Kari almost laughed at how ludicrous the idea was."You really think you'll get away with that?"
He shrugged one shoulder."Maybe.Then again, if the heat gets to be too much, there's always Mexico."
Kari's fingers brushed the grip of her weapon."You're not going anywhere, David.I want you to put your hands in the air."
"With what proof?"David sneered."All you have are theories and circumstantial evidence.The DNA on the knife wasn't mine.The chairman gave me an alibi, and it won't be as easy to get him to 'change his tune' as you think.You have nothing that would hold up in court."
He was getting louder, more animated.Kari didn't like where this was going.She needed to control the situation, and that meant getting him cuffed.She would deal with the details later.
"David," she said again, "I need you to put your hands—"
"This is all bullshit!"he said loudly, tossing his hands in the air."You break into my garage, you accuse me of murder—not once, but twice—and I'm supposed to just—"
He moved then, fast and fluid, not toward Kari but toward the workbench.His hand closed on something—a large wrench, heavy enough to be a deadly weapon.
Kari drew her weapon."Drop it.Now."
David froze, the wrench in his hand, his eyes on her Glock.For a moment, neither moved.
"You won't shoot me," David said, but there was uncertainty in his voice now."Not without cause.I'm just holding a tool in my own garage.You'd be executing an unarmed man."
"That wrench makes you armed.Drop it, or Iwillshoot you."
"While I'm standing here holding a tool?"David's voice took on a mocking edge."That's a bad shooting, Detective.Career-ending, probably.Especially when you're in someone else's garage without permission."
He was right, and they both knew it.The legal justification for shooting him was murky at best.But more than that, Kari didn't want to shoot him.She wanted him arrested, tried, convicted.She wanted justice, not just an ending.
"Put down the wrench," Kari said, her weapon steady."Step away from the workbench.This doesn't have to be difficult."
David's fingers tightened on the wrench."Either you shoot me, or I take my chances fighting you for that gun.Those are the only ways this ends."
"There's a third way.You put down the weapon, I arrest you, and you face trial.You can tell your story, explain why you did what you did.Maybe a jury would understand."
"They wouldn't."David's voice was bitter."They'd see a Hopi man who killed to protect secrets.They'd see a criminal, not someone trying to save his community from destruction."
"Then help me understand.Help me explain it to them."Kari kept her voice calm, trying to de-escalate even as her finger rested on the trigger guard."What was in Patricia's research about your family?What were you trying to hide?"
For a moment, she thought he might answer.His grip on the wrench loosened, his shoulders sagging with what looked like exhaustion or regret.
Then his eyes flicked to something above and behind Kari.
David moved fast, not toward her but toward the wall.His free hand slapped something—a switch she hadn't noticed.The overhead fluorescent lights went out.
In the short time they'd been talking, the evening must have advanced because now there was almost no light coming from the window high along the wall.The garage had been plunged into near darkness, made worse because Kari's eyes were still adjusted to the glare of the overhead lights.
She kept her weapon trained on where David had been standing, but she couldn't see him anymore.Could only hear the shuffle of movement, the scrape of feet on concrete.
"The thing about this space," David said, his voice coming from somewhere to her left, "is that I know every inch of it.Every tool, every box, every place to take cover."
Kari moved quickly to her right, away from where his voice had been, trying to put something solid at her back.Her eyes were starting to adjust, shapes emerging from the darkness.
The covered vehicle.The workbenches.Stacked boxes creating narrow corridors between them.
"You, on the other hand," David continued, his voice now coming from a different direction, "are just guessing."
CHAPTER TWENTY
Kari's back found the cold metal of the garage's side wall.She swept the darkness with her weapon, trying to track the sound of David's movement.The space had become a maze of shadows and blind spots, and he was using every one of them.
