"No."
"How can you be sure?"
"'Cause I only used it once up there and they weren't around."
"You sure?"
"Yeah, I'm sure. They don't drive and I gave 'em a lift to that taco place in East Hampton, you know, that little stand. They were meetin' some friends there for their night off. Try ordering dinner in less than half an hour. Nobody in that fuckin' place speaks English either."
"So how'd you happen to use the gun at the Harmons' that day?"
"I dropped off the beaners, came back to do some work. I was puttin' in the pond, which is a hell of a lot of work, and I wanted to check some dimensions 'cause if you don't get that right, it's a disaster. Anyway, I was actually measuring some of the land that needed to get filled in and there were, like, rabbits all over the place. I kept the gun there for raccoons 'cause those guys can be mean as hell. But I thought, well, I'll have some fun with the little bunnies."
"The good times, huh?" Justin said.
"Hey, to each his own. But I got one of the little guys."
"What did it do to them?" Reggie asked.
"Well, with the raccoons, it really did just stun 'em, you know? They're big. But with the rabbits, they don't got a lot of fat on 'em. So it fried this little fucker, I gotta say. And I look up and Evan and Abby are there watchin'."
"What did they do?"
"Evan was pretty interested. He'd never seen one, I guess a lotta people haven't. He wanted to see if I'd do it again."
"Did you?"
"Sure. Got another little Thumper in about five or ten minutes."
"What was Evan's reaction?"
"I think he kinda liked it. Thought it was cool."
"How about Mrs. Harmon?" Reggie asked. "Did she like it, too?"
"Abby? Hard to know. She's not one to, like, show her emotions, you know?"
"Was she squeamish about it?"
"She ain't the squeamish type. I don't know what the hell she thought; she didn't say much."
"And nobody else saw you?"
"Nobody."
"You're absolutely sure."
"I'm tellin' you, there wasn't nobody else around. And that was the only time I ever used it up there."
"You know that the DA is saying he's got a witness that saw you use the gun there. Somebody called in the tip. That's how they found it in your house."
"I know. And I swear to God, the only two people who saw me were Abby and Evan. And I don't think Evan's gonna call nobody to report on the thing that fuckin' killed him."
"Actually, the stun gun didn't kill him," Justin said. "It didn't help him much, but his skull was crushed by a bat or some kind of blunt object."
"Well, they didn't find that at my house, did they?"
"No. They haven't found it at all yet."
There was a brief silence. Then Kelley said, "So what else do you want me to say?"
"Who called Silverbush and gave him the tip?"
"Either somebody's lyin' or it's Abby."
"Why would Abby implicate you if it weren't true?"
"Who knows? I'm not kiddin' myself I could ever understand anything she does."
"You think it's possible?" Reggie asked.
"I think anythin's possible with her."
"You know there's also a witness that says you told him that Abby talked to you about killing Evan."
"Yeah, I know."
"So? Did she?" Justin asked.
"You wanna know the truth? We hardly ever talked at all. And when we did, it was mostly me tellin' her about my other rich clients. She liked that. Liked to hear how impossible they were, the weird shit they used to do."
"The witness who said you talked to him about killing Evan, do you know who that is?"
"It's nobody. 'Cause I never said nothin' like that!"
"Dave," Reggie said, "how do you think your stun gun wound up being used on Evan Harmon?"
"You think I ain't been tryin' to figure this out? I don't know. The only thing I come up with is that somebody stole it, used it, and put it back. But I know how that sounds."
"It sounds ridiculous," Justin said. "But do you have any ideas of who could possibly have done it?"
"Look, I have plenty of friends who know I got one of those things. And some of 'em even know where I keep it. But why the hell would any of 'em use it to go and kill Evan? It don't make no sense. The guy was the money train. Why'd you want to stop it from comin' down the tracks?"
"It comes right back to you then. You're the only one with a motive."
"Which is what?"
"Mrs. Harmon."
Kelley turned away from Reggie to look at Justin. "I'm really not stupid. At least I'm not that stupid. Even if she told me she wanted to run away with me and spend the rest of our damn lives together, you think I'd believe that? Come on."
"Did she tell you that?" Reggie asked.
"No."
Reggie sighed. "Why don't you give us the names of the people who knew about the gun and we'll check them out anyway."
"Okay," Kelley said. "No problem. But I'm tellin' you, the only person who makes any sense for this is"-and now he looked directly into Justin's eyes-"that bitch. We both know what she is and what she can do."
"And what is it you think Abby Harmon can do?" Regina Bokkenheuser asked.
"Anything she wants to do," Dave Kelley said. "Which is why I'm fucked seven ways from Sunday."
Justin sighed, too, now. "What about the security system in the Harmon house?"
"It cost a fortune. And it's about the best there is."
"You install it?"
"Yeah. I started out as just an electrician. That's my real specialty."
"Sorry to hear that."
"Yeah, no shit."
"How does it work?" Justin asked.
"It's simple really. A thing of beauty. Everything's connected to a central computerized system. Evan wanted it wired to his computer in his office-"
"At Ascension?" Reggie asked.
"No. His home office. He had a room upstairs that he used, you know, when he had to work out there. The guy was always at his computer; he worked all the time."
Justin and Reggie both turned at the sound of a door opening. Justin made a noticeable sound of disgust and when Reggie looked at him quizzically, he said, "This is the esteemed DA Larry Silverbush." And to Silverbush he said, "Regina Bokkenheuser, FBI."
"Yes," Silverbush said, "I know all about Ms. Bokkenheuser. Seems like you two make an ideal team." He turned to Kelley and said, "Morning, Dave. Got a good story for these two?"
"We're just trying to be as thorough as we can," Reggie said to Silverbush. "Mr. Kelley is being very cooperative."
"I bet he is." Silverbush smiled. "Mind if I sit in the rest of the way?"
Justin turned to Kelley. "It's your call, Dave. Our conversation is unconnected to Mr. Silverbush and his investigation."
"But we're all on the same side, aren't we?" the DA asked. "Truth, justice-all of that."
"I don't mind," Kelley said. "I'm not sayin' nothin' he hasn't heard before."
"Excellent," Silverbush said. "Go right ahead, as if I'm not here."
"We were talking about the security system," Reggie said to Kelley.
"Right. It was wired to his home computer. That's where the system could be operated from."
"What if the computer went down?"
"No problem. It didn't change the system, I mean, if the computer lost power, it's not as if the security system did, too. You'd just lose the ability to control it from that computer while it was outta commission. But there were backups for the control. For one thing, it could all be done by hand at each control point. As long as you had that password."
"Different passwords for hand controlled and computer controlled?"
"Yeah. Different passwords for every computer terminal, too."
"How many hand control points were there?"
"There was one by the gate at the end of the driveway. One by the front door, one by the back door, one by the stereo in the living room that operated the inside cameras. And there was one by the pool house that operated the outdoor cameras."
"That's it?"
"Well, there were remote hookups, too. You could operate the whole thing from a laptop. Each laptop had to be specially designated as authorized to handle the controls and each user was given a password, you know, so anyone who was workin' away at the computer couldn't just access the Harmons' security system."