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was when she made her mistake and called you in.
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 That tipped Ernie off that something was phony, and I m sure it didn t take
him long to find out what it was. But he knew about your connection, so he had
to go. You dumped him in the lake because it was as good a place as any, and
because if the body did show up it would only be something else for
Jason King to explain. Only our local sheriff didn t make the connection, and
by then it was too late anyway.
 Because Jason King had been watching for Ernie, and he saw your car. A
green Chevy. I saw it just now, outside. He recognized it and called you up.
 I like your imagination, Crabtree said.
 Not imagination. King doodled while he talked on the phone, and it s all on
paper. When you came over, he pulled a gun and threatened to call the police.
But he didn t have the heart to use it, and you took it away from him, shot
him carefully in the back of the head, and ran. What could you lose? Mrs.
King was perfect to take the rap.
I noticed that I was trembling, and the adrenalin in my system was reaching a
critical level. Crabtree said,  I don t think anybody will believe that.
 Sure they will. My voice sounded like it was coming from the other side of a
waterfall.  Not the murders alone, or the scandal. But throw in the bond
deals, the pressure on the sheriff s office it s clear as a bell. Your name is
the one thing that ties everything together.
Crabtree seemed to think it over.  Maybe you re right, he said.  Let s go for
a ride.
I got to my feet. I could feel the oppressive heat in the room as if it were a
jungle, and my nose was full of that sickly sweet Asian smell that I d never
been able to wash away. I was shaking with the tension of it.
Charlene Desmond burst into the room. Her face was puffy and red, and she was
staggering.  Hoyt, you lied to me, she shrilled.  You killed that soldier,
and you promised there wouldn t be anything like that! And Mr. King!
You... I saw her move through the air at him, fists bunched up in little girl
style.
 Look out, you idiot! Crabtree yelled, but he was too late .
She had deflected the gun and I had lost control.
I had gone icy cold and everything was moving in slow motion. I hadn t
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wanted it to happen, but the Marine Corps instincts had taken over and there
was nothing I could do to stop it. My stiffened hand took Crabtree s wrist,
and
I felt the bones shatter under it. I kicked the gun in the corner and planted
my foot in the closest of the cowboys. He went down and the other one swung at
me. I slipped under his arm easily and started punching, short hard throws of
the fists with snap at the end. He sank to the floor.
I turned to Crabtree, breathing hard and looking for something to kill. I
stood in front of him, blood lust racking my body and my hands shaking with
it. I fought for control, got it back, lost it, got it back again. My eyes
cleared and my head pounded like a jackhammer. Then my knees got soft and I
was all right again.
 Call the police, I said to Charlene, and watched her until she did it. The
room was quiet, and Crabtree s eyes, full of hatred, followed me as I sat in a
chair. I remembered the pistol, finally, and picked it up out of the corner.
When she finished on the phone Charlene sat on the couch across from me.
 He still loved her, she said, her voice drunkenly sentimental.  He stayed
away because he loved her. He only came back because he thought her husband
had betrayed her.
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I realized she was talking about Ernie Singleton.  He didn t want to hurt
Mr. King, I know he didn t. He was just angry. I don t think he would have
done it. He just loved her, that was all. Isn t it sweet? She looked up at me
with wet red eyes.  Isn t it just too sweet?
Eventually the police arrived.
XI
A
t six in the morning
Winslow had let me go. Crabtree was behind bars and Marion King was out. It
was over.
 You ve still got your license, Winslow had said to me,  but then it wasn t
my decision. I looked for a trace of the friendship that we d still had only
two days before, but it was gone. A hundred things came to mind, but none of
them would have made any difference if I d said them. I d made everybody look
bad, and stepped out of line time after time. People didn t forget things like
that easily. Maybe after a few months we d all be friends again. I d go back
to
Winslow s house for dinner and we d get drunk on beer and laugh it all off.
But I thought not. We d learned too much about each other in the last two days
for things to ever be the same again.
Jeff King was waiting for me when I came down the steps. He must have been
there for hours, He gave me a check for five hundred dollars and an anemic [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]