Beep…beep…beep… Logan rolled over and slammed his hand on the clock. "Damn alarm."

He turned it off and rolled over, sighing heavily. He got up slowly, went into the bathroom and showered and shaved. He dressed casually. After all, a suit and tie didn't look right at the beach, whether it was the off season or not. November on the beach. Shit.

He headed to the kitchen, stopping to look at the sleeping figure on the couch. Good. He got some sleep. He gently tapped Goren's head. "Hey, time to get up."

He went into the kitchen and made coffee. When he came back out into the living room, Goren was sitting up, rubbing the back of his neck. "It's not the most comfortable couch. Sorry. Coffee's in the kitchen. I don't cook, so we'll stop at the deli down the street for breakfast. Fish and Wildlife call yet?"

"No."

"How much sleep did you get?"

Goren shrugged. "Couple of hours, I guess."

"How do you feel?"

The big cop turned to look at him, an odd look on his face. "What's with the twenty questions?"

"We've got a lot ahead of us. If you aren't up to it…"

"I'm up to it. What'd you do with my clothes?"

Before they left Goren's apartment the night before, he'd grabbed some clothes. "Over there by the TV. And don't wear a suit, for Pete's sake. You stand out enough without making it worse. You don't wear a damn suit to the beach unless you're a cop."

"I am a cop."

"Do we want to announce it?"

"Wallace knows me, Logan. It doesn't matter how I'm dressed."

"Humor me, all right."

Goren sighed. "Fine."

Twenty minutes later, they were both ready. "Let's get some breakfast while we wait for the call," Logan said. "I work better on a full stomach."

-----------------------------------------------

Sitting at the counter in the deli, Logan was finishing his fried egg sandwich when Goren's phone rang. "Goren. Yes…that's right, sir…no, we didn't…all right…yes…thank you."

He closed the phone and looked thoughtful. Logan leaned toward him. "Goren?"

"What? Oh, sorry…that was Fish and Wildlife. You know it's illegal to kill a sea gull, don't you?"

"Fine. Let's go arrest Wallace and charge her with killing a friggin' bird."

"It came from a flock they've been monitoring along the Jersey shore. Last report had them just north of Atlantic City, near Leeds Point, but that was a few weeks ago. They spent the summer hanging around Perth Amboy, then they headed south to the Cape at the end of August. Right now all they can do is guess."

"And what's their guess?"

"Somewhere between Barnegat Lighthouse and Point Pleasant. That's about 20 miles of beach."

Logan swore. "So what do we do?"

"We get a map and see what lies between those two points."

"Because of the stationery she used…from Seaside Heights."

"Right. If Seaside lies between those two points, that's where we start."

"She didn't have to leave you a dead bird for an invitation."

"I guess she felt she did."

"I had a girlfriend like that once. She tried to kill me one night and I decided it wasn't gonna work. She killed her next boyfriend with a carving knife."

"Sounds like a winner."

"You aren't doing any better."

Goren leaned toward Logan, his voice low and threatening. "Make no mistake, Logan, I never chose her for anything. She's the one making the choices here, and they're all wrong. Got it?"

"Calm down. I know…bad joke, ok?"

"Very bad. Make another one like that and I'll deck you."

"Ok, ok. Sorry. What do we do if she's not there?"

"We keep looking."

"Until?"

"Until we find them."

"I was afraid you were going to say that."

"You don't have to come along."

"Yeah, I do. Let's go." He dropped a ten on the counter and they headed out of the deli. "You're buying lunch."