'I smothered him with his scarf, then I pushed him off the bridge into Anders Creek. I made it look like an accident.'
I reached forward and pressed the stop button, then rewound the tape to the beginning.
'You recorded us?' Jacob said.
'What the fuck're you doing, Hank?' Lou asked.
'It's your confession,' I said. I smiled at him. 'It's you saying how you killed Dwight Pederson.'
He stared at me in bewilderment. 'That was you confessing,' he said. 'I was pretending to be you.'
I leaned forward, pressed the play button, and the machine began to spin out their dialogue again. We all looked down at it, listening. I waited till it was finished, then I said, 'Sounds more like your voice than mine, doesn't it?'
Lou didn't respond. He was drunk, and though he knew he was unhappy with what I'd done, it didn't seem like he could figure out exactly why.
'We're not going to split up the money till the summer,' I said.
He appeared to be genuinely surprised by this statement. 'You said we'd do it next weekend.'
I shook my head. 'We're going to wait till the plane's discovered, like we planned from the start.'
'But I already told you, Hank. I need it now.' He glanced toward Jacob for help. Jacob was staring down at the tape recorder, as if still trying to overcome his shock at its sudden appearance.
'I'll tell,' Lou said. 'I'll tell the sheriff about Pederson.' It was only now, I think, as he spoke these words, that he realized why I'd taped him. He sneered at me. 'Nobody's going to believe that thing. It's obvious I'm just kidding around.'
'If you and I both went to Sheriff Jenkins tomorrow and claimed that the other killed Dwight Pederson, who do you think he'd be more likely to believe? You?'
He didn't say anything, so I answered for him. 'It'd be me, Lou. You can see that, can't you?'
'You fucking--' he started. He leaned forward and tried to grab the tape recorder from the table, but I was too quick. I snatched it away from him and slid it back into my shirt pocket.
'You aren't going to tell anyone anything,' I said.
Lou stood up then, like he was going to come around the table and get me, and I stood up, too. I knew he wasn't a threat -- he was smaller than me, and drunk -- but I was still frightened enough by the idea of exchanging blows with him that I would've run to avoid it, would've sprinted straight across the room, up the step to the entranceway, and out the door. I'd gotten what I'd come for; now all I wanted to do was leave.
Lou scowled at me across the coffee table. Then he waved toward Jacob. 'Grab him, Jake,' he said.
Jacob jumped a little, sliding backward on the couch. 'Grab him?'
'Sit down, Lou,' I said.
'Come on, Jake. Give me a hand.'
A short, heavy silence descended on the room while we waited to see what my brother would do. He cringed, seemed to pull back away from us, his head retracting into his shoulders like a turtle's. This was the moment he must've been dreading all evening, the point where he'd have to demonstrate his allegiance in a concrete way, where he'd have to choose, publicly, one of us over the other.
'The tape doesn't hurt you,' he said, his voice sounding pathetically timid. 'It's just to keep you from hurting him.'
Lou blinked at him. 'What?'
'He's not going to use it unless you tell on him. That seems fair, doesn't it?'
Jacob's words were like little pellets; they seemed to fly at Lou and bury themselves beneath his skin. Lou swayed a little on his feet, an empty look coming across his face. 'You're in this together, aren't you?' he said.
Jacob was silent.
'Come on, Lou,' I said. 'Let's sit back down. We're still friends here.'
'You set me up, didn't you? The two of you together.' Lou's body went taut. Muscles I'd never seen before appeared on his neck, quivering. 'In my own fucking house,' he said. He closed his hands into fists, glanced around him as if searching for something to hit. 'Let's pretend you're me,' he said, mimicking my voice. He sneered at Jacob. 'Jacob, you be the sheriff.'
'I didn't know--' my brother started.
'Don't lie to me, Jake.' Lou's voice dropped a notch, coming out hurt, betrayed. 'You're just making it worse.'
'Maybe Hank's right,' Jacob said. 'Maybe it's better if we wait till the plane's found.'
'Did you know?'
'You can make it till then. I can help you out. I'll loan you--'
'You're gonna help me out?' Lou almost smiled. 'How the fuck do you think you're gonna help me out?'
'Listen, Lou,' I said. 'He didn't know. It was all my idea.'
Lou didn't even bother to look at me. He pointed at my brother. 'I want you to tell me,' he said. 'Tell me the truth.'
Jacob licked his lips. He glanced down at his glass, but it was empty. He set it on the table. 'He promised he'd help me buy back my farm.'
'Your farm? What the fuck're you talking about?'
'My dad's farm.'
'I forced him to do it,' I said quickly. 'I told him he couldn't buy the farm unless he helped me trick you.'
Again, Lou ignored me. It was as if I'd ceased to exist. 'So you knew?' he asked Jacob.
My brother nodded. 'I knew.'
Very slowly, so that there was a certain majesty to the gesture, Lou raised his arm and pointed toward the door. He was expelling us, a king banishing a pair of traitors from his realm. 'Get out,' he said.
And this was exactly what I wanted to do. I thought that if we could leave, if we could just make it out to the truck before anyone said anything he couldn't take back in the morning, we'd be all right.
'Come on, Jacob,' I said, but he didn't move. He was focused on Lou, his whole body leaning toward him, pleading for understanding.
'Can't you see--' he began.
'Get out of my house,' Lou said, his voice rising toward a yell. The muscles on his neck reappeared, straining.
I picked up my jacket from the couch. 'Jacob,' I said.
He didn't move, and Lou began to scream. 'Leave!' he shouted. He stamped his foot. 'Now!'
'Lou?' a woman's voice called. We all froze. It was Nancy; we'd woken her up. Her voice seemed to come down out of the ceiling, as if it were the house itself that was speaking.
'Jacob,' I said again, making it a command, and this time he rose to his feet.
'Lou?' Nancy called. She sounded angry. 'What's going on?'
Lou backed away from us, out of the living room and into the entranceway. He stood at the bottom of the steps.
'They tricked me,' he yelled.
'I have to go to work in the morning. You guys can't keep shouting like that.'
'They made me confess.'
'What?'
'They aren't going to give us the money.'
Nancy still didn't understand him. 'Why don't you go to Jacob's?' she asked.
Lou stood there a moment, swaying a little on his feet; then he turned suddenly, as if he'd come to some decision, and headed off down the hallway toward the bathroom. Jacob and I put on our jackets. I walked quickly toward the front door, and he followed right behind me. I wanted to leave before Lou had a chance to reappear.
'Lou?' Nancy called again.
I opened the door and was just about to step outside when I heard a noise off to my left. It was Lou. He hadn't gone to the bathroom after all; he'd gone to the garage and gotten his shotgun. He was carrying it now, jamming shells into its breech as he came.
