Mad Dog screamed at Lester, "Stop it! It's over!"
Lester blinking, waking up, looking around. He shivered as if freezing, and the blood frenzy ever-so-slowly left his eyes. But Mad Dog wouldn't release him.
Lester had slurred speech. "She snitched on us. She's gotta be wasted."
Mad Dog smacked his son's head hard several times. "The killing stops now!"
Lester was shocked, dumb-founded. "She snitched, Mad Dog, I know it!"
Mad Dog said, "Goddam you, Lester, it's over."
Henry Oteas burst into the living room, then raced to Nora on the floor. She was okay, just stunned and weakened.
Henry told Mad Dog, "Go away! Take him away!"
Lester looked borderline at the old man.
Mad Dog told Lester, "Go wait in the truck."
Lester was confused. "She tried to kill me!"
Mad Dog said, "Lester!
Lester left, while Henry helped Nora into a chair. Her legs were wobbly, her face was bloodied, and she was choking with tears and pain.
Henry told Mad Dog, "What you come here for?"
Mad Dog said, "The garden got hit. It's all gone." He threatened Henry. "I gotta know, old man. Did she snitch?"
"She has not left Tomo's side," Henry said.
"Why the gun?" Mad Dog asked.
Henry was outraged. "Lester attacked her at the hospital last night. He tried raping her. She borrowed the gun to kill him because your son is a savage!"
Mad Dog said, "He's my son, Henry."
Henry was outraged. "My son thought you were something special. A hero. You're shit!"
Mad Dog said, "I never claimed I was a hero."
Henry faced up to Mad Dog. "Tell me about Jeremiah Quint. How his house got hit. You killed all those people!"
Mad Dog said, "Old man, you weren't there. You don't know how it went down. The things that went wrong. Just one thing after another." He jabbed Henry's chest. "Listen, Lester saved your son's life. If not for him, Tomo would've died right then and there."
Mad Dog left, taking Nora's gun with him.
Henry, motionless, could not grasp the horrible news.
After lunch Rafferty kponed the tourists and went window-shopping. Occasionally he would stop and chat with the shop owners. He asked a lot of questions in several clothing and gift stores. He happened to look in a store window.
Rafferty saw DEA Agent Draper following him.
Rafferty walked into the next shop.
When Rafferty didn't immediately reappear, Draper approached cautiously and tried to peer in the store.
Draper jumped when Rafferty came from behind him and spun him around. They were both ready for blood.
Rafferty said, "You were following me, Draper."
Draper said, "No, I wasn't."
Rafferty growled at him. "I'm going to love suing you."
Draper was as outraged. "Listen, you Washington hotshit, we made a pot bust and there's four people dead!" He jabbed Rafferty. "And you got there ahead of us. If I could, I'd drop on you like a ton of bricks."
Rafferty laughed in the DEA man’s face and then snarled like a '30s gangster, "You'll never take me alive, copper!"
Angry that Rafferty mocked him, Jack Draper stalked off.
Rafferty walked into his hotel lobby and was stopped by Paula Grayson.
The young woman looked exhausted, depleted. "Mister Rafferty? You said if we needed a favor ... ‘
Paula Grayson's car turned onto the side road that lay beyond two red reflectors on a palm tree.
"I couldn't go up there alone," Paula said.
They parked in front of the Quint house, then stared up at it.
"This house is haunted now," Paula said with a haunted voice.
They opened up the house and discovered the house had been searched and vandalized. Every room was a mess. They discovered the refrigerator had been trashed, and vegetables dumped on the floor.
Rafferty said, "What were they looking for?"
"Jeremiah's missing money. All the money he made from the harvest."
Paula and Rafferty dumped the kitchen garbage atop Jeremiah's compost pile.
Rafferty said, "How much is missing?"
"Almost eight hundred thousand dollars."
"Do you know where it is?"
Paula hesitated. "No."
The smell of the compost pile was rank and overpowering.
Rafferty asked, "Why does it stink so bad?"
"Mountain lion shit."
"Lord, is that what it is?"
"Mountain lion shit and bat guano and bone meal and steer manure. It keeps away the deer. The deer'll eat anything. Sunflowers, tomato plants - "
"Marijuana?"
"I know whole families who went bankrupt because the deer ate their crops."
Henry wandered into Nora's kitchen late at night. Nora sat having coffee. Neither of them have had sleep. Both had desperate eyes. Nora was just barely holding back her hysteria.
Henry said, "He's sleeping better now."
Nora said, "Henry -- Henry, he needs blood. He's got to have it. I can't steal any more."
"If we don't get some blood, is he going to die?"
"Yes," Nora said.
"How we gonna get more blood?"
Nora hesitated, because the words were barbs ripping her throat and wouldn't come easily. "I got an idea. It's a terrible thing, though, Henry."
Henry without hesitation said, "For my grandson, I will do it."
Nora faced him, reluctantly. "We're going to need Lester and Mad Dog."
Henry was horrified. "Oh Nora!"
Rafferty's hotel included a main building and several bungalows scattered around the pool. Rafferty himself was poolside in a public phone booth across from his bungalow.
Rafferty said, "Senator, I'm not leaving without Jimmy’s statement."
He looked for and found his hotel room and saw Jack Draper sneaking a peek out of his hotel window.
Rafferty said, "I'll call you back, Senator." He hung up and redialed. "Is Sheriff Hartman there? This is Terry Rafferty. Sheriff, I'm calling from the phone booth by my bungalow, and I can see Jack Draper's face in my window. He is inside my hotel room. That son of a bitch better have a search warrant, or I want him prosecuted for breaking and entering. As we speak. Good. I will be waiting."
Rafferty hung up the telephone.
As Rafferty left the public phone booth, Mad Dog and Lester caught him and sandwiched him between them. Lester gave Rafferty a bear hug, while Mad Dog covered Rafferty's mouth and nose with a gauze of ether.
Rafferty fought as hard as he could, but his mouth and nose were covered by ethered gauze, and his strength faded quickly.
From Rafferty's window Special Agent Jack Draper saw Rafferty being shanghaied. He yanked open Rafferty's sliding door and ran to Rafferty’s rescue, his gun out and ready.
Mad Dog used his .357 Magnum to shoot Jack Draper.
Jack Draper was killed instantly by a bullet in his face.
Lester had the ether now. Rafferty struggled, but the ether in the gauze knocked him out. As Rafferty dropped to the ground, Lester kicked him.
Dr. Deanna Wu found Sheriff Hartman getting into his patrol car outside his office. She was pleased. "Honolulu says the ejection scratches on the shotgun shell found at Jeremiah Quint's place match the shotgun found in Lester Rahler's truck."
Hartman was very pleased, too. "Mahalo, Deanna, from the bottom of my heart. When I finish with that son of a bitch, he'll never bother anyone ever again."
A deputy came running and caught up to the Sheriff's car.
The deputy was excited. "Sheriff Hartman -- "
Up in the foothills Mad Dog's truck was parked outside the Rahlers' drying house, which was just a rundown chicken coop under the trees. A portajohn was off to one side.