'Money?' Bernie said.
'Ellen,' O'Mara said.
'Fuck you, you goddamned fairy,' Ellen said.
I t was going great.
'What was going to happen when we got the money?' Bernie said.
'I was leaving you.' 'With him?' Bernie said.
'Yeah, isn't that fun, I was going to troll off into the sunset with a fucking queer.'
'I think I proved to you, Ellen,' O'Mara said, 'that I could love you as well as any man.'
This time it was Lance's head that jerked around.
'You didn't say anything about fucking her,' Lance said.
Better and better.
'I had to,' O'Mara said. 'It was just until . . .' He made a little trailing-off flourish with his hand.
'You were fucking my wife?' Bernie said. 'You son of a bitch.'
'Until the money?' Lance said.
His voice bubbled with something more complicated and much nastier than anger.
'What money?' Bernie said.
O'Mara pressed his head against the back ofliis ch:cir und tilted his chin up and closed his eyes. Ellen sat beside him on the couch. Her face was white. Her eyes looked sunken and dark.
'When you finished cleaning out Kinergy we were going to take the money and go away,' she said.
Her voice was thin and flat and tinny.
'Take the money? How the fuck were you planning to take the money?'
E llen turned the dark sunken stare to O'Mara, who still sat with his eyes closed, his face toward the ceiling.
'Darrin said he'd arrange so I'd inherit the money.'
I smiled at Lance.
'And we'd get married.'
I shot at Lance with my forefinger. 'That be you?' I said to him.
'You motherfucker,' Lance said to O'Mara. 'Have me kill her old man so you could fuck her and get the money?'
With his eyes still closed, O'Mara spoke in a voice without affect.
'It would have been only temporary,' he said.
Bernie was rigid on the couch. His eyes were wide. There was a small twitch near his left cheekbone. His hands lay on his thighs, the fingers splayed stiffly.
'My God,' she said. 'You were going to have him kill me.' Her voice had gotten higher and she was pressing her hands against her stomach as if she were in pain.
'And you were going to have him kill me,' Bernie said.
Y ou could barely hear his voice. No one else said anything. I glanced at Hawk. He seemed peaceable, leaning against the wall, his lips slightly pursed, so that I knew he was whistling something quietly, to pass the time. The silence expanded. Time to prime the pump.
'So Gavin came to you, Bernie, and raised the issue of financial problems at Kinergy,' I said. 'And you told O'Mara.'
I saw no reason to mention Adele if I didn't have to.
'I told Ellen,' he said. 'That's what Trent did too, the poor dumb bastard. He told her he was going to turn himself in.'
'Ah,' I said. 'Of course, and, in both cases, she told O'Mara and,' I shot my forefinger at Lance again, 'who ya gonna call?'
'Him,' Bernie said softly.
'Correct,' I said. 'Lancelot de le pistolet.'
'I don't like you calling me funny names,' Lance said.
'I don't give a rat's ass what you like,' I said. 'You shot Trent because O'Mara asked you to and you shot Gavin for the same reason.'
The saliva at the left corner of Lance's mouth began to trickle down his chin. He started to make the wordless reptilian hissing sound again. I sat back a little in my chair and was quiet, while they all contemplated where they were. Lance looked at O'Mara. O'Mara looked at the inside of his eyelids. Bernie didn't look at anything, and Ellen looked at O'Mara.
'I think it should be Lancelot du pistolet,' Hawk said.
'Like Lancelot du lac,' I said.
