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"Todd Wilkes?" Bell said. "No. He did kill himself."
"But because he was sick from the toxaphene, right? What'd he have, cancer? Liver damage? Brain damage?"
"Maybe. I don't know." But the sheriff's face said that he knew only too well.
"But Garrett didn't have anything to do with it, did he?"
"No."
"What about those men at the moonshiners' cabin? The ones who assaulted Mary Beth?"
Bell nodded again, grimly. "Tom Boston and Lott Cooper. They were part of it too--they handled testing a lot of Davett's toxins out in the mountains where it's less populated. They knew we were looking for Mary Beth but when Lott found her I guess he decided they'd hold off letting me know until they'd had some fun with her. And, yeah, we hired Billy Stail to kill her but Garrett got her away 'fore he could."
"And you needed me to help you find her. Not to save her--but so you could kill her and destroy any other evidence she might've found."
"After you found Garrett and we brought him back from the mill, I left the door to the lockup open so Culbeau and his buddies could, let's say, talk Garrett into telling us where Mary Beth was. But your friend went and busted him out before they could snatch him."
Rhyme said, "And when I found the cabin you called Culbeau and the others. Sent them there to kill us all."
"I'm sorry ... it's all become a nightmare. Didn't want it to but... there you have it."
"A hornets' nest..."
"Oh, yeah, this town's got itself a few hornets."
Rhyme shook his head. "Tell me, are the fancy cars and the big houses and all the money worth destroying the entire town? Look around you, Bell. It was a child's funeral the other day but there were no children at the cemetery. Amelia said there are hardly any kids in town anymore. You know why? People're sterile."
"It's risky when you bargain with the devil," Bell said shortly. "But, far as I'm concerned, life's just one big trade-off." He looked at Rhyme for a long moment, walked to the table. H
e pulled on latex gloves, picked up the toxaphene jar. He stepped toward Rhyme and slowly began to unscrew the lid.
Steve Farr roughly led Amelia Sachs to the back door of the lockup, the pistol firmly in the square of her back.
He was making the classic mistake of holding the muzzle of his weapon against the body of his victim. It gave her leverage--when she stepped outside she'd know exactly where the gun was and could sweep her elbow into it. With some luck Farr would drop the weapon and she'd sprint as fast as she could. If she could make it to Main Street there'd be witnesses and he might hesitate to shoot.
He opened the back door.
A stream of hot sunlight flooded into the dusty lockup. She blinked. A fly buzzed around her head.
As long as Farr stayed right up against her, pressing the gun into her skin, she'd have a chance....
"What now?" she asked.
"Free to go," he said cheerfully, shrugging. She tensed, about to swing into him, planning every move. But then he stepped back fast, shoving her outside into the scruffy lot behind the jail. Farr remained inside, well out of reach.
From nearby, behind a tall bush in the field, she heard another sound. The cocking of a pistol, she thought.
"Go ahead," Farr said. "Git on outa here."
She thought of Romeo and Juliet again.
And of the beautiful cemetery on the hill overlooking Tanner's Corner they'd driven past what now seemed like a lifetime ago.
Oh, Rhyme ...
The fly zipped past her face. Instinctively she brushed it away and began to walk forward into the low grass.
Rhyme said to Bell, "Don't you think somebody might wonder if I die this way? I can hardly open a jar by myself."
