She changed her posture so that she was looking up at her husband.

"None of this was supposed to happen, Dell. You know that, don't you? It was all just a stupid tragedy. Just a tragedy" She waved her hand toward Kimber and me.

"I really don't want any more of this, Dell. What happened, happened. It's time to be done. Let's get it over with."

"All in good time, hon. Finish. Do it for me."

Cathy sighed and looked at her feet.

"Anyway, we thought she was dead. Tami. I felt her, her, um, arm. I couldn't find a pulse. Phil checked her, too. He said she was dead." Kimber asked, "Then why "

"Mariko." Cathy hissed the name.

"Mariko came rushing into the room looking for Tami. Saw her on the floor. Saw all the blood. And, dearest Lord, there was a lot of blood. Some of the stone wall where she'd hit her head. Most of it on the floor. Mariko saw it all, saw Tami, and she started screaming. Phil grabbed her.

She tried to run away, break away from him. But he caught her. He was holding her from behind, his arm around her neck. I could tell that he was squeezing her too hard. I told him he was choking her. She kept fighting him though. I guess he thought she was going to run but I could see she wasn't getting any air. I told him to let her go. When he finally did let her go, she just fell to the ground like a rag doll."

I said, "Phil told us he didn't kill anybody."

"Phil Barrett's a damn liar. He killed both of them." I noted that she looked sideways at her husband when she accused Barrett.

"What do you mean 'both of them'? You just told me that Phil said Tami was already dead."

"Right after… Mariko… fell, Tami moaned. It was just a weak little cry, but it was enough to tell me that my baby wasn't really dead. Phil said it couldn't be, told me I was hearing things. But I knew what I heard and I, I wanted to call an ambulance. But Phil, he pushed me out of the way, wouldn't let me go help my daughter. I fought him to get to her or to get to the phone but he held me back and made me look at Mariko's… body. He unplugged the phone cord from the wall. He kept saying, "Look at her. She's dead. What are we going to do about that? I can fix a lot of things. I can't fix dead, Cathy." He made me think through what we'd done. He wanted me to put a pillow over my baby's face until she stopped breathing. I fought him I did but finally he told me he'd kill me, too, if I didn't shut up and cooperate. When I wouldn't do it myself, he threw me down on the other side of the room. That's when he smothered her with a pillow from the sofa."

"You saw him do that?" I asked.

She looked away and tightened her hands into fists. Her lips moved twice before the next words came from her mouth.

"No. I couldn't see from where I was on the floor. But when he stood back up he was still holding the pillow. Phil was. And he was breathing real heavy."

I didn't believe her. I suspected that she had indeed smothered her own daughter. The horror I was feeling was mirrored in Dell's eyes. In that instant I was certain he hadn't yet crossed whatever bridge he needed to cross in order to accept his wife's rationalization.

Cathy's story wasn't complete, though. I asked, "And the mutilation, Cathy? How did that happen?"

She slid her hand up Dell's arm until it came to a stop above his elbow.

"All the rest was Phils idea. He planned it all in his head for half an hour or so.

He just sat there and planned it all out. When he said he was going to cut off. my Tami's hand, I said I couldn't be a part of it anymore. That I wanted to turn myself in. He said if I said a word to anybody about what had happened that he'd make sure Joey was arrested for the rape and he'd make sure Dell knew about the affair."

"What did you do?"

"What was I supposed to do? What would be left for me if I didn't go along? I mean everything that had happened was just a terrible, terrible accident. If I didn't go along with Phil I'd have nothing-and I'd have nobody. I didn't really have a choice, did I? My Tami was already dead. If I told anybody what I knew, I'd lose my son, my husband, my whole family."

Kimber voiced what I was thinking, what I was certain Dell must be thinking.

Kimber said, "She was your daughter. How could you?"

Cathy exhaled deeply and coughed as she tried to refill her lungs. I expected to hear another verse of the "terrible-terrible-accident, what-was-I-supposed-to-do" song, but she couldn't get any words out. Dell finally spoke.

"Why did I want you to hear all this? So you would understand what Cathy did back then. In her mind what she did, she did to protect the kids.

First she was helping Tami. Then, later on, Joey. With what he's done with his life since then, I think Joey has made all her sacrifice worthwhile." I was stunned by the words. For such a self-aware man, Dell Franklin had just engaged in a world-class rationalization of horror.

"Dell," I said, "you… agree… with what she did?"

"No," he said firmly.

"I do not. I don't condone what Cathy did. But she did what she did to protect the family. I can live with that knowledge. I can." He looked down at her and handed her the shot gun.

"Now, honey need to tie these boys up so we can take them down to join the others in the blow down he said.

"You hold 'em here while I get some line to tie 'em. I'll only be a couple of minutes. We can't afford to mess up anymore; we're almost out of dynamite."

"Dell, I'm tired. Let's just shoot them here."

Cathy looked tired to me.

Dell wanted none of it.

"And then have to drag their bodies all the way back down that hill into the blow down No way. I won't be gone but five minutes."

The second Dell turned his back I felt movement in Kimber's shoulder. He was going for the handgun.

Dell walked away from us slowly. His shoulders were hunched forward and the incline of the slope made every step he took seem a monumental effort. Not once did he look back our way.

Cathy didn't have the arm strength to keep the barrel of the shotgun pointed right at us. It kept drifting down and she kept lifting it higher. Each fresh cycle of effort lasted a shorter time than the previous one. Her muscles were fatiguing.

Kimber turned his head away from her and whispered, "On three, roll away from me."

Cathy heard him speak but probably couldn't understand the words. She raised the gun once more and said, "Don't you try anything. Killing doesn't bother me too much anymore. Killing you now rather than later is nothing more than an inconvenience. This is loaded with birdshot. I don't even have to aim."

Cathy couldn't maintain the angle of the gun barrel. Kimber tapped me with his elbow once, paused, tapped me again, paused, and finally tapped me a third time.

On the last tap I somersaulted forward and started rolling down the hillside. I kept rolling while I waited for a blast from the shotgun, but all I heard was a hollow click. I hoped Kimber was getting away but couldn't risk the time it would take to look back toward him.

I heard him say, "Drop it, Cathy!"

I rolled once more before I crouched behind a boulder. Kimber was kneeling behind an aspen tree that wasn't mature enough to protect him from a blast from the shotgun. He held the pistol in both hands, pointing it right at Cathy Franklin. Her shotgun was leveled at Kimber.

I wondered whether it was actually loaded. It was a twin-barrel over-and-under model. At most, Cathy had only one shot remaining.

I picked up a rock the size of a lemon. Found a second. Cathy yelled, "Dell, I need some help here!"

My cover behind the boulder was better than Kimber's was behind the spindly aspen tree. I threw the first rock at Cathy. It landed near her feet.

She kept her focus on Kimber.

"Dell Franklin, you get over here, now!" she screamed.