“Always fantasized about something like that. Having another person as just . . . your toy. And then when I was done, I called Anderson to get his skinny ass over and help me, and we took her up to the Hallows. But too many people saw them together that night he hit her, so we couldn’t just hope no one would go looking for her. We had to have an arrest and an acquittal. Double jeopardy so they couldn’t get arrested for it again if someone found something or one of the dumb shits told somebody about it.” He was lost in thought a moment. “I killed before, but never like that. Never up close where you could see their face. I can see how certain people would find that addicting.”

“She was just a kid, Mark.”

“A kid don’t whore themselves.”

“She thought she was helping her family, and she might’ve pulled herself out of that life if you hadn’t killed her.”

He shrugged. “It wasn’t my call, honestly. I went over there to bury a body, but when I saw she was alive I called Nathan, and you know what he said? He said, ‘Just kill the bitch and I’ll pay you more.’” He chuckled. “He is one coldhearted bastard.”

I had to keep him talking as long as I could. “It’s the wealth.”

“How you figure?”

“There was a man in ancient Rome—a rich man, friend of the emperor—named Pollio. A slave dropped a glass container at a party once, and Pollio threw him into a pool filled with eels that ate him alive. Pollio was a man who lived in a world where he didn’t expect glass to break. That’s what causes uncontrollable anger: unreasonable expectation. And no one has more expectations about how the world works than the rich, and when it doesn’t work that way, they lose it.” I hesitated, comprehending just then that I had never applied that to myself. “Trust me, I’ve seen both sides.”

He stared at me a moment. “Yeah? How much money you got anyway?”

“A lot,” I said, trying to keep my voice calm as I realized how I was going to get out of this. “Enough so you’d never have to work again in your life. So I’ll tell you what: my life in exchange for my money. All of it. You can have it. I don’t care.”

“Yeah, I take your money, and you put out an international warrant for me. Money ain’t no good if I gotta hide in barns and holes in the ground to stay outa the pen.”

“Gentlemen’s agreement, then. I’ll give you, say, a million dollars, and we’ll keep that part between us. In exchange,” I said, chuckling nervously, “you don’t kill me, of course, and you agree to testify against Nathan. I’ll give you full immunity.”