I climbed out of the car and held up a hand. Even before she was out of the car, I could see that Lou’s eyes were big, enormous, and her lips were white. I walked to the back of the car, popped the trunk, and waited for Lou to meet me. There was a chill in the night air and I started to shiver, but I wasn’t sure if it was from the dip in temperature or the twist of both relief and nerves I felt now that Lou was here. I knew she’d help me. She would. But there would be a price.

I’d told her I could handle Ellen. I’d told her I had it under control.

Even in the dark, I could see the body was leaking. The first thing I thought when I noticed it was that I was glad Klein’s car was taking the hit. The carpet in his trunk would never be the same.

Of course, we’d probably end up torching the car anyway—wasn’t that how people disposed of corpses? And Ellen would probably have to get rid of her bed. It was a thing of nightmares now. The balance of my eight grand she hadn’t spent on party dresses would go to a new apartment.

Lou, chain-smoking beside me, hadn’t said much since she’d arrived. Instead, we stood shoulder to shoulder, staring into the trunk of Klein’s car. The light from the filter tip on her cigarette crackled, glowed, and shrank rhythmically next to me, like a series of tiny dying stars. A piece of ash was stuck to the corner of her lip like a gray snowflake, and every so often she tapped the butt of her cigarette against her brow.

In the car, Ellen began the wailing again and I shut the door, mostly for a little peace and quiet but also so I could avoid Lou’s eyes on me.

“Did you check his pulse?” Ellen had asked me on the drive to the canyon. “Maybe they could still do something, maybe if we . . . took him to a hospital . . .”

I hadn’t said anything. We both knew it was useless. Instead, I’d kept turning and twisting the car down different roads, my only objective to get as far from the city lights as I could.

“Please,” she said, and then she repeated it over and over and over again until I gripped her wrist, one hand still on the steering wheel, eyes on the road. I told her if she didn’t shut up, I was going to put her in the trunk with Klein. Her eyes got big and round, and she didn’t say anything after that.

I’d waited until I passed an address I could read and counted my turns until I found a deserted stretch of arroyo seco to my liking. Then I called Lou.