“Dog hairs on the blanket that we wrapped around Elise are going to help the cops trace the murder back to me…to us.”

“So you shoot them,” Victor said, “and bury them in the meadow.”

Thackrey shook his head. “I’m not killing them.”

“Wow. Good to hear you draw the line somewhere. We could take them to Mendocino and leave them.”

“I’m not doing that either.” Thackrey walked to the end of the deck and sat next to the dogs. He was still carrying the gun.

Russell watched him. “The cops are going to find them if you don’t do anything.”

Thackrey smiled. “All right, then. Why don’t we give them to the cops?”

“What’re you talking about?”

“If they’re bound to find the dogs, let’s turn them over.”

“You mean drive up to police headquarters and drop them off?”

“No, take them to one of the detectives’ houses. Or, better, put them in one of their cars.”

“You do know that’s stupid, right?”

“Unlike everything else we’ve done for the past twenty hours?”

Victor looked down the length of the deck at Thackrey. “I’m not doing this. We’ve already done the three things you wanted.”

“What three things?” Thackrey asked. “I’m a coder. What makes you think I can count?”

“I can. We’re done, out. You want to shoot us, go ahead.”

Russell stood and faced Victor. “I’ll do it. What do you want?”

“Are you crazy, Russ?” Victor shouted. “He’s playing us. This is all a joke to him.”

Russell sat on the arm of Victor’s chair. “It doesn’t matter. I’ll do it. I owe him.”

“You owe him what?”

Russell put a hand on Victor’s shoulder. “Four years ago. Remember? I was ready to off myself. Ben helped me. He was the only one. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him.”

“It’ll never stop. You know him. It’ll always be something.”

“It’s okay. I’ll help him.” He looked up. “What do you want, Ben?”

Thackrey scratched the head of the dog nearest him. “Put the dogs in the girl’s car. What’s her name? Eden Somers. No, wait. We’ll do something with the girl later. The dogs go to the ex-Marine, Frames. I assume you can get into the police parking lot?”

“Probably,” Russell said.

“And into the cop’s car? Without being seen?”

“Yeah. We hack the keyless lock.”

“You two are idiots,” Victor said. “So you put the dogs in the guy’s car. So what? What’s that achieve?”

Thackrey smiled. “It’s all about how you put them in the car. Suppose we give them some juice? If there’s one thing I know, it’s how to stay awake.”

“You mean speed? They’ll tear us apart.”