M Is for Malice

much? Listen, I understand how you feel. They took everything you had."
    "The bastards," she said.
    "Myrna..."
    "My name is Claire."
    "All right, Claire then. Here's the truth. You killed the wrong man. Guy never did anything to you or to your family. He's the only one who ever treated Patty well."
    "Liar. You're lying. You made that up."
    I shook my head. "Patty slept around. You know she had problems. Those were wild times. Dope and free love. We were all goofy with goodwill, with the notion of world peace. Remember? She was a flower child, and innocent."
    "She was schizophrenic," Claire spat.
    "Okay. I'll take your word for it. She probably did LSD. She ate mushrooms. She stuck herself with things. And all the fellows took advantage of her, except Guy. I promise. He really cared about her. He told me about her and he was wistful and loving. He'd tried to get in touch. He wrote to her once, but she was dead by then. He had no idea. All he knew was he never heard from her and he felt bad about that."
    "He was a turd."
    "All right. He was a turd. He did a lot of shitty things back then, but at heart, he was a good man. Better than his brothers. They took advantage of him. Patty probably wished the baby was his, but it wasn't."
    "Whose then?"
    "Jack's. Paul Trasatti's. I'm not really sure how many men she slept with. Guy didn't forge the letters, either. That was Bennet and Paul, a little scheme they cooked up to earn some money that spring."
    "They took everything away from me. Everything."
    "I know. And now you've taken something away from them."
    "What?" she said, her eyes blazing with disdain.
    "You took the only decent man who ever bore the Malek name."
    "Bader was decent."
    "But he never made good. Your mother asked him for the money and he refused to pay."
    "I didn't blame him for that."
    "Too bad. You blamed Guy instead and he was innocent."
    "Fuck off," she said.
    "What else? What's the rest? I know there's more to this," I said. "You wrote the anonymous letter to Guy, the one the cops have, right?"
    "Of course. Don't be dumb. I wrote all the letters up on Bennet's machine. For Guy's letter, I used the Bible. I thought he'd like that... a message from Deuteronomy... 'And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life.' You like that?"
    "Very apt. A good choice," I said.
    "That's not all, doll. You missed the best part... the obvious... you and that fancy-pants probate attorney. I found both wills months ago when I first started working here. I searched through Bader's files every chance I had. I tore up the second will so someone would have to go out looking for Guy. You did all the work for me. I appreciate that."
    "What about the blood in your bathroom? Where did that come from?"
    She held her thumb up. "I used a lancet. I left a couple drops on the patio and another in the truck. There's a shovel behind the tool shed. That's got blood on it, too."
    "What about the dirt and gravel on the bathroom floor?"
    "I thought Donovan should have a turn in the barrel. Didn't you think of him when you saw it?"
    "Actually he did cross my mind. I'd have gone after him if I hadn't figured out what was going on. But what now? None of this is going to work. The whole plan's caving in. Trying to hike out was dumb. You weren't that hard to find."
    "So what? I'm out of here. I'm tired. Get away from me," she said.
    "Myrna..." I said, patiently.
    "It's Claire," she snapped. "What do you want?"
    "I want the killing to stop. I want the dying to end. I want Guy Malek to rest easy wherever he is."
    "I don't care about Guy," she said. Her voice quaked with emotion and her face looked drawn and tense.
    "What about Patty? Don't you think she'd care?"
    "I don't know. I've lost track. I thought I'd feel better, but I don't." She walked on down the road with me trotting after her. "There aren't any happy endings. You have to take what you get."
    "There may not be a happy ending, but there are some that satisfy."
    "Name one."
    "Come back. Own up to what you did. Turn and face your demons before they eat you alive."
    She was weeping freely, and in some curious way, she seemed very beautiful, touched with grace. She turned and started walking backward, her arm out, hand turned up, as though thumbing a ride. I was walking at the same pace, the two of us face-to-face. She caught my eye and smiled, shot a look over her shoulder to check for traffic coming the other