a moment the report still rang in his ears but his eyes focused once more and he saw McNeil lying at his feet. The hole where the bullet had struck the asphalt was as big as an 0 made with his thumb and forefinger, scraped white gravel of the revealed underbed gleaming dully in the headlights, but it was only when Tee stared at it that he could remember the scream of the bullet ricocheting moments earlier.
McNeil lay as still as death, only the dripping of tears from his cheeks onto the asphalt giving him away.
'Now do you believe you're going to die?' Tee asked. fr 'Christ oh Christ oh Christ,' McNeil murmured, sounding like a penitent at prayer.
'You believe now, don't you?' But in fact it was Tee who had been convinced by the first shot. Some tension seemed to have passed away in the weapon's blast, the last resistance to what he was going to do. He knew now not only that he wanted to kill McNeil, but that he could kill him. And that he would. All the doubts had fallen away and he was calm as he raised the gun this time. Eager, but in control of himself.
He saw the beam of the headlights of the distant car as they raced toward him, he was aware of the great speed at which they approached, but he knew he had plenty of time, there was no way for anything to outrace the bullet that was aimed this time for McNeil's head.
'I never told anyone about Mrs. Leigh,' McNeil said suddenly.
Tee hesitated. 'Mrs. Leigh? Mrs. Leigh? You think I'm killing you because of Mrs. Leigh, you half-wit?'
'I never told anyone, I never would.'
'Are you trying to trade my daughter for Mrs. Leigh?'
'Someone's coming,' McNeil said eagerly, hopefully. They both could hear the blare of the oncoming horn. The headlights were now flashing from high to low beam, and back to high again. Still holding the gun pointed at McNeil, Tee waved the car on, indicating that it should pass.
But the car skidded to a halt within a few feet of Tee and McNeil, and Becker leapt out. 'Don't do it, Tee!'
'John?'
'Put the gun away, Tee, you don't need it on him.'
Becker was naked except for his shorts. He walked barefooted across the pavement to stand by his friend. The flesh of his legs looked obscenely white in the headlight beam.
'What the hell are you doing here?'
'He called me,' Becker said, pointing at the man at Tee's feet.
'McNeil? McNeil called you?'
'He said you were going to kill him.'
'He was right.' Although Tee looked at Becker when he spoke, his two-fisted grip on the pistol continued to point at his intended victim.
'Put it down, Tee. Put the gun away.'
'Do you know what he did?'
'Tell me.'
'It's a misunderstanding,' McNeil whined. 'I didn't do anything, Becker, honest to God.'
'Shut up,' Becker said. 'What did he do, Tee?'
'I didn't do anything, I swear to you…'
Becker kicked McNeil in the nose with his heel, then stepped over so that he stood between McNeil and Tee's gun.
'You're in my way, John.'
'Tell me what he did.'
'Stand aside.'
'Just tell me why you're going to kill him.'
'He knows.'
Careful not to move enough to alarm Tee, McNeil tried to stanch the flow of blood from his nose into his mouth.
'I don't want to hear it from him. I want you to tell me so that I can understand it.'
'I… can't talk about it.'
'Okay.'
'I have very good reasons.'
'Have you ever killed anyone, Tee?'
'Not quite.'
It might not be something you want to get into.' 'Are you going to move, John?'
'Not unless you're going to shoot me. I wouldn't want to get shot just so you could shoot McNeil.'
'I'm not going to shoot you. You haven't got any clothes on. You sleep like that, in your underpants?'
'Sure, how do you sleep?'
'In pajamas,' Tee said.
'Seriously? In this heat?'
'Shorty pajamas. The bedroom is air-conditioned… What's the worst thing that could happen if I kill him?'
'You could like it.'
'No nonsense about turning me in, federal charges, ruining my life, all that shit?'
'For killing McNeil?' Becker asked. 'He was resisting arrest, he was armed and dangerous…'
'I'm not armed,' McNeil moaned. Becker kicked backward with his heel, catching McNeil in the mouth. 'We could arm him,' Becker said. 'I can testify to all of this, you wouldn't have legal problems. That isn't the point. The point is, what will it do to you? You're my friend, you're the one I care about. I don't want you to start something you might find you like.'
I know I would.'
'You don't know that, there's no way that you can know ahead of time-it's not like eating chocolate or learning to square-dance. You just might not be cut out for it. Or worse, you might be.'
'This doesn't sound like the course in psychological stress management they teach at the state police academy,' Tee said, lowering the gun slightly.
'It's not. I save this lecture for my friends.'
'You've got more than one friend?'
'Tee, if you shoot this shithead between my legs, I'll be so scared I'll never forgive you.'
Tee lowered the gun until it pointed to the ground. 'McNeil, you asshole, stop cringing and get into the cruiser, you're under arrest,'
Tee said.
'What for?'
'Calling a federal officer in the middle of the night,' Becker said.
'That, too,' Tee agreed. 'And Christ, what happened to your face?'
'Becker did it,' said McNeil, warily eyeing Tee's holstered gun as he lifted a hand to test his bleeding nose and swollen mouth.
'Charge me with brutality, you ungrateful sonofabitch, and you'll find yourself in an empty field in the middle of the night alone with me. And you won't have time to make a phone call because I won't turn on a siren before I show up, I'll just be there, you understand me?'
'I wasn't going to-'
'Get in the car,' Tee said. McNeil slid gratefully into the back of the cruiser. 'I'm not going to thank you,' Tee said to Becker. 'I'm not sure you did me a favor.'
Tee stood at the open dfiver's door, his elbows on top of the car. His eyes looked wild in the headlights, his manner disconnected from the scene.
'Tee…' Tee began to shake and then was weeping, loudly, hoarsely, breathing in desperate sobs. He dropped his head to his arms atop the car and tried to muffle his cries.
'It's okay,' Becker said, patting him ineffectually on the back.
'I don't know what's wrong with me. I've been doing some awfully strange things lately. If I'm not careful I'm going to get myself into some trouble.'
'It's okay, Tee,' Becker murmured. 'Fuck it is. I stood in the reservoir.'
