Low Pressure

Dale closed the space between them. “Where is it?”

“I didn’t just have it sneaked out of the PD, Dale. I lit the match, watched it burn, then scattered the ashes to the four fucking winds. So if anybody tried to find it now, they would be SoL.”

Again, he looked Dale up and down and laughed. “You came out of hiding and got all dressed up for nothing. Sorry, Dale.” He raised his hands and shrugged elaborately, assuming the smug air that made Dale despise him.

But Dale waited, knowing it was coming. He waited. Waited.

And when the King of Cars smiled his billboard smile, Dale slammed his fist into the grillwork of dentistry, destroying it with knuckles of iron and almost two decades of pent-up wrath.

Rupe howled, covered his mouth with both hands, and slid down the side of the car.

Using the toe of his boot, Dale pushed him away from the wheel so he wouldn’t impede him when he drove away. Then, standing over him, he said, “You put the squeeze on Haymaker again, I’m gonna come back and hack off your sagging balls with a dull pair of pinking shears. I had a case once, a guy did that to his poker-playing buddy. He got three years for it. But it taught the other guy a lesson on cheating that he never forgot.”

During the flight back to Austin, neither Bellamy or Dent was very talkative. Parting with Steven had made her terribly sad, because now she knew he had deliberately excised her from his life, whereas before, she’d deluded herself into believing that circumstances were responsible for the rift.

But her somber mood was largely attributed to what he had revealed about himself and Susan. “How could I have lived in the same house with them and not have known?”

She didn’t even realize she’d posed the question out loud until Dent replied. “You were a kid. Maybe you sensed something between them but didn’t recognize it for what it was.”

“I just thought they didn’t like each other much.”

After a moment, Dent said, “He could be making it up.”

“He wouldn’t invent a lie like that. It’s too painful and embarrassing for him.”

“Would he lie about something else?”

She looked at him, her question implied.

He said, “Steven didn’t see you at the boathouse just before the storm. But you didn’t see him there, either, did you?”

“I might have. I can’t remember.”

“Okay. But he told us that he went to the boathouse to get contraband beer when he didn’t even like beer. Kinda struck me as strange.”

“You think he’s lying about where he was when Susan was killed?”

He raised his shoulders. “It’s something to think about, that’s all. He admitted to having motive.”

“So you believe that part, that Susan came on to him sexually.”

“Yeah, I believe it.”

They lapsed into silence. Eventually she said, “She was selfish and vain. But I had no idea that she could be that cruel-hearted.”

“Didn’t you?” Speaking with quiet intensity, he said, “Your quest for the truth could turn up more ugly surprises, Bellamy. Are you sure you want to continue?”

“I have to.”

“No you don’t.”

“I won’t stop now, Dent.”

“Maybe you should. Why keep going when there may be other land mines out there?”

“Nothing could be as bad as the secret we uncovered today.”

He looked at her for a long moment, then, without saying anything more, faced forward.