“I’m sorry,” Thehna muttered.
“Sorry,” Connie said. “Big deal.”
“What am I supposed to do?”
“We’ll figure out something,” Kimberly told her. “We can’t just forget what you did. My God, you not only attacked us and injured us, you betrayed us. You went over to the enemy. He’s the guy who killed Dad and Keith, and you helped him. You’re a traitor to your own family.”
Thelma started crying again.
“We can never trust you,” Kimberly went on. “Never.”
“But… But I made things right. I killed him.”
“Did you?” Kimberly asked.
“Did I what?”
“Kill him.”
“Yes!” She sobbed a couple of times. “What do you think, I’m lying? I made it all up?”
“It’s crossed my mind.”
“You… you saw what he did to me!”
“That’s no proof you killed him.”
“What kind of… proof do you need? Do you wanta see his body?”
“Until I do see his body,” Kimberly said, “I’m assuming he’s alive.”
“This is the same guy,” I pointed out, “who tried to make us think he’d blown himself up with the yacht.”
“It smells like a trick to me,” Billie said. “I don’t think she killed him.”
“She didn’t,” Connie said. “No way.”
Thelma wiped her eyes and uncrossed her legs. “Let’s go,” she said. “I’m ready.” She sniffed. “I’ll take you there now, and you can see for yourselves. You’ll… you’ll see I’m not a liar.”
“Not a liar?” Kimberly curved a corner of her mouth. “Give me a break. You lie like a rug. Do you think I’ve got amnesia? I grew up with you. My Christ, you lied every chance you got—even when you didn’t have any reason to lie.”
“You’re full of it,” Thelma said.
“The question isn’t whether you’re a liar, the question is whether you’re lying about Wesley being dead. And the consensus is, yes.”
“Well, you’ll just see.” She scooted backward to get out from under the shelter. “Let’s go. Come on. You’ll see.”
“No hurry,” Kimberly told her.
“Well, maybe I’m in a hurry.” No longer crying, she now seemed to be in a huff. “Nobody’s gonna believe me, and you’re all gonna keep on treating me like some kind of a leper till this is settled.”
“Nobody’s treating you like a leper,” Kimberly said.
“You’re not a leper,” Billie said.
“You’re a traitor,” Connie said.
“That’s exactly right,” Kimberly said. “A traitor. But we’re giving you the benefit of the doubt because you’re my sister.”
“What benefit of the doubt?”
Kimberly paused a moment, then said, “We probably ought to execute you.”
“What!”
“Kill you. The way I see it, you committed a capital offense when you helped him escape from our ambush. If you weren’t my sister—and Dad’s daughter—I would’ve probably killed you by now.”
Thelma suddenly looked as if she might throw up. “You’re kidding,” she murmured.
“Do you think so?”
Connie smirked and said, “I don’t think she’s kidding.”
“We’re being easy on you,” Kimberly went on. “We’re giving you a second chance. But you’d better not be lying about Wesley.”
“He’s dead and I killed him! I’m not lying about that! If you don’t believe me, let’s go right now!”
“Maybe tomorrow,” Kimberly said.
Which took us all by surprise.
“Or the day after tomorrow,” she added.
We all stared at her.
“Shouldn’t we get it over with?” I asked. “I mean, it’ll be really nice to know for sure. If he is dead, we won’t have to worry about him sneaking up on us…”
“I’d sure like to know,” Billie said.
Thelma brightened. She obviously had the impression we were on her side. “See?” she said. “They’re for going now.”
“We haven’t heard from Connie yet,” Kimberly said.
Connie grimaced. “I’m not going anywhere. Are you kidding me?”
“Is it okay if we leave you here?”
“Alone? I can’t stay here alone. This whole deal might be a trick. Maybe the minute you’re gone, Wesley comes out and gets me.”
“Don’t worry,” Billie told her. “We won’t leave you by yourself.”
“I’m not going with you looking for his body. I can’t. I’m too… I feel like shit.” She fixed her eyes on Thelma. “Thanks to you, you stupid fuck.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Sorry. Can’t tell you how much ‘sorry’ helps the throbbing pains in my head and neck and shoulder and arm and… I’m one big fucking pain from head to toe, thanks to you. So don’t give me ‘sorry.’ Piss on you.”
Kimberly held up a hand. “We won’t make you come with us,” she said. “Not in your condition. And it’d be stupid to leave your mom or Rupert behind to protect you. We don’t want to be splitting up our forces like that. What I suggest is that we stay put. We wait a day or two before we go out and…”
“A day or two!” Thelma blurted. “That’s ridiculous!”
Kimberly raised her eyebrows. “He isn’t going to walk away, is he?”
“No! Of course not!”
“If you hadn’t busted up Connie with that rock, we could go right now.”
Thelma scowled.
“So we’ll wait until Connie can travel?” Billie asked.
“Yep.”
Billie smiled. “That sounds like a pretty good idea.”
“Thanks.”
Connie, an oddly sly smile on her face, added, “It’ll give Wesley time to die.”
We all looked at her.
“We don’t really believe she killed him,” Connie explained, “but we know he’s badly hurt. Maybe he’s not getting better. Maybe he’s getting weaker all the time, and has some infections setting in. I mean, that could happen to me, you know? Which is what made me think of it.”
“It won’t happen to you,” Billie told her. “You’re going to be fine.”
“Yeah, I guess. I’m not too worried. But I have all you guys son of taking care of me. Wesley doesn’t have anyone. We’ve got Thelma, so she isn’t there to help him. Long as we’ve got her, he’s on his own. If we give him enough time, maybe he’ll just waste away and die without us ever having to touch him again.”
“That’s right,” Kimberly said. “But even if he isn’t wasting away, it might screw him up if we don’t come looking for him right away.”
“He’ll think something went wrong,” I added.
Billie grinned. “Something did go wrong.”
“You’re all crazy,” Thelma said. “He’s dead.”
“He’d better be,” Kimberly said. “That’s another thing about our waiting period—it’ll give you time to reconsider. Maybe you’ll want to change your story.”
“There’s nothing to change.”
“You’d better think about that. If you didn’t kill him, you’d better let us know before we pay a visit to his body. If we get there and find out you’ve led us into a trap, there’s gonna be hell to pay.”
“I’m not lying.”
“In the meantime, we can’t exactly treat you like one of the gang. Go get some rope, Rupert, would you?”
“From the tomahawks?”
“No, we’ll need to keep using those. Bring over what’s left of the hanging rope.”
“What’re you gonna do?” Thelma asked.
I’d started to scoot out from under the shelter, but I didn’t want to miss anything, so I stopped.
“Tie you up,” Kimberly answered.