To Tara I said, “Who tipped you off I was in town, the lecturer?”
“Doesn’t matter. You going to kill me, or what?”
“I told you. I just want to ask a favor. You look great, by the way.”
“Uh huh. What’s the favor?”
“Have you ever seen your body double?”
“The little gymnast from Atlanta? Eva something?”
“Right.”
“Yeah, I checked her out one time.”
“You think she looks like you?”
“She doesn’t look anything like me. You know how it works. She’s close enough. What’s this got to do with you being here? What’s the favor?”
“I want you to tell Darwin you want a different body double.”
She looked at me a moment before speaking, and something cagey showed in her eyes.
“And if I don’t?” she said.
“You will.”
She laughed. “Why’s that?”
“Because she’s become a talented trapeze artist. She’s about to get her big break in life, and it’s such a small thing to ask of you, and by doing it you and I will be allowing one perfect thing to survive out of all this madness in our lives.”
“Uh huh. So how long have you been fucking her?”
“Hand to God,” I said. “I’ve never even met her.”
“He’s doing it for me,” Callie said, coming in from the adjoining room.
Curly saw her and said, “Jesus, take me now!”
“Ah,” said Tara. “The pretty killer.”
“How are you, Tara?” Callie said.
“I’ve been better. You?”
Callie said, “That sort of depends on you.”
Tara nodded slowly, working it out in her head. “I see. So you’re the one fucking Eva. But more than that, you’re in love with her. How sad.”
Tara didn’t sound sad, but she’d said it, and that was something. Tara sighed.
“Okay,” she said, “I’ll tell Darwin.”
“You will?”
“Sure. Why not.”
I turned toward Callie, to see what she thought, but all I saw was the gun in her hand, pointed at Tara’s face. She pumped two rounds into the space between Tara’s eyes, and perhaps a third one into my heart because I felt a stabbing pain. I grabbed my chest and fell to the floor. Callie raced to my side.
“Are you okay?” she asked. “Is it your heart?”
