Part Three: The Foot Soldier: Chapters 74 - 78 Summary

John drives back to the Jersey shore to talk to Billie again. After Alex's meeting with Kyle Craig, he has follow up questions regarding her husbands' death, but that doesn't imply that he isn't enjoying the drive, the place, and the whole idea of seeing her again. He wonders if he's getting soft. Driving into Bay Head, he happens to see her climbing out of her car with an armload of groceries, and has to calm himself from getting too far ahead in his thinking and hoping.

Billie and John settle down to a glass of ice tea, and his smile is so radiant that she can't help looking him over again. She has the sense that he doesn't smile or relax often. She asks him if something else happened, but...