FISHER HOME

Claire is sure that she can feel the whole energy of the room, of the house, change. With just those two words, she has altered this family forever.

She focuses on Paula. The older woman's face is a mask, a stiff likeness of her normally vibrant, caring, concerned visage.

"How do you know that?" Paula finally asks.

"I've been at the police station all day," Claire explains. "They told me ... they found his blood."

"What?"

"His blood was on the pier. There was a trail of it going into the water."

"Why would he have been at the pier?!" Paula cries, almost in protest.

"That's why we couldn't come to the party," Claire says, feeling her breath go thin. "Nick Moriani was having a meeting at the pier and we--I--thought that if I went, I'd hear something we could use against him ..." She barely makes it to the end of the explanation.

"So what happened?" Paula demands, her voice rising in pitch.

"He was shot. That's what the police think it was." Claire moves her gaze away from Paula and looks at the others. Bill's face has taken on an ashen shade, and Molly and Jason are hovering behind their parents, hardly showing any signs of life.

"I don't--where were you? Why weren't you together?" Paula gasps in between her shortening breaths.

"I went--I got held up," Claire says. The tears that have filled her eyes for so much of the day are returning now. "He was supposed to be okay ..."

Bill's voice is thin as he asks, "How did you find out about this?"

"Brent was looking all morning. I went to see him after I called here ... Then he called me a little later and said they might have something. So I had to go down there ..." She crosses her arms in front of her again. "I had to go down to the police station. They found his watch in the bay, by the pier ..."

"Where's his body?" Paula asks suddenly.

Claire closes her eyes and her head shakes slightly. "I don't know. They don't know. It must be in the water somewhere, but they haven't turned it up yet."

Paula's eyes widen. "So he's not dead -- he's just missing--"

"He is," Claire says. "He's dead. He must be. His blood was all over the pier, dripping into the water -- it looked like he'd rolled off of it and into the water. And his watch was in the water, too. He's in there somewhere."

Paula clasps a hand over her mouth. "Oh, my ... Tim ... no ..."

Claire cannot even look at Tim's family right now. She fixes her eyes down on the carpet and allows silence to cover them.

One . Two . Three . Four . Five . Six

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