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bench as her legs began to give way. Mary wrapped her arm around her shoulders.
    “Try not to worry too much, Suzie. I'm sure that there has to be an explanation. Paul will be here soon to tell us,” she added.
    “Look Suzie, I know that you and Paul have been dating, and so do the Parish police,” he frowned.
    “What? How do they know that?” she asked, still very confused.
    “Because I told them,” Jason admitted. “When they found out I knew Paul, they asked me some questions.”
    “Oh?” Suzie could barely focus on Jason. “Are they searching for the boat? What if Paul is in the water?”
    “Suzie, all of Parish's police force is on this. A few of the locals are looking into it, too, but we really can't investigate it,” he hesitated a moment and then looked directly into her eyes. “The tracking system has been disabled on Paul’s boat and I think they consider him a suspect at the moment. They may want to question you about his relationship to Trent.”
    “Why would they think that?” she demanded with frustration. “If Trent is dead, Paul must be hurt or overboard. He wouldn't have let anything happen to Trent.”
    “That's not how it looked this morning,” Jason said uneasily.
    “Jason,” Suzie stared hard at him. “Did you tell the Parish police about the argument this morning?”
    “It was more than an argument,” Jason said defensively. “You have to understand, Suzie, I'm an officer of the law, I can't just hide information that could be important in a murder case.”
    “You are insane if you think that Paul had anything to do with Trent's death,” Suzie shot back. Suddenly her legs had strength again. She stood up and glared directly at Jason. “You know he didn't do this.”
    “I didn't say I suspected him,” Jason said as he raised his hands in innocence. “But with Kirk at my side, I had to demonstrate proper protocol, I had to inform the Parish police officer about what I had seen. How could I explain it if I didn't?”
    “Unbelievable,” Suzie said with fury in her voice.
    “Suzie,” Mary said gently as she took her friend’s arm in her own. “Jason has a point. He was just doing his job. But all three of us know that Paul wouldn't have done this. Like you said, I'm sure that Paul will be here soon to clear all of this up.”
    “Let's hope so,” Jason frowned. “I know that you're upset with me, Suzie, but I had no other choice.”
    Suzie frowned and shook her head. She knew that Jason had to tell the truth to the other officer, but it made her sick to her stomach to think that Paul was being treated as a suspect.
    “What if they don't find him?” she moaned. “What if he's out there somewhere suffering and no one finds him?”
    “I'm sorry, Suzie,” Jason murmured.
    “It's going to be okay,” Mary said firmly. “It has to be okay. We all just need to process this. Jason, is there any way you can get on the investigation?” she asked hopefully.
    “I can't,” Jason shook his head. “Parish has a much larger police department and they are very territorial. The captain already told me directly to stay out of it. I argued with him which he wasn’t very impressed about but I managed to convince him to let me be the one to tell you what had happened as I said that if I told you then I might be able find out if you knew anything about Paul’s location. But he made me promise to stay out of it once I had spoken to you.”
    Suzie's expression softened at his words. She knew how important being a police officer was to Jason, yet he was willing to argue with his superior so he could be the one to break the news to her straight away.
    “Thank you, Jason,” she whispered. “I just can't believe this is happening. Can you take me to where Trent was found?”
    “It's not a good idea tonight, Suzie,” Jason said firmly. “The police are doing a full investigation, you won't be able to get anywhere near there. All we can do tonight is hope that Paul shows up with