Hiss and Tell by Claire Donally

to avoid her hands while still keeping his head in the food dish.
    Sunny gave up and returned to her father, who laughed. “He’s miffed with you for creating a stir when he’s the only one who’s supposed to be up and patrolling the house.”
    “How did you feel about the stir?” Sunny asked.
    Mike’s smile slipped a little. “It worried me, not knowing what you were going off to do. After reading the
Courier
, though, I don’t think I’d have felt any better if I
had
known what you were letting yourself in for.” He sighed. “At least Ike Elkins was about the safest guy you could have picked for a midnight boat ride.”
    “I’ll give you the whole story while we eat,” Sunny promised. “If you don’t think it’ll ruin your appetite.”
    “Just try,” Mike said stoutly, plunking a bottle of seltzer water on the table.
    They made healthy inroads into the food, though Mike shook his head in dismay at Sunny’s description of spotting Eliza Stoughton. “She sounds like just a kid.”
    “Definitely younger than I am,” Sunny said.
    “And you saw her when you were there before?”
    “Parading through the compound in her purple bikini and dancing by the pool as if she didn’t have a care in the world.” Sunny frowned, snagging a slice of apple andchewing on it. If Randall’s story was right, Eliza had had a lot of cares. Enough, maybe, to prove fatal.
    Mike rose from the table and began setting up the coffeemaker, something he never did after supper.
    “Are we expecting company?” Sunny asked. If it turned out to be Mrs. Martinson, there was a good chance of scoring a piece of her famous coffee cake.
    “Will Price said he’d drop by,” Mike replied. “I spoke with him on the phone while you were in the shower.” He seemed very interested in his coffee preparations. “I’m afraid it’s going to be tiresome politics. You may find yourself dropping off again.”
    “We’ll see.” After helping her dad with the dishes, Sunny zipped around the living room, piling up the newspapers and collecting some of Shadow’s cat toys from the floor.
    Will arrived late and still in uniform, the expression on his face warning of a foul mood. “Well, even though I was short on sleep, I liaised brilliantly with the other crime busters out on Neal’s Neck,” he announced. “Kept traffic moving smoothly in spite of all the news trucks stopping in front of the compound to do remote shots. Not to mention all the idiots rubbernecking to see the crime scene.” He shook his head sourly. “At least all the evening newscasts are done for the time being. I’ll probably have to get back there for the ten and eleven o’clock broadcasts.”
    “It’s going no better with the people out there?” Mike said.
    “Trehearne considers me
persona non grata
,” Will replied. “He doesn’t even want to let me past the troopers’ roadblock. Says I’ll pass along everything I see to the
Courier
.”
    “We kept your name out of the story,” Sunny saiddefensively. “Mainly, we discussed things we’d seen while we were there ourselves, either for the press conference . . . or later.”
    “You did mention the arguments Eliza got into,” Will pointed out. “I was the one who told you that.”
    “We kept it vague, only mentioning that there were reports of arguments, not going into specifics, and not naming a source.” She remembered how heated her discussion with Ken had gotten over how they should treat some of the stuff that Will had mentioned on the ride back to Kittery Harbor. Ken had wanted to go whole hog, but Sunny had wanted to soft-pedal Will’s revelations, arguing that they’d ruin him as a source. Journalistic sugarcoating. She hadn’t wanted the story to blow back on Will, but from the look of him, her attempts at concealment hadn’t worked.
    Will shrugged. “Trehearne’s still blaming me.” He looked over to Mike. “So, how much hay has Nesbit been making, while I was away on glorified