Patience, patience. Dante said, “She was pretty drunk so she might have agreed to sex, but she wouldn’t have gone for both of us at the same time, not without some help from my girl-juice. Yes, I agree with you, I hate it as much as you do.” He shrugged. “It’s a real pity, but what’s done is done.” Like Snake, he looked over at her body. The pity was she hadn’t waited to die until he’d enjoyed her. “Anyway, we don’t have to think about anything now except finishing this up. After you’ve thought it over, accept it was a tragic accident, I think you’ll change your mind about going trolling again. You have too much fun with the girls.”

Dante stopped digging a few minutes later. “Deep enough. No reason to get any dirtier.” He threw his shovel out of the hole and Snake followed suit. Dante cupped his hands under Snake’s foot, took his weight, and heaved him out of the grave. Snake looked down at his friend, always in charge since they were boys, always deciding what they were going to do and how they were going to do it. Until tonight his girl-juice had worked like magic. They’d always used condoms, cleaned the girl up, and gotten her clothes back on before they left her in her car or her apartment. Did any of the girls they’d had ever even suspect what had happened to them? Who knew? There’d never been any blowback. Snake remembered one of Dante’s girlfriends in Boston. They’d shared her over and over that night, and what a rush it had been. What was her name? Biffy, Button, something like that. She’d broken up with Dante not long after that magic night. Had she remembered anything? No one could ask her now. She’d died in a car crash only months after they’d shared her.

Since Dante was bigger, heavier, Snake had to brace himself to pull him out of the grave.

They stood a moment, looking down into the black hole. Dante nodded toward the body. “Let’s get her in and covered up. I’ll call Alan, tell him we’re on our way. We can shower, spend tonight at his pad. Shouldn’t take more than a half hour to Philadelphia this time of night.”

Snake said, “We’re filthy. What do we tell Alan?”

Dante shrugged, gave a laugh. “Not the truth, that’s for sure. We’ll tell him we had a wild party in the woods and he should see the girls. Don’t worry, I’ll come up with something perverted enough even for Alan’s jaded palate. Can you see him as a US congressman like his dad one of these years? Boggles the mind.”

“Well, what about you? That’s what your family wants for you, too.”