By the time I got there, though, Saturday evening dinner pandemonium had started, and I had to squeeze my way through the line outside the door. Jim was behind the bar mixing martinis. Eve was busy making sure a table of eight near the window was happy and comfortable. Tyler was nowhere to be seen.

Neither was Norman.

I pushed through the swinging doors that led into the kitchen and found Marc and Damien slammed with orders and Heidi, our one and only waitress, busy loading plates onto trays. She was frazzled and I instantly felt obligated, so I stowed my notepad and microfiche copies in the storage room where we kept the clean linens and did the only thing I could do-I pitched in and helped.

By the time there was enough of a lull for me to ask about Norman, my T-shirt was dotted with marinara and so were my hands. I grabbed a towel to wipe them clean, retrieved the papers from the storage closet, and headed out to the alley behind the restaurant where (Marc and Damien assured me) they’d last seen Norman.

Sure enough, there he was, sitting on an overturned fruit crate and admiring Jim’s motorcycle.

I didn’t waste any time.

“Who was the other guy?” I asked Norman.

I was hoping for more in return than a blank look, but since a blank look was all I got, I had no choice but to work with it.

I waved the copies under his nose. “I found an article about Howard Fish. When you knew him, he was in prison for a bank robbery.”

That got Norman ’s attention. He looked a little green around the gills. “Does that mean I’ll have to pay the money back?” he asked.

“That’s the least of your worries.” I slapped the copies down on the lid of a nearby trash can and paged through them until I found what I was looking for. “One guy-Howard-went to prison for the robbery,” I told Norman. “But see here…” I pointed, but I never gave him time to look before I forged on ahead. “Two guys. Two guys, Norman.” I stabbed a finger at the article. “Two guys were accused of the robbery. That means-”

All the green drained from Norman ’s face. “I never knew,” he breathed. “That means there’s another guy out there.”

“Yeah, and something tells me he’s looking for his money. I don’t know what the cops are going to say about you paying back this money, but I know one thing. That guy who was Howard’s accomplice, he’s convinced it’s payback time, Norman.”

OF COURSE THE BIG QUESTION WAS WHAT WE WERE going to do about all this.

It says a great deal about how baffled I was (not to mention how worried I was for Norman’s safety and how much I wanted to see justice done for Greg), that I realized beyond the shadow of a doubt that at this stage of the game, there was only one person who had the answer.

But when I left Norman in the alley and went into my office, I didn’t expect to find him sitting in my desk chair.

I closed the door, blocking out the hum of voices from the restaurant, and turned to where Tyler sat. “Howard Fish had an accomplice,” I told him.

He didn’t look surprised. Honestly, did I expect him to?

Tyler leaned back and made himself comfortable. “I know that. Guy by the name of Matt O’Hara. I went back to the station and made some calls after we left your place. That’s how I know. And before you can ask, no, I don’t know where this O’Hara character is. He’s had a couple run-ins with the law, I do know that. He’s got a record in Arizona and Texas and a couple other states. He just got released from prison in Alabama. I’m having some files faxed over and with any luck, Norman will recognize his picture. O’Hara might be the guy we’re looking for.”

“So the question now is-”

“You might as well know this right away, I’m not here to talk to you about Norman.” Tyler ’s a well-chiseled kind of guy. Angular face. Angular body. He folded his arms across his broad chest and stared at me the way I imagined he’d stared at hundreds of perps over the years. I knew how they felt, too. Just looking into Tyler ’s icy blue eyes made my stomach jump and my blood whoosh inside my ears. “You don’t like me, Annie.”

I was prepared to talk about the case, and what we should do, and how we could assure Norman ’s safety. I was not prepared for a heart-to-heart. When it comes to Tyler, I don’t think I’ll ever be.

I wasn’t prepared to get too close to him, either, which was why I stayed put near the door instead of sitting down in my desk chair. I eyed him up, and I suppose I was trying to gauge his mood as well as his sincerity. I should have known better. Cops-especially cops like Tyler -don’t give away their thoughts. Not easily. And not to just anyone.

But remember, I’d known Tyler for a long time. I also knew he was the kind of cop-and the kind of man-who appreciated hearing the truth. The simplest course of action seemed to be to cut to the chase.

“You broke Eve’s heart.” I shouldn’t have had to point this out, but since guys can sometimes be unconscious when it comes to emotions, I figured it wouldn’t hurt. “You called off your engagement to her. Now you show up and-”

“You think I’m going to do it again.”

“I think a guy who’s already engaged should remember he’s already engaged and not hang around the woman who he used to be engaged to before he got engaged again.”

The fact that he followed my logic says something about Tyler. I’m not sure what, but something.

“Kaitlin and I… we’ve called off the wedding.”

This was news to me, and I suspect Eve didn’t know it either. Not yet, anyway. If she did, I would have heard all about it. I thought through the implications. “You called off your wedding because you’re seeing Eve?”

“Kaitlin and I called off the wedding because we don’t want to get married. We should have realized it before, but, well…” His shrug spoke volumes. So did the level look he aimed my way. “You know how it is, Annie. Sometimes these relationship things, they get out of hand. Then things just don’t work out.”

At least he didn’t say Peter’s name. Then again, Tyler was more subtle than that. Just so he knew that I knew it, I looked at him as carefully as he was studying me. “Are you going to ask Eve to marry you again?”

He didn’t answer right away. I would have felt better if he did. Yes or no, get it over with and let me deal. Don’t leave me wondering-and worrying. He knew it drove me crazy. Which was exactly why he was doing it, and why he sat back and stretched out his long legs. “Me and Eve, we’re not anywhere near that stage in our relationship.”

“Which means you’re going to string her along for a while before you break her heart again.”

“You think?” He stood, and suddenly my small office felt even smaller.

Like a best friend would let something like a little unspoken coercion stop her?

I raised my chin and, though I was tempted to take a step back, I stood my ground. “I can’t stand by and watch you hurt Eve again,” I told Tyler.

“Admirable.” The expression that sped across his face might have been mistaken for a smile by someone who didn’t know him. “But I have no intention of hurting Eve.”

“Yeah, I remember. Just like last time. Let’s see…” I pretended to think about it, but let’s face it, I didn’t really have to. Just like a best friend stands up for her best friend, a best friend never forgets. “That time when you didn’t hurt her, that’s when you made her feel inferior, right? You said she wasn’t smart. And that she wasn’t career-minded so she couldn’t possibly understand how important your job is to you. You told her that she wasn’t successful enough to satisfy your perverse need to have a woman on your arm who can impress your friends by more than just her looks. You were cruel to her, Tyler. You hurt her. Bad.”