'Use the daughter to trap the mother?'
'That's right.'
'Man, you're confusing,' Hawk said. 'And not amusing. Couple days ago, you shot three guys. Now you won't use the daughter against the mother.'
'I confuse myself sometimes,' I said.
We drank coffee. The gulls squawked at one another. A Ford pickup went past us, toward town, towing a large sailboat.
'We gotta go in,' I said.
Hawk took in a long breath and let it out slowly and didn't say anything.
'You know we do,' I said.
'Uh-huh.'
Two teenage girls in designer shades and miniscule bathing suits went past us, carrying beach bags and a blanket and a portable radio.
'Too young,' I said.
Hawk nodded sadly. 'I know,' he said.
Our coffee was gone. Hawk went and got some. Keep drinking it. It was bound to work.
'The house backs up on the water,' I said.
Hawk looked at me. His face brightened. 'Think it got a private beach?' he said.
'If you had all that dough and owned that property, would it have a private beach?'
'It would.'
'And if you were Bonnie Karnofsky Czernak and you were shut up in there with Mom and Dad, what would you decide, sooner or later, to do?'
'After I watched The View?'
'After that,' I said.
'Might take my blanket and my radio and go down to the sea.'
'Me too,' I said.
'We need a boat,' Hawk said.
'We need a lot of things,' I said. 'But at least we have an idea.'
'Don't happen often,' Hawk said.
'No,' I said. 'I'm surprised I recognized it when it came.'
58
Hawk and I were with Jesse Stone in the town launch, which was throttled back and wallowing a little, one hundred yards off shore on the ocean side of Paradise Neck. The boat was being steered by the harbormaster, a heavy man named Phil who wore blue jeans and suspenders.
'That's Karnofsky's beach,' Stone said. He had on his chief shirt with his badge on it, jeans, a baseball cap, and sneakers. He carried a Smith & Wesson.38 with a short barrel, just like mine. The perfect choice. Hawk, ever self-amusing, wore a blue blazer and white pants, and one of those boating caps with the long bill, like Hemingway.
'Can we assume they've spotted us?' I said.
'Sure. But it doesn't matter. They're used to us coming by.'
'That little gully runs straight up between the rocks to the top of the hill behind Sonny's house,' Stone said. 'Got aerial photos, you want them.'
'I do.'
Stone nodded.
'On the other side of the rocks, maybe two, three hundred feet,' he said, 'is neighboring property.'
'How about the other side?'
'Further,' Stone said. 'Other side of that point. There's a right of way down to the water.'
The harbormaster kept the nose of the boat into the waves, idling just enough to hold our position.
'They use the beach much,' I said.
'Sonny, never. The old lady, some.' I scanned the rocks and trees around the beach.
There was a raft with a springboard anchored fifty feet from shore.
'Their raft?' I said.
Stone nodded.
