Potshot

I sat on the arm of the couch, at the other end from Mary Lou. Walker remained standing. The Lab came and put her head on my thigh. I patted her. I felt kind of old. I missed Pearl. I wanted to go home.

"Here's what I think," I said. "I think that one day, Mary Lou and Steve were wandering around in the hills around here and found water. I don't know how. Mary Lou's a water resource geologist, maybe she found a spring that was suggestive. Maybe they did some covert drilling. Maybe they looked at surveys and rock formations. I don't know how you find water. But she did and one way or another she figured out that there was a whole new water source. She or Steve or both of them saw what that could mean."

Except for the Lab who was wagging her tail, no one moved. With the heat packed in around the house, there was a kind of timelessness in the cool interior.

"But they didn't know quite how to exploit it, so they went to J. George Taylor, the real estate specialist in the region. He must have liked it 'cause he attracted some investors. Luther Barnes, the mayor, Henry Brown, some others, and they started buying up land."

"Say that's true," Walker said, "which it''s not. But say it was. So what? There's no crime there."

"Not yet," I said. "But somebody, along the line, got to thinking that if they could drive the prices down, they could make a much bigger killing much quicker."

Walker said nothing. Mary Lou was motionless on the couch, her knees up, hugging them.

"So they took it to a guy who would know how to do things like that and had the wherewithal to do it."

"And that would be?" Walker said.

"Morris Ta

"And you can prove all this," Walker said.

"Hell no," I said. "Some of it I can prove, maybe. Some of it I'll probably never know. Some of it I'm making up as I go."

"It sounds that way."

"Sure. It's a harebrained scheme," I said. "But Ta

"And Ta

I took the transcript of the FBI bug from my back pocket and unfolded it and handed it to Walker. He read it slowly, his face showing nothing. Then he handed it to Mary Lou. As she read it she began to blush. By the time she finished her face was very red.

"That's a nasty lie," she said. "Someone has made that up."

She looked at Walker. "Darling. I never…"

"Morris Ta

He shook his head, like a horse with a fly in his car.

"You fucked Morris Ta

"Darling, I swear…"

Walker's chest was heaving. The lines at the corners of his mouth were deep.

"What I don't know is whether Mary Lou killed Steve herself, or had Ratliff do it."

Mary Lou hunched forward over her knees and put her hands over her ears and closed her eyes.

"No," she said. "No, no, no, no, no, no."

I felt bad for Walker. He looked like he was struggling to stand. His eyes were reddened and his nostrils seemed to have flared.

"And I don't know if she killed Ratliff, or had you do it," I said.

Mary Lou uncoiled from the couch and stood and pressed herself against Walker.

"I can't stand this, Dean. Please, I can't stand this. Take me away. We'll go away."

Walker's arms were at his side. He was trembling. I could hear his breath heaving in and out. The Lab had stopped wagging her tail and was pressing in against my leg. Leaning on the wall, Hawk looked as if he might doze off. Mary Lou pressed her face into the angle of Walker's neck and shoulder. She had her arms hard around him.

"Please, darling, please. We'll go away. We'll start over. Please…"

Slowly, Walker's arms left his sides. They seemed to move on their own, as if he had no knowledge of them. His arms went around her and held her as hard as she held him.

"We'll go," he said. "We'll go."

"Walker," I said.

"We're going," he said.

His voice was hoarse.

"Walker, she killed her husband or had him killed. She killed Ratliff or had him killed. She used her husband. She used Ratliff. She used Ta

"You can't stop us," Walker said.

With his arms still around her, he turned toward the door. He was wearing a gun, but he made no move for it.

"You will never be able to trust her," I said.

They walked to the door. Mary Lou was still sobbing. The dog left my leg and went after her. Mary Lou put a hand down and took the dog's collar. Hawk looked at me. I shook my head. Walker, Mary Lou and the dog went out her front door and it closed behind them. I didn't move. Hawk didn't move. Outside we could hear Walker's car start up and pull out of the driveway.

"She probably killed several people," Hawk said.

"Or had it done," I said.

"Same thing."

"I know."

"You letting her walk," Hawk said.

"No," I said. "I'm letting him walk."

We were quiet. The house was quiet. I could still smell the hint of her cologne in the cool interior.

"Maybe I'm sentimental," I said.

"Maybe," Hawk said.