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Raising his fevered eyes from the photographs, Ronny Jessup said, “Cheated on her? Who with? Did she know, did she cry?”

“Shut up, Ronny. Just shut up and listen. I’ll tell it my way, it’s my little walk through Hell. She had this good girlfriend who lived in San Luis Obispo. Name was Nina. Nina had this sudden cancer scare, as young as Emily, just twenty-five, and so afraid. Emily wanted to go to San Luis to be with Nina through the tests and exploratory surgery, just four or five days. She wanted me to go with her to keep her spirits up so she could be the best possible cheerleader for Nina. Usually I’d have gone. We went everywhere together, everywhere. It was only maybe two hundred fifty miles up the coast. But this time there was this other . . . this situation.”

Jessup nodded sagely and opened his pouting lips to say, “You had this other girl you wanted to bang. Tell me who, Mr. Thorne. Did Emily know her? Was she another good friend of Emily’s? Did you fuck one of her friends?”

David wanted to punch him in the face, but he deserved this opprobrium no matter who it came from, even from this monster. For a moment he was unable to continue.

With his free hand, Jessup turned one of the ten photos to face David, but David couldn’t look at it and still finish his story.

“I had adapted a screenplay from my first novel. The film was in preproduction, almost ready to roll. I thought it was such a big deal. But it was just a movie. It wasn’t anything that mattered, not in the long run. Some of the actors wanted to talk to me about their roles. Sometimes, if the director is just a shooter, just interested in the visuals, the actors want to talk to the screenwriter. I was in and out of LA. Mainly it was the female lead. She was only a few years older than me, but she was a huge star, beautiful. She came on to me a little. Then more than a little. I knew . . . knew I could have her, be with her.”

By the intensity with which he listened, by the fierce tension in his shackled body, Jessup demanded eye contact. David met his stare as the big man said, “I know who she is, Dave. Since you and me become friends, I learned all about you, read up on you, your big career. I know the movie, the star. She’s hot. She a good girl? Were she slick when you was in her?”

David shuddered with revulsion. He took a few deep breaths to steady himself.

Jessup’s ripe mouth formed a lazy crescent, the smile of a demon dreaming, and he turned another of the photos so that Emily faced David.

Get it over with.