Gingerbread Man

in that gentle way she had. "You'd be risking her life to try to travel in this. There are trees down, power lines, too, and the phones are all out. We were lucky Ernie came by tonight, or who knows what we would have done?"
    Vince frowned, processing her words, tucking them away in that mental file he kept for things that made no sense whatsoever and yet tripped his silent alarm. There was something there.
    He turned back to the doctor. "Thanks. I didn't mean to insult you before. I feel like I've been on a three-day drunk." His vision cleared more and he realized he was lying on what appeared to be a chaise lounge covered in furry leopard print. Or maybe he was the one with the head injury.
    "You have a bruised rib or two, by my best guess," Graycloud said, neither accepting nor rejecting Vince's pseudo-apology. "We'll need X-rays to confirm that nothing's broken. Besides that and a mild case of exposure, you seem okay."
    "Yes, and now that we have your diagnosis out of the way..." Reginald D'Voe rose to his feet as gracefully and deliberately as if someone had yelled "action!" He wore exactly what Vince would have expected him to wear. A kimono-style silk smoking jacket, red with a gold dragon pattern writhing all over it, and slippers that matched it exactly. His walking stick, gleaming hardwood under layers of shellac with a brass
something
on top, was clutched in his hand, and he leaned heavily on it, and thumped it on the floor with every other step. Vince noticed one leg stayed stiff, the foot almost dragging along the floor as he walked. Stroke, he thought. No sign of it in his face, though.
    He stopped when he stood over Vince on the chaise. "What are you doing here?" D'Voe asked. One brow crooked higher than the other when he said it, and Vince couldn't help but think there should have been an orchestra somewhere playing three powerful chords to punctuate the line.
    He wondered if Reginald D'Voe could be a killer. A child killer. He looked at the man's eyes. If you asked a kid what a stranger looked like, as in "don't talk to strangers," Vince figured they'd describe this guy to a T.
    "Holly and I were out on the lake—"
    "In this weather? Are you
mad!"
    He almost smiled. Damn, but it was such a Reginald D'Voe thing to say. "No. We were out..." he glanced at his watch, but the crystal was misted over and beaded with moisture. Even if it was working, which he doubted, he couldn't see its face. "I don't know. Hours before the rain started. It was clear when we left, and we had every intention of heading in before the storm hit. But the light on the dock went out, and it got foggy and dark. We tried to head to the nearest shore, but by the time we got our bearings the wind had kicked up, and the boat was being tossed around pretty badly. It smashed into some rocks or something and capsized. We made it to shore, and started walking."
    "Where were you when this happened?" Doc Graycloud asked, clearly alarmed.
    Vince shook his head. "We weren't sure ourselves, at first. But when the lightning flashed, Holly figured we were on the shore opposite town. I don't know what the hell it's called. Nothing but woods." He let his head rest back on the pillows just for a moment, before the cop in him made him lift it again. "What time is it?" he asked.
    "A little after three A.M. It was midnight when Uncle Reg found you outside the gate," Amanda said, leaving Holly's bedside now to come across the room. "I have tea brewing downstairs. I'll bring you a cup."
    Vince didn't argue. He watched her go, then he eyed the other two. "That light must have gone out around eight p.m. Where were the two of you around that time?"
    They looked at each other, then at him. D'Voe put on his most intimidating glare. "Are you asking us to provide you with an
alibi?
After we pulled you out of the storm, took you in—?"
    Vince held up one hand, noticing that his fingers were throbbing as if they'd been pounded repeatedly with a hammer. "I only want to know if you saw anyone messing around out near the docks by the cabins. If you were in town, Dr. Graycloud, passing by the docks around that time or you, Mr. D'Voe. This house has a pretty good elevation. You must have a clear view of the docks from here."
    Reginald lifted one eyebrow higher than the other. Trademark. He glanced at Graycloud, then back at Vince. "I was here. So was Amanda. We spent most of the evening making preparations for the Halloween party. We were far too involved in that