“For the time being I’m pressing charges against Travis for assault with a deadly. You can add an illegal weapons charge too, and there’ll be some drugs somewhere. I’ll come to the station tomorrow for the interview. But now there’s someplace I have to be.”

“Well, sir,” the trooper with the ramrod straight posture said, “I’m afraid that’s not possible. You’ll need to stay here until we get everything sorted out.”

Shaw thought things were pretty well straightened out. He said, “Could you call this number.” He smiled. “As a favor.”

The trooper hesitated and then placed the call. It seemed that he stood to attention when the voice answered. He said, “I’m at a crime scene with that man, Colter Shaw, and . . . Okay, sir. Yessir.”

He disconnected. He looked at Shaw and said, “You’re free to go. And I personally would be more than happy to help you change that tire.”

9.

He looked down at the young man in the hospital bed.

Jude Sterling looked up at him groggily. Weariness defined him.

“How’re you feeling?”

“Got cut bad. They use glass. ’Cause of the metal detectors. You’d think the guards’d, you know, figure that out.”

“You’d think.”

“Gets infected. I’ve got an infection.”

Not surprising. The hospital ward was wretched. There were a few too many bloodstains on the walls and yellow stains on the floor. The lighting was as green as the tile and the pallor of the patients and the medicos alike.

“You’ll be okay?”

“They say so. Scar. They don’t do plastic surgery here.”

“Women like scars.” Some did. Shaw knew this for a fact.

He noted that Jude was shackled, hand and ankle, to the sturdy metal frame. He wondered why both were necessary.

“You said you found who really shot Williams.”

“Travis Lanford.”

He blinked. This intelligence took a moment to settle. “How’d that work?”

“I’ll tell you about it later. You should get some rest. But a question I have to ask.”

He nodded.

“Did you cock the gun in the clearing and point it at Daryl, after he’d been shot?”

“Yessir, I did.”

“Why?”

Jude shrugged. “It might sound funny, but I thought of things I’ve seen in movies. The killer, whoever, he looks dead. But then you get close and he jumps up and has a knife or something, or axe. You know now I didn’t shoot him to save my brother. But I would have. I’d do that in a minute.”

Shaw nodded.

“You really think I’m getting out?”

Shaw explained there would be procedural issues and the fact that he’d stolen drugs and money—even if from a drug dealer—might mean continued time in the system. But his lawyer would be working hard to get him absolved of the most serious crimes.

Jude appeared grateful, but at the word lawyer his face fell.