While he spoke, Jenny slowly got to her feet. She staggered, trying not to put any weight on her ankle, then got her balance. Dean watched her, the thin, polite smile never changing.

"In case you're wondering," he said, "I didn't push Diana. She fell by accident. It worked out very conveniently for me, though. Until you started talking about what you heard that night."

Jenny tried not to listen. Soft as it was, his voice was distracting. It kept her from thinking, and she had to think.

**Poor David," he said again. "I really do feel sorry for him. He didn't know what he was getting into."

Jenny didn't take her eyes off him. She had to be ready.

**But actually, he makes it easier for me," Dean

went on. "Everybody knew you two had hit it off. At first. And then plenty of us heard you screaming at him in town." He took a step toward Jenny. "They'll probably decide it was some kind of lover's quarrel. The two of you met and argued. The argument got physical." He moved toward her again, unclenching his hands. "They'll decide it was an accident, too. A tragic accident." He laughed, almost soundlessly. "Three accidents in a week. It's going to give this place a bad name. Everybody'll shake their heads and say they always knew how dangerous the rimrocks were. And for a while, nobody will climb up here. But then everything will get back to normal. People will forget. They always do."

Come on, come on! Jenny thought. Just a little closer.

Dean looked at her and sighed, as if she were a bothersome child who wouldn't leave him alone. He took another step. Then, finally, he glanced away from her, up to the sky, checking the light.

"Well, Jenny."

He started to say something more, but Jenny didn't give him a chance. She drew her arm back, pushed off with her good foot, and lunged at him, swinging the rock down toward his head.

Dean reached up to block her arm, his ice-blue eyes not calm any longer, but wide with surprise. Jenny tried to spin away from his grasping hand, but her ankle wouldn't support her and she fell, landing hard on her knee. She pushed with her hands, trying to get up fast, ready to fight.

But the fight was ah-eady over. Dean's balance had been off to begin with, and he never got it back. As Jenny was scrambling to her feet, she heard a small, sharp gasp. That tiny intake of breath was the only sound Dean made as he fell backward toward the rocks below.

Chapter 13

Jenny kept expecting to get hysterical. Or cry, at least. After all, it was over. She'd spent an endless night doing things the wishy-washy Jenny Fowler of a few days ago could never have done. Wasn't reaction supposed to set in now? She might even have killed someone. Shouldn't she feel something besides this strange calm that left her mind blank?