After a futile check of the hotel and hitting a stone wall with the surprisingly stubborn, Ada, Garth sped over to the newspaper office and found it locked and empty. This was not good; he should have found Simmons easily by now. John would be hounding him to make some decisions. He pounded the hood of the cruiser as he began to feel things spinning out of his control. Too far out of control. Maybe it was time to sever his ties with Thompson Bay, take the money and run. He would have to meet with Stella again if only to keep her in check but she would do as he said and that would give him the time he needed to split. He wheeled the cruiser around and sped back through town to O'Hare's cottage.

They sat in the living room where only a short time ago they had been scrubbing away traces of Reg.

"This is not good, Stel. Primeau and I are supposed to be bringing Simmons in for questioning but what with all the noise he's making about drugs..." He stood and she stood with him, holding his arms.

"Questioning for what?" Simmons had phoned her about Elwood. She'd blanked it out of her mind until now. "Is it about Elwood...?"

"What about him?" Garth stood very still.

"I hear- I- I..."

"Heard what, Stel?" He relaxed and studied her tormented face. "Heard he was dead? Is that it?" He took off his hat and wiped his forehead with his hand. There it was, the tiny crack in the relationship that he feared. Stella was quite ready to lie to him when things got sticky. The saying, honour among thieves, passed through his mind and he almost chuckled. "Elwood was coming apart at the seams, I couldn't risk him blabbing."

She let go suddenly as if she'd been burned and gaped at him. "You- you killed him?"

"Don't look so shocked, you've been pretty busy yourself."

"He- that was different, Garth, I was defending myself."

He snorted and looked at her with contempt. "And I was protecting us. If I was investigating what you did I'd say it looked a little more like premeditation. Certainly no less final than what I did."

Stella sat down and rubbed at the sores and aches her body was announcing. "What happens now? He was supposed to get our first double shipment today." The trauma of her act seemed to wear off rather quickly, replaced by her initial emotion-greed. "It cost us four thousand dollars, Garth. It'll be sitting in the bank! We can't just ignore it. And what about Oliver, how do we deal with him now?"

The two faces of Stella, he thought sardonically. "We won't be getting it now and I think we have a few other things to worry about at the moment." He stood over her and watched her face. Last chance, Stella. "How did you hear about Elwood?"

"Wha- I didn't... I mean I- I don't- I didn't..."

The smack to her already swollen face rocked her and she screamed out in pain and surprise. "Somebody called you. Who was it?"

"Garth! What are-?" The next blow sent her onto the floor at his feet and he stared down with a building rage.

"Answer me! Who called you?"

"It was Simmons..." She held her face in one hand and leaned on the other.

"SON-OF-A-BITCH!" He stepped back and kicked at her, his boot catching her right under the breast and the crack told them both that her ribs were smashed. She fell on her back, her head at his feet, gasping for air that wasn't filling the punctured lungs, instead slowly filling with blood. He stared down at her with a cold hate and on impulse, stomped his boot onto her face, smashing the bones and ending any thoughts of mercy Stella might have mustered.

He swore aloud and paced in angry circles until he decided what he would have to do. Still fuming, he went to the shed and dragged Reg's body back to the house and dumped it along with Stella's. From the cupboard under the kitchen sink he took out a can of cleaning liquid and poured it over the two bodies then he used his lighter to ignite it and stood back watching as the flames slowly grew and began spreading to more flammable items in the room. He hurried out to his cruiser and drove around the back yard to a space between some bushes that led to a lane and away from the scene.

By the time Garth reached the main street again a thin string of smoke was rising above the trees near the water. He kept driving until he saw someone waving him down and he pulled over, winding down his window.

"There's a fire down near the water!" The person was waving and pointing and Garth stepped out of the cruiser and looked. "Should I call it in to the fire department?"

"Let me go down and have a look. I'll call it in if necessary." He thanked the person and swung the cruiser around, making it look like he was hurrying.

John knocked on Irene's door and when she answered he introduced himself and asked after Ray. She stated truthfully that he wasn't there and that he stayed at the hotel, not her home.

"I apologize if it sounded like I was suggesting something but our information was that you and he were uhm- chummy."

"We had a lunch and a couple of coffees together. He was asking after his niece that was killed here a few years back. I couldn't help him but he seemed pleasant enough and it was not a big deal to answer his questions."

"So you don't know where he is right now?"

"Try the hotel, otherwise he might be anywhere in town."

"Did Garth Williams come by?"

"No. I haven't seen anyone but you." Irene stopped, looking past the policeman to the dirty cloud building over the trees behind him. "What's that? Is that a fire?"

John turned and made a disgusted noise. "Looks like it. I better get over there and see what's happening. Thanks for your time. If Simmons shows up or calls, let me know." He hopped down the front path and into his car. Irene closed the door and went to her bedroom window. The smoke was visible closer to the ground and she could tell it was coming from the cottages along the water.

"What is it, kiddo?" Duffy called to her.

"Fire down by the water. The cottage area." She came back and they both looked at one another without speaking. Several minutes later the sound of the fire engine siren wailed up and down the scale with intermittent burps as it passed through crosswalks, warning any pedestrians to stand back.

Garth pulled around a corner and stopped the car, watching the intersection behind him through the mirror. The sirens increased in volume and a moment later he saw Primeau's cruiser, followed by the fire engines, streak across the intersection and down to O'Hare's cottage. He slipped the car into gear and raced through the side streets to Irene's.

The smoke was getting thicker and the longer Ray was out of touch the more nervous Irene became. She jumped up from the table when she heard a car door slam and she went to the window.

"It's Garth Williams!" She ran to Duffy and helped him from the chair down to her bedroom. "Don't make a sound." She hurried back and waited nervously for the knock on the door. Instead the kitchen door burst open behind her and Garth strode in, his face dark and hostile looking. Irene let out a screech and began to protest.

"Where is he?" Garth barged past her and headed down the hall.

"He isn't here!" She shouted after him but he kept going into her bedroom and Irene stopped, terrified of what he might do.

"Come to admire your handiwork, officer?" Duffy sat up on the bed and braced himself against the wall.

"Where's Simmons?"

"Not here, obviously."

Garth marched to the bed and pounded his fist on Duffy's cast. The pain shot up his leg like an electric charge and he gasped aloud. "Want more?"

"Leave him alone, Garth Williams, and get out of my house." Irene stood in the doorway holding a rolling pin.

Garth turned and sneered at her. "I could use that," he said, reaching for the pin.

Irene raised it up and felt it snatched from her hand from behind and before she could turn she was shoved roughly aside as Ray leaped into the room and landed a sharp blow across Garth's forearm. The policeman yelped, grabbed his arm and staggered back. Ray continued toward him and managed another hefty swing against his other arm. Garth roared and lunged at Ray and they both tumbled to the floor. Irene screamed and Duffy cried out as they banged the bed jarring his cast again. The struggle on the floor continued with a series of grunts and curses and flailing limbs.

Garth landed a heavy fist to Ray's temple and he rolled against the wall, stars and planets jiving before his eyes. Before he could recover Garth was all over him, smothering his arms with one arm while he rammed the other against Ray's throat. They glared into each other's face, spittle and hot breath dueling between them then Ray managed to roll them onto their sides and a new round of punches and thrusts were traded with bloody results.

Irene stood shouting in the background for them to stop and then snatched up the rolling pin and when their positions altered for a second she delivered a two-hander to the side of Garth's head. He hung for a moment with his fist poised and then collapsed like a mudslide right on top of Ray.