Again Sam was about to climb into his bed, when Cindy gently picked himup and put him into it, then pulled his covers over him. "Night night,don't le... the bed bugs bite," she said, turning off the light andleaving.Sam stared at the window curtain and the faint light coming through it,shuddering at his night so far. At least, he reflected, he was alonenow. Yawning again, Sam thought how small he felt in his bed. Normallyhis feet went almost to the end, but now he had lots of room. It. After our father died, our mothers combined our last names to Jackson-Birch. They wanted us to have the same last name, as siblings, to strengthen our family bond.“Speaking of...” said Julie, pointing toward the shore.James was walking down the sand. He tossed his towel near ours and waded in. His sharp-cut Scottish face showed no signs of the previous night’s heavy drinking.“You three are a sorry-looking lot,” he joked, grinning broadly. Lara splashed him in answer.The four of us lounged in. It was just a beautiful evening, as the willow trees shivered in the gentle wind providing a natural backdrop of sound that was just enough to drown out the urban noises from the roadway not half a mile away. We walked on until we came to a flat green meadow, the close-cropped grass had obviously been trimmed that day, and its fresh mown smell was a reminder of every fabulous summer day of childhood. You stopped and sat down, patting the ground beside you in invitation, and we felt that we had. I never liked this hero worship stuff and special attention. I am just a cop, always have been and as long as I can always will be. Don’t believe half of it, try to find evidence for the rest and forget most of it.”“What else have you observed about this case then?”“This is the fourth of the settlements we seen so far, but only this one was destroyed from the ground. Whatever they were after was here.”“The Penal Colonies records show that there was a yellow throat Shiss here and that would then.