"Sometimes at night when we'd been workin' a case or on a stake or something, me'n John would drive out here after shift, park right where we are now and just look the place over."

It occurred to me then what the message was. Larry Legs knew Jumpin' John hadn't pulled the trigger on himself because he had known the exact struggle Brooks had experienced coming out of a place like this. Brooks had fought his way out of hell and he wasn't about to go back by his own hand. That was the message.

"This is how you knew, isn't it?"

Washington looked across the seat at me and nodded once.

"It was just one of those things you know, that's all. He didn't do it. I told them that in MIU but they just wanted to get it the fuck away from them."

"So all you had was your gut. There was nothng out of line anywhere else?"

"There was one thing but it wasn't enough for them. I mean they had the handwriting, his history with the s all that in place. It fit too nicely for them. He was a suicide before they zipped up the bag and took him away. Cut and dried."

"What was the one 9?"

"The two shots."

"What do you mean?"

"Let's get out of here. Let's get some food."

He put the car in drive and made a large circle in the lot and then out onto the street. We headed north on streets I had never been on. I had an idea where we were going, though. After five minutes of this I was tired of waiting for the next part of the story.

"What about the two shots?"

"He fired two shots, right?"

"Did he? It wasn't in the papers."

"They never put out all the details on anything. But I was there at the house. Edna called me after she found him. I got there ahead of MIU. There was one shot in the floor and one shot in the mouth. The official explanation was that the first shot was supposed to be him seeing if he could do it or something, like a practice. Gettin' the courage up.

Then the second time was when he went ahead and did it. It didn't make sense. Not to me."

"Why not? What did you think the two shots were for?"

"I think the first one went in the mouth. The second one was for gunshot residue. The perp wrapped John's hand around the gun and fired it into the floor. John's hand gets GSR on it. The case goes suicide. End of story."

"But nobody agreed with you."