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  “If you ask me, it’s the perfect time,” Davy said. “Amy, get the car and back it up as close to the trees as you can.” When she’d splashed off into the yard, Davy said, “She’s not going to make it in L.A.”

  “Thank you for sharing,” Sophie said. “Can we worry about that when we’ve gotten rid of this body?”

  Once they had Zane in the trunk, Davy said, “Okay, where?”

  “Someplace where they’ll find him fast,” Sophie said, hugging herself against the downpour. “I am not covering up a crime if this is one.”

  “I’m pretty sure this is one,” Davy said. “You need someplace dark with a lot of people. Temptation have a lovers’ lane?”

  “Oh, not there,” Sophie said, and Amy said, “That’s perfect. I’ll drive.”

  Any lingering thoughts Rachel might have entertained about ever going back to Rob were vanquished after an hour and a half spent parked with him behind the Tavern with the rain drumming on the roof.

  “You know, Rache,” he said. “We’re really not together anymore.”

  “I know that,” she said. “I don’t want you. But Zane was so awful—” She drank another slug of the scotch Rob had brought for her and wished for the four thousandth time that Leo wasn’t out of town.

  Rob frowned at Rachel. “I still don’t get what happened.”

  “I told you, I went out behind the house to meet you, and he was there,” Rachel said. “He was staggering and he grabbed me and—” She took another drink and sniffed. “Thank God my mom doesn’t know about that. Thank God my dad doesn’t know about that.”

  “He’d kill him,” Rob said.

  “I just need a chance to calm down,” Rachel said. “I just need to be calm before I see my parents again because you know—”

  “Yeah,” Rob said. “But I think you should tell your dad.”

  “Why?” Rachel said, and then she got it and looked at him with contempt. “So he can kill Zane and you can get Clea. Get real.” The idea was so dumb, she stopped shaking and took another drink. “You know, you have to get over her. She’s going to eat you alive.”

  “She already did,” Rob said, his voice smug with satisfaction.

  “Oh, gross,” Rachel said. Then, after a moment, she said, “So you’re doing it.”

  “Yeah,” Rob said.

  “Fabulous,” Rachel said. You are such a dumbass. Strangely enough, hearing about what a fool Rob was being was calming her down faster than anything. “So is she going to leave him for you?”

  “If she can get the money back.” Rob sounded truly disturbed. “If she can get the money, we can go anywhere, but without it, she’s stuck with him.” He pounded his fist on the steering wheel. “Man, I hate that guy.”

  “Whatever happened to true love being all you need?”

  “We’re talking over a million here, Rache,” Rob said, sounding like a man of the world. “You don’t just walk away from that kind of capital.”

  Rachel was willing to bet that was a direct quote from Clea, and she had to admit it was a lot of money. But if she cared about somebody, she’d go with him without the money. If Leo got wiped out and asked her to go to L.A. to help him rebuild, she’d do it in a second, and she wasn’t even in love with him. She could waitress to support them while Leo found his feet again.

  Rob said, “So are you okay now? Because I got things to do,” and Rachel gave up her rescue fantasy and said, “Yeah. Take me home. And thank you. For this.”

  “Hey,” Rob said. “I owe you that much. I dumped you for Clea, and you’re being great.”

  “Oh.” Rachel thought about clueing him in to the fact that she’d already dumped him, and decided there was no point. “Well, if you love her, you love her.”

  “I love her,” Rob said, and his voice was sure as he put the car in gear.

  “Good luck,” Rachel said. You’re gonna need it,

  Rob pulled out from the back of the Tavern through the sheeting rain, and the car bumped over something. “Shit,” he said, and stopped the car. “I think I hit a dog.”

  “Oh, no.” Rachel looked back, but it was too dark. “I didn’t hear a yipe.”

  “Stay here.” Rob slammed the door and she could see him splash around to the back of the car and bend down. Ten seconds later, he was back in the driver’s seat, drenched and shaking.

  “I hit Zane.”

  “What?” Rachel froze. “What do you mean, you hit Zane? I didn’t see anybody! We didn’t hit anybody!”

  “I hit Zane. He’s dead.” Rob was sweating now. “Oh, God. They’ll think I did it on purpose to get Clea.”

  “He’s dead? Get us out of here,” Rachel said.

  “I just —We can’t—”

  Rachel grabbed his T-shirt and pulled him to her, nose to nose. “Get. Us. Out. Of here. Now!”

  Rob nodded and put the car in gear. And when they peeled out of the parking lot, Rachel said calmly, “Slow down. We don’t want Wes picking us up for reckless op.”

  Rob shook his head and slowed down. “What are we going to do?”

  “We’re going to do nothing.” Rachel felt panic rise and stepped on it. There was already one loser in the car; they didn’t need two. “We’re going to go home and go to bed like good children. And we’re going to be really surprised in the morning when we find out he’s dead.”

  “I killed him,” Rob said.

  “Clea will be so grateful,” Rachel said.

  In the green light from the dashboard, she saw Rob’s face change from panic-stricken to panic-thoughtful.

  “There you go,” she said. “Always looking on the bright side of life.”

  At eleven-thirty Phin was in bed, staring at the ceiling, listening to the drumming rain and waiting for Sophie to call, when the phone rang. He picked it up and said, “If this is an apology, you better be naked.”

  “It’s not an apology,” Wes said. “I’m at the Tavern. Pete Alcott just ran over Zane Black.”

  “Oh, Christ,” Phin said. “I suppose Zane was too drunk to move out of the way.”

  “Too dead,” Wes said. “He appears to have been murdered first. Ed’s going to do a preliminary right away and an autopsy tomorrow.”

  “I’ll meet you at the infirmary,” Phin said. “Maybe Ed’ll decide Zane died of a heart attack.”

  “I wouldn’t count on it,” Wes said. “There’s a bullet in his back.”

  Zane didn’t look good dead. He was damp and pasty and slack-jawed and squashed as he lay on Ed’s table under the unforgiving florescent light.

  “He was wearing your letter sweater,” Wes told Phin when he came in.

  “He can keep it,” Phin said.

  “A lot of people didn’t like this guy,” Ed said from behind the table.

  “Nobody liked him,” Phin said. “But I didn’t think they’d kill him because he was an asshole.”

  “You taking this down, Duane?” Ed said, and Wes’s deputy nodded. “Starting at the top of the head, there’s a contusion on the left temple with wood fragments in it.”

  “Somebody hit him with a club?” Wes said. “What about the bullet hole?”

  “Getting to that.” Ed pointed to Zane’s eyes. “Somebody also sprayed a corrosive at him. See the red patches around the eyes? Probably Mace, but not necessarily.”

  Mace. Sophie.

  “And there are bruises on his throat where somebody choked him,” Ed went on.

  “That would be me,” Phin said. “He was still alive after that.”

  Ed looked at him with the contempt he deserved. “Thought you’d gotten over that temper.”

  “He annoyed me severely,” Phin said.

  Ed nodded and went on. “Then there’s the bullet hole in his shoulder. A .22. Which appears to have been fired at close range from behind and below.”

  “Close range? Somebody shot him in the shoulder with a popgun?” Phin shook his head, incredulous. “Why? To get his attention?”

  “And there are also several c