The car was moving slowly, going down the bumpy slope. The slope gave way to a vacant lot. On one side there was a warehouse with most of its windows broken. It looked out of business. On the other side a concrete pier had most of its concrete chipped away, the pier office just about ready to fall apart. The vacant lot was littered with rubbish and there were some deep, muddy crevices near the edge of the river. The car crossed the crevices and came to a stop just a few feet away from the edge of the river.

Macy shut the engine and climbed out. Lattimore said to Corey, “All right, move.”

“Jesus Christ,” Corey said, giving Lattimore a pleading look.

“Go on, move,” Lattimore said, pointing the gun at Corey’s throat.

Corey sat there and intensified the pleading look. “Gimme a break. Cantcha gimme a break?”

“No,” Lattimore said.

Corey shut his eyes tightly, as though trying to keep from weeping. “I can’t go through with it—”

“You’ll go through with it,” Lattimore said.

Corey kept his eyes shut and let out a groan.

“Get outta the car,” Lattimore said.

Corey groaned again and remained sitting there. Then he lowered his head and covered his eyes with his hands.

Macy was standing near the front fender and he called to Lattimore, “What’s all the delay?”

“He’s cracking up.”

“Get him outta there,” Macy said.

Lattimore leaned close to Corey and put the muzzle of the gun against his neck. His other hand clenched and sent in a kidney punch. Corey grunted, gasped and groaned again.

“Open the door and get out,” Lattimore said. “I’m not gonna tell you again.”

Corey sat there. He let out a sob. Lattimore moved close, punching him again in the kidney, then shifting the gun so that he held it by the barrel. Lattimore raised the gun and aimed the butt at the side of Corey’s head. Bent very low, Corey had his eyes halfway open. Looking to the side and seeing the gun’s butt raised and coming down, he rolled sideways, going inside the arc of the clubbing weapon, his elbow bashing Lattimore in the testicles. Lattimore let out a scream but didn’t let go of the gun. He tried to shift it in his hand to get his finger on the trigger. Corey used the elbow again, driving it into the same place, and then with both hands took the gun away from Lattimore. At that moment Macy was at the car window and aimed a gun at Corey’s head. Both guns went off at the same instant. Macy stood outside the car window with a red-black cavity gushing bright red where his left eye had been. As he stood there he died, and then on rigid legs he went sliding down sideways, out of sight under the car window.