"Why'd you tell him for anyway?"

"Another bad move in hindsight, but pillow talk has done many a man in, I suppose. So he blabs this to Davida, and you know that girl, no matter how tipsy she was, if it was an angle she could use to advance her career she'd hold onto that information."

"You got that right, home." We didn't say anything for a minute, the only sound coming from the rats and the water. I looked to the left and could see one of the little vultures climbing on a stack of money Guard rat.

"Davida sweated you for cash after that, didn't she?"

Nap tried to sit up but couldn't. "I offered to make her a partner, but she said it would take too long to get her dough. She knew this producer was playing her, Zee. All she wanted was enough scratch to finance her album. She didn't really want much. And she was never nasty about it, you know how she was."

"Yes I do."

"She'd call up asking me for a little more or maybe to make a phone call for her."

I wasn't sure, but I thought I heard a car driving around. It had been five hours since we'd holed up in here. Could there still be cops outside, going over the ground again and again? What if they brought back dogs?

"So how come you offed her, Nap?" I suppose I should have been upset but I wasn't. I was pissed that Fahrar, that motherfuckah, had been on me, but I didn't expect Nap to call him up and confess.

"She wasn't getting where she wanted to go." Nap's breathing didn't sound too good. "She called me all wired that Tuesday. I could tell she'd been doing some lines."

That was the day we'd had our fight, but I didn't say anything.

"She was threatening to tell Stadanko if I didn't come up with some real money."

A car door slammed and I could hear footsteps. "Hush up, Nap."

"I decided I'd meet her way out so no one would see us." Nap kept talking, his voice very soft. I listened for anything.

"I don't really know what happened, Zee. She wouldn't believe how deep I was into Stadanko and Chekka. She was too wound up, she'd been doing more coke. Then she offered me sex right there, in the parking structure right behind the building we were at. This was during working hours, man." He coughed some more. I heard another car stop and I got scared. "Of course I was game, the riskier the better, right?"

"Right." It had to be cops.

"We were going at it on the hood of her car. You know how she liked it, rough and rougher."

"So it was an accident." I moved closer to where Nap was laying.

"It would be good if I could think so." Nap starting crying. "But as we were doing it, as I had her panties around her throat, getting her off, she laughed, saying she was going to fuck me all kinds of ways." He hacked up who knows what from his lungs. "I just wanted to be done with her. Even then I was thinking about busting some kind of move against Chekka and Stadanko to get out from under. Her harassing me could go on way too long."

I heard voices up top. I got close to Nap. "I understand, man. She got on my last nerve too. But right now you gotta be quiet until I make sure who's up there."

If he heard me it didn't make any difference. He let his side go, grabbed his head, and started wailing again. "Aw, man, God wants me to do better, Zee. He's taken me to the brink to teach me right from wrong." From somewhere strength came into him and he grabbed me, holding me close to his chest. "We've got to repent, Zee. We've got to use the money for more than just us."

He was hollering so loud I didn't know what to do. I heard the footsteps again, and it sounded like someone was coming down the hill. "Shut up, Nap, you've got to shut up," I whispered in his face, scared like I didn't know what.

Nap got me in a bear hug, his big arms suddenly filled with an energy I was shocked to see he still had. The pain in my back almost made me pass out as Nap crushed me. "Nap, Nap, come to yourself, man."

"Jesus is calling on us, Zee. He knows what we've done."

"Nap," I cried out despite the footsteps. My hands went to his throat in the dark, his sweat and blood all over me. His breath was rotten and he had me very tight in his grip. I let go of his throat, trying to pry myself loose. Our bodies shifted and I got leverage over him.

"Nap," I said, gritting my teeth.

"Zelmont," his voice boomed in the pipe. The rats got excited and started scooting all over the place.

His arms were like steel around me and I had to get my hands under his jaw and push him away. His body shook and he let out air like a bad tire. Then his grip went limp and I rolled clear.

"Zelmont."

I looked over where Nap was lying still. "Zelmont," the voice said again. It wasn't Nap. It was Wilma.

"In here." I could barely talk.

"We're coming."

Pretty soon a light came through the grate of the water pipe. I could hear Wilma's feet crunching on the earth as she came closer to the entrance.

"Zelmont. We've been driving around for a while. The cops removed the trucks, and in the dark we couldn't tell exactly where the drain pipe was."

"Where's Burroughs?" I finally said.

"He came with Danny. I thought it would be better to bring two cars just in case Nap had to be stretched out. Danny drove Burroughs' station wagon."

"That's good," I said.

I half-crawled over to the entrance. Together we removed the grate. "I guess that old bag of bones ain't gonna come down the mountain."

She was shining her light past me, like she thought me and Nap had buried the bundles somewhere. "Is he okay?"

"He's dead."

"Shit." She was thinking what I was, that Danny was gonna go straight off.

"What happened?" She came into the pipe.

"He went nuts, kept talkin' about how he had to get right with Jesus. He told me he killed Davida."

She put the light on me, studying my face. "I assumed"

"You and everybody else, Wilma. Me and Nap struggled some. He'd grabbed me, damn near busting my back. I don't know if me fighting with him caused him to die sooner. But we need Burroughs to come down here and say Nap died of his bullet wounds.''

She looked at me, then nodded her head. "I'll go up and tell them he's barely hanging on."

"If you can, on the QT tell Burroughs there's more money in it for him to do as we say."

"He was Nap's friend."

"Nap can't pay him, we can." At that moment I couldn't afford to feel anything about my friend.

It took some doing, but with Danny's help they got Burroughs down the hill. The old scarecrow was at the entrance of the pipe, the moon lighting him from behind. He looked like death himself come to call.

"You better hurry, he don't look good." I stood back as Danny rushed in.

"Nap, I got the doc here, Nap, is you awake?" Danny was all over him, slobbering and crying. Wilma had her flashlight on us.

He looked up at me like a little lost kid. I had on the face I wore when I didn't want a defender to know anything I might be up to.

The ancient pill roller got on his knees and bent over Nap, going over his body with his stethoscope. Burroughs' long, hinged fingers were like insect legs dancing over the big man's form. Under his breath I could hear him talking to himself. Danny stood to one side, a flashlight in his left hand. He kept his right free for the gat I knew he had hidden under his sweat top.

"One of the high-velocity shells shattered his clavicle, and another drove part of his ribs into his stomach, puncturing the lining. He bled into his stomach over time, eventually choking to death on his own blood and bile." Burroughs' voice was the same as it always was, flat with no emotion. What would Danny think?

The youngster put the light dead on Burroughs, then on me. I didn't look away, I didn't want to seem guilty.

Wilma stood between me and Danny. "We have to move the body because if the cops find him they will know we did the robbery. Dr. Burroughs can make sure he's cremated properly."