“No. Gary, round about this time, I thought maybe he was starting to get suspicious. I was scared shitless that he’d start asking questions, about the books, questioning the totals. The club owed money everywhere, but he didn’t know. But I did my best to snow him, buried him in numbers. So he’d buy it for a while, but I knew I was running out of time.

“I could have used another week at least, but things sometimes have a way of unraveling. Gets to be April 9, 2002. Gary and Leo, they’re out getting pizza.”

And the ones left behind, Heighton and Smith and Fletcher, decide it’s time for a repeat performance.

“No matter how much money I’d stashed away, even if it wasn’t enough, I’d made a vow to myself that what happened that other night, that was never going to happen again.”

Back at the house, Claire was on the porch, waving to us. “Five minutes!” she shouted.

Trixie waved, turned back to me.

I said, “Your sister and Don. You’ve told them this story?”

Trixie nodded. “They know.” She ran her hands through her hair, gave her head a shake. “Fletcher puts his hand on my shoulder, spins my chair around, puts my face up to his crotch. The others, they’re starting to laugh.”

She rolled the chair back so she could get her purse, get the gun.

Fletcher took a couple of steps back, couldn’t believe it, barely had a chance to say “What the fuck” before the first shot went into him.

“Then Smith and Heighton, they were on their feet, not sure whether to get the hell out of the room or come at me, but I was between them and the door, so they pretty much had to run at me regardless. I fired again, got Smith, then Heighton, and they both fell, almost on top of each other. I’d managed to shoot all three of them square in the chest. Eldon, he’d taught me a few things, and one of them was how to use a gun, and how to aim it. They were moaning, telling me to call an ambulance, but I knew that wasn’t going to happen. I knew I had to get out of there as fast as I could, pick up Katie from the sitter’s, get out of town as fast as I could. Gary and Leo, they’d already been gone half an hour, they’d be coming back at any moment, and someone might have heard the shots, already called the police.”

She put her hands on her hips, took in a deep breath. I saw the hawk swoop down; a moment later it was back in the air, something small and lifeless in its talons.

“But you weren’t quite done, were you?” I said.

Trixie’s eyebrows went up a notch.