Full Dark, No Stars

No, that would be bad. Tess went to Lester’s refrigerator. After a little rummaging, she found a package of hamburger at the back of the bottom shelf. She used an issue of Uncle Henry’s to double-wrap it, then went back into the living room. She plucked the confession from Strehlke’s lap, doing it gingerly, very aware that the part of him that had hurt her—the part that had gotten three people kil ed tonight—lay just beneath the pages. “I’m taking your ground chuck, but don’t hold it against me. I’m doing you a favor. It smel s spunky-going-on-rotten.”

“A thief as wel as a murderer,” Little Driver said in his droning deadvoice. “Isn’t that nice.”

“Shut up, Les,” she said, and left.

- 43 -

Before you shoot yourself, why don’t you think for yourself?

As she drove the old pickup back down the windy road to Alvin Strehlke’s house, she tried to do that. She was starting to think Tom, even when he wasn’t in the vehicle with her, was a better detective

than Doreen Marquis on her best day.

“I’l keep it short,” Tom said. “If you don’t think Al Strehlke was part of it—and I mean a big part—you’re crazy.”

“Of course I’m crazy,” she replied. “Why else would I be trying to convince myself that I didn’t shoot the wrong man when I know I did?”

“That’s guilt talking, not logic,” Tom replied. He sounded maddeningly smug. “He was no innocent little lamb, not even a half-black sheep. Wake up, Tessa Jean. They weren’t just brothers, they were

partners.”

“Business partners.”

“Brothers are never just business partners. It’s always more complicated than that. Especial y when you’ve got a woman like Ramona for a mother.”

Tess turned up Al Strehlke’s smoothly paved driveway. She supposed Tom could be right about that. She knew one thing: Doreen and her Knitting Society friends had never met a woman like

Ramona Norvil e.

The pole light went on. The dog started up: yark-yark, yarkyarkyark. Tess waited for the light to go out and the dog to quiet down.

“There’s no way I’l ever know for sure, Tom.”

“You can’t be certain of that unless you look.”

“Even if he knew, he wasn’t the one who raped me. ”

Tom was silent for a moment. She thought he’d given up. Then he said, “When a person does a bad thing and another person knows but doesn’t stop it, they’re equal y guilty.”

“In the eyes of the law?”

“Also in the eyes of me. Say it was just Lester who did the hunting, the raping, and the kil ing. I don’t think so, but say it was. If big brother knew and said nothing, that makes him worth kil ing. In fact, I’d say bul ets were too good for him. Impaling on a hot poker would be closer to justice.”

Tess shook her head wearily and touched the gun on the seat. One bul et left. If she had to use it on the dog (and real y, what was one more kil ing among friends), she would have to hunt for another

gun, unless she meant to try and hang herself, or something. But guys like the Strehlkes usual y had firearms. That was the beauty part, as Ramona would have said.

“If he knew, yes. But an if that big didn’t deserve a bul et in the head. The mother, yes—on that score, the earrings were al the proof I needed. But there’s no proof here.”

“Real y?” Tom’s voice was so low Tess could barely hear it. “Go see.”

- 44 -

The dog didn’t bark when she clumped up the steps, but she could picture it standing just inside the door with its head down and its teeth bared.

“Goober?” What the hel , it was as good a name for a country dog as any. “My name’s Tess. I have some hamburger for you. I also have a gun with one bul et in it. I’m going to open the door now. If I

were you, I’d choose the meat. Okay? Is it a deal?”

Stil no barking. Maybe it took the pole light to set him off. Or a juicy female burglar. Tess tried one key, then another. No good. Those two were probably for the trucking office. The third one turned in the lock, and she opened the door before she could lose her courage. She had been visualizing a bul dog or a Rottweiler or a pit bul with red eyes and slavering jaws. What she saw was a Jack Russel

terrier who was looking at her hopeful y and thumping its tail.

Tess put the gun in her jacket pocket and stroked the dog’s head. “Good God,” she said. “To think I was terrified of you.”

“No need to be,” Goober said. “Say, where’s Al?”

“Don’t ask,” she said. “Want some hamburger? I warn you, it may have gone off.”

“Give it to me, baby,” Goober said.

Tess fed him a chunk of the hamburger, then came in, closed the door, and turned on the lights. Why not? It was only her and Goober, after al .

Alvin Strehlke had kept a neater house than his younger brother. The floors and wal s were clean, there were no stacks of Uncle Henry’s Swap Guide, and she actual y saw a few books on the