“Nothing. Don’t worry about it.”

“But I do worry about it. Is Jasper dead? Did you kill Jasper and then start taking shots at me and then pretend to rescue me?” Patton spoke evenly, but there was a tinge of anger and accusation in her voice.

“I didn’t shoot at you and I didn’t pretend to rescue you,” said Nemo.

“And Jasper? Is he dead?”

“Yes,” said Nemo flatly.

“Jesus,” said Patton, turning to look at the passing landscape. She had suspected it since this morning. Hell, she had expected it every day since she had gotten to know Jasper. Anytime you have a friend in his nineties you think about death every time you see him. But Patton felt the blow with an unexpected weight. Jasper had been her only real friend in Alta Vista. Her only real friend anywhere, she thought.

She turned back to face Nemo, because now she wanted to know, she needed to know how he knew about Jasper. “Did you kill him?” she said.

“You don’t want to go there, Patton,” said Nemo, but she could see the white in his knuckles as he gripped the steering wheel more tightly.

“Did you kill him?”

“I was hired to kill him,” said Nemo.

“Stop the car,” said Patton.

“I’m not going to stop the car.”

“I said stop the car.”

“I’m not going to stop the car. We don’t have time for me to stop the car.”

“Stop the damn car or I swear to God I’ll blow your fucking head off.” Patton leveled her gun at Nemo’s temple, but he didn’t flinch.

“You do that and the car will crash and we’ll both be dead.”

“OK,” Patton said, moving the gun. “Then I’ll take out your left kneecap. You want to find out what that feels like, or do you want to stop the car?”

“Just give me ten more minutes,” said Nemo, “then we’ll be someplace safe and I’ll tell you whatever you want to know. Now stop waving that damn gun at me.”

But Patton did not lower her gun as Nemo turned onto a narrower road and then, a couple of miles later, onto an unpaved track. A few minutes later he pulled the car to a stop behind the remnants of a house that looked like it had first collapsed and then burned and both a long time ago. The area was thick with weeds and briars that stood taller than the car, and forest surrounded the house on three sides. He switched off the engine and turned to look at Patton.

“We should be good here for a few hours,” he said.

“How would you know that?” said Patton.

“Because I’ve already staked the place out,” said Nemo. “Always have a place to retreat.”