Frankie shook his head. His toes felt around in the blood, hoping to find the boot.

Selfer opened his mouth, but a gurgle sputtered and sank in his throat and he had to cough to bring it back up. “You . . . have them,” he rasped, his throat whistling.

Jock shook his keys at Selfer. “All on here? Each one. How do I know?”

“You have . . . to trust me.” His eyes found Kanani. “I trusted you.” He added a sick grin that must’ve hurt like hell, his head wobbling from it.

Kanani’s face burned. Tears rolled down it, off her chin.

“Help me,” Selfer said.

“Too late,” Jock said. “Now you know what it’s like. Up on the line.”

“What Wendell knew,” Kanani added.

Selfer nodded, once. “Tell Lett . . .” His head slumped to the side.

Frankie growled but it ended in a groan. Blood squirted out from the grip on his arm.

Kanani instinctively moved to help him, an island bruddah. Jock blocked her. She turned away and stepped out the door. Jock backed out into the corridor.

Frankie gasped and clucked but couldn’t get words out.

Kanani kicked the door shut.

Jock tried keys until finding one that fit. “Locks from the outside,” he said.

He held the towel from the floor up to the nearest light bulb and smashed the bulb with the butt of the revolver, the sound muffled. He hugged the wall, aiming the gun.

Kanani crouched behind him, both listening. They heard nothing. No one.

“Should’ve put down that rat bastard Lansdale when I had the chance,” Jock whispered. “How’s that for your cure?”

He waved them onward, farther down the corridor. As they trotted along, they heard a muted scream from that room behind them, but Kanani couldn’t tell if it was Selfer or Frankie. Not knowing comforted her oddly, pumping her legs with a fresh power, assuring her that it did not matter. Not now. Not anymore.

43.

Kanani led down the corridor but Jock steered her along, right behind her, watching their backs. Her tears had stopped coming, but they left her cheeks moist and she didn’t bother wiping them. They turned down the next corridor. She halted. They listened a moment, heard nothing, no one.

“That was tidy work back there,” Jock whispered.

“I only got them both there,” Kanani replied. “They did the rest to themselves.”

They spoke like they moved, with a determined efficiency lacking snags of emotion.

“How did you figure they’d do each other in like that?”

“They’re just scared little boys,” Kanani said. “That’s what you all are.”

“Amen to that. Didn’t hurt that it was a gal such as yourself telling them. With all your wiles. You played them off each other like—”