The fire department had set up lights along the bank, and as the sun set these brought the scene into sharp-edged relief. Emergency rescue divers were still down, checking the padded restraints were in place before they attempted to bring the car out of the East River.

Ryan and Esposito showed their badges and pushed through the cordon, holding back only a double handful of gawkers, mostly from the hospital and the new condos.

"Boss?" Ryan stared at the woman standing on top of the low verge, her hands on her hips, then glanced at his partner, his face asking a question.

Esposito shrugged.

"Took you long enough," Kate said, her eyes on the lights under the water.

"We were on our way home," Esposito explained. "And traffic's heavy."

"It's New York. When isn't it?"

The two men joined her at the top of the slight bank, wincing slightly as the winch squealed, beginning to drag the car slowly from the murky waters.

"How come you're here before us anyway?" Ryan asked, peering down. "You left first."

Kate raised an eyebrow. "As it happens, Dr Parish is putting me up for a couple of days. I came with her when she got the call."

Esposito grinned. "Your AC still not fixed?"

"No." A look of irritation crossed her face. "Apparently the unseasonable hot weather has caused a lot of them to go down, and all the repairmen are busy." She sounded like she was quoting someone else.

"You could always take Castle up on his offer," Ryan said.

"Wash your brain out."

He swallowed a smile. "I meant getting someone round to fix it. He did say he knew someone."

"Ah. Right." She deliberately didn't look at him. "Maybe," she conceded. "But if this is what I think it is, I won't be home that much to worry."

"A body, huh?"

"According to the divers. And that pair." She nodded towards two young people sitting in the back of the ambulance, wrapped in blankets, despite the warmth and rising humidity. "Couple of kids skinny-dipping found a submerged car."

"Looks like maybe the driver lost control," Esposito said. He glanced back, pointing into the deepening gloom. "Coming along the road, took the left okay but lost it trying for the hard right."

"Here?" She looked around, seeing the shapes of trees and scrubby bushes, with only pinpricks of light coming from the buildings some distance away. "How many people come to Roosevelt Island for fun?"

Ryan shrugged. "I've heard of a few." He jerked his head towards the ambulance. "That pair, for a start."

"He works at the hospital, and thought this would make for an enjoyable afternoon. Apparently she told him not to investigate the car, that there might be something nasty inside." Kate couldn't quite stop the smile.

Ryan glanced over, and saw the look on the girl's face. "I'm guessing she's saying I told you so."

"Oh, yes. Often. And with very inventive language, too."

There was movement at the cordon. "Hey, let me through. I'm with them." The voice carried over the sound of the winch cable still reeling in. "Katie?"

Kate closed her eyes for a moment, idly wondering if she could shoot the man in front of witnesses and claim it was justifiable homicide. Or just that time of the month.

"I didn't call," Ryan said quickly.

"Me neither." Esposito had his hands up in an expression of surrender.

"No. I did," Kate admitted, sighing. "It was better than having the Mayor do it." She turned towards the officers holding back the small crowd. "It's okay," she called. "Let him through."

"We have a body?" Rick asked as he ducked under the tape and climbed the bank.

"It's what we do. And call me Katie once more and you'll be the second." She poked him in the chest.

His lips twitched, but he bit back on any comments, instead just asking, "Murder?"

"Not up to me." Kate turned away from him, back to the river where they could just make out the dull shine of a bumper under the water.

"That's my job," Lanie put in from closer to the edge. "Hey."

Rick smiled and waved. "Hi." He looked at Kate. "Do we know who it is yet?"

"Not yet." Kate shook her head, biting the inside of her cheek. "But something tells me this one might be interesting."

"Your spidey-senses acting up?"

"Something like that. Although I've always seen myself more as Wonder Woman."

"Well, the truth lasso might come in handy when interviewing suspects," Rick conceded, making a mental note of that for Nikki Heat. "And I can just imagine you in those shorts." He glanced around, adding quickly before she could retaliate, "Nice spot."

"At least there's a breeze."

"Yeah, it's getting sticky." He smiled widely at her. "Which reminds me. The air conditioning at your apartment sorted out?"

"It's fine." She glared briefly at her two colleagues, who suddenly took an interest in other things.

"I'll go get a statement from the kids," Ryan said, tugging a notebook from his pocket.

"And I'll talk to the onlookers, see if they heard a vehicle racing around any time." Esposito hurried away with his partner.

The car had broken surface, water streaming off every surface and out of the open door, but Rick ignored it. "Is there something I don't know about?" he asked.

"No," Kate said shortly. In an effort to change the subject, she added, "You didn't have to come."

"Oh, yes I did. Besides, I was losing."

"Losing?"

"Poker. My mind wasn't on the game." He smiled. "Besides, you called me."

"Okay, hold it there," the rescue team chief called. The sound of the winch stopped, and they could hear the low hum of traffic coming from Manhattan. Making sure the car was safe, and not likely to slip back, he nodded to Lanie. "Ma'am."

She grinned. "I love that. Being called ma'am." Stepping carefully through the water that was now trickling rather than gushing, she went down onto her heels next to the open driver's door.

Ryan sidled back.

"Anything new?" Kate asked.

He shook his head. "Like you said. I think that's one relationship that isn't going to get stronger through adversity."

She had to smile. "Pity."

They watched the ME doing what she did best for a moment.

"You know, it's not that long ago cars weren't allowed onto the island," Ryan mused, ever the fount of useless information.

"An example of early urban planning," Rick agreed. "It might have been better if they hadn't changed their mind. Maybe the driver wouldn't have taken that last long leap into the sweet by and by."

"You're thinking suicide?" Ryan looked surprised.

"I always think of murder. But this time … it's possible."

"No, it's not," Lanie called. "Come on down."

The detectives half climbed, half slid to join her, Rick at their heels.

"What do you have?" Kate asked, ignoring the earth being churned up to mud and sticking to her boots. She pulled on a pair of latex gloves, the snapping sound seeming very loud.

Rick scooted around her side so he could see into the car. "Whoa!" He tried hard not to recoil, but it was difficult. "That's …"

"I wouldn't have thought you had a queasy stomach," Lanie commented, moving the soaking blonde hair away from the remains of the face.

"I …" He wiped his mouth. "It's just … gooier than I've seen."

"Not even from your research?"

"That's why they call it fiction."

Lanie smiled. "Dead bodies make a good meal for the creepy crawlies that live in the river. And it looks like they enjoyed having dinner on her."

The corner of Kate's mouth lifted.

"Good one," Rick said, even though he still hung back a little. "But … her? How can you tell?"

"There's enough soft tissue still exposed to take an educated guess." She lifted one of the hands. "Besides, her manicure and dress are something of a giveaway."

Rick swallowed quickly, hoping he wasn't going to lose his lunch. "Believe me, in this town that's no guarantee of gender."

"You said it wasn't suicide," Kate reminded Lanie. "An accident?"

"I don't think so."

Kate's eyes narrowed as she saw the look on her friend's face. She and Lanie went back a long way, to when she was first made detective, and she knew that expression. "She was dead before she went into the water," she surmised quickly.

"Got it in one," the ME said. "No sign of drowning, no frothing at the lips – what's left of them. And it looks to me like there could be a stab wound at the base of the neck." She made a note on her pad. "If that's the case then it probably severed the spinal cord. Death would have been pretty much instantaneous, so I doubt she was doing any driving. But I'll confirm that, one way or the other, in the autopsy." She reached down into the foot well. "Purse," she added, passing it to Kate.

Like everything else it was waterlogged, but at least it was intact. Ignoring the little voice at the back of her mind saying that the slimy feel of the outside was probably due to bodily decomp, she opened it up. Inside there were the usual appurtenances of female living … lipstick, powder compact, a handful of what probably used to be paper tissues … and a wallet, which she withdrew carefully. The purse she slipped into the evidence bag that Ryan was holding open.

Easing the wallet apart, she quickly checked the pockets. "Cash, although it's pretty soggy. Credit cards, so no theft. Ah." She held up the leather to try and get the light in the right place.

"Driving licence?" Ryan asked.

"Yes."

"So?" Rick moved forward, overcoming his slight nausea. "Who is she?"

"An old friend of yours."

"Mine?" He hoped his voice hadn't squeaked, and coughed as if to clear a frog in his throat. He tried again. "Mine?"

She held it so he could see the photo on the card, a woman with blonde hair pushed away from her face to fall down her back. He couldn't make out the colour of her eyes, but the name was clear enough.

"Shit," he breathed.

Kate wasn't smiling. "Exactly. I told you I had the feeling this was going to interesting."

"You can say that again," Rick murmured as he watched Kate slip Honor McAllister's proof of life – or death – into the evidence bag.

---

"Honor McAllister?" Maggie, on the other end of the line, sounded the way she probably looked, her eyebrows raised into her spiky black hair, green eyes wide. "Are you sure it's her?"

Rick sat down on the bed and lifted his legs up, glancing idly at his naked feet and stretching his toes. "Driving licence, general build, hair colour … Lanie's doing the PM in the morning, but I guess I think it's pretty much a foregone conclusion."

"And Kate hasn't arrested you already?"

He paused as he went to lie down. "What? Why?"

"You're the perfect suspect." She laughed, quite clearly more than amused by the idea. "You're her next victim, Rick. You probably killed her because of all the secrets she's found out about you."

"I don't have any."

"Everyone has secrets."

"Not me. As I told Kate, my life is an open, if well-thumbed book."

"Then I have just one question for you. What don't I know about you, and how come I don't already know it?"

"That's two."

"Just answer before I find you in contempt."

"Ooh, Mags. Contempt? You?"

"You're only being like this because I can't hit you."

Rick gazed at the ceiling, running his free hand through his hair. "What is it about the women in my life? They all like beating me up."

"Ever thought it might be you?"

"Never."

They laughed together, then Maggie got back to the matter in hand. "So, come on. Give."

"What, my secrets?"

"Yes. 'Fess up."

"Well …" He pondered for a moment. "I did use to be a woman."

He heard her chuckle. "That's common knowledge."

Rick grinned. "And I launder money for Tony 'The Bulldog' Manetti." He pushed his nose halfway across his face then let go, rubbing it.

"Everyone knows that too."

"I'm the love child of JFK and Marilyn Monroe, conceived years after in a test tube."

"Tell me something new."

"Okay. I'm a successful novelist with a lot of money in the bank and hoards of female followers."

"Okay, now you're heading into the realms of fantasy here."

He placed his hand on his heart. "I am shocked. Shocked that you wouldn't believe me."

Maggie laughed again, then said, more seriously, "Rick, I know we're joking here, but maybe it is something to do with you. Or at least the article she was writing."

He too had sobered. "Believe me, that has crossed my mind. Kate's too. She asked if I was about to flee the country."

"And are you?"

"Not yet."

"Good." Maggie paused. "You know, it could be maybe she dragged up something on someone close to you."

"You, perhaps?"

"Rick, my life is even more transparent than yours."

"We got up to stuff."

Maggie obviously had the same things in mind as he did, involving various animals, breaking and entering, all the normal things college students got up to. Right. "All … well, mostly on public record. And outside the Statute of Limitations."

"Hope so."

"Alexis?" Maggie suggested.

"Doubt it. She hasn't had long enough to accumulate any dirty little secrets, no matter how often I beg her to."

He could tell his Mags was grinning again because of the way she said, "Come on, Rick. If she ever came to you with anything like that, you'd faint."

"I would not."

"Yes, you would. You'd be so shocked you wouldn't be able to speak."

"Well, maybe," Rick conceded. "But only because I know she won't."

"Then maybe it's your mother. Something sordid in her past."

"Her whole life's been sordid. She's worked very hard to keep it that way."

"What about … supposing it's your father."

"What?"

"Supposing Honor found out who he was? Or is? And the publication that he has an illegitimate son would ruin him."

Rick sat up slowly, digesting her words even as he automatically joked, "Even someone as ruggedly handsome and successful as me?"

"Even you, sweetie. But it was only an idea." She sounded like she was regretting suggesting it now.

"It's not a bad one," he admitted. "A pretty good plot device." His eyebrows drew together. "Trouble is, all my mother can remember is having a good time."

"Did she get anything out of it?"

"You mean apart from me?"

"You're a given."

"I think she mentioned something about a handkerchief once, but … I don't know, Mags."

"Then forget it. If she can't remember, how will anyone else?"

"Yeah." He smiled, even though he knew she couldn't see. "Yeah, let's forget about it." Still, he wondered if he was going to be able to sleep.

---

"Handkerchief?" Martha nibbled on the slice of toast. "I don't recall …" She shrugged. "It was a long time ago."

"Not that long," Rick said, pouring coffee.

"Years," she responded, sighing dramatically. "Years and years and –"

Alexis giggled.

"Yes, Mom, I get it." Rick shook his head. "It was just a thought."

"Although Maggie was right on one thing," Martha went on. "You are a likely suspect. Perhaps you should make sure your passport is up to date."

"South America is nice this time of year," Alexis added, joining in the game. "Rio de Janeiro. Buenos Aires. Or perhaps –"

"Thanks for that amazing display of confidence," Rick said, smiling nevertheless.

"It's what we're here for." Martha put her arm around his shoulders and squeezed slightly.

"I knew there had to be a reason." He dipped his head quickly and took a bite of her toast.

"Hey!"

He grinned, chewing happily. "It's what you're here for," he mumbled around the mouthful. Then his cellphone rang, the distinctive melody suggesting Kate needed him. "And I've been saved by the bell." He hunted for a moment, before finding it down the back of the sofa. Using his thumb to open it he said, "What do we have?"

"A headache." Kate didn't quite sigh. "Meet me downstairs in ten minutes. We're going to see Honor's publisher."

Rick glanced at the clock. It was barely eight. "At this time of the morning?"

"Apparently he's on his way to London on the noon plane. It's now or never."

"And if he's the killer?"

"Then he won't be going anywhere."