Another ambulance pulled up. EMTs got out. They had come to give Clarice much-needed medical help.

Yet Elle needed one more answer before Clarice left. “Clarice, I believed all that stuff Faith said about you, that she’d broken you, that you wouldn’t respond, couldn’t respond. You just stood there! Why didn’t you help me sooner?”

“I couldn’t! I wanted the heaviest staff because I wanted to see her hurt—with the thickest one with the large crystal. I kept trying to pull it out of the stand, and one hand was fine and the other hand was swollen and the bones in my arm... I didn’t have the strength. I was in a hurry, I was trying to keep an eye on what was happening, and I kept dropping the staff back into the stand.” The remembered turmoil made Clarice’s voice tremble and her hands shake. She took a breath and slowed down. “I finally realized I had to concentrate not on whether you were holding her off but on what I was doing, and I got that staff out of the stand and into my hands. But Elle, I cannot lie. I was never going to give you the staff.”

Elle thought she understood. “You wanted to hurt her back.”

“I wanted to kill her,” Clarice corrected her. “I aimed for her head, used all my strength, but my injured hand betrayed me, my grip slipped, and I hit her lower.”

“I heard the crack when you hit her ribs,” Elle said. “The way she flew over like an airplane propeller... It was very impressive.”

“Thank you.” Clarice sighed in relief. “I think that’s all, except to say—” she turned to Gregoire and Sarcha “—you will never see a better acting job than you’ve seen here.”

Gregoire and Sarcha softly applauded.

Señor Alfonso said, “Brava!”

Deputy Dave turned off his recorder and pocketed his phone.

The main street was emptying again as the last people in town rushed toward the arena to view the upcoming battle.

“The studio was supposed to send a different acting coach. He has a good reputation, but he’s not as prestigious as Faith. I was so impressed when she showed up instead.” Clarice’s mouth twisted. “Now I wonder what happened to Dvan Freitas.”

Deputy Dave looked up sharply. “I know the answer to that. The body in the ditch was identified as Dvan Freitas.”

Elle flinched.

The officer continued. “Word is just out from Stephen Penderghast’s corporate office that he died today of injuries he acquired two weeks ago onboard the research ship Arcturus.”

“Really?” Elle collapsed into a puddle of relief.

Deputy Dave looked hard at her. “Can you speak to the source of those injuries?”

She shrugged, tried to look innocent and kept her mouth firmly shut.