"Which it did. Billy Lee thought that maybe I killed Clu to keep my part in the crime buried. He thought I wanted to kill him too."
"It makes sense," she agreed. "You had a lot to lose."
"So you were following me then? At the bar?"
"Yes."
"Personally?"
She smiled. "I grew up a hunter and a tracker, Myron. The city or the woods, it makes little difference."
"You saved my life," he said.
She did not reply.
"Why?"
"You know why. I didn't come there to kill Billy Lee Palms. But there are degrees of guilt. Simply put, he was more guilty than you. When it came down to a question of you or him, I chose to kill him. You deserve to be punished, Myron. But you didn't deserve to be killed by scum like Billy Lee Palms."
"Judge and jury again?"
"Luckily for you, Myron, yes."
He sat down hard on the pitcher's mound, his whole body suddenly drained. "I can't just let you get away with this," he said. "I may sympathize. But you killed Clu Haid in cold blood."
"No."
"What?"
"I didn't kill Clu Haid."
"I don't expect you to confess."
"Expect or don't expect. I didn't kill him."
Myron frowned. "You had to. It all adds up."
Her eyes remained placid pools. Myron's head started spinning. He turned and looked up at Jared.
"He didn't kill him either," Sophie said.
"One of you did," Myron said.
"No."
Myron looked at Jared. Jared said nothing. Myron opened his mouth, closed it, tried to come up with something.
"Think, Myron." Sophie crossed her arms and smiled at him. "I told you my philosophy when you were last here. I'm a hunter. I don't hate what I kill. Just the opposite. I respect what I kill. I honor my kill. I consider the animal brave and noble. Killing, in fact, can be merciful. That's why I kill with one shot. Not Billy Lee Palms, of course. I wanted him to have at least a few moments of agony and fear. And of course, I would never show Clu Haid mercy."
Myron tried to sort through it. "But-"
And then he heard yet another click. His conversation with Sally Li started uncoiling in his head.
The crime scene...
Christ, the crime scene. It was in such a state of disarray. Blood on the walls. Blood on the floor. Because blood splatters would show the truth. So splatter some more. Destroy the evidence. Fire more shots into the corpse. To the calf, to the back, even to the head. Take the gun with you. Mess things up. Cover up what really happened.
"Oh God..."
Sophie nodded at him.
Myron's mouth felt dry as a sandstorm. "Clu committed suicide?"
Sophie tried a smile, but she just couldn't quite make it.
Myron started to stand, his bad knee audibly creaking as he rose. "The end of his marriage, the failed drug test, but mostly the past coming back at him-it was all too much. He shot himself in the head. The other shots were just to throw the police off. The crime scene was messed up so no one would be able to analyze the blood splatters and see it was a suicide. It was all a diversion."
"A coward to the end," Sophie said.
"But how did you know he killed himself? Did you have his place bugged or under surveillance?"
"Nothing so technical, Myron. He wanted us to find him-me specifically."
Myron just stared at her.
"We were supposed to have our big confrontation that night. Yes, Clu had hit rock bottom, Myron. But I was not through with him. Not by a long shot. An animal deserved a quick kill. Not Clu Haid. But when Jared and I arrived, he'd already taken the gutless way out."
"And the money?"
"It was there. As you noted, the anonymous stranger who sent him the diskette and made all those phone calls was blackmailing him. But he knew it was us. I took the money that night and donated it to the Child Welfare Institute."
"You caused him to kill himself."
She shook her head, her posture still ramrod. "Nobody causes someone to kill himself. Clu Haid chose his fate. It was not what I intended but-"
"Intended? He's dead, Sophie."
"Yes, but it was not what I intended. Just as you, Myron, did not intend to cover up my daughter's murder."
Silence.
"You took advantage of his death," Myron said. "You planted the blood and gun in my car and office. Or you hired someone to do it."
"Yes."
He shook his head. "The truth has to come out," he said.