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“You carry a gun?”
“I took it with me that night,” Rhonda said. “It’s a gun I keep at the club.”
“I gave it to her for protection,” Skip said. His voice sounded far off.
“And you were with her, at this meeting with Greg?” I asked.
“Yes,” he said.
“Did you try to stop her from shooting him?”
He shook his head, looking at me as if he couldn’t imagine why I’d ask such a thing.
“It was strange,” Rhonda said. “I did it without thinking twice. And afterward, I didn’t care. Why would I care about exterminating a bug?”
Skip looked at her, a trace of sadness in his eyes. “He wasn’t a bug.”
“He was evil,” she hissed. “He deserved what he got and you know it.”
“And Bruce?” I said.
“Bruce figured out I took the money. When you told him about the bank statements, he put it together. He had thought Greg was ripping him off, that Barbara was putting more pressure on him, making him pay more. It never occurred to him I’d be involved. The guy was so sloppy. You’d think he’d go the extra mile to throw out the evidence somewhere far away, but he just threw it in the club’s Dumpster. I took it out and kept it.
“When he realized what was going on, he came to the club, all pissed off. He stormed into the office, grabbed me outta the chair, and threw me on the floor. Then he said if I didn’t give back the money, he’d personally beat the crap out of me. He didn’t hear Skip.”
I looked at Skip who wouldn’t look back.
“I knocked him out,” he said. “Hit him over the head, with a fire extinguisher. We picked him up and moved him to the chair. I was still trying to figure out what we should do, when she ...” His voice faded out.
“Why kill him?” I said to Rhonda.
“He deserved it.”
“Why not go to the police? Did you want the money?”
“Hell, I didn’t care about the money. Besides, what would happen if I told the cops? They’d give him probation, maybe order him to pay back what he took. A slap on the wrist, that’s all he’d get. Just like when they blew up the lab. They could never be punished enough for what they did to me.”
“What they did to you,” I said. “That’s what it comes down to. You wanted revenge.”
Rhonda froze me with her stare. In the dark, her pupils were huge, her eyes glassy. “You make it sound so fucking simple. The legal system’s a joke. The school paid my family off years ago, but I get to live with this.” She placed a hand against her scarred cheek. “Well, it wasn’t enough. So I created my own form of justice.”
“If everyone did that, we’d have anarchy.”
“I knew you wouldn’t understand.” She scowled in disapproval. “What do you know? You little fucking Girl Scout. You’ll take money to be a mouthpiece, but what do you really do that solves problems? I took steps.” Spit flew from her mouth. “I solved the problem.”
She turned away. “We’ll have to kill her,” she said to Skip.
“No,” he replied.
Rhonda started to say something, but stopped short, her eyes wide. Skip was pointing the gun at her.
“I’ve been trying to protect you, but I was wrong.” He looked calm, his voice even.
“Don’t,” I said.
Rhonda’s face was wild with fear or madness—it was hard to tell which. “We rid the world of evil. They were evil.”
“You’re sick,” Skip said. “I realize that now. I should never have told you about them. I should have let it drop. What’s done is done, but I can’t let this go any farther. You need to be stopped.” He cocked the gun.
