He kept shaking his head, made a fist and pounded it repeatedly on the top of the dashboard. I hoped he wouldn’t set off the passenger-side airbag. “We made a big mistake back there. I should have killed her.”

“No, you shouldn’t have killed her.”

“Oh man,” he said, putting his fist back to his mouth. “I’ve really fucked up this time.”

“You couldn’t kill her. There was no way you could kill her.”

“Don’t you see how this is going to play out? Eddie, he’s on borrowed time, it’s all over once Bullock’s had a chance to talk to him. And then when the cops come to interview her, you think she’s not going to talk? That she’s not going to be able to provide a description of me?”

I swallowed. “And me.”

Trimble waved his hand dismissively. At first, I thought that simply meant he cared more about his own skin than mine. But then I realized it was more likely that my being picked out of a lineup by Mrs. Mayhew was never going to happen. I was as unlikely to see the sun come up as Eddie.

“Fuck,” he whispered under his breath. “Fuck.”

“You’ve never had to kill anyone for Bullock, have you?” I asked. “You’ve done lots for him, but never that.”

His silence was as good as a yes.

“So there’s at least one line you have trouble crossing,” I said. “But if you’re not willing to kill for him, how can you stand by and let him kill others? Because that’s what he’s going to do. To Eddie. To me. And to Angie.”

“That’s not for sure.”

I almost laughed. “Well, that’s comforting.”

“I shouldn’t have left her alive back there.”

“I’m not turning around,” I said. “If you tell me to turn around and take you back there so you can kill that woman, I’ll run us off a bridge. I’ll floor it and run us into a tree. But I won’t go back.”

“What about your daughter?” Trimble asked. Not in a threatening way, more like he was just interested.

“I don’t know. Maybe I’ll try to smash your side of the car, so you’re dead, and I survive, long enough to call the cops, the good ones, see if they can save Angie.”

“Oh, that’s a good plan,” Trimble said. “A carefully engineered car wreck.”

He shook his head a couple more times, stared straight ahead out the window. “God,” he said under his breath. “This is one very deep hole to crawl out of.”

We got back onto the expressway, but instead of driving all the way back into the city, took the highway that skirted the city’s north side and went past the airport.