As he crept near enough to get a decent look at him, Mitch knew why-Jase was cowering in the corner behind Cholly like a lost, frightened little boy. Melted snow ran from his hair down into his face. He trembled so badly his teeth were chattering.
“She made me do it,” he cried to him mournfully. “I didn’t want to. Honest, I didn’t. Jory made me.”
“How did she make you, Jase?” Mitch asked, kneeling there with Des’s gun in his hand. “You and I both know you’re no fool. You’re a smart guy. How did you let this happen?”
Jase watched him in scared silence for a moment. “You’re the smart guy. You don’t get it?”
“I’m afraid not.”
“Because I loved her!” Jase said this as if it were a special secret.
“Well, of course you did,” Mitch responded patiently. “She was your sister.”
“No, I mean I loved her! Jory and me were together”
Mitch experienced an involuntary physical reaction to this revelation. He could actually feel his innards shudder, as if someone had just reached in and given his guts a good hard shake. “Since… when, Jase?”
“Since we were kids. She was older. She showed me how. She showed me everything.”
“She was your sister,” he pointed out gently.
“I couldn’t help that,” Jase moaned, breathing heavily. “She’s the only girl I’ve ever… I’ll ever love. She was so pretty. The prettiest. And now I haven’t got anybody. I know what we… that you’re not supposed to. That they… people… think it’s wrong. But you can’t help how you feel. You can’t. You just can’t. God, you of all people should get that.”
“Me?” Mitch frowned at him. “Why me?”
“You and Des,” Jase said, nodding his wet head convulsively. “Lots of people think that’s unnatural and wrong, too, don’t they?”
“Jase, I think we’re getting off the subject here. You said Jory made you do this. How?”
“Killing Norma was all her idea,” Jase explained. “She planned the whole thing. It wasn’t Les. It was her, all her. One day she told me, ‘I think Les is into me.’ She figured once Norma was gone she could talk him into marrying her and we could take over the whole castle.”
“So she seduced Les.”
“He was easy. That’s what she told me after she… after they… H-He wanted her bad. God, everyone did. She was so beautiful.” Jase let out a sob. “Wasn’t she beautiful?”
“Very beautiful,” Mitch said, although he was having trouble picturing Jory right now without the bullet hole Jase had just put in her left eye. “If you felt about Jory the way you say you did, then you must have hated the whole idea-Jory and Les sleeping together, Jory marrying him. Didn’t that bother you?”
“She swore he meant nothing to her. That she was doing it all for us. So I went along. I didn’t want to, but I did. She made me.”
“Jase, you keep saying that. How did she make you? Why didn’t you just tell her it was a really sick, bad idea?”
Jase ducked his head miserably. “If I didn’t go along, she said she’d find someone else to marry. Move to a new town and leave me behind. Never let me be with her again. It was the only way I could hold on to her. That’s how come I did it-killed the old woman, killed Les. Because I… loved Jory. And now I haven’t got anybody. Nobody at all.”
“That’s not true, Jase. You have me. I’m on your side.” Mitch moved in a bit closer, Des’s gun lowered out of sight. “You can trust me. But you need to turn yourself in. It’s the smart move. You can explain this to them. They’ll understand. People can be surprisingly understanding.”
“No way.” Jase retreated deeper into the corner, shaking his head. “I won’t be locked up. Can’t handle it.”
“Hey, I don’t blame you. And I won’t lie to you, Jase. You’ve got some serious legal problems ahead of you. But I’m your friend, and I promise I’ll speak up for you. I’ll tell them that you could have killed me just now out there, which makes twice you could have killed me and didn’t. That means you’re not a dangerous person. It means that a lot of this is on Jory, and they’ll understand that. You might not even have to go to jail. You’ve got… mitigating factors in your favor.”
“I’m not going to no loony bin!” Jase cried out. “You can forget that. Just let me go, okay? I’ll live in the bush by myself. I won’t bother anyone. Won’t hurt anyone. I’ll just disappear.”
“I can’t let you do that, Jase,” Mitch said, moving in closer. He was no more than four feet away from him now, close enough to smell Jase’s goaty scent even through his bloodied nose. “You have a couple of options, but running isn’t one of them. You can’t get away.”
“I can so,” Jase insisted. “There’s twenty thousand acres of woods here. Caves no one else knows about. They’ll never find me. Soon as I can make it out, I’ll catch me a river barge or freight train. Head south to Mexico, find work, keep my head down. I’ll be okay, I swear it.” Jase ran a hand through his stringy hair, sniffling. “Just let me go. If you’re my friend, let me go. I’m begging you.”
Truly, Mitch felt bad for Jase Hearn. Or as bad as he could feel for someone who had just murdered three human beings. This was an emotionally fragile, vulnerable guy, a trusting guy who had been ill-used by his older, wiser and infinitely more devious sister. Jory had fully understood the sexual power she held over Jase, and she had cruelly exploited him. It was a twisted and very sad situation. And now justice had to be dispensed. Back there in the kitchen, Jory had already paid the price for her own reprehensible behavior. But what price should Jase pay?
As Mitch crouched there in the damp, cold rail barn, thinking it over, he swore he could hear a faint mechanical hum somewhere off in the distance. Had the electrical power come back on? No, that wasn’t it. The sound came from overhead. It was the state police helicopter, SP-One, whirring its way toward them. Des’s old sergeant, Soave, and his partner Yolie. They were still a couple of miles off, but growing steadily closer.
Jase raised his eyes slowly to the roof, hearing it. Then he let out a low moan of panic, his eyes darting wildly around the barn for a way out. It was almost as if he hadn’t realized until this very moment that he’d let Mitch corner him. Now Jase’s eyes fell on the. 38 he was clutching in his right hand, half forgotten in the telling of his story. The gun that was his only chance at escape. He knew this. They both did.
Which explained why this happened: When Jase raised his gun at Mitch, he discovered that Mitch already had Des’s SIG aimed right back at him.
“Don’t do it, Jase,” Mitch warned him, swallowing. That. 38 was trained directly between his eyes.
“You’d better let me go.” There was a quiet resolve in Jase’s voice now. His mind was made up.
“That’s not going to happen, Jase.”
“Back away from me right now.”
“No.”
Jase let out a groan. “Mitch, I’m getting out of here and you can’t stop me.”
“Yes, I can.” He moved in closer, Des’s SIG pointed right at Jase. The chopper was hovering directly overhead now. “Just give me the gun, and we’ll face this thing together. I’ll stay by your side every step of the way. You have my word.”
“Back off, man. I mean it. I don’t want to kill you, but if I have to, I will. I swear.”
“Then I guess you’ll have to shoot me, Jase, because I’m not backing off. I’m taking you out of here.”
“No, you’re not! Please don’t make me do this to you!”
“Oh, okay, this is starting to make some sense,” Mitch said, nodding his head. “Now it’s me who’s making you behave so badly. First Jory, now Mitch. Not you, never you. Well, guess what, Jase? It is you. It’s your decision. It’s your life. Either put the gun down or shoot me. You decide. But do it fast, because we’re running out of time here.” Mitch was less than three feet from him now. Close enough to stare right down the barrel of the. 38. Close enough to see just how tightly clenched Jase’s trigger finger was. So tight his knuckle was white. “What’s it going to be, Jase?” he demanded, sounding very sure of himself even though his heart was pounding and his knees were quivering. Because he wasn’t just staring down a gun barrel, he was staring at the ultimate reality.