“When this is over,” Pope hissed, “and Don Ennis walks out of here, I’m going to suspend your asses.”
“I’m already suspended,” Joe whispered. “Are you going to double suspend me?”
Pope started to talk when a bell tinkled out in the shop and someone pushed the door open with enough force that it banged against the wall.
Joe leaned toward the curtain and cocked his head so he could hear what was going on. He hoped the video camera on the shelf was working, and that Tassell was watching on the monitor.
Joe heard the shuffling of several sets of feet, thinking Don had brought support. The bell tinkled again as the door shut, and there was the sound of the lock being thrown.
“You’re Pi Stevenson?” It was Ennis.
“Yes, I am.” She didn’t sound as nervous as Joe felt.
“What was your name again?”
“Birdy Richards.”
“What the hell kind of name is ‘Birdy’? Jesus, you people.”
“Don, let’s just get what we came for.” Joe recognized the voice of Pete Illoway.
Ennis: “Right. First, have any copies been made?”
Birdy: “No. No copies.”
Ennis: “Is anything still in the cameras on the river?”
Birdy: “No. They’ve all been downloaded to the computer.”
Ennis: “Then I’ll pay you for the computer. Shane, grab that thing and we can go.”
Shane Suhn, Joe recalled, Ennis’s chief of staff.
Suhn: “That’s just the monitor, Don. That won’t help us.
You don’t know anything about computers.”
Ennis: “Then take whatever the fuck it is that has the pictures on it, Shane.”
Birdy: “Hold it. I never said you could have my computer. I need to make a living.”
Pi: “Damn right. And what are you going to pay us? We aren’t just going to give you Birdy’s equipment and you go home. Maybe we should just call the sheriff after all.”
Ennis: “You shut the fuck up, lady. You’re playing in the big leagues, and you don’t even know it.”
Illoway: “Don . . .”
Pi: “You don’t have any intention of paying us, do you?
You’re going to do something to us so we don’t talk.”
Ennis: “Tell me what you saw in the photos.”
Pi: “Not until you tell us what you’re planning to do.”
Ennis: “Shane, remember what we discussed on the drive over?”
Suhn: “You want me to do it here? Now? If somebody looked in the window they could see us.”
Ennis: “I don’t give a shit. She won’t shut up.”
Illoway: “Look, how much do you want for the computer? Give us a number.”
Ennis: “You’re spending my money, Illoway.”
Illoway: “Give us a number.”
Suhn: “Maybe we ought to see the pictures first. Maybe there’s nothing on them. Maybe it’s just a bunch of us having a fun time on the river, and somebody falls in. That won’t prove anything.”
There was a long silence. Joe was tempted to inch the curtain back to see what was taking place.
Illoway: “Shane’s right, Don. The photos may not prove a thing.”
Ennis: “Fire up that computer and let’s have a look at them.”
Birdy said, “It’s on,” and Joe could feel the terror in his voice.
When would Tassell decide he had heard enough, Joe wondered, and come out? How far would Tassell let Pi and Birdy go, searching for photos that didn’t exist on the computer?
Ennis: “Where are the photos?”
Birdy: “Give me a minute. The computer was sleeping and it’ll take a second to boot up.”
Ennis: “What’s that?”
Birdy: “It’s asking for my password.”
Ennis: “Hurry up, goddamnit.”
Then Pi spoke. Her voice was strong, challenging. “What are you guys thinking?” she asked. “Are you thinking that you can’t see when Don here cuts the straps of her life vest?
Or that you can’t see it when he shoves her out of the boat just as you enter the whitewater? Or that you can’t see when he hits her with his oar to keep her from crawling back in the boat?”
Ennis: “I never hit her with my fucking oar!”
Now, Joe thought. Tassell needs to come out now.
Pi: “Maybe it was Pete Illoway, the eating consultant, who was whacking at her with his oar. I’m not sure.”
Illoway: “We’re fucked, Don.”
Suhn: “Okay, you two, step away from the counter.”
“There’s no need for guns here,” Pi said frantically, shouting out the word guns. “We can work something out.
Really, we can.”
Ennis: “It’s too fucking late for that, girlie.”
Joe was about to rip the curtain aside and hurl himself into the shop when he heard the office door open and Tassell say, “HANDS ON THE COUNTER! All of you! NOW!”
Joe didn’t have a weapon, so he stepped aside so Trey could push through the curtain with his Beretta drawn. Joe saw Ennis look up, his face pinched and white. Illoway was looking at the door. Shane Suhn had a semiautomatic pistol pointed at Pi.
“Drop that,” Tassell hollered at Suhn, who quickly lowered the weapon and dropped it with a clunk on the floor.
“I thought you were never going to come out,” Pi said angrily.
“Keep your hands in view on top of the counter,” Tassell said.
“Including us?” Birdy asked.
“Step away from them,” Tassell said, and Birdy and Pi scrambled out of the way.
“You set us up, you bastard,” Ennis said finally, glaring at Tassell. Ennis had two black eyes and white tape across his nose. Joe had done more damage the night before than he realized. When Ennis saw Joe, the developer’s eyes narrowed further.
“You,” was all he said.
Tassell announced that all three were under arrest for the murder of Stella Ennis.
“Don’t forget Will Jensen,” Trey said.
“That comes later,” Tassell said.
Illoway, Joe thought, looked like he was about to cry. Instead, he screwed up his face, glanced for a moment at Ennis, and said, “Don did it.”
Ennis turned on Illoway. “You fuck—”
“We didn’t even know he planned to throw her out of the boat until he did it,” Illoway said. “Maybe Shane did, but I didn’t.”
Suhn acted like he’d been slapped. “I didn’t know about Stella,” he said. “But I can tell you all you want to know about the game warden.”
Joe felt a release inside, and exchanged glances with Trey.
Ennis was livid. “Jesus, you guys. Just shut up! Where’s your loyalty?”
“My loyalty is to the Good Meat Movement,” Illoway said. “That’s more important than one developer.”
“I’ll get us out of this,” Ennis said. “Just shut up!”
“Get yourself out of it,” Suhn said. “You don’t pay me enough to go to prison for you.”
Ennis was red and trembling with rage. He fixed on Pi, who didn’t even try to contain her glee. “Those fucking pictures,” he said.
“What pictures?” Pi grinned.
Thirty Eight
Joe waited for Mary to conclude a telephone conversation while he stood at the front counter holding a box with his possessions in it. When she hung up and looked up at him, he extended his hand.
“Thank you for everything, Mary,” he said. “You made me feel welcome here.”
She blushed as she briefly shook his hand, then looked away.
“I just got off the phone with Susan Jensen,” Joe said. “I was a little surprised by her reaction.”
“How much did you tell her?” Mary asked.
Joe thought about his answer. “I told her that Don Ennis had been drugging her husband, which led to his death.
And I told her I scattered Will’s ashes on Two Ocean Pass.
She didn’t seem as relieved as I thought she’d be.”
“Nothing about Stella?” she asked. Joe wondered about Mary’s exact meaning for a second, then decided Mary didn’t know about Will’s last seconds.
Joe shook his head. “That didn’t seem necessary. Stella didn’t enter the picture until after Susan had left with the boys anyway.”