McKinnon had thrown off the rug, straightened the seat up and was replacing his shoes. "Guess you don't have any shaving gear with you, huh?"
"Just one more reason why you should have hired a man." She smiled at him, enjoying the opportunity to tease him.
"No thanks. I'm becoming used to our little female Inspector."
The blockage on the road behind the car was almost as bad as the one in front. After some discussion, they decided they might as well wait it out. As though it was a signal that they had made the right decision, a helicopter flew over, circled back and dipped at them, to let them know they'd been seen.
When they had struggled back through the fallen trees to the car, Charly opened her briefcase and removed a couple sheets of blank paper.
"Know how to play battleships, McKinnon?"
"Sure. But it's been about twenty years since I last did it."
"No problem. Make your grid with ten squares, numbered from 1 to 10 across the top and A to J down the side. I think it's a 5-square destroyer, a 4-square submarine, and a couple of little 3-square something-or-others."
"Okay. First one to sink all the other's boats wins, right?"
"Right."
They settled down to play, concentrating on the game and the battle of wits. But Charly had forgotten how much in tune with each other they were, and realized almost immediately that McKinnon was reading her mind to pick off her boats, just as she was reading his. The first game ended almost as quickly as it had begun.
"So McKinnon, you not only send messages telepathically, you receive them as well. I told you we were compatible. So now we will have to create new strategies." Charly figured she still had an advantage over McKinnon because she had often tried to use her mental powers in games before with more than a little success. But this time, she couldn't believe it when he sank all of her boats in record time. She had only one hit on his boats and one small one sunk.
"How did you do that?"
"Pure logic. I knew you'd be concentrating on blank squares, so I ignored what I was picking up from you. Then I simply concentrated on my boats, hoping you'd assume that I was thinking of blank squares as well."
"Very clever, McKinnon, very clever. Want to try one more?"
But the next game never happened, for just then they heard clearly the sound of a heavy engine. Charly watched as McKinnon helped the road crew clear the trees with chain saws and axes. She would have offered to help as well, but knew they would refuse.