want her to hear what I have to say."

"Hear what?" Viveca asked. "What can't she hear?"'She leaned toward Oliver and clung to his arm, frightened and helpless. Natalie exchanged looks with Lily. What an actress. Viveca Cosgrove could organize and lead an army into battle. "Oliver?" she implored tremulously.

"This is ridiculous," Oliver burst out. "You are alarming Mrs. Cosgrove. What is this all about?"

"if you'll all be quiet, you'll know what it's about," Nick said repressively. "I believe I see a possible connection among these murders." He then calmly, almost tonelessly, laid out the story of Eugene Farley and how Viveca and Oliver played into the drama of his death. "Therefore, you need to be especially careful about the welfare of Lily and Alison."

Viveca and Oliver stared at him for a moment. Then Natalie watched color slowly drain from Oliver Peyton's face. Even his lips paled. He looked ill and touched his left arm. For a moment she thought the man might be on the verge of a heart attack.