'Oui.'
'You fucking prick,' Lance said to O'Mara. He managed to make the words hiss without any sibilants. 'You used me to kill people for you.'
With his head tipped back and his eyes closed, O'Mara said, 'You like to kill people, Lance.'
'You never cared about me,' Ellen said to O'Mara.
O'Mara was silent for a time, and when he answered his voice was very hoarse.
'I never cared about anybody,' he said.
No one seemed to have anything to say about that.
64
The silence got long. No one said anything. No one went anywhere. Lance drooled a little and O'Mara rested his eyes some more. I knew what had happened now, essentially everything. But I wasn't sure how much of what I knew would stand up in court. Most of the information was the result of what some strict constructionist judge might rule to be illegal search and seizure, and, perhaps, kidnapping. Much of what I knew was the result of inadvertent admission, resulting from shock. Once they got lawyered up, they wouldn't admit anything. I thought about it a little in the silence. I looked at Hawk.
'I figure you can get two of them,' Hawk said.
I nodded.
'What we have here,' I said, 'is a roomfull of culprits, with varying levels of culpritude.'
Nobody said anything. The recent process seemed to have exhausted all of them.
'Bernie, if you depart, is it possible to rescue Kinergy?'
'Maybe.'
'Neither you nor Ellen has actually killed anybody,' I said. 'Though a jury might reasonably conclude that you conspired to do so.'
'A jury?' Ellen said.
'On the other hand, O'Mara and Devaney are quite clearly murderers.'
'We didn't murder anybody,' Ellen said.
'We got Lance,' I said to the group at large. 'We have his gun. We'll be able to prove it killed Gavin and Rowley.'
I f it didn't get thrown out as evidence because it was improperly obtained. On the other hand we could probably demonstrate that Lance was a serial killer, and most judges will find a way to convict a serial killer. But all of that was for me to know, not them.
'And Lance will rat Darrin out.' I said to Ellen and Bernie. 'Which brings us back to you two lovebirds.'
They both looked at me as if the ship had sunk and I had the only lifeboat.
'Or you agree to testify against Darrin and Lance, and I get the best criminal defense lawyer in the city to help you make a deal with the DA.'
'What kind of deal.'
'One that won't include murder.'
'He's trying to divide us, Ellen.'
'Fuck you,' Ellen said to him, 'you miserable fag.'
'We can beat this,' O'Mara said to Lance, 'if we stay strong together.'
'Fuck you,' Lance said.
A consensus.
'It's our only chance,' Bernie said.
'You spineless bastard,' Ellen said.
'We stay together until it's over,' Bernie said. 'They can't make us testify against each other.'
E llen blinked. Lance hissed. O'Mara kept his eyes closed.
'Call that lawyer,' Ellen said.
I got up and walked to the phone on the end table near Lance. As I passed him he lunged at me and bit my upper arm. I yelped and threw him off me and when he lunged back I hit him with a left hook that stopped him, and a right hook that put him on his back. I looked at Hawk.
'Maybe we both should get shots,' I said. Then I called Rita Fiore at home.
65
Susan sat up front, with me, and Pearl stayed in the backseat, mostly, while I drove to Beverly in the late
