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get.”
    “ Typical Florida rain, although storms like these usually hit in the summer. It’ll be gone soon. Where are you from? The desert?”
    Was he being polite or pumping her? “Out west.” She took the towel from his outstretched hand, careful not to make contact. “You said you had some questions. I’m going to put away my stuff and you can fire away.” For an instant, her eyes met his and she hurried to the kitchen.
    He leaned against the door. When he spoke, his tone was pure interrogation. “What can you tell me about Doris or Jeffrey Walters?”
    Colleen concentrated on unpacking bags and lining everything up on the counter until she decided where she’d put it. “Nothing. I already told you that.” She saw Harrigan pull out his notebook, shake water droplets off, then wipe it on his trousers. He flipped through some pages.
    “ What division are you in, Deputy?” Unless things were totally different in Florida, detectives wore plainclothes, not uniforms.
    “ I’m a Patrol officer, ma’am. Nobody was home this morning, so I came back. A routine precaution. If anything looks funny, it’ll go to the Criminal Investigations Division.”
    “ What else do you want, then?” She made no apology for the irritability in her tone. “As you can see, I’m kind of busy.”
    “ I promise I won’t bite and I’ll be gone before you know it. The daughter says Jeffrey was going to put Mrs. Walters in a home. That she’s starting to forget things. You notice anything?”
    Colleen started putting the perishables in the refrigerator. “No. I drove her to the shopping center, we each did our own thing, and I drove her home. She seemed perfectly fine. Just … just like what you saw. She says something, that’s the end of it.”
    He crossed to the table and started making notes. “Yeah, I noticed. Moving on. How did you come to rent this place?”
    “ A friend told me about it. She said Doris needed a tenant, and I needed somewhere to stay. The rent was reasonable, and I didn’t want some huge apartment complex.”
    “ Who signed your rental agreement? The tax rolls say the property is in Jeffrey’s name.”
    “ Doris.” Colleen pondered that one. “So you’re saying maybe I don’t have a legal right to be here?” She forced herself to meet his eyes. They were the color of the sky right after the sun went down. And that dark rim around the irises made the blue all the deeper.
    He shrugged. “I have no idea what authority she has. It’s probably fine. I want to find Jeffrey Walters so I can get Mrs. Simon off my back.”
    The way she wanted this deputy off hers. “I still have unpacking to do. Are we done?”
    “ Almost. A couple of questions about you and I’m gone.”
    “ Me? What do you want to know about me? I told you, I’m brand new here.”
    “ Let’s start with the easy ones. How do you spell your last name?”
    She gave him a half-smile. “M small C.”
    “ Thanks.” He flashed a full-sized grin. “That wasn’t so hard now, was it?”
    Her smile widened of its own volition. She forced it away. Too easy to succumb to his charming good looks. “Go on.”
    “ You have a driver’s license?”
    “ Yes, I do, as a matter of fact. And I’m smart enough to know you can’t make me show it.” She hesitated, debating how much to tell him. He wanted to play detective, he should be able to figure it out if he dug hard enough, but she saw no reason to hand it to him. “Get real, Harrigan. You can’t think I have anything to do with the missing man. You’re doing personal pumping here, right?” He changed his smile into a look of detached professionalism. His embarrassed expression told her she’d hit home.
    “ Ms. M small C, I’m doing my job.”
    She hesitated. “Okay, but I decide when this interview is over. I used to work at a place called Pine Hills. That’s all you’re getting. What about you?”
    “ What?”
    “ Turnabout’s fair play. To use your terms, one Celt to