“Shut the fuck up,” Evelyn hissed.
“Get some warm water, Leslie,” Natasha said. “You have to clean it. I can stitch it, and at least slow the bleeding. I have some medical supplies.”
“You're worried about me?” Louis asked, snorting derisively.
“You're getting blood all over,” Alice said. She opened her black carry bag.
“Don't sweat it,” Evelyn snapped.
“So, can I play my game?”
Everyone looked at Alice quizzically. “You want to play a video game right now?” Louis asked slowly.
“I was winning. It's no skin off your ass. It relaxes me. Plus your fucked- up arm is making me want to puke.”
“Forget it,” Louis told her.
Evelyn said, “You just sit there like the amazingly stupid and ugly fucking toad you are. I ought to just shoot you in that ass- face and put the world out of its misery.”
“You could just say no,” Alice said, frowning. “You don't have to be such an asshole.”
“Actually,” Louis said, “we should thank Alice for being a little thief. She helped me get in here earlier than I'd planned. I was planning to use the virus as my entry into the McCarty household. Just like Howard's party at the lake, the gods smiled.”
“I hope you bleed to death,” Alice said. “People like you are why the world is so fucked up. And if you didn't know it, your wife's a total psycho bitch. I can't believe anybody let her have a kid in the first place.”
Ward let his eyes pass over the fireplace tools, trying to think of something he could do, some weapon he might go for, when he got a chance. His eyes went to the prototype on the mantel, and he thought about Barney, his mind forming an image of his son laughing with everything he was-laughter that took over his entire being. If I die, I will be with Barney. Death held no fear for him. But he had to mess with Louis a little, because Louis wouldn't expect that from him. Ward needed to play for time. He had to muddy the waters for Louis the way Louis had muddied them for Ward.
“So, Louis,” Ward said, “how much longer does Leslie-Evelyn-here have?”
Louis's eyes fixed on Ward, as did Evelyn's.
“Unless you lied about her screwing Sergeant Ross.”
“Fuck you, Ward,” Evelyn snapped.
“That was why Gizmo was out there to be killed by Howard Lindley Way it looks to me, you killed his three friends and set him up to go to prison. Those young men were sons, just like Gizmo was yours. If you'll kill three totally innocent young men, are you really going to let Evelyn off the hook for what she did? Ob vi ously she's alive now because you needed her to get close to us, but seems like she's just deadweight now.”
Louis's eyes sparkled, and something like a smile crossed his tight lips.
“Shut up, Ward,” Evelyn snapped.
“Your wife knows I'm telling the truth. She's a very intelligent woman. You blame her as much as, if not more than, you blame Natasha.”
“She's my wife,” Louis said after a too-long silence. “She was Gizmo's mother. She knows I love her. She's in this every bit as much as I am. Isn't that right?”
Evelyn nodded once, but her eyes remained uncertain.
“I forgave her for the affair, after I showed her the error of her ways.”
Evelyn smiled nervously. “Sergeant Ross seduced me like he seduced a lot of other women. He was evil. He deserved to die for it.”
Ward shrugged. “You'd know Louis better than I do. Maybe he has really forgiven you because he still loves you despite how you helped to kill Gizmo. Perhaps he doesn't still think about you in bed getting your sweaty jollies while your son wandered into the path of Howard's car. Maybe you can believe we're going to be the last objects of his revenge. I'm thinking if he can really believe that Natasha killed Gizmo and that she didn't do everything in her power to save him, and he can still kill her… Or is this all just an excuse for him to kill and torture innocent people? It seems evident that there's no stopping place, just pauses in the process. Louis may miss Gizmo. Maybe he loved him and he's been driven to this by grief and he isn't just another sociopath who's using Gizmo's death as an excuse. But I think he likes killing. It gives him pleasure. Best case, he's insane.”
“Shut up,” Louis said, wincing as the pain hit home. “You don't know what the hell you're talking about.”
“No? What's the body count in your son's name? Six? Seven? More? We'll make it what, nine? You know Natasha tried to save Gizmo, don't you, Evelyn. If Lindley hadn't hit your poor sister, you think he'd have let her live?”
“It won't work,” Louis said, pulling the survival knife from its resting place and gripping it in his bloody left hand to point the tip at Ward. “You're not going to save yourself by making up this psychological mumbo jumbo. You're a dead man.”
Ward didn't intend to shut up. “You don't feel anything, because psychopaths can't feel anything. You kill so you can, but there's no lasting satisfaction in it. And it's your only purpose. There's no stopping place. Everybody is responsible for your son's death except you. Everybody but you should die. So why did you start sleeping with that sergeant, Evelyn? Was it because you never felt loved? We're all just cardboard targets in Louis's world. He wants you to believe he loved your son, but what kind of love allows him to paint his son's legacy in blood? What kind of a meaningful monument is it? Natasha has spent the past three years saving children and raising money for a children's surgical center at the hospital, while he's spent the past three years killing people. Louis wants to kill Natasha, and his selfishness will do harm to innocent children, all like your son, for decades to come.”
“Bullshit. You're suing the people who killed your son,” Evelyn said. “That's revenge, just so you'll get hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
“The people responsible for killing Barney should pay for their mistake, but that money is going to the hospital in our son's name so something good can come out of our loss. We want to honor Barney's memory long after we're gone. You'll kill us and we'll be together with our Barney. What will Gizmo's life have counted for?”
“I'm going to gut you like a fish,” Louis said evenly. “While Natasha watches.”
“I suppose you can't believe in life after death,” Ward continued. “We do. If there's life after death, maybe Gizmo is watching you. He must be proud of his parents.”
“You're using bullshit psychology on us,” Louis said. “It won't work. Trying to divide us against each other. It's good, Ward, but she loves me. She loved Gizmo.”
“She's scared shitless of you,” Ward continued. “She's doing this because she knows that until we're gone, she's safe. Slipping that disk into my computer, getting close to feed you information on us. Doing her part while you snuck in and drugged me at home, and screwed with our heads. Once that's over, she knows you'll only have her left to punish.
“You're going to get caught,” Ward said, finally. “You'll see. And you're going to hell, and you won't ever see your son again because he won't be there.”
“Enough of this bullshit,” Louis said. He flinched and closed his eyes tight for a second.
Evelyn looked at her husband and back at Ward. Ward had gotten to her, but how much good that would do was impossible to gauge.
“Shoot the kid,” Louis said, opening his eyes. He put down the blade, grabbed up the gun and held it out to Evelyn, butt first. She looked at it, bewildered.
“What?” she asked.
“Shoot the toad,” he repeated. “You hate the bitch and she has to die. Or do you want me to do all the work myself?”
Evelyn's eyes reflected horror. “Me shoot her?”
“Take this, go over there, and put the fucking gun to her forehead and blow her brains out. Do it now!”
“I… can't do it,” she said, her eyes darting around the room.
“You've never killed anybody,” Ward said. “He wants the satisfaction of seeing you be like him.”
Louis flipped the weapon in his left hand to grip it. “You can't? You can't? Yes, you can, and you will!”