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Edward was paying a lot of attention to getting us out of the hospital parking lot. He hadn’t tried to make eye contact with either of us. I was sitting right beside him, so he had to actually work at not looking at me.
“Is there a reason you’re trying to stay out of this discussion?” I asked.
“You won’t like what I have to say.”
“You’re joking,” I said.
“Olaf may have a point, Anita.”
“I really didn’t expect you to agree with Olaf,” I said.
“I know you didn’t. That’s why I didn’t offer an opinion.”
“I really thought you’d be on my side on this one.”
“I’m on Newman’s side, and he isn’t doing well.”
“I know,” I said. “I don’t think he’s cut out for this job.”
“I do not think he will be strong enough to kill the victim,” Olaf said.
I wanted to argue about his use of the word victim, but Edward went right on as if that was an okay thing to call our executionees.
“I’m more afraid that he might feel he has to kill Bobby and finish the job,” Edward said.
“Why afraid?” I asked.
“There are things that a person can do and survive intact, and there are things that will break them. I think killing Bobby Marchand will break Newman in a way that he won’t recover from.”
Olaf nodded. “I agree.”
“Hell, I’m not sure I’ll be okay if I have to kill him at this point,” I said.
“You’ve talked to him too much, Anita. You know better than to interact with the mark before the hit,” Edward said.
“It does not bother me to interact with them,” Olaf said.
“You’re a sociopath. Anita isn’t.”
“I enjoy the kill more sometimes if I have spoken with them, interacted with them.”
“You’re a serial killer, and Anita isn’t.”
“She kills as much as we do, perhaps more.”
“She’s a killer like I am, not like you are.”
I thought about reminding them that I was sitting right here, but I found it interesting to watch them interact as if I wasn’t here. Was this how they talked all by themselves? Probably not. It was that old conundrum that observing the experiment changed it—just by being present I changed their interactions.
“Agreed,” Olaf said.
“I think it might be better if I spend some time with Newman,” Edward said.
“Are you saying that I can’t teach Newman what he needs to know just because I’m a girl?”
“No, it’s not you, Anita. It’s him. Olaf is right. Some men are just more . . . tender around women. I think Newman needs a man’s touch.”
“That’s so chauvinistic.”
