“I broke into her house, waited for her. A long time. She didn’t have her car. And I took her into the garage to try to talk some sense into her.”

“You decided to go back for the shovel.”

Smythe nodded. “I just wasn’t sure I’d wiped down the handle. They got me on file, my prints were all over my room in the city. I hadn’t gotten rid of it yet, when you came over in the middle of the night with Trixie.”

“And that gave you the perfect place to put it. In the back of Carpington’s car.”

“And it worked. You did good. You told them to look inside, just like I said, didn’t you?”

It had to be only a moment away. The gas was everywhere.

“Yeah, I did just what you said.”

“I’m sorry, Zack. You seem like a good guy. You could have ratted me out before, but you didn’t. I think it’s ‘cause you’re a guy, and guys understand each other. I think you have good moral character, and I respect that. Which makes me feel bad about having to do this.”

And he raised the gun in his right hand, pointed it directly at my chest.

The fireball erupted right in front of his mouth, at the tip of his cigarette. The burst of flame enveloped his shaved head, then spread back through the air to the barbecue. I turned and dove for the open glass door, but I could feel the heat at my back, and the force of the explosion, which sounded like a thunderclap. I threw myself on the floor, face down, closed my eyes, and covered my head with my hands.

The glass doors blew in, throwing shards across the kitchen and me.

Somewhere behind me came a man’s screams of torment. And then, after a few seconds, there was nothing left to hear.

Chapter 30

30

with any luck, the for sale sign on the front lawn won’t be there that much longer. We had an open house last weekend, and quite a few people came through. Needless to say, we had a fair bit of repair work to do before putting the place on the market. There was several thousand dollars’ worth of damage out back. Loads of glass to replace. The eaves were bent out of shape, the deck was pretty much destroyed, and several rows of bricks were badly chipped. The contractors—not from Valley Forest Estates—did a respectable job. If you didn’t know what had happened at our address, you’d never notice a thing. Of course, some people toured through because they did know what happened here. There’s a certain notoriety factor. It wasn’t clear when we listed the house whether this would work in our favor, or against.

A few things: